Just bought a Canon 500D

[Spanrz (Brett)]

Well, I've jumped into the deep end. Finally bought a proper camera.
Umm'd and argh'd about what's out there.
I have learnt the craft, off a FujiFilm S1000fd (10MP) compact, so there will be some "noobism" from me about the Canon.

Decided on the Canon 500D after much deliberation. I didn't need the HD recording side of it (like the 550D) as I have a HD camcorder for that.
But I have seen in a few forums (and IIS) that the 500D is better for stills as compared to the 550D. Some have had a noise problem (read from IIS) as well but anything is better than the S1000fd with noise.

Now it's just the basic setup with 1 lens. Nothing flash.
I do have the desire for normal day shoots of normal things, not just astrophotography. So modding isn't the question just yet.

Can anyone point out (basically), what is necessary for the main ingredients for astrophotography with this camera. Or what makes life easier with a certain device.
Remotes, power supplies/batteries?????

I have a 12" scope, with a 2" EP crayford, any adapters that I can get for this?
Unsure if prime focus will be the norm yet, I just havent thought about it yet.

Thanks.

[Rockah (Zal)]

Hey Brett

Funnily enough, I have pretty much followed the exact same path as you. I was/am very interested in astrophotography and have learned quickly that you can outgrow things very quickly and realise you've got the wrong equipment for the job.

I had a fujifilm point and shoot camera as well, and started taking shots using the afocal method which was very rewarding... when I got one out of 20 shots steady enough! It was great for the moon, but that was about it. Then I got a Celestron Neximage - a good planetary imager as it uses video, but it's not going to help much with DSO stuff.

I was thinking about a CCD camera as the next step, but for the price and my level of experience, I couldn't justify it. So I went for the DSLR option as it serves the purpose of a very nice "day" time camera as well. So I also opted for the 500D, but my parents were in the states recently so I asked them to pick me up the US version which is just badged as the EOS Rebel T1i. Just on that note, I noticed you said "I didn't need the HD recording side of it (like the 550D) as I have a HD camcorder for that." - You do know that the 500D does HD video recording as well right? Just turn the mode knob to the film icon!

Anyway, I had been using my friends 450D before hand, so I got the required accessories for it (this is for prime focus) - You'll need a T-ring adapter. This goes were the normal camera lens, and from that you'll need a "camera" or "t adapter" - I found a lot of websites call T-rings "t adapters" and also call camera adapters the same thing, but basically its the small tube that screws into the t-ring, and then goes into your focuser.

NOW - I have (about to put up for sale) a 5 inch Black Diamond SW Mak - for the afocal method this works really well for planetary imaging and was easy to reach focus. I only tried once, but I managed to get some blurry long exposures of a few star clusters, but the guiding is a whole other issue. I also have an 8 inch SW newt - I was super excited to try out the DSLR on that, and then ran into a problem straight away - I couldn't reach focus! I then, unfortunately, found out that newts can't get enough inward focus, and I read about some mods that I really didn't want to try - one being cutting the tube to move the primary mirror up, or to buy a new low-profile focuser which was going to be costly. Thankfully, Vince from myastro shop told me to hold off on spending my money and just try adjusting the primary mirror to move it up from the base of the scope using the thumb screws, and then just re-collimate it again - it worked! The reason why I've written an essay on this is because, based on your footer, it looks like you've got a dob so you may run into the same issue.

Being a dob, you won't be able to take long exposures as tracking is going to be an issue, but you can probably get away with 30 second shots and stack them later.

I've probably missed a lot because I've learned 10 times more in the last few months! But hopefully that helps you out a bit more. From what I've heard, positive projection (having an eyepiece between the SLR and the scope) is a bit of a nightmare, so I'm staying far away from that for now. I'm selling my mak as I got an ED80 to replace it - a better scope for imaging IMO, but of course a sacrifice for apature.

Hope that helps?

EDIT:

Just a couple more things:

- Get a remote if you're going to use the Bulb setting (for exposures longer than 30 seconds) otherwise the the camera will pick up the vibration when you press the shutter button. These remotes are super cheap on ebay - and the 500d has infrared so you can get a wireless one! However, as you'll probably be doing 30 second subs or less, you can use this as the exposure time instead of Bulb, and use the camera's timer feature so you can press the shutter button, and then it will wait before it starts taking the shot and thus eliminates the vibration issue.
- If you want, grab a spare battery if you're going to be out for hours at a time. You can get an external power supply so it's not running off batteries, but then you're going to need something to power the power supply
- The adapters I mentioned above can be purchased from any online telescope shop, I got mine from Bintel but any site will sell them for around the same price. Just make sure you get a T-ring for the EOS body cameras

[Spanrz (Brett)]

Originally Posted by Rockah

Being a dob, you won't be able to take long exposures as tracking is going to be an issue, but you can probably get away with 30 second shots and stack them later.

Yeah, I've read a bit about this, though I do have a tracking system 1/2 built (stepper motors, drivers, gearing system), I just have to mount it up.
I have 2 styles of driving it. One software driven, it's tested and works, but it will take some fiddling and may not get it right, so I chose a manual way of using a PWM pulse generator (slightly modified) as a backup plan and that works a gem.

Originally Posted by Rockah

From what I've heard, positive projection (having an eyepiece between the SLR and the scope) is a bit of a nightmare, so I'm staying far away from that for now.

Well I tried the redneck way of doing it, with the S100fd and the HD Camcorder (Camera on a tripod, camera up to the EP), I was pretty happy with the results that it came out with, considering it was probably the worse case scenaio of taking pics. But there was a lot of fiddling around just to gte a shot.
I did that to teach myself, what will work and what won't.

Originally Posted by Rockah

Hope that helps?

It surely did. Thanks.

[Spanrz (Brett)]

Has anyone used this before, as against the T ring adapter?

I can buy at T ring from Bintel, but does the T ring go straight on (thread it on) to the 2" EP tube.
I have a 2" EP and I can take of the tube to fit on to the T ring.
Or are they different thread sizes bewteen the fittings?

I would rather this item : http://cncsupplyinc.com/true2.htm.

Does this make any difference to a shot?

[Rockah (Zal)]

Hey again Brett

Again I had almost gone down that path - the only thing stopping me was the cost, which isn't that much but at the time I was using my friend's DSLR and I thought it wasn't worth getting the True2 adapter if I didn't end up getting my own camera. I got a t ring and t adapter from bintel and so the t adapter just goes into the draw tube of my focusers. I'm not sure about the eyepeice being threaded the same as a t-ring as I haven't tried that myself as I'm not game to try positive projection.

I think with the True2 adapter you get a little more clearance instead of using a t-ring, but I'm yet to find a local seller or proper review of it to find out. It would make sense that you get a bigger diameter as the t-ring thread and adapter aren't the full two inches in width - but I'm taking things slowly now and will worry about vignetting later!

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

To be really and truely honest with you brett, taking photos of anything bar the moon with a dob mounted telescope and a DSLR will be practically useless sorry to be a buzz kill, you have to look at something like Servo Cat, or mounting the 12" up onto a GEM. Something that is able to be controlled by PC, sure you can do it the old fashioned way by sitting and manually guiding but its not as good as sub pixel guiding.

The key to it all is guiding and low Periodic Error (PE) mounts without that well, its like p155ing in the wind its going to land on your feet.

If you where going to do planetary, you could get away with the dob, but at high magnification which is what you need, its not going to be a easy task.

Good luck hope it all works out for you.

Brendan

[stephenb (Stephen)]

Hi Brett,

I agree with the remote, I have always used a Canon RC-5 remote. They are the best.

http://www.digitalrev.com/en/canon-r...C6%2C7%2C8%2C9

(Digital Rev also sell them through eBay)

It's a miniature, wireless, remote control, which I keep on a lanyard around my neck.

[Spanrz (Brett)]

Originally Posted by bmitchell82

To be really and truely honest with you brett, taking photos of anything bar the moon with a dob mounted telescope and a DSLR will be practically useless sorry to be a buzz kill

Brendan

It's cool, yes, I have read about this. I am mucking around at the moment, moreof teaching myself. Reading a lot of IIS also helps

I think I'm going to tackle the moon first, simply because "it's there", it's big and easy. Stars and planets are a little too much for me at the moment.

Glen,
I have bought 2 remotes tonight. A tethered one and the other is the wireless (infrared?) remote (RC-6). Tethered one will be a backup to the Wireless one. Something I learnt early on is "redundancy".
The wireless one is a sure winner. Both are genuine Canon devices.

Was testing it tonight, doing star trails (well attempt anyway).
It was my first ever crack with a decent camera. Took about 7 tries to get somewhat a good look.
Was experimenting with Aperture and timed shots.

I am very new to taking shots over 8 seconds. Even manually setting aperture above F7 is new. The last compact camera I had only took 8 second pics from F2.8 to F7.

Amazing this DSLR stuff is (Astrophotography also)

The only daunting thing that is getting to me, is photo processing. I've done the HDR concept (atleast it's a start ), but I have to learn the craft of proper ways of astrophotography. That will take a bit of time, understanding how you guys achieve those great results (Bird and Quark for instance) is a little beyond me at the moment.
Inspired by them now