My first atempt M42 with Nikon D80

[Pinwheel (Doug)]

Hi all, Last night was my first attempt at taking images through my 8". I had some issues converting my image to Jpeg but it's now posted.

1/ How many meg should I be using per image.
2/ Wind shake is most obvious.
3/ Exposure times are confusing I used 1600 ISO shooting 15 seconds & 800 ISO shooting 30 seconds. Results were good colour on M42 but way too much movement.
4/ Should I use RAW or JPEG & keep the file sizes small at this stage?

I've learned so far that the telescope, Nikon D80, T-mount adapter all work together but I realized last night my set up wont allow use of filters as there is no way to fit them. Strictly controlling exposure by shutter speed is my only way to control the image, So a full moon might be a challenge.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Hi Doug,
Yeah, we all have issues with imaging, part of the game.

1/ As high as you can go is best ( more detail ) I run at 24 megapixels.
4/ RAW, don't worry about size, that comes later during processing.
2/Stay out of the wind !! ( use shields or natural cover, whatever or wait till still nights if you can ) I built an Observatory but I still don't do much on windy nights.
3/ You're in the right ball park with exposures. Light pollution may dictate what you can get away with, the more the shorter. Are you guiding or just tracking ? Unless your mount is very accurately aligned with SCP and mechanically almost perfect the shorter the exposure time the better due to possible drift.

Is your camera mounted with a 2" or 1.25" T Adapter ? Either way it will be threaded and capable of taking a suitable filter. I've used Astronomik CLS against Light Pollution and there are others. There is a screw thread on the inside of the adapter tube to suit.

Your RAW should be stacked in a suitable program , DSS seems to be the default. It will save the stacked final image as a TIF file which will be big as well. But any Photoshop like software can take that and convert and resize it to jpeg format for uploading to the web.
TIF is used as it is an almost lossless format to save all your precious data.

I also go through any exposure collection before processing and check for dud frames with stretched stars or shake etc. DSS does do this but I find it helps to get rid of the obvious ones, saves processing time.
I also shoot in RAW +jpeg at the camera. Then I can do quick checks before I process the RAW files. The jpeg is a small proof image and quite handy later.

Hope this helps, keep us posted as to progress and if you have any more questions etc come on back.

Cheers ( and Good luck, have fun!! )
Brent

[Pinwheel (Doug)]

Hi Brent thanks for the advise, I am tracking but admit I may not be 100% on the SCP. My Nikon is attached using the 2" thread. Light pollution out here is not an issue however smoke pollution can be during crop burn off.
Computer imaging software & expertise still haunt me as I am better in a darkroom than using this new digital technology, teaching an old dog.

I've got 20 acres of land to use here but still haven't found a spot that's wind free when it blows so I may have to wait for calmer nights till I try again.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

To help reduce the camera shake that occurs when you press the button, try using your cameras built in timer function.
Set it to 5 seconds so it gives the camera time to settle.