I've been a bit too busy to drag out the full kit, so I've been taking a few photos simply with my SLR (Canon 5DmkII) on a fixed tripod using a remote timer. A few random photos:
* wide field of Orion: 41x 200 mm, f/2, 1.6 sec, ISO 6400,
* SMC: 175x 200 mm, f/2, 2.0 sec, ISO 3200,
* LMC: 24x 200 mm, f/2, 2.0 sec, ISO 3200,
* sunspots from this afternoon (left) and NASA's diagram (right): 1x 200 mm, f/32, 1/8000 sec, ISO 50,
* wide field of ISS visible pass from last night: 1 sec frame grabs from video at 24 mm, superimposed on background 24 mm, f/4, 20.0 sec, ISO 800,
* jumbo flying "close by" the ISS: 0.5 sec frame grabs.
It's funny that I did a better job on Orion using my SLR attached to a 100 mm aperture lens on a tripod, than I did with it attached to a 132 mm refractor on an autoguided eq mount. I guess it shows that learning how to expose and process each sub 'correctly' makes all the difference!
Dew seems to be my biggest problem at the moment... it has literally been dripping off my scope and lenses lately (and messing up the LMC/SMC colours with refracted light). I've been wanting to build that Arduino dew heater I saw on the Project & Articles page for a while now... time to get to it!
Thanks Darrin. Yep, ISO 6400 on the 5DmkII is surprisingly useful (especially when stacked), and at ISO 3200 it actually produces better images than my 20D did at ISO 800
