Thanks for the kind comments!
I learned a great deal last night. Some things I learned while I was outside, taking the shots. Some things, I learned later, processing the images. Here we go :
It's dark. :Note to self: Take that red flashlight you made that week you were bored before all the scope bits arrived and took all your attention. Yeah, remember that thing?
Check.
I learned that Mosquito's like to dwell outside and suck blood. Preferably multiple times. :Note to self: BUY REPELLENT next time! It will me save me going through half a tube of 'Medi Aide' with that soothing mix of Chlorhexidine gluconate, Lignocaine hydrochloride and Bufexamac after the fact...
I learned that Bright Canon 450 LCD screen's kill night vision. It turns off, of course, but only when it thinks your eye is by the view finder. So, that means it turns on and off. And off when you havn't touched it for a while of course, some sort of.. sleep mode? Just great. My glasses also get in the way a little.
I learned that trying to look through the view finder (as live view doesn't seem to show me any stars!) looking at a star, is just incredibly neck wrenching. There must be a better way, I would love to have a decent eyepiece to look through that will show me what the camera is aiming at and going to take pictures of! I have a "William Optics 45 degree erect image prism Diagonal", but don't know how to attach that when the camera is on it. If you know what I need to do/buy so as not to wrench my neck out, please share!
I learned that weighting my tripod with a beer barrel for steadiness is a good idea. I used my (sadly defunct) Kodak digital camera and a half attached neck cord to jam under the handle and attach the neck cord to the tripod to provide some support / weight. Worked great! I'm sure Kodak never thought of that use of the camera.
I learned that mounting my scope with a single Parallax Ring was tough. It took about 8 seconds for the vibrations to stop, so I used the 10 second timer with a remote cord. I sincerely wished I had my EQ6 at that point, but alas, half of it (the legs) were still at the Underwood Mail center, and the other half was still in Western Australia where it got split from the first box (As I was about to find out the next day...).
I then, sorely stung, neck wretchedly dragged myself to my PC to look at the pictures that I had taken.
My first shot (entitled "just a line"), caused me to reassess what I in fact had been doing for the past hour. Was this, indeed, something that resembled what I had so carefully photographed? Was it, in fact, because I had forgotten to take off the lens cap? Was my Photoshop functional? After much thinking, it dawned on me that this was the result of an overly generous use of the "bulb" function of my 450D, where the lovely star MOVED across the whole field by the time I had finished. 15 seconds? I thought that was quite reasonable. Or was it 30 seconds? Which reminds me, TAKE NOTES NEXT TIME!
My second shot, was much more pleasing. I called this "Moving Slots" and it looked pretty. It also bore little resemblance to the shot I imagined I took. Which makes me want to know, what ISO settings was I supposed to use in the dark, with the stars? I had so many questions...
My third shot, was called "Moon shot", looked more like some sort of unholy ghoulish summoning, rather than the sharp, contrast rich object I had seen through the tiny eyeslot that was the 450D viewfinder. How interesting. Clearly, I was overly enthusiastic about that "Bulb Setting". I learned to reassess whether in fact, that I COULD take a 15 second exposure on a cheap tripod, was in fact WISE. I also questioned whether 100 ISO right for the moon, given a certain length of exposure?
All said however, despite the bites, the neck and the results,
I've never had more fun in my life. And so much more to learn, which is great fun of course!
And of course, there is always my NEXT adventure...
Triple Cool - First Light, First Telescope, First Astrophotograhic Shot
