Hey all

[Zzapped (Steve)]

Well, ive taken the plunge and after a massive information overload, i found a good priced S/H 8" dobsonian which I picked up last week, its a chrissy present to myself so the big test will be not using it until xmas .

That said, ive brought the scope and have what may seem to you like a bit of a noob question but, later down the track, is it al all possible to mount the dob on an equatorial mount with the aim of doing some photography as im a bit of an amteur snapper and it really interests me seeing some of the amazing shots some of you guys have taken here. Or would I be better offf getting a different setup for the photography side of things

Cheers

Steve

[Kevnool (Kev)]

Not into the photography side but dont you got to sneek outside and test this unit out with the new moon here.

That way at xmas your going to know all your xmases have come at once.
Cheers Kev.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Mount your OTA on an eq. mount? Yeah! Need to get your hands on an appropriate mount and mounting rings to hold the OTA.

In the mean time you can do some photography of the moon & planets with your dobie mount. You can either purchase a dedicated camera or make your own following the instructions on converting a webcam to an astrocam under the 'Projects & Articles' section on the left margin. Did it myself & works a treat. Mike Salway has a very good article on processing the images.

Nice to hold out for Christmas, but would be a kicker if the scope needed some work, like collimation, and every shop is closed so you miss out on the best the scope can offer. At least test out that the sucker works the way it should. Is that still cheating???

[Kal (Andrew)]

Zzapped from OCAU that I remember from way back in the seti days?

[Zzapped (Steve)]

Yup, thats me

Cheers

Steve

[Kal (Andrew)]

When I think of astrophotography, I think of two paths. Planetary, which you can do with a dob and a modified webcam, but it will be difficult as the field of view is extremely small on the sensor (which might be 5 or 6mm diagonal, not sure, but small). I have tried it on my dads 12" F5 dob, with a 2x barlow, and I gave up as it was just too hard to find the object to allow it to drift through the FOV. You can also equatorial mount the dob if you get some rings, which is what people like iceman have done, and it lets you track the planet so that you can just focus on all the data aquasition. The challenges for planetary astrophotography are getting good collimation (not too hard), using the correct capture settings (not too hard), and data processing (there are several great guides, including the one mike salway has posted in the articles section of this site).

For deep sky work, I would suggest to any beginner to start off with a short focal length scope, like an 80mm refractor, as it is far more forgiving of mount tracking errors. You will also need a second scope to guide with, and two cameras, a guide camera and an imaging camera. Polar alignment of the mount is more critical, and I think the challenges are harder than for planetary imaging.

Either way, I'd recommend getting out to some dark skies to really appreciate your dob, and get out to a star party (i assume they still have them over in WA?)