Plato and surrounds

[middy]

Here is an afocal shot of Plato and surrounding features taken through the 8" Dob.

The best 15 of 32 images taken at 1/60 Sec, ISO 100. Stacked and processed in Registax.

[Dennis]

Hi Andrew

That is an excellent image with lots of my lunar favourites in there. Did you have the camera on a tripod?

Cheers

Dennis

[middy]

Thanks Dennis. I now have a camera mount that clamps to the eyepiece tube, so no more messing with the camera on a tripod.

[Dennis]

Yeah - my first afocal attempts were comical as I tried to maneuver the tripod to keep the lens plane to the eyepiece. Do you manually focus through the LCD on the camera or is it auto focus?

Cheers

Dennis

[middy]

I had the camera focus set to infinity and I was focusing the scope while looking at the LCD screen. It is very difficult to get good focus like this as there is a fair bit of slop in the focuser as I move it in and out.

Now that you have mentioned autofocus, I wonder what would happen if I let the camera autofocus. I might try that next time. I never even gave the autofocus a thought because I usually have the camera set to infinity for my widefield shots. Thanks Dennis.

[Dennis]

Hi Andrew

I'm not sure how auto focus works, but some cameras use an IR diode (active) and others measure the contrast between areas (passive) to achieve best focus. The low light levels found in eyepiece projection may make it difficult to auto focus? But that's the beauty of digital imaging, real time results and trash what doesn't work!

Let us know how you get on.

Cheers

Dennis

[ving (David)]

much like my go at afocal (except yours is better of course).

good on ya!

[Robert_T]

Middy, this is very nice. love the labels too - helps us lunar topography challenged types. One of the better afocal shots I've seen. Well done