Tarantula Neb

[xelasnave]

One of many attemps at this one but cant get a long enough exposure without trails. Used 300d thru 80 x 400 mm on 150 sn lxd mount. Its a start and I will improve when I sort the mount out.
alex

[iceman (Mike)]

Pity about the trails, but I agree it's a very nice start! What mount is this on?

[rowena]

is that iso 1600? how long was the exposure for?

Try adjusting ISO settings and keeping exposure time the same, to see if the graininess adjusts. that is a good 'first t try' photo!

heres one of my first attemptss at orions belt/nebula.
ISO 1600, 300mm Lens and f5.6 for a 10 second exposure on tripod. bit of movement but u can clearly make out the nebula! specially the red color!

[xelasnave]

Thanks Mike and Rowena,
ISO was at 1800, but I dont know the exposure.
The mount was LXD55 Meade goto set on track but not linked to computer ...I just fire off a set of shots starting at five secs and continue until the stars look like spagetti.. sort thru the results and sometimes there is something. Set up now for a real go so hopefully better next time...will used lower ISO if can sort polar align.
alex

[rowena]

try also doing a lower ISO and a longer exposure, see how that goes aswell. i do the same thing that you do, taking multiple photos at different settings and see what turns out.

[ving (David)]

nice shots guys better than i can do

[rowena]

awww vingy i bet if u had a go at it, you would outdo mine! u just need a camera that will allow u do do a long exposure and with lotsa zoom!.. hrm that reminds me.. gotto go steal (aka borrow) a friends 50mm f1.8 lens. that should pull off some nice shots, considering the lens lets in a lot more light.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Hey Alex good onya for posting

We all start out like that, even when we're not trying to . How accurate do you get your polar alignment? Definately try a slower ISO it will help a great deal with the graininess but unfortunately it will be worse for star trailing to achieve the same level of exposure, unless you get your alignment pretty accurate. And that doesn't take into account periodic error in your drives.

Have you posted a "shot of your rig" and a broad discription of your equipment? If others here can see what you're working with then we can offer more relevant suggestions.

Nice to see the astrophotography bug spreading

[xelasnave]

Sorry for not getting back, had few issues etc, travelling from Sydney to back here...what a story..
Finally have a computer set up here and now on line from here, on the down side both genny,s have spit the dummy so if its sunny I,m here (solar power horay!)
Set up with lxd 55 mount and 150sn with 300d and 80mm x 400 for guider, got carried away with views thru 12inch and never got round to taking any photos, maybe tonight...with a little more attention to details now I have a illuminatede reticle and 3x barlow should get polar align quick and accurate ..plus I will try the polar align scope..hope to get something tonight.
alex

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Hi Alex, Like you tarantula shot. I compared it with a sky chart and there are quite a few faint DSOs visible there. I had a play around with the image. I tried to deconvolve the motion blur. The resulting image is a bit too dark; some loss of fine detail in part due to having to mask the jpeg compression noise which gets amplified a lot with deconvolution.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~jano.../alex-tara.jpg

[xelasnave]

Looks great to me, if I can focus on photos and not star wandering I will try for one tonight, trying to refine a mount to carry the gear (150 plus 80 plus 300d) and not play up.
Will try lower iso if I get tracking ok.
Here is an overexposed Moon shot thru the 12inch but it is the first from the new scope (probably not many more as its dob mounted)
Alex

[xelasnave]

plus I was observing The Large M Cloud last night it was fantastic.alex