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I've been taking my camera out at night to do some random astrophotography shots when I get bored lately, and was thinking about taking it further and actually getting a telescope, hopefully to do some planetary shots. Tracking would be a plus, especially if I start doing longer exposures on nebulae/clusters in the future, which I'd really like to consider once I get better at this. I'm not really looking for anything remotely professional-quality. I found one that seems appealing and is in the right price range, the Orion Skyquest XT8i along with a couple of relatively cheap adapters to mount my camera straight onto it. Does this seem like a good place to start? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Here's a shot I took on Sunday night, sans-telescope: 
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Oct 7, 2014 16:32
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 12:09 |
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Luneshot posted:If you want to do photography through a telescope for long exposures, you'll probably need an equatorial mount. Unless you have a field derotator, a dobsonian mount won't work because the field of view will rotate as time goes on. It's slow, but it's enough to mess up long exposures. Thanks for the advice. That may be something I get in the future... I'm guessing I can't get an equatorial mount for a dobsonian scope? Also, how long do the exposures need to be before it becomes an issue? At this point I'm not really considering hour-long exposures, I may consider another telescope/mount for that in the future if I really get into the photography aspect. As of now, there's too much light pollution in my area for very long exposures.
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Oct 7, 2014 18:28
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Luneshot posted:If you want to do photography through a telescope for long exposures, you'll probably need an equatorial mount. Unless you have a field derotator, a dobsonian mount won't work because the field of view will rotate as time goes on. It's slow, but it's enough to mess up long exposures. Now I get to show how much of a newbie I am at this... it looks like that scope only does object finding, but not tracking. Glad I posted here before ordering it. I'll keep shopping around for something that tracks and that I can mount a camera onto. Thanks for the help.
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Oct 7, 2014 19:20
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Venusian Weasel posted:That's weird, if it's capable of finding objects, then it should have the parts necessary to track them. It seems like you get it calibrated to your time/location and it uses arrows on the computer screen to direct you where to point the telescope, so it's not actually motorized. Slightly misleading, it seems.
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Oct 7, 2014 19:39
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Venusian Weasel posted:That's a really goofy setup, then. Good luck on your telescope search! Thanks! I did find one that finds and tracks, it's a little more expensive but I'm seriously considering it: Orion 10134 Dobsonian Telescope I'm not sure what kind of accessories I want to get with it, aside from the obvious 12v adapter for the motor to work (no batteries in this one, I guess).
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Oct 7, 2014 20:01
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That's great info, thanks. I'm having a hard time finding a reflector/refractor on an equatorial mount that's in my price range and computerized, maybe I'll wait until I have a little more money to spend.
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Oct 7, 2014 20:08
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I have too many expensive hobbies. Not that I'm complaining. Mostly I'm worried about spending too little and being disappointed. I found an 8-inch reflector with a motorized, tracking equatorial mount, and it's in my price range. Now I need to figure out what the catch is.
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Oct 7, 2014 20:22
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I imagine the biggest issue with photography on that dobsonian is that it uses two axes and will only adjust one at a time while tracking, so you get sort of a stair-step effect as opposed to a straight line? e - I think I might order the scope/mount that I linked in my last post. Any suggestions for accessories/must-haves? Golden-i fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Oct 7, 2014 |
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Oct 7, 2014 21:13
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Jekub posted:What are you intending to use it for? You will find that an incredibly frustrating combination for imaging but a good start for visual observation. Your write-up above is great, doing official work for the British Astronomical Association is a pretty awesome concept. I've always had an interest in astronomy and was looking for a telescope that could get me better views of things beyond just the planets, but at the same time I have an interest in photography and would like to combine the two in some capacity. Exactly what capacity, I'm not sure yet. It would be nice to find a telescope that could give me the best of both worlds, but not be too overwhelming for a complete beginner like me. If I need to wait a bit longer so I can save up to afford a setup worth having, I'm totally OK with that. Also, I read about the collimation process, it sounds interesting and probably something I'd do right out of the box just because I like to tinker with things.
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Oct 7, 2014 21:43
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I decided to take Jekub's advice and looked into spending more on the mount, as I'm sure I'll be a lot happier than what seems to come bundled with most telescopes. I found this mount that seems promising. My question now is, how large of a reflector could I realistically put on this mount without overtaxing the motors? Would an 8" or 10" with a camera+adapters be too much weight?
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Oct 8, 2014 13:47
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Sentinel82 posted:I use that mount with an 8" reflector. Actually used it this morning with my DSLR to get some shots of the eclipse. So you should be fine on that mount with what you want. When I purchased mine, I actually purchased a bundle that came with the mount, 8" scope, and extra counterweight for the size scope I got. Thanks for this - I dug around and found a similar bundle. I had found a good deal on a 10" reflector but apparently the tube weighs ~25lbs... it may be too much with all of the parts attached. How do you like the bundle with the 8"?
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Oct 8, 2014 14:43
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I ended up ordering that 8" reflector/Celestron Advanced VX bundle last week, and it arrived yesterday. Of course, it was the first cloudy day we've had in two weeks, but I still got to set the thing up and play around with some settings. Thanks to everyone for all the advice, I'm very happy with the setup and hope to do some observations tonight. I'll get into photography eventually, but for now I need to get used to the basics on it first. Speaking of photography, what stacking software would you guys recommend for someone just starting out?
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Oct 14, 2014 14:56
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I've been messing around with connecting my canon T3i to the telescope and can't seem to get anything to be visible regardless of the focus - I think I may need a focusing adapter. Does anyone know what part I'd need to make this work?
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Oct 16, 2014 13:47
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GutBomb posted:If you have a Barlow unscrew the lens from the bottom and try screwing it into the bottom of the adapter. This will increase the focal length and allow you to get some cool shots until you get the focusing adapter Brilliant idea. I'll try it out tonight, thanks!
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Oct 16, 2014 15:09
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Now I'm having a hard time finding exactly what I'd need to order - since I'm connecting a t-ring to a 1.25" t-adapter, would this extender be what I need?
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Oct 16, 2014 15:29
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I figured out my camera focus issues last night. It wasn't that the focal length needed to be longer, it actually needed to be shorter. I took the t-adapter off and attached the camera t-ring directly to the 2" threaded eyepiece on the telescope and was able to get it to focus. All of my lenses/Barlow 2x/filters are 1.25", unfortunately...
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Oct 19, 2014 14:55
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I've been having some fun (and frustration) setting up my new mount for tracking. More than likely my polar alignment is off, as the mount finds stars all right but even exposures at 10sec show trails/blur towards the horizon. I've gotta figure out how to use Celestron's "All Star" polar alignment tool, that might help. I did find out that I'm able to image Andromeda from my house, even with all of the light pollution. I'm really excited for later this winter when I can take the telescope up north. If I figure out the tracking issues, I'll definitely have pictures to post.
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Oct 28, 2014 19:23
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What's the best resource to find out when the ISS is going to be visible from certain locations?
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Oct 31, 2014 20:08
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I finally got my telescope out to grab a random shot of the moon last weekend. Very happy with how it turned out, though it's not quite as crisp as I wanted it to be - possibly because I forgot to take the strap off the camera and it was windy out. D'oh. This was with my Canon T3i strapped straight to the 2" eyepiece adapter, that was the only way to make the focal length short enough to actually focus the shot. Now my question is, what's the best way to combine this with camera/telescope lenses to increase the magnification?
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Nov 6, 2014 13:41
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I did some skywatching a couple nights ago to get some more practice with alignment. Grabbed a shot of the moon while I was at it via eyepiece-projection to my Canon T3i: It seems a little blurry. I definitely underexposed it at the time (brightened it up afterwards to what you see there) but I still think it was out of focus, even though I thought it was perfect when taking the shot. Any tips on focusing a camera more accurately?
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Dec 5, 2014 17:59
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AstroZamboni posted:Bhatinov mask I had never even heard of this before. They seem to be exactly what I'm looking for, though. Thanks!
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Dec 5, 2014 19:10
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Haven't had the scope out in a month, it's been too drat cold out. The cold doesn't bother me, but apparently at around ~15F the display on my scope's tracker stops working. I guess I'm not surprised, it's an old-style LCD that doesn't take to the cold very well. Also, working with metal scope/camera adapter parts at those temps is pretty painful... time to invest in some nice gloves that still let me articulate my fingers. What's frustrating is that it's actually above freezing this weekend. And 100% cloudy. 
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Jan 18, 2015 02:55
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I finally had a night of clear skies last night, so I decided to try and work out the kinks on my camera setup on Jupiter. The results: I'm very happy with it as a first attempt, so far I've had very bad luck with eyepiece-projection photography. It probably would have been clearer if I waited until it was higher in the sky, and since it was over the east horizon I was shooting over the light pollution of the city. Also, I need to work on a more accurate alignment... I think that will just come down to practice.
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Jan 30, 2015 14:26
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GutBomb posted:What gear did you use for that? Celestron 8" reflector on a Celestron Advanced VX mount, 6mm lens with 2x Barlow, Canon T3i body. This was just a single shot, I think I'll play around with stacking on some of my other exposures later tonight and see if I can't get anything clearer. I really wouldn't mind investing in a better camera for this in the long run, but I know how pricey they are.
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Jan 30, 2015 15:59
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GutBomb posted:Is that photo close to how it looks through the eyepiece to the eye? Yup. I checked it out that way first before setting up the camera gear. It actually seemed a little clearer through just the eyepiece, though.
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Jan 30, 2015 17:11
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I got out a couple nights ago and took a couple more pictures of Jupiter. The weather's been awesome lately. That's as clear as I can see it, and stacking shots doesn't seem to make any difference. It might just be my camera, since it seemed a little clearer through the eyepiece before I strapped my camera to the scope. I doubt that my Canon T3i was meant for anything like this... It may be time to invest in a dedicated monochrome CCD and a filter wheel. My first attempt at a wide-field shot of Jupiter, overexposed to see a few of its moons:  Next time I'll take a couple shots of the wide-field and stack them, so Jupiter is visible.
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Mar 12, 2015 19:41
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Pukestain Pal posted:did you really need an excuse? Fair point. I'm still not 100% sure that the camera is the issue, so it would suck to spend $500+ on a new camera and not make a difference. It might just be something I get this summer regardless, though.
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Mar 12, 2015 19:52
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Does anyone have any advice on getting a more accurate polar alignment? Even after a 2-star align, my scope tends to be at least a bit off from the target when I slew, and when I find things they tend to slowly drift out of view. I'm thinking my initial polar alignment might be off or something like that.
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Mar 13, 2015 14:24
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Venusian Weasel posted:What kind of mount is it and how are you setting your polar alignment? It's an equatorial mount. I usually start by pointing at polaris, then adjust the mount to my latitude. I'm wondering if it's a problem because I'm not finding polar north, but I'm not really sure how to find it...
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Mar 13, 2015 19:07
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Venusian Weasel posted:Yeah, that's the problem. Polaris is about 3/4 of a degree from the actual north celestial pole, which is why you and me get tracking errors. Here's a good source explaining how to get a more precise alignment if you really need it. This is exactly what I need. Thanks!
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Mar 13, 2015 19:32
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Kommando posted:Satellites go here right? This is really awesome, I've always wanted to try and get a shot of one of those. I tried my first ever video-to-stacked shot of the moon, from last night: 
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Mar 30, 2015 22:38
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Kommando posted:drat thats sharp. What did you use? 8" reflector, Canon T3i. 1080p video through Registax, I think it was about 240 frames in the end.
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Mar 31, 2015 02:43
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The last lunar eclipse we had was what inspired me to get a telescope and learn how to take space pictures. This time around was a lot of fun, even though it got cloudy right as the eclipse was total.
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Sep 28, 2015 12:58
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drat, those are some great shots. I love the composition. While I had my scope going, I had another camera set at 50mm to take wide-angle shots every minute, while changing the exposure from time to time. It started just as the moon came over the trees, and ends when the clouds rolled in. I just checked out those shots a few mins ago:  (bonus airplane in frame midway through)
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Sep 28, 2015 21:58
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I picked up a 180mm Mak-Cass telescope last month for planetary observations and photography. It came with the primary mirror terribly out of position, and though I have experience collimating my reflector's mirrors (thanks to the help of you folks ITT, I should add), this scope doesn't allow access to the secondary mirror and isn't compatible with a laser collimator. Anyways, I've been reading up on star collimating and have been making adjustments every time I take the scope out, and things are improving! Saturn, end of June (first time out with the scope):  Aww poo poo, it's out of focus. First time having tried out a basic star collimation:  A little bit better... And this Saturday, when I tried a more precise collimation:  Cassini division! I still need to adjust it a little bit, but I'm happy with how it's progressing! Next time I'll get a few over-exposed shots to layer on top of this, since I should be able to see a couple of moons if I remember to actually do that.
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Jul 24, 2017 17:06
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Abyssal Squid posted:OMG yes Saturn! It's been a while since I've looked at Saturn and seen Titan, but I think this smudge is about the right distance? Probably some sort of artifact but there's nothing like it in the rest of that image: Huh, it could be - that shot is a stack of the best ~10% of a 15 second 1080p/30 video, so that's probably why that's a smudge. I hadn't even noticed it! Next time I want to get a pile of full-resolution shots to try stacking, at 5184 x 3456, and maybe get some more detail out of the whole shot in general, including just one or two of a properly-exposed Titan if it's in frame that I can stack on. Here's one of Jupiter I did last year like that with my 8" reflector that came out a little blurry, but I still like it: 
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Jul 24, 2017 17:43
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Abyssal Squid posted:OMG yes Saturn! It's been a while since I've looked at Saturn and seen Titan, but I think this smudge is about the right distance? Probably some sort of artifact but there's nothing like it in the rest of that image: Just to follow-up on this, I got the scope out again a few nights ago and, while I didn't get any pics worth posting here, I'm about 99% sure this is actually just a bad pixel on my camera's CCD - there's a lot of them, apparently.
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Jul 31, 2017 00:07
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Do HA filters help much with light pollution? I have the most open skies available to me to the east and south, which gives a lot of good opportunities to shoot from this latitude but I'm looking right across the city. Anything to help me get longer exposures without as much of the city glow would be wonderful. I did some messing around with shooting M42 last night. It was mostly me working on a more accurate polar alignment, though, and I'll feel silly posting the pics here after the last few...  you guys are awesome at this stuff
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Jan 10, 2018 16:34
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Thanks, I'm glad I asked. The first one didn't turn out too great, anyways, I didn't do enough exposure time and it was a little blurry. It was like 11 minutes @F/15, so not a whole lot of light came through. It's been too drat cold to try again lately, the LCD on my scope's handset is barely readable when it's below 10F outside. I'm hoping to try again tomorrow or the day after, with a better polar alignment this time, so I'll post those results. My other issue is post-processing. I'm playing around with DeepSkyStacker, which seems pretty nice, but what would you recommend for processing the TIFF file that comes out? I usually use GIMP for image editing because I'm a cheap bastard, but it's requiring me to convert the DSS output to 16-bit to even open the file, then it converts that down to 8-bit and the color dithering is just horrible. It's about time I start using something else.
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Jan 16, 2018 19:37
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 12:09 |
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I got a tracking scope (Celestron Starsense) to go with my AVX mount a couple weeks ago and we finally have clear enough weather to play around with it. I broke out the 8" reflector and fixed it up - a couple of the screws were stripped and I couldn't collimate it before - and tried pointing it at Andromeda last night: This is an almost entirely unprocessed stack of 90x30sec at ISO800, I just adjusted the light/dark values a bit. I would have liked longer exposures, but I'm right on the edge of the city so there's a ton of light pollution... if I set the exposures any longer or ISO any higher it just blew the whole drat thing out. A couple more hours of exposure time would have been great, too, but it was 15F out, and that's just not pleasant. I'm not sure if there's much value to processing it further, but I'm really happy with how this thing is tracking and am hopefully gonna get out of town soon to try some half-decent shooting. Also, it looks like Imgur is adding its own jpg compression to the bright areas... I should really get a Flickr.
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Nov 14, 2018 14:42
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