Camera Labs

Had another go tonight although conditions were far from good. With the Celestron Nexstar 4SE (1325mm f/13) I didn't get anything great. I tried adding the 2x barlow giving 2650mm f/26. I know this is way into diffraction limiting, but thought it might help offset the negative side of sensor characteristics. Well, it seemed to have worked. Compared to the direct case I had better contrast, detail and noise control. Because of the size I ended up having to stitch 5 shots together, but in one region I didn't get a clear shot. The stitch feature of Photoshop Elements didn't like it much either and it took some manual arrangement to get it right, and I'm left with a small glitch. Result here. I believe if the conditions were better, this would have been my best imaging so far.

Yesterday I got my 2nd scope. This time a Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ MD. It's a lot cheaper than the first one, but an inch wider. Aside from that, it is 650mm f/5 so short and wide. I hope to go for different stuff once conditions improve. But I've hit a snag already. Using an eyepiece adapter to attach my camera, I can't focus on the moon. It looks like I don't have enough focus range and need to get the camera closer to the telescope than is physically possible. Using 25mm and 10mm eyepieces looked fine. Any ideas on things I can do?

Finally, an observation.. It seems every time I use any camera with a scope I get dust on the sensor. My blower seems to be getting a lot of use recently.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

As suspected earlier, under better conditions I did indeed get better images with the barlow in place.


Click for bigger version, approx 1.8 MB, 2888×3863. Canon 50D with Celestron Nexstar 4 SE scope and 2x barlow. 1/60s, 2650mm, f/26, ISO1250.

Conditions tonight were fairly good although far from perfect still. I suspect that the limiting factor I'm hitting when conditions are good enough is camera shake. The first shot in a burst generally seems to be sharper than subsequent shots. Will have to start using mirror lock up which might help a little bit more.

Elsewhere, I did look further into the 5 inch Newtonian. Even if I ditch the T-adapter and hand hold the camera without lens attached, it is still too far out to focus. Is there any simple way I can move the focus point outwards? As such I can't use it with a DSLR prime focus short of removing the focuser assembly.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

That's really nice popo..i was wondering if you could get a pic of the rovers or the debris on the moon left by previous space missions?
That would be awesome...or how bout' the ISS space station orbiting the earth...

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Gear:Sony Alpha a350, Sony H9, Nikon FM-10
Gear:CZ85mm F/1.4 Planar, CZ24-70mm F/2.8 T* ssm, Sony 70-200mm G F/2.8 ssm, Sony 50mm F/2.8 macro, Nikkor 35-70mm

Hmm... I might need a slightly bigger scope for that. And removing everything between me and it would really help too.

ISS - have you seen it move across the sky? Putting aside I don't know how much focal length I need to make it big enough to see much of anything on it, it's really fast. No way could I track it. I can't even track the movement of the stars yet... really need to sort that out.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Are you absolutely sure the problem isn't the other way around. With my TeleVue refractor I needed extension tubes to get the camera further away.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

I'm as sure as I can be for now. If I go through the entire focuser range, it is least blurry when close to the body. Removing the T-adapter means I can handhold it about an inch closer still, and it gets sharper again but still not into focus. I estimate maybe another cm or so might do it.

To make absolutely sure, I will also try handholding it further out... I can't remember if I did that already...

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Had another try with camera on the new scope. The focus point is definitely too close in. Moving further out didn't help at all. If I rest the camera lens mount on the focusing point of the scope, it's close to but not in focus.

I did find out the collimation needs doing. When viewed further out from the eyepiece, the middle of the image is quite a bit off center. Now I just need to find out how to do that without any extra tools.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Very nice photo popo I guess you have tamed your equipment

ur photo is one of the best i've ever seen man~! *thumbs up*

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Canon 450D
Tamron AF 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 XR Di-II LD IF
Manfrotto 718B

Very nice photo!

Was this taken through the eye piece or did you use a T-mount and use Prime focus technique?

I'm guessing since you are talking about a barlow that its through the eyepiece. If that's the case, how did you mount your camera? Surely it's not handheld?

I'm very interested, I've got a 12" meade LX200R-GPS myself, and have just got into astrophotography (I've tried it once, with my EOS 450D and T-mount adaptors).

(Haven't tried it on the moon yet, as it was a new moon! Good for deep-sky photography!)

Marcus

I've only got results with prime focus. Arrangement is essentially camera, T-ring, T-mount eyepiece adapter, barlow, scope.

I only had one go at eyepiece projection, handheld, but didn't get anything usable. There doesn't seem to be any off the shelf adapters I can find for a DSLR, they're all for compacts it seems.

Hmm... 12 inches Should be able to get some serious detail out of that under the right conditions.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Ah, I'm missing the barlow. I thought a barlow was an eye-piece adaptor, i.e. something that slots in after the star-diagonal, could you please explain? I'm a bit of a novice on astronomy, I've only had my scope for about a year, and haven't had much chance to use it with the bad weather in England!

A barlow can optionally go between the eyepiece and scope to give additional magnification. I have a relatively tiny 4 inch scope which in photographic terms is 1325mm f/13 normally, or 2650mm f/26 with a 2x barlow. Quickly looking up the 12 inch LX200, that appears to be 3048mm f/10 so you already have a longer focal length but much brighter, as well as less diffraction softening.

Although the barlow puts me firmly in the diffraction softening region, it still got me more detail overall as it gets somewhat around the camera output softness at the cost of having to stitch multiple shots together as the moon will not fit in a single shot at these lengths.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Superb lunar shot.
Book quality.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/httpwwwfli ... adanbrood/

The shot you posted is very good. The contrast and detail is outstanding.

Have you considered a CCD imager direct to the computer?