BBC Focus Magazine

[Jamie]

A few of my first imaging attempts below:

Venus



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Mars



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Jupiter



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Saturn



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Moon



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[Shadowwolf]

Cool Mr Jamie, liking Jupiter and Saturn images.

[Jamie]

Cheers Shads, it's been so clear recently I've been spending half the night outside. Hope to get some more gear soon to improve the images. Also going to try and build a solar filter so I can snap the Venus transit in June.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Thanks for these Jamie, I am quite amazed at how much you have achieved in such a short time-frame, really impressed................................. if a little envious.

[Jamie]

More luck than judgement if I'm honest MPL!

[M Paul Lloyd]

Luck is always an important factor in astronomy.

[Jamie]

Just ordered a 2x barlow lens. Hopefully I'll be able to use the auto tracking on my scope now - the adapter I made for the webcam is a tight fit and if I manage get it all lined up and tracking swapping the eyepiece for the camera knocks it all out of line.

[M Paul Lloyd]

At high magnifications that tends to happen Jamie, a sturdy mount does help as it minimises the 'wobble' as the tube vibrates and my little 90mm scope is fitted to a mount designed for something the size of yours and yet I can still lose an object completely twixt eye and camera. If I recall correctly the mount on yours is pretty solid but fixed so unfortunatley you have no way of upgrading it.

Being able to track is a huge help as you don't have to worry so much about constantly resetting the mount as well as everything else but even then just a tiny shift off track can be quite frustrating.
Don't forget to point the axis at the Pole Star before you start mind.

You could try fitting the webcam to the Barlow lens then centre the object using eyepieces of ever reducing focal length (if you have them) I usually start with a 35mm then a 25 and finally 10 before fitting the Barlow and camera.
Its not an infallible solution but you have less chance of losing your object that way.

[Jamie]

Trial and error is the best way - it's not like the planets and stars are going anywhere!

[Shadowwolf]

Unfortunately we are!

[...]

MPL i remember, quite sometime ago now, just after i had my scope, you posted an excellent pic of the moon taken with your 90mm mac cass and you posted a pic of your tripod which you'd worked on yourself putting a massive weight hanging underneath for extra stability

[M Paul Lloyd]

That is kind of you to say so @@ although I have been practicing for a good 40 years now.

I recall the tri-pod set-up although try as I might I cannot find the picture in question but it was only a stepping stone to my current set up and the picture below is how things stood before upgrading to the EQ-3 mount which has power actuation in both planes (the one shown is the EQ-2) and I do use a larger format camera these days.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Here is a selection of my past efforts although my bad hips have meant that I have done precious little in the last few years.







I have had much less sucess with the planets though.

This being Jupiter.

[Jamie]

Nice one, you've got the moons in on your Jupiter shot, that's something I haven't managed yet.

The moon ones are great too, the contrast is way better than mine!

New Barlow has arrived today (unfortunately so has the cloud!) so might have better luck.

[M Paul Lloyd]

The moon ones are great too, the contrast is way better than mine!

Most kind of you Jamie although contrast can be very hit and miss but using photo processing software can help lift it dramtically.

Jupiter is all down to exposure time and to reveal the moons you obviously need a slower shutter speed but to reveal the bands of cloud it has to be somewhat faster.
You can then superimpose one over the other to give a decent complete image.
The f stop of your scope is arrived at by dividing the overall focal length by the eyepiece focal length.
I can supply more detail from my notes if required.

I used to have a record of exposure times for given apatures and ISO values (what we used to call ASA back in the day) but sadly I seem to have misplaced it. However digital photography does allow for a lot experimentation.

Here's to clear skies.