Astronomik, Canon and astro-imaging. Anyone tried Clip-Filters ?

[mickyj]

The H-alpha filter will mean that you can keep imaging while the moon is out which gives you a lot more useful nights than the rest of us (who are tucked up in bed ).
There are quite a few options for polar alignment and everyone will swear by their preferred method.
I'm a big fan of EqAlign but could never reliably get the DSLR liveview to appear as a webcam. You might just want to get a webcam if you're going that route.
There's another tool called Alignmaster that works well with computerised mounts.
I thought I read somewhere that there was a new version of firmware for your mount that added a polar alignment function similar to the Celestron "All star polar align" function. That allows you to align the mount with just the hand controller.

Yes, the hand controller can align but everyone tells me it is close, just not close enough. If you take a long exposure it can leave blurry star trails. They suggest align with this first to get close and then use something else

[mickyj]

My Canon 500D full spectrum arrived today (From IceTrade)

WooHoo !

[SteveInNZ]

The clouds should start rolling in at any moment.

[mickyj]

And they have ......... Clouds and rain. Gives me time to play with the camera. Stock at Bintel is not all available until september anyway

[mickyj]

I have started a diary, of what I have learnt. Feel free to point out mistakes. I am just starting to play and learn.
http://www.mickyj.com/astrophotography.htm

I should mention, I have quoted some of you and also posted a link back to some photos.

[SteveInNZ]

That's an excellent idea and well written too.
I have some comments.

The link to my horsehead picture doesn't seem to be working for me. Thanks BTW <blush>.
My 40D isn't full spectrum modified, it has a replacement (Baader) UV/IR filter that extends the red out to H-alpha but is otherwise the same as the standard camera. A full spectrum mod replaces that filter with clear glass so you need to add something like the CLS-CCD to block the UV and IR.

I really dislike that diagram for finding the SCP. It's obviously done by someone in the northern hemisphere. Sigma Octanis !! Really ? It's Magnitude 6 and surrounded by other mag 6 stars in the middle of nowhere. It should be banned from the internet.
Steve's method that works in cities- The long axis of the southern cross points across the sky to another bright star - Achenar. Half way between the cross and that star is the SCP (within 3 degrees).

The T in T-mount stands for Tamron. It was a standardised lens mounting system before the adaptall series and has become a defacto standard for connecting cameras to third party things like telescopes. Note that it is a 42mm mount but a different thread pitch to the Pentax M42 mount so they don't interchange.

On to page 2 .....

Steve.

- - - Updated - - -

Phew ! Finished it (so far).
That's really good.

[ameerat42]

Opus Major (excuse poor Latin) Mick.
Am.

[mickyj]

Thanks for the feedback. I will make some changes tonight and check a few things out.
Thanks to everyone in this thread for helping me to learn.

I am still waiting on the major bits of my gear so there might be a gap in time before I add more

[mickyj]

I have updated parts of the pages

[SteveInNZ]

I still can't see the picture on your page and if I click on it I get this message "We're sorry, Flickr doesn't allow embedding within frames." I'm using Firefox 14.0 on WinXP but the message would infer that it's not a browser thing.

Steve.

[mickyj]

Hmm, I am using IE8 here at work and it comes up. Very odd.

[SteveInNZ]

I just tried with IE8 and can see it. Silly web stuff.

[mickyj]

I have made the image open a new browser from the link and hopefully it fixes your browser issue.
Also added a CLS-CCD image comparrison with Full spectrum.

Can't wait to actually do some astrophotography .. Oh well. Clouds here anyway

[mickyj]

Still waiting for the equipment with anticipation

Count down to delivery is about 5 days from now ........

[mickyj]

It arrived!

[ameerat42]

Whi-i-i-t! Whi-i-e-e-w!

[SteveInNZ]

Very nice. How are the muscles feeling ?

[mickyj]

I have to say .. sore. I tried to lift the mount + weights about 1 cm. Wow, it is heavy. The wind will need to blow hard to move this on a cold windy night.

[mickyj]

It was clear tonight, no wind, no clouds, no moon until late, I was in a completely black location, no houses lit around me ... Telescope was 60 kms away in my office.

Grrrr

[mickyj]

I have a new problem. They shipped my autoguider with a pair of imperial bolts and the Tube rings are Metric. You can possibly tell from the photos that the bolts are a little "proud".
I tried to screw them in. The soft cheap Chinease bolt just simply snapped. Now I have no autoguider and a bum tube ring.

I must say, Bintel have been excellent. They identified incorrect parts (Camera filters) they sent me, sent me the right parts. Found items they left out of the shipment by accident (ND filter and camera mount). And now with this issue, they said it was their fault and a new tube ring is on the way.

I wish the screwups did not happen in the first place but at least they are doing something about the issues !!