Astrophotos

gotta

These were taken with my camera coupled to the eyepiece on my telescope. Focusing is tough and a remote release helps. The Nikon 4300 also has a video out port which I connect to a b&w monitor for focusing. I find these challenging.

Regards, Eric

gotta

another

gotta

another

gus

brillient mate wish i could do it.

wxwax

Wow, those are fantastic! Nice work. It's amazing that things stand out in relief.

gotta

Thanks guys! I really like the different areas of of contrast in this one.

Regards, Eric

TJAmy

gotta wrote:

Thanks guys! I really like the different areas of of contrast in this one.

Regards, Eric

Great work!!! Can I get it in poster size? Hee hee!

Win38-55

I would travel in space in a heartbeat. Would not think twice. If aliens landed and said lets go I would. Nice photos.

Seamaiden

WOW Eric!

Humun.. I'm curious.. being south of the equator, when you look at the moon, are you looking at its backside, or underside?

ian408

gotta wrote:

These were taken with my camera coupled to the eyepiece on my telescope. Focusing is tough and a remote release helps. The Nikon 4300 also has a video out port which I connect to a b&w monitor for focusing. I find these challenging.

Regards, Eric

Eric, could you elaborate on the method? Do you use a thread-on eyepiece
(like a scopetronix) for the magnification? I have experimented with the camera
holder, eyepiece mount and most recently with a T-ring.

Thanks!
Ian

gotta

Ian, I use ScopeTronix digi-T system of eyepiece projection. It mounts the camera directly to the eyepiece of choice. My Nikon 4300 is fairly light, so the weight on the eyepiece is no problem. My scope uses 1.25" lenses. The procedure is as follows: I orient the scope and get the tracking system going. I mount the adapter ring to the camera, which is really a tube since the 4300's lens extends out from the camera a bit. In eyepiece projection, your camera is actually taking a picture of the image as in passes through the eyepiece, where it is focused. The adapters are set for the closest possible focus of whichever camera you have. Mine ends up about 1 1/2" from the eyepiece. The rubber is removed from the eyepiece and the mounting ring is clamped on the eyepiece. It's threaded on the outside to recieve the camera. Without the camera, I take great care in focusing with just the eyepiece, when that's set, I remove the eyepiece and thread it on to the camera. The the whole set up goes onto the scope. I have a remote release cable for the 4300 which will do everything I need so you don't have to bother the scope. I shoot in manual mode, MACRO. Macro because you are taking a picture of the eyepiece image. I manually focus either using a large magnifying glass on the cams view screen, or I hook up the camera to a 9" black and white security monitor. I bracket the exposures usually starting at 1/60th at f/4, ISO 100. I sometimes will bracket the focus on the scope, making minor adjustments as I go.

I also have some pictures of a forrest fire I shot at night through my scope. This yielded some interesting pictures which I'll post in another thread. Thanks for your interest.

Regards, Eric

gotta

WOW Eric!

Humun.. I'm curious.. being south of the equator, when you look at the moon, are you looking at its backside, or underside?

I'm north of the equator, so I look at the side facing me.:D Actually Sea, I don't know...I think the whole world looks at the same side. Hmm.

Regards, Eric

gotta

This was about the best picture I got of Mars last summer.

Regards, Eric

ian408

gotta wrote:

This was about the best picture I got of Mars last summer.

Regards, Eric

That's a nice picture.

Have you tried using Astrostack?

Allows you to mung several images to make one. Most useful if you shoot
video or make a number of images.


Ian

gotta

I've tried using Astrostack, and had some problems trying to figure it out. I need to spend some more time with the program.

Regards, Eric