Kmlwx Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Bob Chill and I got to observe the cosmos for a little while this evening. Photos posted here for Mid-Atl folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winterymix Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 I'm all in, it should be really clear that night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormitecture Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Where at? Gotta be hard to find a park in this county to find a view spot away from the city lights. I have done some shots from the Moncracy area (right off Rt. 28) in Frederick Co. Canon 7D does OK with the kit lens, but come Jan. might have some better glass by then. Still get decent night shots...and would be fun to do a nice long TL with one camera and video with the other 7D (I have two). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmlwx Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 This would be at MLK Rec Park in Montgomery County, MD (Colesville area). I have a permit to use the park grounds during all hours of the night/day so that's the main reason this location is the site...well and the fact that it's close to me and not too far to lug a 50 pound telescope. Updates to come closer to the event if anybody is still interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmlwx Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 Some good targets even with the close proximity to the metro corridor are: ~ Any planets visible ~ Pleiades Seven Sisters Open Cluster ~ The Moon when it's around ~ A few elusive deep sky objects that may or may not be visible due to various "astronomical seeing" conditions. ~ Any other globular or open clusters that happen to be visible. There's a decent field of view around that location too with not many trees in the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Chill Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Count me and my son in. My wife and younger daughter will want to go too. Is 4 a crowd? I would prefer just me and my boy but everyone would really enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmlwx Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 Count me and my son in. My wife and younger daughter will want to go too. Is 4 a crowd? I would prefer just me and my boy but everyone would really enjoy it. Whatever works for you works for me! My permit has a set number of people on it but the park manager already told me as long as I have a rough idea of how many before hand and I email him that it's fine. Last time I was out there I didn't see a soul the entire time...except a jogger who reported me to park police (heard it on the scanner). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Chill Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 Whatever works for you works for me! My permit has a set number of people on it but the park manager already told me as long as I have a rough idea of how many before hand and I email him that it's fine. Last time I was out there I didn't see a soul the entire time...except a jogger who reported me to park police (heard it on the scanner). Jeez Kenny, you gotta stop using that nice telescope to look into apartment building windows...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmlwx Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 Jeez Kenny, you gotta stop using that nice telescope to look into apartment building windows...... - Caught me red handed! Actually I think he thought I was launching things at airplanes. Dumb people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmlwx Posted January 24, 2012 Author Share Posted January 24, 2012 I see a partly cloudy forecast for Saturday night. We'll see if it changes. Updates to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Chill Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Had the pleasure of meeting Kenny in person last night and spent an hour looking out into space. My wife and 2 youngest children joined me and it was really cool. We looked at the moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and a couple of deeper space objects like star clusters and gas clouds. I own a nice dslr camera (canon rebel) but I am a total rookie with long exposure / manual settings. All the the photos were taken with an 800 ISO setting, and shutter speeds anywhere from 1 - 5 seconds. It was quite challenging because I had to hold the camera in my hand and it is very difficult to hold it still enough to not be blurry with long exposures. I'm investing in a simple telescope eyepiece adapter where the camera is attached to the telescope and the telescope itself acts as the lens. I'll be able to get crystal clear photos with shutter speeds as slow as 30 seconds. I didn't get any pics of Jupiter and the moons. I thought looking at that was the coolest because you could clearly see the red stripes on the planet and 3 moons lined up. My wife thought the gas cloud was the coolest. I did get an ok picture of the gas cloud but it will be much brighter and clearer once I have the adapter. Thanks again Kenny for taking the time to share a fun viewing experience! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmlwx Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 My pleasure! It was great meeting you. You got some great pictures for the first time out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxUSAF Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 My first astro-photography experiment. Kmlwx...I'd love if you could PM me and give me some of your secrets! I looked at Mars, Jupiter, Venus and the Orion Nebula as well. Mars is at opposition, but I couldn't make out any clear surface features. A little bummed about that. It was fairly low on the horizon at 8pm, so that was probably part of it. This picture was taken with ISO 400 and an exposure of a third of a second (if memory serves). Fairly low power eyepiece as well. For info, I have a 8" dobsonian telescope and the camera is a Canon Rebel XS DSLR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmlwx Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 My first astro-photography experiment. Kmlwx...I'd love if you could PM me and give me some of your secrets! I looked at Mars, Jupiter, Venus and the Orion Nebula as well. Mars is at opposition, but I couldn't make out any clear surface features. A little bummed about that. It was fairly low on the horizon at 8pm, so that was probably part of it. This picture was taken with ISO 400 and an exposure of a third of a second (if memory serves). Fairly low power eyepiece as well. For info, I have a 8" dobsonian telescope and the camera is a Canon Rebel XS DSLR. Hey - pretty burned out tonight but look for a PM from me tomorrow evening when I'm a bit more recharged. I've actually been surprised at some of my photos in the past given that I only have a sony cybershot to work with (and also no eyepiece mount). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Chill Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 My first astro-photography experiment. Kmlwx...I'd love if you could PM me and give me some of your secrets! I looked at Mars, Jupiter, Venus and the Orion Nebula as well. Mars is at opposition, but I couldn't make out any clear surface features. A little bummed about that. It was fairly low on the horizon at 8pm, so that was probably part of it. This picture was taken with ISO 400 and an exposure of a third of a second (if memory serves). Fairly low power eyepiece as well. For info, I have a 8" dobsonian telescope and the camera is a Canon Rebel XS DSLR. I've done a fair amount of research since meeting Kenny the other night. I have a rebel too and this is what I've been looking at: http://www.amazon.com/Opteka-T-Mount-Adapter-Digital-Cameras/dp/B000KNCB7C I haven't pulled the trigger yet because I like to do alot of homework before buying something. This is a great resource that explains things really well: http://www.midatlanticastronomy.org/astrobasics.htm 10-30 second exposures appear to be what is necessary to get really good pics through telescopes. I was able to find exact settings for the rebel from a site but I can't find it now. The only way really get good photos is to use an adapter. I plan on buying one in the next month or so. Great pic btw! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxUSAF Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Ok, so you need the ring and the T-adapter? That's not too bad. Add that to the birthday/father's day/Christmas list for sure. Surely you'll want long exposures for deep sky objects, but the Moon is so bright that you'll just get a blur unless you use a fairly short exposure. That's at least what I found out last night. Since I have a dobsonian scope, I'll also have to be careful with longer exposures since targets will move and blur over that kind of time. I certainly need to learn more about proper ISO and the various other settings. Probably trial and error would work best. Focusing was a pain last night. Auto focus wouldn't work, so I used manual focus, but that was...not easy. Any tips, Bob? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Chill Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Ok, so you need the ring and the T-adapter? That's not too bad. Add that to the birthday/father's day/Christmas list for sure. Surely you'll want long exposures for deep sky objects, but the Moon is so bright that you'll just get a blur unless you use a fairly short exposure. That's at least what I found out last night. Since I have a dobsonian scope, I'll also have to be careful with longer exposures since targets will move and blur over that kind of time. I certainly need to learn more about proper ISO and the various other settings. Probably trial and error would work best. Focusing was a pain last night. Auto focus wouldn't work, so I used manual focus, but that was...not easy. Any tips, Bob? There are more expensive adapters that are supposed to be much better than t-rings so I might look at doing that if I'm going to spend the money. It's still only like 70 bucks or so. Once I decide which direction I'm going in I'll let you know. You do have to do manual focus. Auto won't work when taking a pic through a camera lens. However, when you use the adapter there is no more focusing at all. The telescope itself acts as the lens (I thought this was really cool when I wrapped my head around it). Trial and error appears to be the way to go generally speaking. There appears to be some settings that are important. ISO @ 800+ will take the best pics if you can figure out the rest of the stuff. Auto white balance should be set at "daylight" setting with exceptions of course. Noise and blur reduction should be turned on. I had to read the canon manual to figure out how to do that. Who reads manuals? lol Using a remote to trigger the shutter is important. I don't own a remote yet but they are cheap. Keeping everything super still is important. I agree about exposure settings. Moon should be good @ 1 second or less. Deeper space stuff you will need much much longer exposures. Not sure how to counterbalance the object moving. I need to read more. One thing I know for sure, Jupiter looked super cool. I could see the red stripes. If I could have taken a quality pic through an adapter I'm pretty sure it would have been stunning to some extent. Set your camera to take the pics in both RAW and JPG format at the same time. RAW is the best for software processing but I know nothing about that. I'll learn someday and it's easy to take pics in both formats so I'll stock up on RAW photos and figure out what to do with them later. I know enough about this stuff to be dangerous. I only recently read up on it but I think I can get the hang of it pretty easily. I'm already looking forward to another viewing session with Kenny. I'm going to be much more prepared with equipment next time. The computerized/motorized telescopes are prob the best for deep space photos. They'll keep the objects centered. I with I had a spare grand or 2 laying around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxUSAF Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Cool. I think I follow the "camera as eyepiece" idea. So once you have the various adapters on, you just focus with the eyepiece focus adjustment on the telescope? Still not sure though how that relates to the power of an eyepiece versus zooming the camera. Because you can't zoom in with the camera once it's on the scope, right? For the movement, you definitely need to get a motorized star-tracking scope. I think they make dobsonians that can do that now, but most people use Schmidt-Cassegrains. You're looking at $1-2K for that for an 8" scope. I suppose I'll just have to test and see what kind of exposures I can do before blur becomes a significant problem. 5-10 seconds might be ok, but I think 30 seconds would definitely blur things too much. Just my wag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kmlwx Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 Bob has you covered here! Also - http://www.cloudynights.com/ is a great site for information on astronomy and telescopes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxUSAF Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 I got a T-ring and adapter for my birthday, but tonight was the first night I tried it out with a full moon. In summary...didn't work. Second pic is what I got with the camera attached to the telescope with the ring and adapter. First pic is with a 25mm eyepiece on the scope and the standard kit lens on the camera, just holding the camera in front of the eyepiece. I'm missing something or doing something wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nw baltimore wx Posted November 29, 2012 Share Posted November 29, 2012 I got a T-ring and adapter for my birthday, but tonight was the first night I tried it out with a full moon. In summary...didn't work. Second pic is what I got with the camera attached to the telescope with the ring and adapter. First pic is with a 25mm eyepiece on the scope and the standard kit lens on the camera, just holding the camera in front of the eyepiece. I'm missing something or doing something wrong. It's a shame that you couldn't get it working properly. The moon and Jupiter are spectacular tonight. Your first photo inspired me to do some telescope browsing online tonight. Hope that you get it figured out so you can post the photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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