Post by toothdr on Dec 9, 2007 1:13:46 GMT
Hi everyone
Seems I have been registered on the forum for eleven months and never made a single post - tut tut.
Anyway I finally managed to get to a meeting, and got to meet the friendly bunch of astronomers before and after the excellent talk on astrophotography by Dave Grennan.
I would like to thank everyone for their warm welcome.
As for myself - I've been interested in the stars etc I suppose for a few years, but never really did anything about it other than viewing the odd lunar eclipse/comet, the 'big' stuff the media would be talking about. I bought a 4" reflector on an alt-az mount for a few quid about 3 years ago - this got shoved out the window every now and again at the full moon - but the slightest breath would create vibration in the mount very easily. Looking back it was a rubbish scope but it got me involved in the hobby a bit more and it is with this that I took my first picture using the 'afocal' mobile phone technique.
Moving on, I picked up one of the (in)famous LXD-75 scopes last year. Having next to no knowledge of a telescope or the associated paraphernalia that came along with it, I found it difficult to set up and align. With getting maybe only a handful of available clear nights during the following months it was slow progress.
Well it all worked out ok in the end and apart from maybe slightly dubious polar alignment and pleading ignorance on the collimation side of things, the telescope has given me many hours of pleasure. I got a T-adapter a few months back and stuck the camera onto it I haven't looked back (and neither has the wallet!) Incidentally I only bought the camera in January for work, and it was my first digital camera (I had to pick a complicated one too!). It has been a steep learning curve indeed with both the scope, the camera, and the two together. Not to mention all the associated software to run the bloody stuff!
Here are a couple of images I've taken with the 400d prime focus, most of which are first or second attempts at the objects, as I only really imaged on a handful of nights due to crappy weather/equipment failure/being too drunk:
Guided image, full moon.
Guided image, 3 x 6min, 1 x 4min, 1 x 3min (then object lost behind house), needs more exposure but inadvertently had camera set to ISO400
30s x 20 exposures, first time seeing these galaxies let alone imaging, but again needs longer subs.
Hard to beat a nice widefield of Orion - the final picture was piggybacked not prime focus, unguided 120s x 5
Thanks for reading
Adam
Seems I have been registered on the forum for eleven months and never made a single post - tut tut.
Anyway I finally managed to get to a meeting, and got to meet the friendly bunch of astronomers before and after the excellent talk on astrophotography by Dave Grennan.
I would like to thank everyone for their warm welcome.
As for myself - I've been interested in the stars etc I suppose for a few years, but never really did anything about it other than viewing the odd lunar eclipse/comet, the 'big' stuff the media would be talking about. I bought a 4" reflector on an alt-az mount for a few quid about 3 years ago - this got shoved out the window every now and again at the full moon - but the slightest breath would create vibration in the mount very easily. Looking back it was a rubbish scope but it got me involved in the hobby a bit more and it is with this that I took my first picture using the 'afocal' mobile phone technique.
Moving on, I picked up one of the (in)famous LXD-75 scopes last year. Having next to no knowledge of a telescope or the associated paraphernalia that came along with it, I found it difficult to set up and align. With getting maybe only a handful of available clear nights during the following months it was slow progress.
Well it all worked out ok in the end and apart from maybe slightly dubious polar alignment and pleading ignorance on the collimation side of things, the telescope has given me many hours of pleasure. I got a T-adapter a few months back and stuck the camera onto it I haven't looked back (and neither has the wallet!) Incidentally I only bought the camera in January for work, and it was my first digital camera (I had to pick a complicated one too!). It has been a steep learning curve indeed with both the scope, the camera, and the two together. Not to mention all the associated software to run the bloody stuff!
Here are a couple of images I've taken with the 400d prime focus, most of which are first or second attempts at the objects, as I only really imaged on a handful of nights due to crappy weather/equipment failure/being too drunk:
Guided image, full moon.
Guided image, 3 x 6min, 1 x 4min, 1 x 3min (then object lost behind house), needs more exposure but inadvertently had camera set to ISO400
30s x 20 exposures, first time seeing these galaxies let alone imaging, but again needs longer subs.
Hard to beat a nice widefield of Orion - the final picture was piggybacked not prime focus, unguided 120s x 5
Thanks for reading
Adam