Digital cameras

Raw file

maryccc — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:12:14 GMT

Can someone tell me what the extension is for raw images. I went to quality on my camera and selected raw and am getting a .cr file.

Canon XSI

maryccc — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:50:43 GMT

I just got one and have a question. Is there a setting anywhere on the camera that will let you click the shutter button and it will takke pictures every minute or so without clicking on the shutter button? or do I need a remote to do that?

Adapter for camera

maryccc — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:18:42 GMT

What do I need to connect my xsi to a telescope? and where can I get one? Thanks.

DSLR

maryccc — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:34:20 GMT

Which DSLR is good to use with a telescope? I am thinking of getting a canon xsi and heard they were good.

Red colour in skyscapes

ice9001 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:44:45 GMT

Hi just thought I would ask , this is probably a noob question but why do I get a red colour about half way up the sky from buildings and trees in my photos when I try to take skyscapes from my backyard over my house using exposures of around 25 seconds . I am using a Nikon d90 with standard kit lens 18-105 set at 22mm f4.5, ISO 400 , NR on .

Thanks Mark

Great Info here

Stilletto — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:07:45 GMT

Hi guys

I am new to the forum, but long time Astronomy magazine reader. I have spent lots of time years ago laboring with Canon SLR film cameras and now am about to purchase a Canon DSLR to go with my LX200. I have read probably every post here and really appreciate the info. I will be sticking around

Was curious, is there some must know forums or user groups that I should also add to my list? Any other forums you guys frequent?

Another question that I am struggling with is the purchase choice between the XS and the XSi. How much would I notice the 14bit vs 12bit color depth? I can think of no other real difference between these two cameras that would be of importance, though I may be wrong.

Thanks for your time folks, glad to join you all!

Blurry Images with Afocal

Stargazer Jr Grade — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:34:10 GMT

Hi,

First time posting in a while, been busy with school and the constant cloudy nights didn't help much either. Okay, so recently while I was outside star gazing, I thought it'd be nice to record what I'm seeing through my binoculars. So I went ahead and took my father's DSLR and tried afocal imaging. My problem is that the images are always blurry, no matter how much I focus the binoculars, to an extent where I can't even have a clear view of the moon let alone anything else. Recently as an experiment I tried to photograph an apartment building about 1km away during the day time to see what is happening, but nothing seems to increase the clarity of the image (I've attached them here).

Sony 70-300mm (at 300mm) with 10X50 Brunton Binoculars afocal

Sony 18-70mm with 10X50 Brunton Binoculars afocal

Sony 75-300mm lens at 300mm

As you can see, there's a blurry, washed-out look to the afocal images compared to the one without them. In addition, the view through the binocular (with eyes) is much sharper than the first two pictures here as well. Any help on this would be appreciated, thanks.

Clear skies.

Daniel

Edit: Here is a picture I took with dad's Minolta AF50/1.7 (45mm) lens with 10X50 brunton afocal

Which webcam is best for planets

StarScape — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:52:53 GMT

I am looking a buying one of the webcams below since Celestron will not update the drivers to be used with Vista 64 bit for their Neximage webcam.

Which one would work best with my 1.25 barlow and a Nexstar 130 SLT? What are some good free software to download that can be used to place images on top of each other and combine exposures?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7831563&type=product&id=1142296157528

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7831554&type=product&id=1142296157450

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8703094&type=product&id=1199495403693 For the Dynex I will have to cut some kind of plastic pipe that is the same size as the barlow.

D40 focus problem??

robos — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:44:19 GMT

I tried to use my Nikon d40 to take some quick moon shots using a t adapter with a 1.25" adapter, I could not get the telescope to focus looking through the viewfinder of the camera. Am I missing a critical part? I could get it to focus on close objects such as my neighbors house but that is it. I am a total newbie to this. I had the camera attached to an 8" Dob.

Confused about which cam! wanting to try Astrophotography

Permafrost — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 07:05:59 GMT

I currently own an Orion XT10 Dob and the other night I ended up getting the Astrophotography Bug after taking some nice pictures of the Moon and Jupiter using an inexpensive HP Photosmart E337 digital cam. All I did was point and shoot I guess.

So now I figure, with around 100$ via eBay I can upgrade to a better camera and perhaps add a bit more and get a Digi T adapter from Scopetronix.

Am I saying this right?

The thing I cant figure out is:

1) Which camera to look for?? Especially hard with my budget.

2) Do I need to look for a camera that accepts Digi T rings as listed on the Scopetonix website?

3) I would love to be able to simply attach a camera to an eyepiece and do some afocal imaging. I really dont mind tracking by hand to take some nice pics of the moon and jupiter.
Would I still be able to use my eyepieces for this type of imaging? (Nagler 9mm+Pentax XW5mm + Panoptic 24mm)

4) Say a camera has 4x optical zoom and I use a panoptic 24mm and full zoom, would that be like I'm seeing through a 6mm Eyepiece?

5) Should I just abandon the whole Digi T adapter/camera on eyepiece idea and get a universal camera mount from Orion or The EZ-Pix™ Digital Camera Holder from Scopetronix?

6) On the Scopetronix website it mentions the Nikon Coolpix 990 and 995 as excellent models because they meet a lot of the basic requirements for imaging. Are these models obsolete nowadays? They are 2001 models which costed 1000$+ back than and can be had for around 100$ today. Or am I better off getting something like a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS (Made in 2008) for around the same price.

This is what I understand I should be looking for, do most new simple cams have these options nowadays?:

(From the Scopetronix website).

Here is my wish list for a digital camera for astrophotography (in order of importance):

1. An LCD viewscreen, this is really a necessity otherwise you can't see what you are shooting. Luckily this is standard on virtually all non-toy digital cameras.

2. A filter thread on the lens (or on the body, or a filter adapter is commercially available). Otherwise you may be limited to using an adapter such as our EZ-Pix. While the EZ-Pix works it does require finicky adjustments every time you set up. A threaded adapter such as the Digi-T™ system allows for a quick thread-on-and-go solution. The filter thread should be of a size that an adapter is available for. We carry a wide array of Digi-T kits to fit many cameras with and without threaded lenses.

3. A physically small lens. Smaller lenses vignette less and allow the use of a wider variety of eyepieces. Less vignetting means you can also zoom out farther since the primary means of reducing vignetting is by zooming in. This can push you up to higher power than you wish to be at (for example if you are trying to shoot the full Moon).

4. A lens which zooms internally rather than moving outside of the camera body. This allows for closer coupling at all zoom positions and usually uses a less expensive telescope adapter since a lens tube is not required.

5. Noise reduction, certainly a nice feature but not a necessity. You can perform your own dark frame subtraction on a computer if necessary.

6. A swivel body, again a nice feature but not a necessity. You will appreciate it when the telescope is pointed up and you can angle the viewscreen towards you.

7. A remote shutter release. This is standard with some cameras and optional for many others. This can be a big help in reducing the shakes when shooting at high power, but you can use a built-in timer as a good work around.

8. A camera that stores all the information about an exposure so you can see what worked well, and what didn't.

Those of you that know your cameras may notice that the Nikon 990/995/4500 cameras
provide virtually all of the desirable attributes, but I said I wouldn't mention names ; )

Any advice really appreciated. Sorry about the long post.

Is it possible that the flash from dig cam do damage to ep?

Permafrost — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:50:34 GMT

When I snapped a picture near my Pentax XW 5mm eyepiece the other night, I saw like some electrical current or flash burn something and than it smellled like some rubber/plastic was burning?

Do I even need to have the flash on hmmm..

The Pentax eyepiece says to avoid direct sunlight, any advice on what it was? Thx

Scope usage

yybmage — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 10:12:38 GMT

Hi guys, I am just starting on astroimaging with my DSLR. The two scopes i have are the Nexstar 4SE and the Meade LX 200 12'. Which of these do you guys recommend for imaging? The 4se has the ability to go EQ but the aperture limits it. The LX 200 has the aperture but does not have the EQ. So which should i use? -yyb

how can i get more detail out of my camera

catsrool5 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:57:34 GMT

if you take a look at my display picture that is my recent attempt at jupiter your not missing any detail thats all you can see that is a registaked image of a video and although the planet was very bright with my eyes i could see a couple of bands accros the planet and i was wondering if ther was any way to get more detail for both visual and astroimging the camera is a finepix s1000fd

walst im at it how do i add images into the acctual posts

Squeezing the most out of my Canon DSLR

RASCals — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:14:40 GMT

We've gotten to the point now where we are shopping for a new Camera for our photos. The Orion Starshoot Pro 2.0 seems to fit out budget and our needs. If anyone has any suggestions for others around the $1500US level, I'd love to hear about it.

Here are the photos we have so far with a Basic Canon Rebel Xti DSLR

http://www.flickr.com/photos/astrorascals/

So images we have are of M13, M57, M92, Andromeda, the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and of coarse, the Moon.

Cheers,

Chris

Site for point and shoot accessories

fishacura — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:12:45 GMT

A while ago, someone had posted a GREAT web site for astrophotography accessories. They had a particularly useful too which told you which adaptors you needed for various point and shoot cameras. Unfortunately, I cannot find heads or tails of the original post. Anyone know of the site to which I am referring? I have found several but I recall one being exceptional and have not been able to find any I would classify as such in a google search...

Canon XSi live view

Scrythe — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:02:55 GMT

Hey guys,

First post. I got into astrophotography a few months ago and purchased a XSi. I have managed to get some pictures of orion nebula, some star clusters and pictures of saturn (with 6 moons).

My question is regarding the XSi's live view. Live view works perfectly when looking at saturn. shows up really clear when using the 10x zoom option, but for anything else, nothing shows up. just black. After focusing saturn, (and getting some shots) i auto guided to a galaxy, and did not change the focus in hopes of the focus being the same for saturn and the galaxy, and nothing. I've even tried looking through the view finder, and have managed to get 1 or 2 stars in focus through the viewfinder, but again, take the picture, and nothing shows up.

What confuses me the most is that I was able to get pictures of orion. I might mention that the live view didn't work with orion either. I had to take several shots and keep adjusting it on the telescope. took a while but It came out in focus. Can anyone explain to me what I am doing wrong?

Thanks,

Eddie

camera

ZIVA — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:49:45 GMT

My friend has a digital camera and she wants to know how to take a picture of the moon with out it looking like a white blob in the sky. Any help and suggestions would be of great help to her. Ziva

Astrophotography on an Alt-Az Mount

Jeff2362 — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:31:01 GMT

I have a Celelestron 925 on the stock alt-azimuth go-to mount. I would like to start taking some photos through the scope with a DSLR or a webcam. What are the rules of thumb for the exposure times from the image rotation? Would I be limited to planets and the moon, or could I do stacks of short exposures for deeper sky objects. Would piggybacking a DSLR onto the scope and shooting through that help?

I suppose the next question would be, how do I go about getting an equitorial mount for the 925?

A visual observer for 25 years, a newbie with astrophotos.

Jeff2362

Our forum policies, including no advertising (updated July 8, 2009)

Karri Ferron — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:58:01 GMT

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digital cameras, with bulb settings

owilbur — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:20:18 GMT

Like others just getting into astrophotography, are there any simple , and cheap, point and shoot, digital cameras, that have a bulb setting, ??? or close to it???

Difficulty in reaching the right focus with Canon 350D

haimi — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:28:35 GMT

Hi Guys,

I find it rather a hilly task to get the right focus when using my Canon 350D for astrophotography. As you know the viewfinder is crampy small and thus making it extremely difficult to know whether you have got the right focus or not unless a shot is being made. The whole trial and error process to find the right focus may be draggy and most of the time ill give up.

Could anyone help to advice me on the right process of getting the focus for AP with my 350D? Or maybe recommend a got software for me to use.

PS: My scope is Orion 6" f/5 Imaging.

Thanks

Have some equipment and high hopes can anyone advise me?

Ferebee64 — Sat, 23 May 2009 01:33:17 GMT

Ok - So I have a 8" Odyessy Dob, A 6" Tasco Luminova on a EQ1 mount, a 50mm refractor spoting scope on a table top tripod, a Minolta Dimage 6 DSLR, A Kodak Easyshare digital camera, a webcam, a laptop and a desire to get started in astrophotography. I would like to take wide view pictures of the constelations, pics of the moon and planets, pics of double stars and the more well known and collorful stars and also the DSO (clusters, nebula and galaxies) that I find, as I find them. My idea would be to make a website that has a mosaic of a constellation that you could click to get close-up pictures of any objects that may live in or near the constellation - as well as close ups of the stars. this would be for my own enjoyment as a project to not only practice the technics and art of astrophotography but also as a way to log the objects I find on the Messier list as I hone my observation skills (I am a newbie and I am starting on my second sumer observing). Is any of this possible with the gear I already have? If so what part? what else would I need - I am looking to upgrade by next summer and purchase an all around scope rig with astrophotography and my website goal in mind - I really like the idea of a guide scope driven by a laptop while I take pics through the focuser (with either CCD or DSLR) my budget will not be more than $1500.00 at any one time.I may be able to come up with a few $500.00 splurges after the initial purchase - any ideas?

locked thread

tasco-60mm — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:43:06 GMT

i see another locked thread in the disussion 'have some equipment'- i dont understand the purpose of this at all, it was just simple discussion and the mods locked up another one- seems to me anything that just doesnt sit perfectly with Acom gets locked up anymore- aside from this absurbity,along with the continuing repititious starter threads cause nothing imperitive gets made sticky, and overmoderation- how can Acom hope to increase mag sales when the more experienced astronomers end up elsewhere?

Matching T-Ring to Camera

StarScape — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:08:42 GMT

I have a Nexstar 130 SLT and a Televue 1.25” power mate eyepiece and I am looking a getting a CCD camera and a T-ring to do prime focus astrophotography(with a lot of manual guiding). I would like to stay withing 50-200 price range on the camera.

Would a 35mm Insignia 7.0 Megapixel Digital Camera or a Canon PowerShot 10.0 Megapixel Digital ELPH Camera work with the t-ring adapters in the following links?

http://www.adorama.com/TVPTR1Q.html?searchinfo=t-ring

http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?ProdID=215

http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?ProdID=216&CatID=33

If not what other digital CCD cameras under 200.00 and/or t-rings would work?

If I have to go over 200 for a camera would this t-ring work with a Nikon - Coolpix 10.0-Megapixel Digital Camera or is this more of a afocal t-ring adapter?

http://www.televue.com/engine/ProductImagePop.asp?ItemCode=DET-0416&ItemDesc=T-thread Afocal Adapter Ring

need cammra recomendations

catsrool5 — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:05:24 GMT

i want to take pictures with my telescope 8" (skywacher dobson) i own a big lens 10 megapixle camera but am willing to use anything not that fussed about resolution qwalty ect i relay cant find anything your input would be very apecated thanks