Wot no picture

[Nelson]

Hi, now I've managed to attach my camera to the scope as well as seeing views through it I decided to take some nighttime pics. Well I have now set up four nights in a row but still I cannot move any further forward. I want to take pics of Jupiter and hopefully with it's moons showing as well. My first attempt was getting the scope pointed directly at nicely in sharp focus, so I put my camera on, with the T-adapter and extension tube but I could see nothing through live view. Last night I tried the same thing but with the same result, nothing on live view. I played around with settings, adding tubes and taking them off again so in the end I elected to take pics of the moon, even those were grossly out of focus. Other people manage to get great pics without the use of masks Etc. so what do I need to do so that I can improve and maybe publish one or two attempts. Please someone help. My camera is a Canon rebel t3i and my scope is an Explore Scientific ED APO 80mm and all batteries fully charged over night.

[Brantuk]

How are you focusing the scope? Do you use a bhatinov mask Melvin?

 

You'll need pretty fast exposures for moon and jupiter with a dslr. Most folks use a webcam to capture solar system objects - dslr's tend to be used more on the deep sky and long exposure.

 

With your current set up you can always use the camera viewfinder to see what the scope is looking at - with that and a well aligned finder it shouldn't be to hard to point at an object. Which mount are you using?

[+Ibbo]

I would try practicing with the moon as its large enough to see on live view without having to break you neck or stand on your head

 

Jupiter is a bit of a PITA with a DSLR but is doable ,but you might want to think about a barlow

[Johnnyaardvark]

Are you able to reach focus? Can you go from blurred (out of focus) through a nearly crisp image to blurred again as you move through the focus point?

Often worth a practice in day light.

Next. Assuming you can reach focus. Use liveview and zoom in as much as you can. Point the zoomed in part of the view on something with some detail e.g. craters at the terminator then focus again as best you can.

A few practice shots should then allow you to tweak your focus.

Your next difficulties/issues to overcome are:-

Seeing - can be overcome by taking many pictures and then using software that stacks and combines the best bits.

Making sure you camera is as still as possible when it shoots. Use a remote and shutter delay mode.

Allow your kit to cool to get the best out of it.

Even with all this a usually end up sharpening my image using wavelets in registax or photoshop unsharp mask.

Hope this helps get you started :-)

It's a steep learning curve but can be rewarding.

Steve

[xanthic]

It might be worth posting a pic of your setup.