Anyway.. what I’ve realised is I need more focal length on the telescope, for the imaging of planets.

I put my old 6 inch Newtonian reflector onto the EQ6 mount, then added the Canon dSLR camera.

Ancient 6 inch Newtonian reflector, plus EQ6 telescope mount

It produced this image below, nicely showing three moons of Jupiter.. but no detail on the planet. The clouds must take a lot of the blame, but I see also, I need more focal length.

Jupiter And Moons (Io, Ganymede, Callisto)

The DSLR Canon camera is working at prime focus – using the telescope as its lens and nothing else.. (no eyepiece, or barlow lens etc).

Consequently, to get more magnification and fill the image field of view with the planet, I need a telescope with a longer focal length. My 6 inch (150 mm) reflector has a focal length of only about 700 mm.

(And as a PS. .  what would Galileo have given for an image of Jupiter and its moons, like this?)

So, any suggestions for a good telescope to observe the planets?

It’s been designated  ”Spring Moonwatch” week, as part of the IYA 2009 and we have been blessed with wonderful clear skies here in South-East England. 

I have helped run two public events at my local astro society . I even gave a talk yesterday to about 30 people, about the Moonwatch week and what to see on the Moon.  And it used my own Moon images, taken over the last couple of weeks.

Two or three of the newcomers, became obviously enthused with the idea of Moon observing, which made it feel very worthwhile.

Newtonian 6 inch reflector on EQ6 mount, observing the 9-day Moon

Tonight, I snapped the 9 day old Moon.

To the right, is my old 6 inch reflector, which I bought on eBay in 2003.  

Originally, it was on a simple alt-azimuth mount, but I have recently added new tube rings and dovetail bar, enabling it to be put on the Skywatcher EQ6 mount. (Vastly more stable and of course, driven)

It has worked really well this week for capturing images of the Moon, as it has progressed from 3-day crescent through to 9-day Moon, tonight.

(I shall put together a montage of images from this week.)

Using my now trusty, Canon 1000D dslr, I have (as always) been very pleased with  the results.

Here is an image of the 9+ day Moon, I took tonight.

9+ Day Old Moon, 2009/04/04 (click for larger)

“Spring Guide to the Night Sky” public event.. totally horrible, rainy and windy weather at 5pm. Event starts 6.30pm..

All clear! Plus very clean skies, after all the rain. Looked at 1st magnitude stars as they appeared from the twilight, then observed Orion and Saturn.  

We also saw two great fly-overs of the International Space Station (ISS) – the second pass was particularly bright.

About, 25 Cub Scouts came along with their Cub leaders.. made for a busy event.

Plus, I tried my Canon Digital SLR Camera in the mighty Alan Young 22.5″ telescope.

Fitted well mechanically, but poor images..

Here’s an example of an out-of-focus Betegeuse in Orion.

In Sufficient Focusser In-Travel On Star Betelgeuse

Insufficient in-travel on the focusser… It was not possible to move the camera in close enough, to bring the image to focus.

The difference between the Canon and the Mintron camera that’s usually used with this telescope, is the position of the ccd chip within the camera body. The Mintron has its chip very close to the front of the lens opening. The Canon’s chip however, is much deeper within the body.

However, we were much encouraged by the likely light-gathering power and plan to modify the focusser to move it’s travel inside of the tube. (We did consider moving the mirrors instead, to push the focal plane further outside of the telescope tube, but felt this would be too radical)

Stay tuned!

This will work, one way or another and deliver good results!

This is something of a relief…  

For the past three weeks, I’ve been making maps of Lulin’s projected position for literally thousands of visitors.

Lulin close to Regulus, plus "streak", Feb 27th

What if I hadn’t seen it myself?

Anyway, I have now.  :)

The image on the right shows Lulin close to the star Regulus, in the constellation of Leo.

Between them is an orange  ”streak”.  I’m not sure exactly what it was, probably an aircraft.  But it’s interesting.

(PS. It has since been pointed out… if you look carefully, you can see the periodically flashing white and double-red lights, of a high-flying aircraft)

The image was captured with my Canon 1000D dslr camera, through the ED80 600 mm focal length refractor.  

It’s a single frame of 2 minute exposure at ISO 800.

I actually took about 15 frames with different exposure times.  I shall try my hand at stacking some of the best, to see if I can produce better images after processing.

Here’s the best single frame shot of Lulin I have found, so far.  It was a 3 minute exposure.  You can see from the star shapes, there is some tracking error.  I need to work on a better North alignment of the mount.

Comet Lulin, February 27th (click for larger)

Well, Robin Scagell read it and noticed my image of the Flame nebula.  

I said in the post, the images were unprocessed – just straight downloads from the Canon camera.  So he quickly ran the small image I had shown, through his Photoshop software.  

To my surprise, he pointed out that the Horsehead nebula was discernable in the image, after auto-adjusting the color levels.

I was pleased!  So I thought I should have a try at processing the images myself.  

I don’t have Photoshop, but I do use the excellent and free GIMP image manipulation program.

I picked what appeared to be a decent image from the ten or so, I’d captured.

I used the Color Levels tool, picked a point in the image which should be black using the “eyedropper”, and clicked “Auto”. 

Orion Flame And Horsehead Nebulae

GIMP adjusted the colors and produced this image to the right.

Just compare it to yesterday’s version!

And this is just a crude attempt at image processing.  I’m a beginner and this took all of  2 minutes…  

However.. not only is the Flame nebula MUCH more striking, but you can also clearly see the Horsehead nebula!  (Although the definition of the stars has suffered)

But what it does show, is that the data is present in the camera  image…  It just needs some clever software, to bring it out for us to see.

And I should say, the image published here is a smaller and lower resolution version, to make it load quickly on the web.  The original is better.  But even so, I think you can clearly see what I mean.

Everytime I do some more astro-imaging with my new camera, I feel ever more encouraged!

Telescope Set-up Outside - USB Wire Through Window

Tonight, I tested the remote control facility, of my recently purchased Canon 1000D dslr camera.

I attached the camera to my refractor as before, but also connected it with the USB wire to my laptop PC in the sitting room.

Laptop in sitting-room, connected to remote Canon view

The wire passed through a slightly open window (still cold in February), to the garden where the telescope was set-up.

This is a wonderful facility of the camera and the supplied software.  You load the software onto your PC, then you can connect the camera and control it down the USB wire.

 I was using two extension usb wires tonight, making the total length around 10 feet (3+ meters). Ample to stretch from the table in the sitting-room, out to the telescope on its mount, outside.

So what images did I capture?

Well this was a new experiment, so I went back to my old favorite constellation of Orion.  At this time of year in the Northern hemisphere, it is excellently positioned for observing.

Alnitak, Flame Nebula And Sigma Orionis

To the right is a wide field image of Alnitak, the left-most star of Orion’s “belt”, showing the Flame nebula to the East.

To the South, is the multiple star Sigma Orionis.  Through binoculars it looks like a double, but with a decent telescope (or this wonderful dslr camera) you can clearly see the “star, moon and planets” appearance.

I also went to the great Orion nebula M42/43 and did a quick image…

Orion Nebula M42/43 Using Remote Camera Control

All these images are unprocessed and unstacked.

Hope you find this inspiring, as to what can be achieved using relatively modest equipment, from the comfort of your home indoors!!

It produced a lovely astro image of the Orion nebula, earlier this week. But I was told, (quite rightly), the focus was not there.

So I had another go last night, as it was the first clear night since.

Here’s the focussing tip that was pointed-out to me, this week.

If you are imaging a faint object like a nebula, set the Canon into “live view mode” so you can see on the lcd screen what the camera is seeing, then slew to a nearby star (there should be one, not too far away).

Then use the + button on the Canon 1000D to zoom into the star and adjust the focus so it’s sharp. When you are confident about the focus, slew back to the target object.

It’s a good tip. When I had another try at the Orion nebula, l produced this image..

I think it’s a lot better, although produced in close to identical conditions, apart from the camera focus technique I have explained.

Encouraging!

I wrote about my newly acquired Canon Digital SLR Camera here…  Attaching the Canon to the Skywatcher refractor.  

Well last night, I pointed it at the constellation of Orion and was astonished to get this image of M42/M43 the Orion nebula..

I’ve been told the focus is a bit “off”, but I’m still delighted with it.  Literally, I pointed the telescope at the nebula, took a few exposures, between 10 seconds and 30 seconds and chose this as the best.  It’s 25 seconds.

You can see the trapezium (theta 1 Orionis), although it’s “blobbed-out”.  This is the star cluster which lights-up the nebula.  Just before this imaging session, I used a 5mm eyepiece  for 120 times magnification (600 focal length divided by 5) and I could see the characteristic trapezium pattern with sparkling clarity.

You can also see the “Fish mouth” dark dust area.

I will do better next time, but this is a really good start!

PS..  Did I mention, I am pleased with it?  !!

Canon DSLR attached to Skywatcher ED80, with Vixen Flip Mirror

Finally, I got the Canon DSLR 1000D attached to my Skywatcher refractor.  I’ve been waiting for the T-mount adaptor and it arrived a day or two ago.  

It has a Canon EOS fitting on one side (you remove the camera lens and the adaptor slots in, in its place), and a “T” thread on the other side (perfect for screwing into my Vixen flip mirror).

Here’s a picture of the arrangement, on the right..

It seems to attach really well.  And of course, with the flip mirror, I can switch in a second between an eyepiece and the camera.

I’m now waiting for some clear skies to try it on an astronomical target.  There has been so much cloud, recently.

Distant trees with the camera and telescope

I took this picture in daylight of some distant trees, through the telescope..

 And here’s another shot, showing the camera with its ‘Live View’ facility turned-on. Like this, you can see what the camera is seeing, live on the screen, enabling you to adjust focus and other settings, before taking the shot. Particularly important if you are doing an astro image with a long exposure.

Canon with its Live View on the screen

Canon 1000D piggy-back on 80ED

 
After months of anticipation, I hope it will deliver the promised kick-start to the appreciation of astronomy, by the wider public. 

To celebrate the first clear night (for me) of 2009, I thought I should do a first thing, too.

So I attached my newly purchased Canon 1000D digital SLR camera, to my Skywatcher refractor.  

The Canon was not actually looking through the telescope – I need to buy a Canon T-thread adaptor before I can do that.  This time it was just “piggy-back” (or afocal as the serious astronomers call it), to take advantage of the telescope’s motor-driven mount.  I was using the 18-55 mm zoom lens, the camera came with.

The weather is freezing (-5 degrees C) tonight and this made it tricky, but I managed to take some images of the constellation Orion (the Hunter).  

Constellation of Orion

It was splendid in the South.

I used a 30 second exposure for this shot (right).  I’m still getting used to all the hundreds of settings on the Canon and I felt it was fighting back, once or twice!  But I’m pleased with the results.

You can see the indication of the Orion nebula M42/43, below the three-star “belt” of Orion.  Also, follow the line of the belt downwards and left to see Sirius, the brightest star in our sky (apart from the Sun).  It’s barely above the horizon (and the hedge!) in the shot.

I will be giving a talk on the Winter night sky next Monday, to my local astronomy society.  I hope to make good use of this image and the others.