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Post by ian on Dec 26, 2009 15:22:22 GMT
Hi all, i bought a telescope from of lidl. The Bresser 102/1000. Is this telescope worthwhile for asrophotography. What equipment would i need besides the camera?
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Post by brianb on Dec 26, 2009 17:05:08 GMT
Should be OK for webcamming the Moon & larger planets. Especially if it has slow motions or a motor drive.
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pook
Member
Posts: 147
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Post by pook on Dec 27, 2009 11:31:19 GMT
Hi Ian, Sure, you should be able to get some nice pics from this scope. It will also depend on your camera and if and how you attach it to the scope and whether you feel you need to track the stars/ planets for longer exposures. If I may suggest, come along to the next meeting, or our next observing session, planned for 15th Jan at Delamont Country Park, where you'll get to meet a lot of members who are experts in taking photographs through scopes. They'll all be only to willing to advise you. If you haven't been to one of our meetings, the next one is on 13th Jan in QUB. Following the meeting we have an an informal chat over tea and coffee and you could get some advice then. As Brian said on his post, you could also use a webcam and if you obtain a good solar filter then you would be able to take shots of the sun and hopefully sunspots (which have been few and far between this weather). Look forward to seeing you at the next meeting or observing night. Pook
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Post by Paul Evans on Dec 27, 2009 11:42:25 GMT
Hi Ian, and welcome to the forum!
The good news is you have a good 'scope there, and if memory serves me correctly it comes on a sturdy equatorial mount. However you would need a motor to make it track in RA before you can do any serious photography. The reason is that your 'scope has such a high magnification that the longest exposure you can take through it before the Earth's rotation spoils the view is about 0.5 seconds! This isn't really long enough to expose anything other than the Moon or the bright planets.
The good news is as Brian says, you could use a webcam on the Moon or planets. These take short exposures so are only useful for brighter objects, but using a clever piece of software called Registax (there are others, but this one's free and does the job well) you will be able to pick the best exposures and add them together while the noise gets smoothed out. To do this you will need a PC - laptop preferred as you'll be outside - a webcam - Philips Toucam preferred - a Mogg adaptor (google this), a piece of video capture software - I use WX Astro Capture, there are links to this and Registax on our links page - and that's enough to get you started!
The idea is that the webcam replaces the eyepiece and you capture video at 5 or 10 frames per second then feed it into Registax for processing. With your 1000mm scope a planet will move across the field in about 30 secs, so you'll be able to get up to 300 frames - Registax will track the planet OK.
Going any further than that will require a motorised mount - you ought to be able to get an add on motor for your mount - then you're into the steep learning curve of getting polar alignment spot on! The best imaging device for this kind of work is your DSLR and another piece of free software called Deep Sky Stacker.
Hope that's enough advice to get you started - please feel free to ask more questions!
Paul.
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Post by ian on Dec 27, 2009 20:25:09 GMT
I was looking at the meade dsi pro II. But id probably need a motorised mount to use it from what you are saying. Would this be a good camera and what snaps could i take?
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Post by Paul Evans on Dec 28, 2009 12:31:29 GMT
That is a good camera, though I'd suggest starting with a webcam first - the learning curve is steep!
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Post by ian on Dec 28, 2009 16:48:49 GMT
What would be the best web cam to get?
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Post by Paul Evans on Dec 28, 2009 17:06:33 GMT
Philips CCD models are the "standard" ones to use. The newer version is the SPC900 - see an excellent article here..... www.robertreeves.com/900NC.htmThe earlier versions to have are the 740 and 840 Toucam models - can be found on EBay for reasonable prices. Cheers, Paul.
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Post by dallkirk on Dec 28, 2009 20:30:10 GMT
Has anyone got a Phillips Toucam working on Windows 7? - if so how?
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Post by Paul Evans on Dec 30, 2009 9:30:05 GMT
Welcome to the forum dallkirk!
I am currently working on a solution to the Toucam / Win 7 problem. I managed to do this with Vista which shares the same underpinnings, however as this was 2.5 years ago I need to reverse engineer what I did! I will investigate further and report back!
Cheers,
Paul.
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Post by annie on Jun 5, 2010 19:53:37 GMT
Can anyone suggest a good digital camera for Astrophotography. I need the camera for other things as well but would like to get in to .Astrophotography. I want a good one easily available. Also how much can I expect to pay and what would the specs need to be
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pook
Member
Posts: 147
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Post by pook on Jun 5, 2010 21:59:44 GMT
Hi Annie, A really good question which I'm sure a lot of the camera buffs will gladly answer. I've have a Canon 400d, great camera but the updated version has a live display screen which I would recommend. I think it's called a 450, but stand to be corrected. Price range I guess is about £450. Our webmaster Paul or David Stewart, will certainly be able to advise. Also if you come along to one of our public events or our observing sessions you'll get some useful advice before spending a lot of money. Check our webpage for the detail and hopefully you'll be able to make one or come along to our meetings next season. (Starting on 22 Sept) We also have astro-photo talks as well as processing. Hope this helps. Pook
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Post by annie on Jun 6, 2010 7:50:02 GMT
Cheers pook Would love to make the meet ups but am from Wexford
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Post by annie on Jun 6, 2010 19:18:08 GMT
What kind of lens should I be looking at
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Post by brianb on Jun 6, 2010 22:43:55 GMT
Anything that is suitable for use with the camera will work well enough for starters. For wide field images (constellations etc) a 50mm f/1.8 lens is very good indeed, and really cheap by the standards of these things.
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