M42 - first image with new mount

raathistle

raathistle

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Chris
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This is my first real foray into astrophotography. I've been observing visually for a while now, but always had the itch to try sticking a camera on my telescope, so I finally bit the bullet and bought a beefy motorised mount. Sadly the first clear night since it arrived had a stinking great full moon hanging in the sky :arghh:

Still incredibly happy with this for a first go, and it already seems ridiculously addictive :help:

The technical bits:

12x 1 minute subs with 5dmk2 on a Skywatcher 150PL and NEQ6 mount
Sadly no Darks as I forgot, which doesn't help the noise sadly :banghead:
 
Hi can I ask what settings you had on the camera ?
Nice shot for first time.
Carl
 
cjt2011 said:
Hi can I ask what settings you had on the camera ?
Nice shot for first time.
Carl
Click to expand...

He said already. 12x 1 minute exposures. There is no aperture info because he didn't use a lens. He's attached the camera to the telescope directly... the telescope IS the lens.
 
@raathistle Nice image BTW. Better than my first attempt! I think everyone images M42 as they're first deep sky object :)
 
Fair point actually.. Usually quite high with such short subs. With a decent guided mount that can track really accurately, you can lower the ISO and make longer exposures, with an unguided mount, you're pretty much limited to 1 minute or perhaps 2, which necessitates a higher ISO. At a guess with one minutes exposures, I'd say around ISO 1600, but that would be a guess. Chris's image has no EXIF so we'll just have to wait and see.
 
Great first image! The NEQ6 is a great mount for Astrophotography. The addictive road of upgrades is here now. First the mount... :)
 
Sorry everyone, not been on for a while. These were ISO800, trying to keep subs to around a minute for starters while I get my polar alignment routine down (it's way more picky for photography than I'm used to for visual)

@cjt2011 the camera is set to bulb mode, and then timed exposures with mirror lockup. As David said the camera is attached directly to the telescope, there's no glass in the optical path at all, just a couple of mirrors (I use a reflector).

@Leebert, the NEQ6 is astounding me already, it takes the scope so much better than my old mount, and I'm up to 3 minute exposures unguided now when I get my polar alignment spot on, it's amazing. Unfortunately for the bank balance guiding is appearing a logical next step :O
 
raathistle said:
@Leebert, the NEQ6 is astounding me already, it takes the scope so much better than my old mount, and I'm up to 3 minute exposures unguided now when I get my polar alignment spot on, it's amazing. Unfortunately for the bank balance guiding is appearing a logical next step :O
Click to expand...

3 mins unguided means your set up and polar alignment is already good :)

Guiding doesn't have to be expensive or too difficult. I started out with a Skywatcher 200p Newt and a Nikon D5000 on a HEQ5 guided with a webcam attached to the Skywatcher finderscope and a copy of PHD. I have since replaced the webcam with a mono QHY5 but I am still using the standard finderscope as a guide scope with PHD holding it all together. 10 min exposures are now quite repeatable. On a dark night, that can really make your images pop.
 
Hi Guys thanks for you replies and info about the image and, I have a EQ5 mount with Omni 120 XLT scope so hope to have a go at some images myself. Weather permitting and time as well.

Carl
 
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