Got a telescope the other day and I've been breaking it in. Can't quite see planets very well yet since it probably needs a bit of adjustment, but it can see the Moon with excellent detail. So I decided to take a few pics what I saw through the eyepiece. I don't have a proper telescope / camera adapter so I had to do this by aligning my smartphone camera lens so it can peer into the eyepiece just right. As you might imagine, it's a pain in the ass. But...it DOES come out with some surprisingly good images once in awhile.
The first picture I took last night and managed to get it just perfectly down the tube. The second two are from several days ago and not quite as good, but you can still see plenty of detail. I plan on getting one of these at some point which should make things a lot easier:
For a smartphone camera down the eyepiece those are rather good.
What scope is it? Does it have a drive? If it does that will make it much easier for photographing planets.
If you have a DSLR camera you can get (quite cheaply actually) mounts that let you put the camera in place of the eyepiece. Very useful, even if you do have to re-balance the scope when the camera is mounted.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
Borgholio wrote:Orion Twinstar Newtonian 6". It does have a drive, which is a godsend when looking at something even under medium magnification.
About the DSLRs, that was definitely something I looked at. It is just more fun streaming to a laptop or smartphone.
Oh certainly using a laptop/webcam/smartphone is more fun, but you'll get a lot better results with a good camera (as in, you'll actually be able to get pictures showing detail on the planets, rather than just weirdly-coloured discs).
And yeah, drives are brilliant. I had a cheap-and-cheerful 3" scope given to me. I set it up in my uni flat to look at the full moon out the window. I got it centered, but by the time i went to the kitchen to get my mates so they could see, the damn moon had drifted out of field.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
Regarding the image quality, it may be possible to take longer exposures with the USB unit which would being out more of the color of the observed object. I just have to get one that has a CCD with the same megapixel rating as a DSLR. The one I linked was only 1.3mp so that won't do for high quality pics. Gonna cost $800 for a high end one though...
You really don't want long exposures for planets, they're too bright.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
Depends on the planet. A 6" is theoretically capable of imaging Neptune. But it'll have to be pretty dark and still for that. You're right though, Saturn or Jupiter are just too bright. I wonder if I could image a nearby nebula like Orion or the Crab...
If you sky is dark enough and you put a reasonable DSLR on the scope you should be able to catch those nebulae.
Last time I was photographing the moon (just with my camera, a 550D) I had to crank the ISO up to max and the exposure time down to something like 1/120th of a second or so, just to be able to see the lunar seas rather than a pure white disc.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
Yeah I took astronomy in college and we spent a night out with 35mm cameras and it was the same way. We used larger 12" scopes so we had to shorten the exposure as much as possible. Really nice pics though.
Oh yeah you can get some cracking shots of the moon and the planets.
On our uni degree we got to use the Faulkes telescopes, 2m scopes on Hawaii and in Austrailia, controlled online. We used them to great effect, but they were also available for schools. Some of the attempts in the event log are really quite funny and terrifying at once. Someone for instance tried to take a 60 second exposure of Sirius.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
It was a secondary school in the Welsh valleys. I can only assume the kids involved were total fucking idiots.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
Very nice pictures of the moon. This reminds me of the time I used one of those kid telescopes to look at the moons of Jupiter. I was surprised when we found the planet and more surprised when I could see the moons themselves. It was awesome.
The most fun I had looking through a telescope was Saturn. Depending on it's angle to the Earth, you sometimes don't see the rings...or sometimes you see them full on including the gaps in the rings. Seeing that live with your own telescope for the first time is jaw-dropping. I could stare at Saturn for hours.
Borgholio wrote:The most fun I had looking through a telescope was Saturn. Depending on it's angle to the Earth, you sometimes don't see the rings...or sometimes you see them full on including the gaps in the rings. Seeing that live with your own telescope for the first time is jaw-dropping. I could stare at Saturn for hours.
Absolutely. For me it's a toss-up between Saturn and the rings or Jupiter and it's moons. Which always made me slightly annoyed at my lecturer who said that looking at the planets was "boring."
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
A professor actually said planets are boring? Really? Hell, one of the most exciting things is to watch the progress of a weather system or thunderstorm on an alien planet...
In fairness to him his area of expertise was planetary nebulae (he's written several books on them) and other deep-sky objects. He also looks down upon solar observers, even though solar astronomy lets you see some amazing things and you can do it during the daytime.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
Ah ok...well that's fair enough I guess. I'm the opposite though. While a nebula is quite beautiful, the planets are easier to see in detail and there's always something new happening with them.
That's my view. Since my eyesight is quite bad I love the planets because I can actually see detail on them through a scope.
Then again, we went on a field trip to an observatory in Andalucia, they had a 16" dobsonian with a drive that was powerful enough that I could see the spiral arms of M51. That was an amazing sight.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
When I was taking my Astronomy course in college, we took a field trip to Mount Wilson and spent the night looking through the 60" telescope there. We were looking at objects as they existed before primates had even evolved. It was enough to make one sit and think for a bit.
Yeah. It's a wonderful thing to watch. Especially if you happen to have a glass of fine Scotch and a cigar as well.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
My dad has these battered, ancient pair of binoculars that belonged to his dad a long time ago. One day he took me to a nearby farm in the dead of night, and we looked at the stars for a bit. I was of course thrilled at being able to see so many stars at once, thanks to the complete lack of light pollution.
Then he let me look through the binoculars. And it blew. My. Fucking. Mind.
I still would love a proper telescope, that'd be awesome.
Yeah, I've always taken the subtext of the Birther movement to be, "The rules don't count here! This is different! HE'S BLACK! BLACK, I SAY! ARE YOU ALL BLIND!?
- Raw Shark
Destiny and fate are for those too weak to forge their own futures. Where we are 'supposed' to be is irrelevent.
Chimaera wrote:My dad has these battered, ancient pair of binoculars that belonged to his dad a long time ago. One day he took me to a nearby farm in the dead of night, and we looked at the stars for a bit. I was of course thrilled at being able to see so many stars at once, thanks to the complete lack of light pollution.
Then he let me look through the binoculars. And it blew. My. Fucking. Mind.
I still would love a proper telescope, that'd be awesome.
Honestly for most general stargazing a good pair of binoculars is ideal - portable, easy to use, no set up required, and a good bit cheaper.
The main advantages of a telescope (with a drive) is that it is easier to find specific things and stay watching them, and you can mount a camera for taking pictures.
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
