More with the 350D

Here are some more pictures taken with the Canon EOS 350D. These images of orion were taken with 200mm zoom lens, manual settings and 10 second exposure. The camera was mounted on a small tripod.

I have now sent for an adaptor to fit the camera to a telescope and some more info about using the camera.

New Camera!

Venus at Sunset with the Canon EOS 350D

Guess what? I didn't need much persuading...the Canon EOS 350D is a superb DSLR Camera! So I took the plunge and bought myself a complete kit with 18 - 55mm lens and additional 55 - 200mm zoom lens, 1Gb CF memory card and bag.

Visit to Jessops on Monday gave me chance to find out more and handle the camera, they have a good deal at the moment where the Tamron AF55 - 200m zoom lens comes at half price with the camera, well worthwhile. So after sleeping on it, I returned on Tuesday and bought it!

My first photos trying out the camera are impressive!

On Thursday the skies cleared at sunset so I tried some wide field shots of Venus, Orion and the Moon. Some hand held and others with a small tripod, the results were astounding (to me at least!) I was able to take 10 second exposures of Orion and Pleaides in darkness with just the zoom lens. Wide field shots of star fields are brill!

I'm going to have some fun with this camera.... anyone want to buy my old Pentax MV SLR and a couple of films?

Digital Rebel!

The Canon EOS 350D 'Digital Rebel'

Decisions, decisions...

I keep looking at the Canon EOS 350D camera with a view to harnessing the latest technology and trying some imaging with one of these. Some of the best Astro-Images are with this camera or similar but they cost a lot!!

Can I justify buying one of these?
Will I be opening a Pandora's Box of new techniques in imaging?
Will it cost me in in add-ons and adaptors?

Super Saturn

Even more pleased with this one!!

This the same image as the last post, but I processed the image a different way. This time I processed and stacked 50 frames in Registax then used it as a reference to stack the main 1500 frames.

I've only just found out that this can be done...WoW...I will try this with some of my other images, especially the Mars images from last year.

Saturn

I'm really pleased with this image!

A crisp and frosty night, just right for having a go at Saturn.

Last night I attempted to fit my Skywatcher 130 tube to the SLT mount by changing the fittings. My biggest problem was getting the dovetail to tighten up in the SLT clamp, when I had finally managed this I tried to align the computerised mount with three stars. What a mess! Kept refusing to acknowledge the settings...it seems that the batteries are going. So not really a successful night!

Tonight, I re-mounted the 130 again and bought new batteries for the mount in an attempt to image Saturn. The alignment was a bit out, even though the computer locked onto the settings, but I was able to image Saturn with the SLT mount. Once the mount had locked, tracking was very good, even with the 2x Barlow. Tonight I went to Maplin to buy a mains PSU for the mount, but it not work??? (why??) I will investigate this further.

The image above is 2000 frames @ 10fps of AVI with the Toucam Pro II, processed in Registax 4. I think I should have tried this with the 3x Barlow, but it was freezing outside and I wanted to go in.

Venus with Mercury again!

Another super sunset! This time I took pictures with the Sony Camera (as before) but with a small tripod fitted. You can clearly see Venus and Mercury together.

Full Moon with Saturn

What a night! First seeing Venus and Mercury for the first time and then the Moon and Saturn in conjunction.
The sky is clear and the air is crisp, so I set up my ST80 and SLT mount in the garden. At first I tried to image M42, but the SLT would not recognise the alignment stars, tried 3 or 4 times but no lock! Why is this? I thought...could it be the time settigs? It was! The time setting for the SLT was way out, I don't know why...I reset...and away it went! By this time M42 had disappeared behind a tree, the Full Moon had appeared above the rooftops, so I decided to try to image the Full Moon and that 'star' that was nearby. The tracking on the SLT mount is great, while imaging with the Toucam Pro II the Moon never moved!

After imaging a few Moon avi's I tried to capture the Moon and 'star'... when I did I could clearly see Saturn and the Moon.

WoW!

The full Moon is very bright, so in my images of Saturn and the Moon, the Moon is over exposed. The picture above is made up of two images taken at the same time of the Moon and Saturn and merged together...COOL!!

Venus and Mercury

Today was lovely! Cold and sunny!

Sunset was a beautiful sight, the sky turning red and orange, there in it's glory is Venus, by far the brightest object in the sky. Too low to see in a telescope from the ground, but from the window upstairs a wonderful sight. I waited scanning the sky for a second object to appear, Mercury, I have never seen Mercury in my life so tonight I was hopeful!

Around 5.30pm out popped Mercury! Sightly lower and West of Venus, but clear and bright. I tried to image the wonderful sight of a red sky with Venus and Mercury together with my Sony DSC-P73, the image does not really do justice to what I saw, but it captured the moment!

After this I brought in the Celestron 60mm scope tube and balance it on the windowsill to look at Mercury and Venus closer.
I'm really pleased with what I saw, Mercury...for the very first time!