First Attempt: Moon via Telescope

So this was my absolute first run of a telescope - camera shot.


Canon 6D at 2000 ISO, 1/45 of a second
into

a 6" Newtonian telescope, fixed aperture of f/8,
roughly 1300-1400mm worth of focal length in prime focus setup.
(The scope is a late 70s - early 80s Meade 628.)
I did notice some vignetting, and maybe some other issues too.
No crop on this...the moon more than fills the FOV!

The focus is trickier than I expected...I don't think I quite nailed it despite using live view mode.
But the moon is around for a good while so it's ok...I can try again.

Tips on better shots welcomed!

I like it!

Looks great but try reversing your ISO and shutter speed.
Lower ISO and higher shutter make for less noise.
Focus using live view and zooooom in. might have to set hi iso for that but drop back to 100 for shots (of full moon) hi ISO required for lesser moon images

thanks guys!

I'll try DR, but the scope mount was a tad wobbly, so I was trying to cut down on possible shake in the image.
This time I'll use the remote too...last night I just wanted to get the shot before it got too late.

The moon rises at 9:30 here, so I'll give it another go...I found the eye adapter has a small lens in it
and I think I can remove that lens. That may help too...I doubt it's a high quality piece of glass.
I'm not exactly sure what it does, but we'll find out I reckon.

If you want to make up for wobbles then higher shutter is the way to go. I shoot a full moon at ISO320 and shutter around the same or higher. But now I'm using a telescope on a GEM mount I'm shooting at 1/100 sec at ISO100 with the mount tracking.
Set mirror lock up too. Stops that little vibration induced when the shutter goes off.

If your scope is physically about 600mm long and has a 1200mm focal length, removing that lens will make it worse, even if you could get focus (which you won't).
I can't remember the name of it, but the design is a spherical mirror instead of a parabolic one and then they add a cheap barlow/corrector lens to try and fix it up. Spherical mirrors are much easier/cheaper to make and for most people, the design is perfectly adequate.

Since your mount is the weak point, shoot from liveview with a 10 sec delay. That gives you the least movement.

Your first attempt is very good.

Steve.

Another thumbs up!

SteveInNZ wrote in post #17209657
....Your first attempt is very good....

I agree. This is a lot harder than it looks.

hey guys!

thanks for the kind words!

well I dragged it all out last night, and here's my second attempt with notes...

DesertRaptor: yep, that was the plan all along...used the wifi to connect my iPhone as a remote.
Very handy! And settings control too...I love that!

SteveInNZ: yessir, you were exactly right. Removing that lens made focusing utterly impossible.
I did live focus, with mirror lock up, and waited for all vibrations to cease.

seres: yes it is! I wouldn't have guessed until I tried it myself!

Ok so thoughts:

- In liveview it was suddenly apparent that the atmospherics were causing a lot of issues, namely with the "heatwave" effect being pretty pronounced.
I'm shooting from Tempe, so I shouldn't be shocked!

- None of my images were "sharp", at least not like I thought they should be. I don't think this scope is super high-end so that may be it but also atmospherics probably played a role in this?

- For whatever reason, longer shutters were worse. 1/45 seemed to be the best, and the shot here is a 1/45 at 640 ISO.
I had to push it a LOT in post to get it to this point too, hence some of the noise.

- This scope is REALLY dark. And it vignettes like crazy. I feel like it's darker than the f/8 aperture warrants...this might be because the main mirror needs dusted off too, but still...

- I think that this is as far as this scope can go... in a sense. I think that if the atmospherics from the city are messing with the quality as much as I think they are, a true dark sky shoot could be fun out in the country area, without all that heat rising.

- With as dark, and soft as this scope feels, and with the tracking mount being broken (and imprecise enough to use for photography even if it was in prime shape), it seems like stacking is probably out of the question with this rig. This is why I suspect these few moon shots are about as good as it gets...unless I'm being overly picky about optics?

1/45, 640 ISO, Meade 628, f/8 fixed, pushed in CS, no crop.

I gotta get me a scope!!

Nicely done.

thanks guys! The optics aren't great but it is fun to see a bit more detail in the craters!