Lidl "Computer Telescope" forum

Hi All,
Got a fairly clear night last night, went out again to try and get some more images.

www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...1101634926-moon4.jpg

The funny thing is that the yellow ring was much less obvious then on Friday night, this is from 15 images taken using the Canon 300D and the 3x barlow at iso1600 and 640 sec exposure, they were stacked in registax, I could have used photoshop to remove the colour distortion.

Heres one of Saturn, the images through the scope was better then this, the problem here is the image scale, Saturn just looks so small through this scope, even with the 3x barlow, this was was taken using the Philips Toucam pro in AVI format and stacked in registax again (300 frames).
http://www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/files/1101635280-sat3.bmp
www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/files/1101635280-sat3.bmp

Heres one of the center of the Orioin nebula
http://www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/files/1101635892-orion1a.bmp
www.irishastronomy.org/user_resources/fi...01635892-orion1a.bmp

You can see some of the some nebula red is just starting to show, obviously there was no colour when looking through the scope.
The tracking wasnt perfect, but it held fairly ok for 10 seconds.
This was done using again the Canon 300d and the 3x barlow, each exposure was 10 seconds at iso1600, 15 pics were taken and stacked in registax.
Using the barlow I noticed that there is some field curvature in the image, hopefully it wont be there when I used the straight through hatch (minus the mirror).

Anyone else give it a go ???

Dave - they are excellent pictures from such a small 'scope - well done! Especially noticeable is the 'only' marginal diffenece between your second lunar shot and the one you posted for the 100mm refractor. The trapezium in Orion is nearly there and its great to see the red nebulosity coming through!

I think someone here may have mentioned a challenge - best photo(s) from an astrograph setup costing less than €xxx. Judging by what you have done, xxx should be maybe 500 and we could expect a seriously strong competition!

By the way, I actually bought an ETX and the Skylux - I figured that for €60 I could possible have a very cheap guide scope or altenatively a nice gift for an acquaintance in Galway. The jury is still out on whether the Skylux will hack it as a guide scope but we'll see.

Anyway, since last might was so clear (shame about a full moon) I put the two side by side. Optically, they seem to be on a par - with 25mm eyepieces the views were pretty much identical - now this surprised me because of the difference in focal length. The Meade mount is great, the Skylux mount is not. Some tinkering is about to start...! The skylux finder scope though is absolutely fantastic! Its bracket isn't...

Anyway, watch this space for more side-by-side comparisons if I get another go tonight. If I get a chance, I'll try and take photos thru both scopes and post them.

In the meantime - thanks for sharing your endeavours with us - hopefully this will encourage others to have a go!

ATB

Dave

Dave L.
Those are surprisingly good images. Good stuff!

I think someone here may have mentioned a challenge - best photo(s) from an astrograph setup costing less than €xxx. Judging by what you have done, xxx should be maybe 500 and we could expect a seriously strong competition!

In the meantime - thanks for sharing your endeavours with us - hopefully this will encourage others to have a go!

Dave

Thanks for the kind words Michael and Dave,
I'm hoping that these pics will show that the ETX is up to getting some good images,
As for the 500E competition, I should point out that the Canon alone is worth about a grand, depending on where you get it! but the webcam is worth about 90E.
Looks like we'll have another clear sky tonight ?!?, or have I just jinked us all :oops:


BTW, the 100mm image in the earlier post was taken earlier this year.

Nice views Dave, I use a PRO-OPTIC cheap and nasty 7.5mm PLOSSL last night on Saturn and got a surprise, views were about the same as yours, possibly a little smaller, did not expect such good quality from this little ETX, must get some more eyepieces from the US though 1/2 afraid of being ripped off with VAT
Charles

Charles,
I've ordered some eyepices from the US, they're on the way as I type this, go for it now while the currency is good.