First time image of the moon ,(Copernicus,),

Hello Neil, don't be too hard on yourself at all. You've made a decent effort there on the crater copernucis, which looks super in binoculars or a telescope by the way.

Yes a dark sky helps, but really doesn't matter with regard to the moon as it is so bright and relatively good to image. Just to answer a couple of your observations:

1. the lens - the point of this is to not only gather light, but also focus the image so your target will appear nice and sharp
2. Betelgeuse - it is white in the middle of your image with the red circumference because the pixels on you camera are so saturated by it's brightness, the pixels just appear white, the red circimference is seen when it's light begins to taper off from the center of the star, this is where the true colour of the star is recorded

Next night out, firstly make sure the lens is in focus, then you can experiment with gain and exposure, try a not so bright target such as a star cluster perhaps, download an astronomy app such as skysafari, you can pick a target and work from there

Keith.

Nice images Neill - and I agree with Keith says, its a decent effort.

Keep taking and posting your images - you'll get really good feedback here on how to improve over time.  We were all in your shoes once upon a time  

Cheers
Dave

Hi Neil, 

Very well done on capturing a lunar crater...I'm no astrophotographer, but I enjoy taking shots of the Moon with my phone. I have a holder that clamps onto the eyepiece, so the phone remains steady.

In saying that, holding the phone to the eyepiece can get pretty good results.  I like this type of approach to photographing Luna as I struggle with computers too. As others have said, and as can be seen already, you'll find some great advice from really competent astrophotographers on this forum.

Clear skies, and keep them coming,

Darren.

Thicks guys and sorry for another delay in messaging back. Thanks for the feedback. Its much appreciated. I am going to try Jupiter/Saturn over the next few days. 
I was wondering is there a reason why Jupiter was much clearer in the winter than the summer. Is it to do with the warm air currents/ the light has a travel through a more turbulent atmosphere or maybe I got a couple of bad seeing nights? Also how does one get a shape image of a star with defraction spikes etc? Do you need a dslr for that? I have an old dslr but it has no display on it so i've no idea what its pointing at.
I am getting the scope out for my bro's 40th birthday tomorrow night. My mam asked me last week is Jupiter in our own galaxy. I have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow! 

Thanks guys. 

Neil

Hi Neil, yes generally the winter skies are clearer because of the colder air, which should in theory hold less water vapour so appearing clearer to our eyes. You'll see an example of high pressure summer skies this week as the can look quite hazy, but steady air, good for imaging the planets as it is generally more stable.

If you want diffraction spikes you can do it a number if ways - guaranteed is to use a reflecting telescope that holds the secondary mirror by way of a cross shape, also this can be done by software.

There is another way too, the good old fashioned tying some string over your scope to produce a cross shape 

Good luck with the planets this week !

Keith.

 

Thanks Keith. I wasnt thinking of refraction spikes specifically. I would just love to be able to get a good image of a star. I'm not sure maybe it is the zwo 385 that I am using? Vega is very bright but it turned green and most colours in the rainbow except its actual colour. And I spent hours adjusting the exposure and gain. I keep thinking maybe I am not using it properly. But there is only a certain amount of gain/exposure combinations I could try. I know I am new to astrophotography and I didnt expect to get amazing results by any means. But I thought when I purchased the camera that it would at least get colours right. . I understand it is complicated but not having the actual colour of a star seems odd to me. It is a planetary camera and it does work ok for Jupiter/Saturn and even Uranus(got a decent pic of that a while ago). 
But it behaves my my teenage nephews. One minute all is ok and the next the next all hell breaks loose.

​​​​​Thanks

Neil
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