Prime Focus Photography - 1st Attempt

I'm going to shoot through my 4" refractor for comparison..I know the SCT's will always have a contrast problem anyway because of the central obstruction. I'll see how it goes..

Upwards & Onwards.....

Keith..

I can tell you now that your C8 is well able to get much better images of the moon then the one above, I wouldn't abandon the bigger scope, just try and get out of the wind.

Nice first effort Keith.

Some suggestions for when you get into deep sky stuff.

Focussing is not something you can leave to eyesight. Even with a magnifying glass. I strongly recommend dslrfocus if you have a computer/laptop that you can use with your imaging rig. Doesnt need to be anything flashy. If you dont have a laptop you'll need to learn the black art of knife edge focussing. Secondly strong winds and deepsky astrophotography rarely mix. If its too windy get out your eyepieces and do some scouting, cause you sure aint getting any killer shots!!

Of course you havent begun to worry about the joys of guiding yet:) Still dont be disheartened you WILL get there, keep at it!!

Dave G - wind? Never bothers me...

See you at the weekend!

I strongly recommend dslrfocus if you have a computer/laptop that you can use with your imaging rig

Might be a dumb question Dave, but how could I use this if the camera/t-ring/t-adapter are all screwed tighly together and those tightly screwed into the sope? If the camera is require to move during focusing, how would this work?

Keith..

Keith,

Sorry for the late reply ... we are getting bombarded with a serious front from Siberia with hundreds dead across eastern Europe.

Further to the recommendations about focusing, one trick I use is to take my best first shot, pull up the photo on the LCD screen at the back of the camera and zoom in as much as possible in the preview mode to see how well focused it is. After two to three iterations, I have nailed focus pretty well.

I would certainly do away with a magnifying glass through the viewfinder. I would be very surprised if it is at all effective. As noted by Dave, DSLRFocus is also another good tool.

Another possibility is to make a parfocal eyepiece. Once you have found the sweet spot, use a cheap eyepiece you may have lying around and make it parfocal.

Oh yeah, always use the edge of the moon or the dimmest/smallest feature on the surface of the moon when tweaking focus, for you nail perfect focus using the edge of the moon and/or very small craters.

Anthony.