new camera

hi everyone my wife just bought me a new canon eos 110d today, well i think its for me anyway or maybe for me to learn how to use it then show her how to use it lol,anyway was wondering would this be a good camera to try my hand at astrophotography .i have a skyatcher 8" dob and a nexstar 102slt would any of these be any good for use with this camera your thoughts please .

I assume its an 1100d?? Yea they're great cameras- don't tell the wife and get it modded!

I'd use it with your Nexstar 102 personally

Just get one of these
www.ktectelescopes.ie/Canon-EOS-T-Ring.html

And you also need a T-Adapter - think your scope is 1.25?
www.celestron.com/astronomy/celestron-t-...iversal-1-25-in.html

Some info here
www.celestron.com/c3/support3/index.php?...cle&kbarticleid=1891

Congrats on the new acquisition!

I presume it's an 1100D rather than a 110D?

An excellent starting point is Jerry Lodriguss's www.astropix.com which has tons of info on DSLR photography.

Thru-the-scope imaging without tracking on the Dob means you'll be limited to Sun, Moon, and planets which will require short exposure times and/or recording a movie clip for later processing in something like Registax.

You'll need a T-ring & adapter to couple the camera to the scope - hand-holding the camera to the eyepiece will work kinda ok but will be limiting what you can snap.

Also, don't forget tripod mounted shots of 30 secs or so to capture constellations, meteors, aurorae, conjunctions, NLCs, the ISS, and atmospheric phenomena.

With the drive on the Nexstar you can piggy-back the the camera on the telescope tube for longer wide-angle shots and better Solar System imaging.

Main thing though is to learn your way round the camera and experiment, experiment, experiment. You'll find focusing a dark art in itself when most night sky objects (to the camera) are dim.

Just starting out on the astrophotography adventure myself!

Clear skies,

John

skynotes wrote: Also, don't forget tripod mounted shots of 30 secs or so to capture constellations, meteors, aurorae, conjunctions, NLCs, the ISS, and atmospheric phenomena.

With the drive on the Nexstar you can piggy-back the the camera on the telescope tube for longer wide-angle shots and better Solar System imaging.

For longer exposure stuff have a look at www.backyardeos.com . The trial version is free, but you'll probably want to buy it. It can also do planetary imaging through the DSLR.

The nextar is, iirc, alt-az so you'll get field rotation. But by choosing your targets, optimising the exposures and stacking the frames you should be able to get some decent results. As John says, experiment, experiment, experiment.

Main thing though is to learn your way round the camera and experiment, experiment, experiment. You'll find focusing a dark art in itself when most night sky objects (to the camera) are dim.

A home made Bahtinov Mask astrojargon.net/MaskGenerator.aspx , and BackyardEOS is a help here too.

Deep Sky Stacker deepskystacker.free.fr/ is a good free tool for stacking your images and applying flat's, dark's, etc.

I got a second hand 1000d recently and have done the IR filter mod. So I'd guess the 1100d is a little better.

And also remember, you could piggyback that camera on top of one of your scopes assuming they are motor driven for constellation shots

Keith.

many thanks for your info as usual all i need to do is ask and help is at hand .by the way i got a freeday training course with the camera has anyone ever gone on one of these and would i need a remote for the camera for astrophotography .thanks again