Noob question(s)

OldGoat

I've aquired a 114mm/900mm reflector on an eq mount. I believe that works out to a focal length of f/7.89, so that it's neither good for lunar short nor for deep space shots. Will I be able to get any reasonable use out of this? Thats all I know about telescopes, the full extent of my astro knowledge.
My noobness is such that I don't know yet what I need to mount the Canon dSLR onto the scope. A T-Ring and a T-Adaptor I think but is there a variation within brands or is cheap and cheerful the way to go or a waste of money?
Finally (for now), I'm lost on the stacking side of things. Dark frames and light frames and bias frames and...other ones. I get the light frame stacking and I kinda understand how the dark frame is used to reduce noise but where in the stack do they get put? Do the dark frames get grouped together and put on the end of the light stack or are they interspaced indivudally and evenly throughout the light shots?

I hope my noob status will excuse the banality of my questions.

Tzetze

Hey OldGoat, they're not banal questions at all. We all had to begin.

I'll answer your stacking question first. To put it simply, the stacking software will handle all that for you. I can only reference DeepSkyStacker as it's the one I've any experience with. You can load your light frames, darks, etc into a file list within DSS. It will create a master dark/flat/bias and apply each master to every light frame before finally stacking.

As for your 114/900 reflector. I take it this is a Newtonian scope. Realistically, you're going to struggle to get your DSLR mounted and achieve focus. You would more than likely be looking at a focuser upgrade and they are hard enough found for 150mm reflectors, as 6" is considered to be the minimum reflector aperture for astrophotography, let alone try to find one for a smaller aperture. I believe Zeroy looked into mounting a DSLR on a 130mm and settled on a larger aperture.

You could use it for Lunar imaging with a relatively simple webcam setup and get decent results. Or here's another option.

OldGoat

I'll take my time digesting the info and check out the webcam idea. Meanwhile I'll await clearskys to use the scope for simple observations.
Cheers Tzetze.

ZeRoY

Yep Focus on 114mm is likely going to be a challenge, I found out those scopes are designed for beginner visual observing. Beyond the focus problem you would probably run into collimation issues and focuser shift too. I had such problems with an Astromaster 130EQ-M so ended up selling it for Second Hand Meade LXD75

OldGoat

Aye, I understand that the 'scope will be underwhelming. I went for the cheap route as a first step.
I'm going to get a prime focus* kit and see what I can achieve with that.

As for stacking images I will be using one of the stacking software packages. I was just wondering what steps the software takes inorder to create the final image. I'm one of those annoying people who like to work from first principles and re-invent the wheel at any opportunity.



*See, I've learnt something already.

toothfairy123

haha Noobness lol :-)