New to this sort of stuff..

hawkeye_bmr

Hi all,

I've always been interested in looking up at the stars, but never had anything more that a set of binoculars and a Panasonic digital camera with star night mode.

Got myself a 600D a few months back, then got a nice present from the missus of a 8" Skywatcher collapsible dobsonian. Took an hour or so to put it all together, including time to disassemble it due to putting a part in backwards (what are those instructions for?). Its pretty heavy when its fully assembled, but not too bad when you remove the tube to move it.

It came with 2 eyepieces a 25mm and 10mm. I had bought a 500mm Opteka lens for the 600D a few weeks back which came with a T-mount and a x2 convertor. Amazingly the T-Mount and the x2 convertor screw onto the eyepiece holder.

Also picked up a cheap timer remote, it works fine for setting up long exposures on bulb mode, the only thing i usually forget to do is set the interval between shots, to allow the camera time to write to the SD card.

Here are a few images of what I have achieved so far.

Initial attempts out in the back yard.








Moon viewing yesterday

Here what it looked like with a 18-55mm lens, zoomed out at 18 mark




Here it is directly attached to the scope



and here it is connected to the scope and the x2 convertor..



This is all in my backyard, here in Dalby, Queensland. Thankfully there is not too much light pollution from the town. I had gone up to a look out point last weekend, where it is extremely dark and for some reason I just could not get the settings right on the camera. But Ive made a note of them now and planning another trip up there with the dobsonian too, to see what I can see.

I also tried viewing the moon with the 10mm eyepiece whilst the x2 convertor was still attached to the scope. Unfortunately it wouldnt screw together, but just holding it in place gave a great zoomed in view of the moon, so will have to either get a proper x2 convertor or make up an adapter to allow the parts to screw together.
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hawkeye_bmr

Planning to get the scope out again this weekend, just read that the 10th is ment to be the best time to view Saturn, as it will be at its closest approach to Earth.

mickmackey1

Haha was trying to figure out those features until I realised you're in the Southern hemisphere have to admit you probably have more spectacular skies, must get down there some day...

hawkeye_bmr

Yes, sky down here looks a bit different to home, I'm originally from Dundalk. 1st time I seen the moon it took a bit of getting used to.

The good thing about where I live at the minute, is the town is small with hardly any street lights, so 30mins drive and your far enough away to avoid the light pollution. As good as it is, its pretty hard to get a chance to look at the stars, here you have to contend with getting a spot that's not overrun with snakes, spiders, fruit bats or mosquitoes.

Thankfully as the weather is getting colder, the mozzies should start to die off, so at least that's one less thing to worry about!

hawkeye_bmr

Eventually the clouds cleared and the sky was twinkling with stars. We went out before saturn was up and managed to view the moon, mars and jupiter, then after much frustration we found saturn.

IMG_3920 by dotdesign1, on Flickr

IMG_3925 by dotdesign1, on Flickr

IMG_3910 by dotdesign1, on Flickr

IMG_3929 by dotdesign1, on Flickr

Still not too sure what settings to use for planet photos....

hawkeye_bmr

Got a look at Saturn again last night. Managed to see several moons. It would have been a good evening to go to a dark site, as the moon didn't rise until 8.40pm, but we had to just make do with our front lawn. Next doors outside light was on and there was a slight bit of cloud cover.

Managed to see Omega Centauri / NGC 5139, but wasnt able to pick out any other galaxies.

Wailin

Great pics, well done.....keep it up and keep sharing:)