First Impressions GS880 10"

[Adrianf]

Well the weather gods smiled on me tonight and allowed me to put some light into the scope. Was the wait worth it? Hell Yes!!!!:welldone:
Pointed in the general direction of Jupiter to be rewarded with a nice bright disc about 4mm across with good signs of bright objects one below and 2 above Jupiter. I tried to get photos of the view but I think I was shaking too much and everything is a blur.

The view of Jupiter was a bit on the bright side but could make out some darker areas running across the face at a slight angle. I hope it wasnt imagination but my wife, Margaret said she could see them if she concentrated.

I think I am having problems with dew as the view is getting foggy throught the eyepiece. I better go have a look.

Adrian

[Caveman]

:thumbsupmate: Well done on first light for your telescope! I too dabble with the camera through the eye piece on occassion.

You can get camera adaptors that will hold it all together if you want to take pics. Try Andrews Communications or your supplier. In the absence of an adapter you could try standing the camera on a tripod which is extremely frustrating when trying to line up in time before the object your are imaging floats out of view. But its not impossible.

To reduce the blur on Jupiter you need to cut your exposure time down but without tracking on your telescope your experience will be problematic. Believe me I only say this because I've tried.:duh:

Having said that you can still take some quite nice pics of the moon as there is plenty of light making exposure times sufficiently low as to cancel out its movement through your field of view.

Hope you have lots of fun with your new telescope

[Adrianf]

I am having fun but I only seem to have time on weekends. I teach at TAFE and with the end of year looming I dont have much time during the week. I am going to experiment with a T adapter and an old Practika camera if I can get the bugs out of the camera, It needs to have the seal replaces around the rear door (where the film goes) as it is letting in light and ruining any pix I take with it or maybe I will forget about it for awhile and just observe and just look at everyone elses picture and wish.

Adrian
GSO 10" Dob.

[Radar]

G'day Adrian,

Couple of things you may or may not know. With a camera that leaks light, just use them at night time, and if the film is still inside them, put them in a light proof box during the day. I've used cameras that leak so much light that when I have them outside people think I have a spotlight on (okay that last part is a bit of an exaggeration).

Also, when doing the digital photography where you are just holding it up to the eyepiece, if you set the ISO as high as possible, this will enable you to do shorter exposures, which means you'll capture less vibrations. So try and set your ISO to 1800 or 3000 (whichever your highest setting is), set the exposure time to say 1000th of a second and see how that goes. Just keep experimenting until you find what works (not sure if you already know this stuff but I thought I'd add it).

All the best mate.

Ray

[Adrianf]

Thanks for the advice. The leaky camera no longer works the shutter as frozen open making very long exposures, so back to the drawing board. At least the 55mm and 150mm lenses will still work. I have a Fujifilm S5600 DSLR that I use and I will experiment with. I was looking at a Nikon Coolpix 995 to use with the scope but not sure about it. I would like to dedicate a camera for astronomy as the Fujifilm gets used a lot elsewhere.

Adrian