First deep sky with Nikon D40

omaroo · #1 October 14th, 2007, 08:35 PM

Hey all :) My first deep sky attempts - ever :)

It's been a little while now since my wife gave me a Nikon D40 (for being a top husband :angel: ) and it's only last evening that I had a chance to give it a go on DSO's. Given that I forgot to take my infrared ML-II shutter remote which would have enabled me to use bulb beyond 30secs, I think that it did pretty well. These images are severely degraded given that I've downsized them for web presentation, but the images still look OK I guess. All are taken at ISO1600 and 30secs at prime focus on a Meade LXD75 SN-10AT 10" Schmidt-Newtonian @f/4. Cropped to 800x600

I think that the little camera did OK given that it was limited to 30 sec exposures for the evening...

Cheers
Chris

1) Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellenic Cloud:

2) Triffid Nebula in Sagittarius:

3) 47 Tucanae off the Small Magellenic Cloud:

4) M31 Andromeda and M32

5) M42 Orion Nebula:

6) Eta Carinae

CanisMajorTom · #2 October 14th, 2007, 10:11 PM

must be a huge buzz shoot'en your first dso's. Do those cameras need to be modified in anyway? Or can you shoot stuff straight out of the box?

Tom

omaroo · #3 October 14th, 2007, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CanisMajorTom

must be a huge buzz shoot'en your first dso's. Do those cameras need to be modified in anyway? Or can you shoot stuff straight out of the box?

Tom

Hi Tom :) Thanks for the encouragement!

It's a totally unmodified D40 - straight out of the box.

Here's another version of M42 and Eta Carinae I took that I've used Noel Carboni's Photoshop actions on. I think that they look more natural, if not as spectacular. Learning curve is straight up!

Cheers
Chris

beren · #4 October 26th, 2007, 09:57 PM

Gday Chris fantastic display of images from your first run with your D40, especially like the 47tuc image. With my nikon d70 I brought a cable from OPT that allowed shutter control from a laptop and use it with images plus to control exposure/focus, beats the heck out of using the nikon infa red remote

Radar · #5 October 27th, 2007, 01:39 AM

G'day Chris,

I don't know how this thread slipped past me, I've only just seen it, awesome images mate. Carina and 47 Tuc are amazing. Even more amazing that this is not a modified camera.

Great job mate.

Ray

Mick · #6 October 27th, 2007, 06:56 AM

They are wonderful images Chris, I like the mild colours that you have achieved.

A lot of digital dso images that I have seen have colours that are to strong IMHO.

scorpius · #7 October 27th, 2007, 09:47 AM

Brilliant Chris. Maybe you can send some of those clear skies over to the West
Today its bucketing down with rain and last night had hail. Global warming no way .... its flaming cold and wet and miserable
Dave

omaroo · #8 October 30th, 2007, 07:27 AM

Thanks fellas for the kind words :)

Jenny and I are off to another session at Magellan Observatory (Zane Hammond) on the 9th and 10th of Nov. This time I'll be armed with amp glow-free exposure times of up to 12 minutes. I'll take a bunch of darks too - now that I know a bit more about it all :)

Beren - thanks for the info on the cable. Do you have any details on it at all?

Cheers
Chris

beren · #9 October 30th, 2007, 10:41 AM

Gday Chris, my memory failed me the cable I got was from Hap griffin http://www.hapg.org/astrocables.htm it was a little bit cheaper then one offered from OPT where you had to buy the IR attachment and cable http://www.optcorp.com/productList.a...9-327-331&pg=0.

If you read through Hap's page I linked to there's some info that will help, also there doesn't appear to be any reference to the D40 so you might have to send off a email to check for compatibility. The downside to this setup is you have to anchor/stick the IR remote at the end of the cable so it faces your camera. With Images Plus you can control all your camera settings from the laptop and organise an image sequence of multiple exposures. It's great if your scope is goto and the pointing is good just punch in a target slew there fire off a short exposure in Jpeg file and check for framing then check your focus set your camera to RAW set your sequence and let it rip

If you dont want get IP you can use this freeware program http://www.stark-labs.com/DSLR_Shutter.html to work with the cable supplied by HG

omaroo · #10 November 1st, 2007, 08:33 AM

thanks for that Beren - I'll investigate! :)

IP looks interesting... but I'm wondering how they justify their asking cost! I guess that it's based on the act that it is an integrated package - and does what a lot of GPL programs do but all in one place.

I'll certainly investigate DSLR Shutter too...

Cheers
Chris