After my retirement I started with astronomy early 2001 and in October 2001 I captured my first image, which was followed by a lot more: moon mosaics, planets, double stars and recently even deep-sky!
I have a low
cost Russian Newtonian telescope (a TAL-2M), aperture 150 mm, 1200mm focal
length, f/8. No GOTO: that is where I come in!
It took me
a nice portion of patience to get me where I am now, and of course I am still
learning.
Fortunately,
during my struggles I got a lot of help from numerous QCUIAG members and in
order to save their valuable help and to record my own solutions I have dedicated
some pages of my website to ‘my road towards imaging’ so that others might
benefit from my experiences.
Of course not
ALL my solutions are applicable to your situation, but some might be of assistance
to you.
My website
address: http://home.hetnet.nl/~dukoyy/firmament
The following
issues are covered on my 'hints-and-tips' pages:
1.
Aiming your telescope
with CCD camera
2.
Mastering your camera
and imaging software
3.
Mini course Post Processing
4.
How I collimated my
Newtonian telescope
5.
Polar alignment with
your webcam
6.
How to use the setting
circles of your scope
7.
My Battle with the
Periodic Error
8.
Field-Of-View Determination
9.
How to image and construct
a Moon mosaic
10. How to remove noise from a black & white image (e.g.
Moon mosaic)
11. How to trick the Philips Vesta Pro 675/680/690 into 1/5
second exposure
12. How to prepare and make an Animated Gif
13. How to set up your RAW and FINAL images archive
14. Adjusting Windows for night vision
15. How to log your camera settings
And on the 'my equipment' pages you can find:
1.
Philips Vesta Pro SC
COOLED
2.
My Mogg and home made
camera adapters and piggy-back mounting
3.
Slow motion control
4.
Home made electric
focuser
5.
The set of eye piece
holders I use for imaging
6.
Motor Corrector
7.
Observatory with roll-on/roll-off
roof
8.
Illuminated Crosshairs
9.
Home made Parfocal
Adapter
For the technical
background I suggest you visit the website of my good friend and QCUIAG member
Peter Katreniak: http://www.pk3.org/Astro/
I wish you
lots of success and ‘sky-high’ results!
Clear skies!
Jan Timmermans