Re: [APML] Fun with a digital camera

["Stan Richard" <stanrichard@hotmail.com>]

Robert-

  Very cool, even hand-held the digitals works pretty good huh.  It sure is 
fun getting such good results pretty easily.  I shot the penumbral lunar 
eclipse a week ago with my Nikon Coolpix 950 just holding it up to the 
eyepiece on my 10x50 binocs:

http://nightskyevents.com/LunarEclipse2001.html

Thanks!

Stan Richard
Events in the Night sky
www.nightskyevents.com


>From: Robert Reeves <reeves10@swbell.net>
>Reply-To: astro-photo@seds.org
>To: astro-photo@seds.org
>Subject: [APML] Fun with a digital camera
>Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2002 20:05:12 -0600
>
>Greetings everyone,
>
>Regarding the images I have been doing with my new Olympus C3020, I got
>things solved with my ISP (actually I have two of them, one for DSL, the
>other hosts my web site) and can upload again.  I haven't had time to code 
>a
>web page, but here are links to the images on the server.
>
>These moon shots from Sunday morning were all taken with an old orange tube
>C-8  that I have used just as a guide scope for many years.  I think I
>violated every high resolution astrophoto rule in the book taking these.
>The corrector hasn't been cleaned in at least 10 years, its never been
>colimated, there was dew on the corrector when I was shooting, seeing was
>horrible, and I was hand-holding the camera at the eyepiece.  In spite of
>that, I am tickled to death with the images.  I took others just after
>Christmas, but will wait to post them when I can make up a web page with 
>the
>proper technical identifying info.
>
>Parts of these images are not quite as sharp as other areas in the same
>image.  This is partly seeing as waves of turbulance would sweep across the
>moon.  It looked like ripples across water.  Also, hand-holding the camera
>makes it tough to keep the film plane in line with the projected image.  I
>am going to get one of those digital camera to eyepiece adapters reviewed
>recently in S&T to fix the latter problem.
>
>But in spite of the crude system, shoot enough images and a couple will 
>come
>out OK.  So here they are.
>
>www.robertreeves.com/north   the northern area of the terminator last 
>Sunday
>www.robertreeves.com/center  the central area of the terminator
>www.robertreeves.com/south   the southern terminator
>www.robertreeves.com/ptolome closeup of the Ptolomeus crater area
>www.robertreeves.com/3rdquar  full view of the 3rd quarter moon
>www.robertreeves.com/termintr   "panorama" of the full length of the
>terminator
>
>And a couple of shots from earlier in this lunation
>
>www.robertreeves.com/fullmoon  what it says... the full moon
>www.robertreeves.com/luna1       random closeup
>www.robertreeves.com/luna2       another undocumented closeup.
>
>Whether it is a full globe shot or a higher power closeup, I have been 
>using
>only a 40 mm Meade 4000 eyepiece.  I vary the field of view by using the
>camera's zoom lens.  I can get higher magnifications using my Brandon
>eyepieces, but with some vignetting from the narower apparent field of view
>through these eyepieces.
>
>After focusing the scope by eye with my glasses on, I let the camera's
>autofocus refine the image.  I also use aperture priority with the aperture
>locked at f/2.8 and let the camera's meter set the exposure time.  At the
>ISO 400 equivalent setting, exposures have been in the 125th to 800th 
>second
>range, depending on how bright the lunar feature is in the metering box.
>
>One thing I keep forgetting is to disable the camera's flash.  I remember
>after the first shot <G>
>
>As descent as these images are, there is room for much imediate 
>improvement.
>Simply clean and colimate the old C-8 would help a lot.  Mounting the 
>camera
>on a tripod at the eyepiece will help with the problem of keeping it square
>with the eyepiece (untill I get the afocal coupler).  And the need for
>better seeing is a given.
>
>But all in all, it is fun to be able to do some astrophotography from the
>driveway at home without having to travel out of town.
>
>Enjoy the images.
>
>Robert Reeves                      reeves10@swbell.net
>520 Rittiman Rd.                   www.robertreeves.com
>San Antonio, Texas 78209    210-828-9036
>USA                                     29.484  98.440  200 meters
>
>
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