CN FORUMS ARCHIVE Telescope Reviews: Horribly basic shot of Venus and Saturn. :(

So why the frown? Because I've realized that I have a big learning curve.

Those shots were single exposures, about 1/2 a second on a 20D using a TV 2.5x power mate. I have a MaxView DSLR, and I actually got saturn in focus through a TMB 4MM, but by that time dew/glare were apparant making the seeing horrendous at that magnification (1200MM 10" Celestron Newtonian on a G5 GEM).

The other things I've realized, is that Celestron sure wasn't kidding when they said that 35lbs is the limit of the mount. With the 20D the Dec motor is screaming for it's life as it lugs it's way up and over. Needless to say, the camera came off until I was ready to re-center.

Another revelation. I thought I had done a decent job of doing a polar alignment... Nope.. I tried to grab a 30 seconed still of M51 at ISO 3200 and I STILL got star trails. Frankly, anything over 10 seconds and they were visible.

I think I'm at a point where this 10" is great for observing (dark skies being the big thing), but for any aspiration of photography, I'm going to have to get something else and spec some sort of piggy back setup that will be well under that weight limit to handle a guide scope, guide camera, SLR, etc.

Yeah.... my Saturn is fuzzy, but for my 4th or 5th time out with the scope, I'm glad I at least got something to call my own.

Thoughts on the star trails? Time for me to get a illuminated eyepiece and try my hand at drift alignment? How bout a good DSO/Planet setup? I was thinking of something like a Megrez 80 for widefield/DSO, piggybacked on some sort of SCT OTA for planetary/DSO?

Thanks in advance!

Edited by RiftsWRX (06/12/07 01:12 AM)