Pleides and Venus

Well I can see the Pleides and Venus really well tonight.

QUick question, hope someone is inside rahter than sky watching - is
it even worth trying to photograph this with a camera pointing at the
eyepiece by hand ?

What sort of exposure time do I need to pick up some stars on my Canon
A40 digital camera ?

i suppose it depends on how much light is coming in, but through my
binoculars, about 4 seconds was needed (wasn't particularly successful -
looked much better if i just had the camera on a tripod)

so it will probably be a lot shorter for you, but maybe hand-held is a
little unlikely. got any masking tape?

if you are going to do hand-held, try setting the camera on 10sec delay, so
you can get it good and steady for the exposure - it's pressing the button
that seems to make it move the most.

"Dr DNA" wrote in message
...
Well I can see the Pleides and Venus really well tonight.

QUick question, hope someone is inside rahter than sky watching - is
it even worth trying to photograph this with a camera pointing at the
eyepiece by hand ?

What sort of exposure time do I need to pick up some stars on my Canon
A40 digital camera ?

I was trying this earlier but didn't get anything worthwhile. I was
using 5 and 10 second exposures with no equatorial correction and even
that short a time was enough to blur the image. Any less and I didn't
see the stars.

Regards,

Andrew Cockburn

Dr DNA wrote:

Well I can see the Pleides and Venus really well tonight.

QUick question, hope someone is inside rahter than sky watching - is
it even worth trying to photograph this with a camera pointing at the
eyepiece by hand ?

What sort of exposure time do I need to pick up some stars on my Canon
A40 digital camera ?

In message , Dr DNA
writes
Well I can see the Pleides and Venus really well tonight.

QUick question, hope someone is inside rahter than sky watching - is
it even worth trying to photograph this with a camera pointing at the
eyepiece by hand ?

What sort of exposure time do I need to pick up some stars on my Canon
A40 digital camera ?

Since using a a digital camera you are not wasting film and get pretty
much instant feedback about how well or badly a shot was taken. Why not
give it a try bracketing the exposure and see what the results look
like.

You will certainly need the camera on a tripod - and lining up the optic
axis to be exactly square and very close the eyepiece is also needed.
However, with an LCD viewfinder most digicams these days can be
persuaded to take shots through a scope more or less reliably.

PS Remember to disable the automatic flash.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown