See what an ETX90 and Toucam camera can do!

Post by **Airconvent** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 12:00 am

The pics enlarged is not too great but imagine if he had kept the resolution tight and optimal...

www.samage.net/~geheniau/astronomy.html
www.samage.net/~geheniau/astronomy2.html

rich

Post by **weixing** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 12:17 am

Hi,
Don't envy others lah... You can also do it since you also own an ETX90 and ETX105.. right???

Anyway, the importance factor for astrophotography is not the instrument size, but it ability to track accurately and of course the most importance factor is the sky conditions....

By the way, you are better than me in term of equipment, since at least your scope can track accurately... my EQ3-2 mount and motor drive is quite unreliable in term of tracking accuracy...

But don't get me wrong, I still love my scope and my mount (provided I use for visual only). Now still consider whether to save money for a better mount (vixen GP) and motor drive, or just DIY a better motor drive for my mount....

Post by **Airconvent** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 12:38 am

weixing wrote:Hi,
Don't envy others lah... You can also do it since you also own an ETX90 and ETX105.. right???

Anyway, the importance factor for astrophotography is not the instrument size, but it ability to track accurately and of course the most importance factor is the sky conditions....

By the way, you are better than me in term of equipment, since at least your scope can track accurately... my EQ3-2 mount and motor drive is quite unreliable in term of tracking accuracy... But don't get me wrong, I still love my scope and my mount (provided I use for visual only). Now still consider whether to save money for a better mount (vixen GP) and motor drive, or just DIY a better motor drive for my mount....

actually, I expect myself to be able to take a little better than that if I ever bring up enough commitment to take that serious plunge into astrophotogrpahy but I'm here to enjoy the process and spending hours finetuning the astrophoto techniques is not considered enjoyable!
Incidently, I did notice there is obvious field rotation in many of the pics and they are taken about 30s to a minute only! Looks like all those stories vincent snr and matthew has been tellling me about this problem is true!

at least for now, I think the most likely to take these photos would be our up and coming euwen...and the exams are over too!

rich

Post by **weixing** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 1:12 am

Hi,
Although I never use a ETX before, but I think the field rotation is cause by the ETX only in Alt-Azimuth mode. As with any Alt-Azimuth mount, your ETX need to rotate horizontally and move vertically in order to track the stars if in Alt-Azimuth mode....

I think there will have no field rotation if you mounted in the equatorial mode and do a polar alignment.... right??

PS (28 Nov 2003 01:22): The sky is very clear now at the east... hope tonight can be this clear...

dew · Post by **dew** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 12:53 pm

at least for now, I think the most likely to take these photos would be our up and coming euwen...and the exams are over too!

oh yeah man! just finished yesterday and when i came back, clear skies!!
God must have been giving me a present to celebrate the end of my exams.. anyway i'll definately be trying out some astrophotog now that i've got so much time, was trying to get M42 last night but the tracking on my etx just wasnt good enough for anything more than 5 sec max.. oh well, will try again..

does anyone here know how to tune up the etx motor drives and somehow improve tracking accuracy and reduce backlash?

eu-wen

Post by **Airconvent** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 1:12 pm

dew wrote:
at least for now, I think the most likely to take these photos would be our up and coming euwen...and the exams are over too!
does anyone here know how to tune up the etx motor drives and somehow improve tracking accuracy and reduce backlash?
eu-wen

Backlash and accuracy is set by calibrating and training your scope. That is why its worth the effort to spend a little longer for that "perfect" alignment during training. Alignment to a star also impt...

rich