Orpington Astronomical Society

Astronomy => Astrophotography => Topic started by: Kenny on Dec 06, 2014, 17:20:24

Title: First attempt playing with the OAS Coronado
Post by: Kenny on Dec 06, 2014, 17:20:24
Coronado Solarmax 60 scolarscope. 25mm eyepiece. 6th December. Around 1pm. From my front drive.

Took me quite a bit of time to figure out how to get the society HEQ5 up and running and even longer to figure out how to make the synscan work. Not having the counterweights didn't help (on todo list). Not ideal taking photos with my Samsung Galaxy S5 cameraphone, trying to find the right eye-relief point for the snap, hence some exposure problems.

First attempt. Can only get better...  :).

(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10063/normal_V5F1DtXkhJYsQA4laQScRKMZQ5zVDeQCRwToDCEnQA43Dw843-h781-no.jpg)

(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10063/normal_3ORF1FM6QJF7ESGba_r9bI3ixr-uJASLi1SS1QZIKLQ3Dw1042-h781-no.jpg)
Title: Re: First attempt playing with the OAS Coronado
Post by: MarkH on Dec 06, 2014, 19:07:53
Some nice prominences on the top shot, and a nice sun spot at the bottom, nice first try Kenny.
Title: Re: First attempt playing with the OAS Coronado
Post by: Carole on Dec 07, 2014, 12:27:28
You did well Kenny, coping with what I presume is an unfamiliar mount.  Many of us have struggled to get a decent image with the society Coronado, so to get this with a cameraphone is a good result.

I can see you sliding down the slippery slope to imaging. 

Carole
Title: Re: First attempt playing with the OAS Coronado
Post by: Kenny on Dec 08, 2014, 15:45:43
I had another go with the scope today, again outside the front of my house, sitting in the cold for hours dodging tree branches and clouds (is this really what it's like?).  ;)   :lol:

First two photos are taken at the eyepiece using my S5 phone camera again. Most of the Sun is saturated (think I will experiment with another camera app that lets me change the RGB and saturation settings) but the prominences look sharper than those I took a couple of days ago.

(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10063/normal_20141208_124709_Samsung_Galaxy_S5_with_Coronado.jpg)

(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10063/normal_20141208_124800_Samsung_Galaxy_S5_Camera_with_Coronado.jpg)

The next three photos were taken by attaching my Celestron NexImage camera. A considerable amount of fiddling with the levels required, particularly as it was very difficult to view a laptop screen in bright sunshine (focusing the scope was a challenge), plus the intermittent cloud! I've also discovered dodgy pixels on the CCD which I had to keep avoiding.  :lipsrsealed:

(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10063/20141208_Celestron_Neximage_with_Coronado_02.png)

(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10063/20141208_Celestron_Neximage_with_Coronado_03.png)

(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10063/20141208_Celestron_Neximage_with_Coronado_02.png)
Title: Re: First attempt playing with the OAS Coronado
Post by: Sue on Dec 08, 2014, 16:10:51
Great first tries. Hope we have more clear days coming up so you can experiment a bit more.
Title: Re: First attempt playing with the OAS Coronado
Post by: Carole on Dec 08, 2014, 20:10:01
Some good detail starting to show through the bottom two.

Carole
Title: Re: First attempt playing with the OAS Coronado
Post by: Kenny on Dec 13, 2014, 16:40:37
Another go at the Sun today, this time video capture using AMCap and then processed in Registax. :)

(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10063/20141213_The_Sun_01.png)
Title: Re: First attempt playing with the OAS Coronado
Post by: MarkS on Dec 13, 2014, 17:19:54
That's really looking good Kenny.

Well done!

Mark