Hello All,
I am new to the forum. I've been into astronomy for years now and am in the process of getting my BS in physics. I love this stuff.

Anyways, this is my first astrophoto. It was takin using my digital rebel piggy backed on an old C-14. It's six exposures at 30 seconds each. Light polution is probably one of my biggest problems. The photo is a section of a much larger photo, I was mostly concerned with the orion nebula.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/221/4...2836af0c_o.jpg

I am also looking for some software. I am looking for some way to be able to control my rebel from my laptop, can anyone help? Taking up astrophotography seems to be a much more challenging hobby than visual astronomy.

hehe...

Welcome to the forum Daybis!

For control of your Rebel use DSLR Shutter. It's free from Stark Labs.

Nice first image. I stretched it and took out the background light gradient and pollution using Iris. Hope that's ok!



clop

Hi Daybis

Welcome to the forum. Get on the internet and type in
{Mike covington inovations}. He has a lot if info on canon camera/computer control, and a lot more. He also gives a program called hack which lets the cameras mirror lock when shooting photos. Your first image is nice

Thanks for the helpful information. I have a lot to learn!

Clop, thanks for editing that photo. With your version, I sware I can see NGC 1977! Cool!

Welcome! The work presented here is very inspiring.

That's a good start. And yes, I think you can make out the "ghost", but it's visible in your original image too.

This is probably a really stupid question, but I am going to ask it anyways.

I have the software to control my shutter on my rebel, and the shutter equipment is on order. Is there anyway for me to attach the camera to my laptop so that the images are directly downloaded to my pc and available for viewing?

Another thing, I have two batteries for my rebel. Is there any sort of powersupply that I can connect my camera to so I don't have to worry about my batteries dying?

Thanks for the help guys.

Yes to both questions. There is a software developer pack Canon had available for download. I was able to use Visual Basic to control all aspects of my Digital Rebel, and have the pictures save directly to my PC. It was a couple of years ago, and I forget how I did it.

Just check with any dealer that sells accessories. I'm almost positive I've seen an AC adaptor that fits in your battery compartment.

__________________
www.gravitysimulator.com

Your Rebel should come with a USB cable to allow you to save photographs directly on your hard-drive instead of on the camera card.

I have the AC adapter for the Rebel and use it for my astrophotography.

clop

I figured it out. Thanks. I should have known to poke around with canon's software.

Thanks for the help guys.