Hi,

Got chance at the Moon last night under less than ideal conditions, haze and only 15 degrees above the horizon. I wanted to play with the live view and it was very interesting because at the 100% mag, I could see how crap the seeing was, not worth taking any pics. However, I took some just to demonstrate the live view in action.

The little EQ6 is very handy on the patio, with its two WO scopes, Megrez 90 APO and WO ZS66 Petzval. Saves opening the main dome and switching everything on just for a quick look, especially when anything is so low.

Used a 2.5x telenegative to increase the image scale. First camera image is normal view, 2nd is enlarged 50% on the LCD.

Used a D200 to photograph the D300!

Clear skies...
Shevill

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__________________
Shevill Mathers, Southern Cross Observatory - Tasmania 42 South.
Hon. Associate School of Maths & Physics
University of Tasmania
http://www.astrotasmania.com-a.googlepages.com/home

Like Russian doll cameras. Love the shots. Do you like the DMK? is it strictly for guiding?

Kind regards
Matt

Very nice shots of the the moon, And nice presentation of the live view option of the dslr cameras.

Hi Matt,

No, the IS DMK camera is also for imaging, it is too good a camera to use for autoguiding. The whole range of IS cameras are superb. They are industrial cameras, quite a big leap upwards from any of the web cams. I used it here to align the two scopes.

Regards
Shevill

__________________
Shevill Mathers, Southern Cross Observatory - Tasmania 42 South.
Hon. Associate School of Maths & Physics
University of Tasmania
http://www.astrotasmania.com-a.googlepages.com/home

Thanks for these shots Shevill. One can certainly appreciate how seriously you take this hobby looking at your equipment and your work reflects it. But I find one thing that sets your photos apart is the care you take in composition. That requires an artistic eye, not necessarily great equipment, wouldn't you say?

Best regards,
Veeger

Hi Veeger,

Thank you for your very observant comments, so, I will let you into a little secret. Many years ago I used to enter photographic competitions, some international, mostly scientific in nature, as I am amongst other things a microscopist. A judge once said to me, your images are technically perfect, however, they are just a photographic record, not a picture - in the creative/artistic sense.

From that day on I have always looked at the subject in a different way, so in my conjunction images for instance, I use trees/land based features to 'frame' the celestial objects, so rather than two or three white dots on a black sky background,(as you so often see in the astro magazines) they are on an indigio/blue pre-dawn sky, which is so different, and to my eye, more appealing.

I am also an amateur landscape/seascape painter - which helps with composition.

Regards,
Shevill

__________________
Shevill Mathers, Southern Cross Observatory - Tasmania 42 South.
Hon. Associate School of Maths & Physics
University of Tasmania
http://www.astrotasmania.com-a.googlepages.com/home