Under the Stars - I'm up and running..
March 2018
This blog will be my record of learning about Astronomy, and in particular, my recent interest in Astrophotography. Pretty much everything I do will be based in or around the Central Coast of NSW Australia..
This blog will be my record of learning about Astronomy, and in particular, my recent interest in Astrophotography. Pretty much everything I do will be based in or around the Central Coast of NSW Australia..
When I was a kid in the late 60's I remember having a small telescope for a while, from memory it might have been a low end Tasco but was more than likely just a piece of junk. Six months ago (almost 50 years later) I was passing the local Australian Geographic store and as usual took a quick glance at the Celestron Telescopes they have in the window and noticed they had a 50 percent off sale.
Knowing bugger all about what kind of scope to buy i took the risk and ended up with a 130mm Newtonian WiFi GoTo Telescope, a couple of eyepieces, a moon filter and a copy of Astronomy Australia 2018.
Immediately I came across a frustrating issue with the telescope, it has to be controlled via a tablet/phone via WiFi but it kept dropping out meaning I had to keep restarting my alignment procedure. The problem ended up being the piddly battery pack supplied for 8 AA batteries, it wasn't supplying the power needed to keep a constant WiFi signal and drive the motors in the telescope. Solved by using a 12v car battery I had lying around.
Within the first week I spent many hours in the cold winter air looking at the Moon, Venus and Saturn. I was hooked. It didn't take long to realise I needed to learn about DSLR's and how to make them work for the night sky. Easier said than done because at this stage I know bugger all about digital SLR's other than how to use them in auto mode.
Within the first week I spent many hours in the cold winter air looking at the Moon, Venus and Saturn. I was hooked. It didn't take long to realise I needed to learn about DSLR's and how to make them work for the night sky. Easier said than done because at this stage I know bugger all about digital SLR's other than how to use them in auto mode.
Something else I discovered in the first week is that the gear needs to be set up on solid ground. The first few nights I had it setup on the back deck and couldn't understand why my pictures were so blurred. Setting up on solid ground is a must and cured this issue.
I'll keep you in the loop as to my progress :)
Shane
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