Contrail Spotting: First go but bit of a prob..Help Needed

[radiostationx]

Hi All,
I have been enjoying your contrail photos and I am a beginner here in the north west of the UK.
I may have some issues with my new skywatcher 200p dob.
Here are a few of the first shots below from yesterday 5th May,and today 6th taken with revelation 2x barlow straight from camera (nikon 3100 and d40 on this occasion, but plenty more nikons here..the photos below are with no sharpening or post processing.Just resized to 800 x 600 for the web.
I apologise in advance as the shots are not in the same league as others here but it is a big learning curve switching from mostly macro photography to the other extreme.
The problem is I cannot seem to achieve acurate focus, I am a tiny bit away from the sweet spot every time. Images are blurry, maybe I need “colminating” ????
A mind boggling thought,for a beginner anyway !
I feel as though perfect focus is fractions of a turn (on the focuser) away but no matter what I do, no luck.
I have easily enough inward focuser travel due to extra short t2/nikon adapter.

Any advice appreciated.

If you can assist, Please PM me..Cheers.

Air bridge cargo ABW702 on route to amsterdam VP-BIG (sorry camera @ weird angle)



Air Berin D-ALPB A330-200



Air Canada C-GHKX 767-300





United N661UA 767-300

[tcasalert]

Hi there

As a fellow newcomer with exactly the same setup (Skyliner 200P and Revelation 2x ED Barlow), albeit with Canon EOS450D, I thought I'd chip in with my experience

I've found the 'sweet spot' for focussing is very, very small - i.e. a couple of mm max for it to look badly out of focus. I also find it easier in sunny weather to put a towel over my head (I know I look like an idiot), you can see much more clearly whether it's in focus. Aircraft going left to right are much easier as you are only moving the scope in one direction (side to side) rather than up and down at the same time, so you can concentrate more on the focus.

One more thing - you need to keep the telescope cool (when you take it outside, make sure it sits in the shade for an hour or so), and then keep it in the shade all the time. If you don't you get a sort of heat shimmer inside the scope, which also gives you the soft effect.

Not sure about collimating, I've heard that too but hope I never have to do it as it seems a bit of a PITA!!

My usual settings (if they help at all): 1/500 with +1.3 aperture, and always RAW mode (especially when doing contrail shots - you need the flexibility when editing them).

Cheers
Noel

[vader]

Air Canada C-GHKX A330-300

It's B763

[radiostationx]

Thanks Tcasalert and Vader,(767 oops corrected, thanks)
I tried many settings on the focuser within a few mm both with and without barlow but with no luck, it was so flustrating.
Nikon cameras have a slightly different "back focus distance" (dist between lens mounting flange and sensor) than canon so the focuser has to have slightly more inward travel.
I got a solution to this by buying an extra short t piece with camera mount fitted made as part of the unit, this is called a max dslr adaptor.

http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/astro- ... /DSLR.html

This gives about 4mm further inward travel than the conventional t ring and nose piece arrangement.Very important for us nikon owners.
Also it feels very sturdy when mounting your camera to scope.
I dunno if a dual speed focuser upgrade will cure matters but I feel that this scope is slightly off perfect alignment.
The scope box looked a bit past its best when it arrived here ,The best efforts of the 24hr delivery courier to give it a good kicking didnt help .

I have a shed full of glass bits aquired over many years to stick on the end of my many nikons and they all work perfectly.
I even swapped camera bodies on the scope to see if higher or lower res sensors made a difference, it didnt.

I will have a go in raw as you suggest and try adjusting the exposure +1.3 and other values but its the focus thats the pita.

Cheers

radiostationx

[astrakeri]

Hi there,
my hobby is taking photos of planes in flight but i cannot reach the quality of your photos..i am currently using a Skywatcher 1200mm with a Canon 600D attached to it..maybe i am wrong in choosing the right options with my camera coz I am ignorant concerning photography..you said you use aperture but when i try to do it it says it's not possible without a lens..and in order to attach the camera to the telescope i remove the lens...when i take pics of a plane some of them are discrete, some of them are awful..some are dark, some are bright..when i use 400 ISO they are dark, when i switch to 800 ISO they are too noisy...please help...how can i send u some examples of photos i have taken so far?

[contrailwatcherUK]

Hi,

Sounds like your camera is trying to decide what settings to use, like everything is set to auto... might be worth restting it back to factory defauts?

A few tips that you can try;

Use 'Av' mode, set iso between 100-400. Set exposure comp. to -1. Your shutter speed should be reading at least 1/320 with these settings.

Best option is to shoot in RAW format, as this gives you more options in photoshop than jpeg.

What is the aperture of your telescope (6, 8, 10, 12 inch...) ?
How have you set up your equipment? Most common set up is: telescope > t-adapter > t-ring > camera

Could be something to do with collimation of the telescope, i.e are the mirrors correctly aligned?

It is worth reading skystef's guide on contrailspotting if you havent already; http://www.skystef.be/contrail.htm

If you need to send some example photos upload them to an image hosing website, picasa or photobucket and post the image link here.

[astrakeri]

Hi,
thanks for the tips. The aperture of my telescope is 8" (D=200mm, F=1200mm). I tried Av mode but the photos are better at -2. Anyway, a friend of mine who has Photoshop cs5 tried to process the photos i send him and he noticed that in all of them there's vignetting. He thought that it may be due to the aperture (he has a 10" one)..but he also told me to take some photos without a barlow lens and the vignetting disappears!! I have 2 different barlow lenses and both cause vignetting! How do you explain this? He tried to remove vignetting with photoshop and he cannot. Do you think the only solution is buying a telescope with a bigger aperture? But i get the problem only when i attach the barlow!! You see the light ring in the middle of the pic whereas it's darker around it...I am using 2" barlow lenses..
I look forward to hearing from you,
Thanks

[astrakeri]

I am trying to upload a photo of mine so that you can see yourself but I don't know how to do it...

[astrakeri]

This is an example..do you notice the vignetting?

[contrailwatcherUK]

I have 2 different barlow lenses and both cause vignetting! How do you explain this? He tried to remove vignetting with photoshop and he cannot. Do you think the only solution is buying a telescope with a bigger aperture? But i get the problem only when i attach the barlow!! You see the light ring in the middle of the pic whereas it's darker around it...I am using 2" barlow lenses..
Thanks

An 8" telescope is capable of taking decent pictures with or without a barlow. I don't know exactly what causes the vignetting, but I do know that it is more of a problem with low quality barlows, revelation and skywatcher to name a few. I would recommend televue powermate 2", yes it is quite pricey but well worth it, one of its key features is the vast reduction in vignetting compared to many other barlows. This barlow is used widely among contrail spotters.

For example, this great picture was taken using Canon 500d + Skywatcher 8" + Televue Powermate 2", by member Bartusek of ExtremeSpotting.com: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-LQ2z ... G_2929.png

[astrakeri]

Thank you mate for all this info!
What an amazing photo..this means that I don't have to change the telescope!
Well, I have to admit that it is like a dream for me being able to make such quality photos! I started about 3 months ago and I think I have done some progress, but comparing them with yours their quality is definitely low. Another problem is that I am not very keen on cameras, so in the beginning I was just trying..then I read Skystef's instructions and they helped a lot!
My barlows are TS (2" 2x) and Luminos-Celestron (2" 2,5x). I think the 2nd one is slightly better. Yesterday i scomposed the TS one in its 3 compounds and I just attached the part with the lens to the camera and telescope and the result was that the vignetting almost disappeared! So I deduced that the smaller the distance between camera and telescope the less vignetting. I would also be willing to buy the Televue powermate but i am afraid the problem might insist.
The Transaero pic was taken with a 400D so it may be that the 600D (the one I have) is not as good!
Anyway, thank you again for your help.
kind regards
V

[DC10MD11]

Hi
I have the canon 600d and its a great camera(I up graded from the 400d)----I have just posted some new pictures today--its was not the best of days as regards the weather (heat)but have a look for your self and tell me what you think??????????????????????????????????????.
I have the Skywatcher 10inch scope which lets in more light than the 8inch.
Some of the pictures are taken at 100 iso,1st time i have done this + i always use RAW.

Best time to take photos is early a.m and evening in the summer and all day in the winter and make sure scope is outside for about a hour before taking photos.

I had the televue X2 but i also had vignetting with the 8inch scope(have sold them both since).

practice .

All the best

DC10MD11

[astrakeri]

Thanks a lot mate for your advice. I was thinking the last days I should upgrade to 10" skywatcher and televue barlow lens powermate. Which one whould you reccomend 2" or 1,25" and 2x, 2,5x or more?
I took a look at your photos and they look great! The last weekend I took hundreds of photos but there was turbulence and i was not satisfied!
I also save the pics RAW+JPG but I still have tobuy Photoshop..
Thanks again for helping,
regards,
Vas

[DC10MD11]

Thanks a lot mate for your advice. I was thinking the last days I should upgrade to 10" skywatcher and televue barlow lens powermate. Which one whould you reccomend 2" or 1,25" and 2x, 2,5x or more?
I took a look at your photos and they look great! The last weekend I took hundreds of photos but there was turbulence and i was not satisfied!
I also save the pics RAW+JPG but I still have tobuy Photoshop..
Thanks again for helping,
regards,
Vas

Hi
I would say the 10 inch is best as it lets in more light and the televue i would go for the 2inch(more light) and x2 but no more as this will reduce the light.
I use the REVELATION ED 2inch 2BL BARLOW(2inch- x2) but use it as a x1.4(i do not use the black body)....i got it from telescope house about 3 years ago,was about £70-80.

Regards
DC10MD11