Moon 25/04/21

[Butterfly Maiden]

Sophia and I went into our back garden this evening for a bit of Moon-watching with our Fieldscope.

It was around 7.10 p.m. The sky was clear and still quite bright and there were no stars visible yet, but the Moon looked lovely.

I tried to get some photos with my camera through the scope but it wasn't working at all well.

I took a couple of photos with just my Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 camera, handheld, set on 'Intelligent Auto.'

Below is the best one I got...

We are quite pleased with the result. It didn't take a lot of faffing about with loads of equipment, which was great.

[Graeme1858]

Sophia and I went into our back garden this evening for a bit of Moon-watching with our Fieldscope.

Vanessa

I moved your post to the Lunar Imaging forum. Your Moon shot is excellent and especially so for hand held.

Regards

Graeme

[Makuser]

Hi Vanessa. This is a wonderful lunar image with the Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 camera and hand held too. Nice contrast and lots of ejecta rays in your capture too. Thanks for sharing this with us Vanessa, and have another go at having some fun like this again. :Clap:

[Butterfly Maiden]

Thank you Graeme for moving my post into the correct section. I should have done that myself but I got too excited about the result we got that it never occurred to me Thank you also for the lovely comment.

Thank you Marshall for the lovely comments and your encouragement

I have one more option available for maybe getting some better, as in more detailed, Moon shots.

I have some additional optical equipment that I can set up to do some 'Digiscoping.' For the photography members on here that term will be familiar to them, but others may not be aware of it.

When Sophia and I first started to get into birdwatching we bought binoculars initially, then later on we got a Fieldscope. The DSLR camera we had at that time was a Nikon D60. In order to do Digiscoping, a special adaptor is required that fits between the scope and the camera.

First of all you have to remove the eyepiece from the scope, then screw in one end of the adaptor. The lens is removed from the camera and the other end of the adaptor screws into the camera. As this setup becomes one big fixed lens, there is no way to zoom in or out, only focus adjustments with the ring on the scope, so I suppose in one respect it is slightly limiting.

However, when used for birdwatching we got some great close-up shots. We had to use a remote shutter release cable though as any movement on the camera through manual shutter release results in a blurred image.

It is a bit more of a faff to set this all up, and to be honest we didn't really do a lot of Digiscoping for that reason.

I thought it may be worth a try for our next Moon session, just to see what the results are like.

I know what you are thinking - she's getting the AP bug and will be wanting a telescope next. Well, the entrance to that particular rabbit hole from my end is securely locked at the moment, and I have given Sophia the key to hide away from me

If we're successful with a good Moon shot, then we may try to look for some Constellations to capture.

This of course depends on whether I can find all the parts required to set it up; i.e. camera, adaptor and remote shutter release cable.

I'll come back here to share my results, good or bad, so as they say - watch this space

[Butterfly Maiden]

Okay. As far as the equipment goes, I have found the Nikon D60 camera and adaptor, but I can't find the remote shutter release cable.

I'll have to figure out how the self-timer works on the camera to get around that. It's so long since I've used it I've pretty much forgotten everything

Also a sturdy tripod to hold it all, which I didn't mention earlier.

I should really play with it during the day so there's no surprises when the Moon makes an appearance.

The next Full Moon is tomorrow, also known as the 'Pink Moon' (just my colour ).

[messier 111]

very nice and sharp , thx

[Graeme1858]

Okay. As far as the equipment goes, I have found the Nikon D60 camera and adaptor, but I can't find the remote shutter release cable.

Have you got a USB cable for it? If you plug it into your laptop you won't need a shutter release cable!

Regards

Graeme

[Butterfly Maiden]

Okay. As far as the equipment goes, I have found the Nikon D60 camera and adaptor, but I can't find the remote shutter release cable.

Have you got a USB cable for it? If you plug it into your laptop you won't need a shutter release cable!

Regards

Graeme

It appears there is a connection point on the camera for a cable attachment, but I don't know where that cable is at the moment though.

The connection point is a different size to other USB cables that I have for other devices, so I can't use those. I'll need to do some searching.

If I find it, how does that work. Will I need any additional software to use that method?

[Greenman]

Nice shot Vanessa, I hope you get the digiscoping sorted.

[Graeme1858]

It appears there is a connection point on the camera for a cable attachment, but I don't know where that cable is at the moment though.

The connection point is a different size to other USB cables that I have for other devices, so I can't use those. I'll need to do some searching.

If I find it, how does that work. Will I need any additional software to use that method?

It's a USB 2.0 A-Male to Mini-B Cable (Have you got an old PS3 hand controller charging lead in the loft?)

Then there's a whole rake of software to choose between! APT (Astrophotography Tool) is good for images, or Sharp Cap for Lunar videos. Then when you get it all connected you'll be thinking to yourself that you're going to need a computerised equatorial mount! And that's how you get sucked in!

Regards

Graeme

[Butterfly Maiden]

Thank you for that information Graeme.

I don't have any of those things to hand, and it sounds like it's getting quite involved to accomplish my task.

I'm not very good when it comes to technology and I find the simplest solutions work best for me

For now I think I'll fall back on the self-timer option. It is more straightforward. But I really do appreciate you taking the time to offer an alternative method.

I was actually doing some research online this morning and came across a video from Simon King about digiscoping with your Smart Phone. No doubt you'll know who Simon King is, especially if you used to watch the Springwatch/Summerwatch/Winterwatch series on BBC. He is a British naturalist, author, conservationist, television presenter and cameraman, specialising in nature documentaries.

Anyway, the only extra piece of equipment I would need is an adaptor to hold the phone and attach to to the eyepiece of the fieldscope.

He demonstrated an Opticron Universal Smartphone Mount USM-2. The beauty of the mount is that it fits over the existing eyepiece of the scope, which means I can use the 30x/45x/56x eyepiece and get varying degrees of magnification. Using the Nikon D60 DSLR as an attachment meant the eyepiece had to be removed so a separate adaptor could link the two together.

The quality of the photos (and videos) Simon King obtained were fantastic. The mount costs £69, whether purchased from Opticron direct or through Amazon, and there are excellent reviews on both sites.

I think it is worth ordering one. There would be less stuff to carry about, especially when we take it out in the field with us for any birdwatching.

[Gordon]

Congratulations Vanessa on having your image selected as todays TSS APOD!!!

app.php/article/4-27-2021-tss-astrophot ... oto-of-the

[helicon]

Congrats Vanessa on winning the APOD. Lovely image.

[StarBru]

Congrats on the APOD, Vanessa! Love the detail in your image!

[Graeme1858]

Congratulations on the APOD Vanessa.

Regards

Graeme

[Butterfly Maiden]

WOW :eek: Thank you Gordon. I was not expecting that

Thank you also to everyone else for the other lovely comments.

[John Baars]

Congratulations on your APOD with your handheld Moon-shot!
The selftimer is one of the best workarounds for a shutter release cable. Especially with your smartphone. Set at 10 seconds, you avoid all movements of the hands, camera or cable.

[OzEclipse]

Vanessa

Congratulations on the APOD and the lovely lunar image.

You have one foot in the rabbit hole of astrophotography.

Joe

[Butterfly Maiden]

We did order the Opticron Universal Smartphone Mount, which arrived today.

We've been playing around with it and it works brilliantly.

The mount was easy to fit over the phone and it fit over the Nikon Fieldscope eyepiece without any problem.

I took a couple of test shots of some distant trees and the result was amazing.

To get over the vignette effect, the instruction leaflet said to zoom in slightly with the Smartphone. Once I did that the vignette disappeared.

Our next mission is to try the setup at the Moon. We're filled with a combination of excitement and trepidation as to what results we'll get.

Moonrise tonight is at 10.32pm, so all being well with clear skies we're going to give it a try.

I'll post the results here, whatever the outcome may be

Wish us luck :smile:

[Butterfly Maiden]

I am not a happy bunny

After yesterday afternoon’s successful test with our new digiscoping setup, we were all prepared and excited to photograph the Moon.

By about 8.40pm is was starting to get nice and dark, BUT (and there is always a ‘but’….) the curse of the new equipment reared its ugly head and clouds came with it. We couldn’t see a thing.

Anyway, Moonrise wasn’t until 10.34pm, so we figured maybe it would start to clear by then. So we left our scopes attached to their tripods, just in case. That time came and went but the clouds remained.

By 11pm we decided to call it a night and went to bed.

At 3.10am I needed to get up briefly. Out of curiosity I had a little peek out of the window. Ironically I was greeted with a perfectly clear sky. The whole sky was dotted with twinkling stars like a field of sparkling diamonds, and the Moon was beautifully clear.

However, tiredness and a warm bed beckoned me and won me over. There was no way I was going to start digiscoping at that time of the morning, so I went back to bed.

As I drifted off back to sleep the bright Moon was impressed on my thoughts.

We’ve all had these disappointments and know how frustrating it can be, when you’ve got all your equipment set up ready and you can’t do anything about it.

Never mind. The Moon will always be there for another attempt sometime.