Posts Made By: Kerry Green

Gary,

I think you have the right idea starting out small and cheap. It is very easy to spend thousands of dollars on equipment. It also is a great investment in time. My biggest piece of advice, and I picked this up elsewhere, is to spend an entire evening on one object. That said, a good start would be a used Canon 300d (~$350), I have seen outstanding photos taken with this camera. As for a starting lens, the Canon 70-300mm standard kit lens can be picked up for about $150. If you find that DSLR imaging is something you have the time for, then you can invest in better lenses, and, trust me, you will want a better lens. I have taken great photos with the lens myself, but the chromatic abberation really got to me. Attached is my first photo taken with this lens.

Good Luck, and I hope to welcome you to the hobby!

-KDG

That's a nice image, Phil. M42 can be tricky and it ooks like you have the core resolved nicely. Makes me really want to get out and image it. I hope the winds die down tonight. One thing I notice about your image is how blue it is. I think this is a result of using DSS, as I have had similar results. Is there anyone out there who knows how to extract color when using DSS?

I have had the same problem with DSS. There are some settings you can tweak. I would suggest joining the yahoo group for DSS if you have not yet. I love DSS because it is free, but have never gotten good color saturation, I don't know how. Hopefully someone will have a better answer as i, too, would like to know the technique.

I use the TC80N3 and I love it. Your setup is very similar to mine. I haven't ever looked, but there has to be some sort of software that will automate the process similar to what the TC80N3 does. It is nice to set and forget while I go observe through another scope for awhile. I usually do this for 90 minutes or so.