Finally, I’ve upgraded!

[ravnostic]

Now before you go getting all excited for me, it’s just to an T2i. I took to comparing it to the T3i, and decided for the money, I didn’t need an articulating screen.

On the other hand, I’ll go from a max 1600 ISO to 6400 (expandable to 12800–anyone know how that works); there’s excellent reviews on battery life, and of course there’s the jump to 18 mpxl from 10.2.

I’ll need some extreme SD cards–RAW files are purportedly around 25 Mb

I’ll have it tomorrow. New, body only, $500 at Amazon (after repairing my original xTi, I’ll sell the replacement, which I don’t feel performed as well in the noise area.)

[CauseISaidSo]

On the other hand, I’ll go from a max 1600 ISO to 6400 (expandable to 12800–anyone know how that works)

Congrats, rav! And condolences to the rest of us, I’m guessing – you gave us enough competition before! 😉

As to the higher ISO, I’d assume it’s like my 30D and it’s a custom function you have to enable (although it only takes from 1600 to 3200 on the 30D).

[ravnostic]

Someone at G+ tipped me off that that is correct, CISS. And I wouldn’t be too skeered at ‘my’ competition; for the next couple months, it’s all about the camera, the telescope, the stars and the sun–I may be skipping a few contests for lack of material (or I may have to take one day to go out and scout for a bunch of contests.) I won’t be bringing my a-game; unless it happens to pertain to stuff ‘up there’.

[chupathingie]

‘Grats!And don’t be too afraid of the RAW file size, the real issue is going to be dealing with the images in 16bpc TIF… I’m guessing over 100MB each. If you’re going to be doing any stacking make sure you’ve got a 64bit OS and as much ram as you can manage! 😆

I just ordered a doubler, heads, astrotrac and polar scope so I’m going to be doing much the same as you after they arrive. No scope here, but I plan on making use of the 70-200 f2.8L and doubler on DSOs.

There’s a trade-off on ISO/noise. For AP, you may want to limit yourself to 1600 or 3200; going higher than that with that camera will most likely mean you’ll need many more subs to cancel the additional noise. My old rebel would hit 1600, but I quickly found that shooting above 800 meant spending more time imaging to smooth out the noise floor. The exception to this is that you may need the higher ISO to keep exposure times down to compensate for the tracking error of your mount. Periodic error really starts to stack up after 3 minutes or so.

I get the feeling we’re going to start seeing some astro-stuff on the boards here in the next couple months!

[ravnostic]

I’ve seen shots from other photogs taken through my same scope, chupa, and they’ve been phenomenal. It’s my understanding that if you’re diligent, the tracking on the CPC1100 is quite good, so I’m hoping that’s the case and that I have a quick learning curve. The beauty of the 11″ though is it’s amazing what you can get in just 30 seconds at a lower ISO setting than you might think (even 400). Unfortunately my laptop is only 32 bit, 4 G RAM, but I’ll probably stack at a smaller sized 1280 or 960 width.

[lokisbong]

When you guys are talking about 11″ you mean the mirror at the bottom of the scope right? My room mate has a Celestron with the computerized tracking stuff but I think it only has a 5″ mirror. Lucky bastard won it in a raffle and never uses it. And he has a slightly smaller one in a closet down stairs I am thinking about trying to talk him out of. It hasn’t seen light of any kind in the year and a half I have been in Nevada.

[ravnostic]

Yep, the primary mirror, lokisbong. 5″ isn’t anything to scoff at, though, and in some ways, it’s better (wider FOV). You should ask to borrow it–just need a t-mount adapter!

[lokisbong]

Yeah he has said he would totally let me take the smaller one out and use it But I am not sure he would go for me borrowing the 5″ without his being there. It would need a stack of batteries to use the tracking unit. Once I get a job I planned on buying batteries for it and getting him to use the damn thing before It turns to a pile of dust in my bedroom. I just looked up the t-mount thingie and it’s not to expensive either for the two things it seems I would need

[ravnostic]

If he’s never opened it up–it may have a car lighter adapter power cord (mine does) and can probably run off A/C if you have an inverter or are at a location with electricity.

[lokisbong]

No it’s opened and has been used once outside that I know of. It nowsits right next to my bed because this was the room he stored it in beefore I took over the room. I pointed it out the window and looked at the supermoon but the batteries were not in it. It has 2 different eye pieces and a small battery pack but no ac adaptor unless he has that somewhere other than with the scope. Even the instruction book is right here next to the scope.

[lokisbong]

Oh and congrats on the new camera. I almost derailed this thread completely there for a while. lol

[ravnostic]

Thanks, lokis :o)

[chupathingie]

Rav, a lot of folks use that scope and I have to agree, you can get great results with it. At f10, you’re looking at basically a 2800mm lens, there, so your polar alignment needs to be as close as you can manage if you’re going to expose beyond say 3 minutes. Dunno if you already know about drift alignment, but if not look it up. It’s a bit complex at first, but it’s about as accurate a method of alignment as you can get.

Didn’t I ask you about using a Hyperstar system sometime in the way-back? The thought of an 11″ at f2 just makes me drool…

[ravnostic]

chupa, I do have the reducer in use–so it’s more like f 6.3 @ 1764 (or thereabouts), but with my APC sensor, we’re back up to 2800mm effective (though I keep the f6.3!)

I believe we did discuss that, and it’s on my ‘future purchase’ list–I’d LOVE to get those shots–and some of the best from that scope are taken that way. FOV alone is dreamy…

I’ve heard of drift alignment, and will definitely have to look it up (if I recall, its a method of perfecting the alignment during use?). However, I also know if I can get balls-on with my polar alignment (keeping in mind polaris is *not* exactly centered over the polar point), then I’ll be starting closer to the goal. I plan on trying a lot of different things, though. Learning curve and all that.

[ravnostic]

I looked it up, chupa; seems clear enough…

[Author]

Posts