That eyepiece projection - yes, let's not do that for now

Tonight, I really want to try out some of my new equipment (Bahtinov mask, tele-extender...) I’ll have to figure out which object I will try - should be some larger, brighter nebula. Maybe I’ll try to take photos of sunspots with the tele-extender during the day to figure out the setup.

Read more about taking pictures:

• Only need short pause - apparently, the heating noise of the camera is less bad then having more pictures taken. So, 10 secs - just to download the images.
• Histogram should peak at 20 - 40%. That’s a great way to gauge exposure time.
• The Nikon D7000 has an external power source (maybe I’ll go over to the camera shop this afternoon and try to get it)
• people use pretty high ISO’s (up to 6400!), 1600 seems to be a good thing.
• Need to check again how long my exposure time can be to not get rotation!

But I also want to try to take some photos of the Perseids. Maybe what I’ll do is to shoot first some pictures with the new equipment. And then leave the camera out there and just take lots of 30 sec pics with DSLR Shutter throughout the night (just with the 50mm lens). To make things easier, I’ll just put it on the tripod and point it somewhere where I’ll get one of the big trees into the picture too. Will try max. apperture, 6400 ISO, 30 secs - will have to try this first to make sure that the sky stays somewhat dark.

Couldn’t get the AC adapter for the Nikon at San Jose Camera - ordered it online.

Tried to take some pictures of the sun with the tele-extender. But to set the orientation just with one object (the sun itself) is very accurate and it gets out of focus quickly. But focusing the telescope with the tele-extender isn’t too difficult - that’s good! But then my Power Tank was discharged again. So, I’m recharging it and will take photos later.

… OK, eyepiece projection photography is probably out of my league for now. Took 50 pictures of M10. Even with ISO 6400, not much to see :-( I doubt that this was a problem of not having an equatorial mount. Next time, I’ll go back to the normal t-ring and the focal reducer.

I set then my camera to take photos through the 50mm lens for the entire night - some 1400+ shots (10 secs each). They are have a red/organge hue - I think from the street lights. But I should be able to get rid of that. In the morning I took the darks, flats and dark flats. Well, that will be fun