big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

Quick question, I have a Celestron Nexstar 8se SCT with eyepieces from 55 to 12. I also have the T adapter for my dslr and NexImage5 ccd cameras. The dslr uses the 2" and the ccd uses 1.25". When I use the dslr with the f5.6 reducer I can capture 100% (90% without) of the moon and tonight I set up the NexStar but it was zoomed way in on the moon, so much so I can't honestly say what portion of the moon was visible but if I had to guess it would be 10%. Is this normal? and is there any way to capture the entire moon with the ccd? Now if this is normal I can see a great benefit when trying to capture DSO's and I sure wanted to try tonight but the clouds just kept flying by. Can someone here set me straight? Thanks.

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

Here is a nice tool to see what different equipment will do.

http://www.blackwaterskies.co.uk/imaging-toolbox/

I’m not sure if you are aware, but to get more details in the moon, you want to shoot at less than half moon. The shadows help bring out a lot of the detail.

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

Very kewl, thanks. Yes, I'm aware and full moon only used as a reference. I am planning to shoot the moon at 20%, 40%, 60% and then doing the reverse and stacking them altogether to achieve a full moon. I know the shadows will not be at the same angle but just curious as to how well I can do this.

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

If seen that some folks will take multiple images with each offset by just under the field of view and then stitch them together to get one high resolution image. (I haven't tried that yet myself, perhaps someone can suggest the best way to do that).

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

I recently “stitched” 3 different stacks of images of the moon. I stacked/combined then in a stacking software, I believe I used Registax, then blended the 3 images together in photoshop, just manually aligning the 3 different images. This was the result: (also in photoshop, I had to make a larger canvas, that I created in black)

(Download)

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

Very nice job blending the images no noticeable transition.

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

twowindsbear

Seems to me that your NexStar device is a 'cropped sensor' compared to the dslr.

That's my WAG and I'm sticking to it.

Railfan_Bill Loc: "Lost Wages", Nevada

Hey Big-Guy, The NextImage5 camera is designed as a planetary camera with a 5 meg sensor. Considering your DSLR has a minimum of 18 Megapixal, a large difference in size and capability.The NextImage5 is great for planetary objects, but not so good for DSOs. DSOs have typically a large FOV whereas, planets have a small FOV. Stick with the DSLR for DSO astrophotography. That is why guide cameras have a very small sensor to track stars.

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

Thanks to one and all for the info. I will endeavor to make it all stick to the ole brain cells.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Hi Peter!
I'm one of those try it and see if I like it types.
I had the same idea early on, use my DSLR. It's... familiar.
But I quickly realized I would beat it to death quickly. So I opted for my first Astro Camera.
And my goal was (and remains) Deep Sky Objects, Nebula specific. So a narrow FOV works well for my goal.

When I've tried my DSLR, I get very wide field images. For example: The Ring Nebula was lost in a huge sea of stars. If I had not known what I was looking for I could have not seen it.
But with my Astro Cameras, it is quite prominent in the images.

So, where you would use different lenses for different FOV in terrestrial photography, different sensors can yield different FOV.
Stellarium also offers an Ocular View where you can use many of it's features to get an idea what your framing would look like, for the specs of the sensor and the type of telescope.

I think this whole thing is really fascinating.

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

With overcast skies yet again I have been scouring the web and learning all sorts of things, options, websites etc. Using Stellarium and inputting my cameras with the ocular viewing, not to mention using Stellarium to slew the mount to whatever I want, I am not so patiently waiting for clear skies in a few days to test it all out. Thanks for your thoughts on the matter.