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Categories:, This tutorial covers the methods I use for astrophotography with my Canon XSi digital SLR and Celestron CGEM. It is similar to the tutorial I wrote in December of 2007 for. With the exception of the Orion ED80 refractor, I am using all new equipment. I am also using different software for processing the RAW images into a detailed composite photo. Note that there are different ways of going about astrophotograpy with a digital SLR.

In fact, there are probably better ways. This tutorial depicts the methods I used for capturing the example images below. I hope you find my new tutorial useful and please feel free to ask questions or add comments in the “Leave a Reply” section at the end of the tutorial.

Example Images The images below are provided as an example of what can be achieved with an equipment setup similar to mine and the methods provided in this DSLR astrophotography tutorial. Astrophotography Equipment My Digital SLR Astrophotography Equipment Here is an overview of the equipment I use for DSLR astrophotography. My setup is not considered a high-end system by any means, but nice results can be obtained. First, the telescope is a with the as the imaging scope.

Piggybacked to the ED80 is the. Included in this system is the ShortTube 80mm refractor and StarShoot Autoguiding camera. I endorse this autoguider in various articles on my website because it is a complete, low-cost system that gets the job done.

Autoguiding has made a big difference in the quality of my images since I wrote the DSLR astrophotography tutorial in 2007. And finally, I use the Canon XSi (450D) as my imaging camera. Ps3 Jailbreak Dongle Filestream. An important note here is that my ED80 refractor and Canon XSi DSLR are a good match optically.

That is, the pixel size of the DSLR sensor matches the resolution of the telescope. This is explained further in my article-. Also worth mentioning, I use an extension cable for my NexStar hand controller since the original cable was too short. The extension cable add-on gives me an extra seven feet of cord length so I can move freely around the telescope.

Extension cables for the NexStar hand controller are. Here are the links to my equipment reviews here on Astrophotography Tonight:,,,,,, Telescope Setup Before attaching the DSLR, I perform a decent polar alignment and 2-star alignment for the CGEM’s goto functionality. For polar alignment, I normally use the drift alignment technique as described in my. Alternatively, the CGEM mount has a polar alignment routine called “All-Star” that works pretty well for fast polar alignment.

The main point is that a good polar alignment is important for long exposure astrophotography. This is true even with autoguiding since you will need to keep the object still in the field of view while setting up the autoguider. Goto functionality is not necessary, but I have found it to be VERY helpful for getting the object into the digital SLR field of view without the finderscope. The CGEM’s goto capability is very accurate in my experience.

Plus, when it’s time to move on to another object, it’s a snap! Attaching the Digital SLR to the Telescope Once the telescope alignments are complete, I then slew to the target that I want to image.

At this point, the telescope reticule eyepiece is still inserted from the alignment process. If the object is bright enough, I will center the object in the field of view if necessary. Otherwise, I do this later with short exposures and hand controller adjustments. More on this in a bit.

Once the telescope is pointed at the target, it is time to remove the eyepiece and insert the camera. Connecting the digital SLR to the telescope requires a T-ring and T-adapter as shown below. The following steps show how to attach the DSLR to the telescope. Step 1: T-adapter and T-ring are separate components. Note that the T-ring must be specific to the type of digital SLR used. Step 2: The T-adapter and T-ring are threaded.

The two components are combined. Step 3: Attach to digital SLR. The T-adapter/T-ring assembly inserts into the DSLR just like the camera lenses do.

Step 4: Attach digital SLR to telescope. The DSLR with T-adapter/T-ring assembly is inserted into the telescope eyepiece holder directly (i.e., no eyepieces, Barlows, etc are used). This is considered “prime focus” astrophotography.

The telescope optical tube serves as the camera lens. Important tips: tighten the telescope thumbscrew to the T-adapter securely. Also, be sure to attach some type of DSLR strap to the telescope in case the camera falls.

Digital SLR Computer Connection One thing really nice about my Canon XSi is that I do not need a special shutter control cable like I did with the Canon Digital Rebel (300D). The XSi uses a standard USB cable that works in conjunction with the EOS Utility that came with the camera. I actually have a remote connection to the XSi and telescope using buried Cat. 5e cable that runs in Schedule 40 conduit from my telescope to control room in my garage. On both ends I use simple USB to Ethernet adapters. If there is enough interest, I can document this remote setup.

Just leave a comment in the “Leave a Reply” section at the end of the tutorial. Not to worry, my tutorial works the same if you are using a laptop at the telescope.

My remote setup is nothing more than extensions of the USB cables. Most of my work is done indoors where it is comfortable! At this point, the telescope is pointed at the object that I want to image and the DSLR is inserted in the telescope. With the USB cable already connected to the computer and XSi running on AC power (with optional adapter), I turn on the camera.

The camera mode dial should be set to manual as shown below: If everything is connected correctly, an autoplay pop-up will appear on the computer screen: Just cancel this pop-up by clicking the red “X” in the upper right corner. Open the EOS Utility that came with the DSLR. EOS Utility Instructions 1. Upon launching the EOS Utility, the camera control screen will open as shown below.

Click on “Camera settings/Remote shooting”. This will bring up the main interface for remote operation of the XSi. Note that it is already set to manual from the mode dial setting earlier. In order to take long exposures, the DSLR must be set to “bulb”. In the screenshot below, it is already set to bulb.

By default, it may be on another exposure setting. To change to bulb, simply hover your curser over the icon (where bulb is shown in the screenshot) and right-click (or double-click). Now click on the left double-arrow button and it will go to the bulb setting. Now just move the cursor away. EOS Utility Settings for DSLR Astrophotography Do the same for the other settings in this area.

The screenshot above depicts the settings I used last time I imaged. Shooting mode: bulb White balance: daylight (popular setting) ISO speed: 1600 (this varies depending on the object) Metering mode: evaluative metering (which was default) Image recording quality: RAW (maximum data) Image save location: computer (images automatically upload to computer after each exposure is complete) DSLR Test Shot At this point, it is time for a test shot to see how well centered the object is and how much focusing is required. To take a a shot, press the shutter button at the top right hand corner of the EOS Utility interface. Click the Shutter Button to Start the Exposure For bright objects, I only take about a 1 minute exposure but perhaps 2 minutes or more for faint objects. The shot duration will be displayed in the window to the left of the shutter button. Be sure to click the shutter button again once the desired amount of time has elapsed.

This will stop the exposure and the image will automatically transfer to your computer and will display in the quick preview window. Object Centering If the object is not in the center of the field of view, I simply make fine adjustments with the telescope hand controller. First, I turn the slew rate down to about five and press one of the directional buttons on the hand controller for about 3 seconds. Then I take another test shot to see how the object moved in the field of view in comparison to the initial test shot.

I make note on paper of the movement that the directional button caused. This process is repeated a few times with other directional buttons and documenting the effect. Once I know what direction the object moves for all of the directional buttons, I can center the target nicely in the field of view. This process actually goes fairly quickly and is much easier than trying to center the object through the camera viewfinder! Here is and example of the notes I took during a recent astrophotography session: Directional Button on Hand Controller Direction that the Object Moves Left Up and Right Right Down and Left Up Right and Down Down Left and Up Telescope Focusing After the object is centered, I will start the focusing process. Note that many times I will actually focus while I’m centering the object since it minimizes the number of trips to the telescope (remember I’m imaging remotely).

For focusing, I use the popular Bahtinov focusing mask. This thing makes focusing very simple and quick! The mask just lays over the end of the telescope tube. Then I take trial shots with the digital SLR and adjust focus until the diffraction spike pattern is symmetrical. The video below demonstrates this process on a SCT rather than the ED80 that I use. It is the same process though.

Note that many times I further fine-tune the focus after my autoguider is going (discussed in the next section). This makes for a cleaner image for determining the symmetry of the diffraction spikes. Make sure that you remove the Bahtinov mask when the focusing process is complete!

Autoguider Setup After the initial focusing is complete, it’s time to fire up the autoguider. I am using the low-cost. The Orion system is composed of the following items: • Orion ShortTube 80 refractor telescope • StarShoot AutoGuider • 1.25″ Extension tube (for camera focus) • Guide scope rings • Guide scope ring mounting bar • 10′ USB cable • 6′ autoguide interface cable The autoguider is to the top of my ED80 imaging tube with adapters from.

Note that the Orion Autoguider is “ST-4” compatible so it works with most equatorial mounts with an autoguide port. The connection of the Starshoot autoguide camera is very simple. There are two cables- an autoguide interface cable and a USB cable. The autoguide interface cable plugs into the back of the autoguiding camera and plugs into the autoguide port of the telescope mount. The USB cable connects to the back of the camera and into USB port of the computer.

Starshoot Autoguider Connection The Orion autoguider runs off of the software program PHD Guiding which was developed by Stark Labs(as a freeware program) to be a simple way to guide your telescope. Once the autoguider is plugged in, I launch the PHD Guiding program on my computer and begin the setup.. Note that toward the end of the review I have provided a quick start procedure with corresponding video. This is the basic procedure for setting up the autoguider and locking on to a star.

Once I am guiding, I normally do another fine tuning of the focus with the Bahtinov mask still in place. When I have achieved perfect focus (at least as good as possible), the mask is removed and it is time for collecting some frames! Collecting Light Frames The EOS Utility remains open throughout the process of setting up the autoguider. At this point, I take a decent-length trial exposure of the object. I will use M31 The Andromeda Galaxy as an example for this part of the tutorial. A 5-minute exposure of M31 is a good starting point.

Before going too far, I should make mention of file uploading from the DSLR to computer. When each exposure is complete, it automatically uploads the image to a specified directory on your computer. It’s easy to select a directory in the EOS Utility: • Click the “Preferences” button at the bottom left of the utility. • This brings up the Preferences box.

Click on the “Destination Folder” tab. • To the right of the Destination Folder field, click the Browse button. • Set up a new folder in the location of your choice and save. A typical directory structure for me goes like this: Astrophotography>11-28-10>M31>5min lights ISO1600 So the trial 5-minute exposure would go into this directory. If it looks good, it will become part of my collection of light frames.

Assuming that everything looks good with the trial photo, it’s time to setup the interval timer for the first set of light frames. The EOS Utility has a pretty nice automatic shutter control program.

To set it up, click on the interval timer button: This brings up the Timer Shooting Settings box as follows: Delay time: the amount of time (in seconds) before the “first” exposure starts. Interval timer shooting: the amount of time (in seconds) until the next shot will be taken. This provides time for the previous image to upload to your computer.

This time has to be longer than the exposure time. Shots (minimum 2): the total number of exposures to be taken. Exposure time: the total length of time for the shutter to be open taking the image. Once the Start button is clicked, the DSLR automatically starts the shutter control routine based on the timer shooting settings. This is a nice time to take a break and go get coffee!

It is normal in my experience for the RAW images to be washed-out and have a reddish-cast to them (probably from light pollution). This is especially true with long exposure times. Here is a single 10-minute frame of M31 taken at ISO 1600. It’s no problem though, the reddish-cast will be eliminated through the stacking process!

Various exposure lengths ISO speeds are used in DSLR astrophotography. At the beginning of this tutorial was taken over the course of several nights. I collected data at various exposure times and ISO settings. Here are the settings I used for the composite photo (all taken at ISO 1600): • 30 frames at 5 minutes each • 3 frames at 10 minutes each • 4 frames at 7 minutes each Important tips: make sure you have achieved the best focus possible. Take lots of light frames! The more frames that you stack, the better the signal-to-noise ratio (more signal, less noise).

Collecting Dark Frames The purpose of taking dark frames is to subtract them from the light frames later in the process. This helps to eliminate thermal noise in the image caused by the build-up of heat on the imaging chip. Dark frames are taken with the same exposure time and ISO settings. The process is simple: • Cover the end of the imaging telescope with the dust cap. Note that it must be a tight fit so no light will reach the telescope optics. The DSLR must take exposures of total darkness.

• Follow the same procedure for collecting light frames above. I always create a dark frames directory for the exposures to upload to.

Here is an example: Astrophotography>11-28-10>M31>5min darks ISO1600. My preference on dark frames is to take a set after each set of light frames for each ISO/exposure time setting. I don’t always take as many dark frames as I do light frames though. So the imaging session for my M31 example above looks like this (in order of operation): • 30 light frames at 5 minutes each at ISO 1600 • 5 dark frames at 5 minutes each at ISO 1600 • 3 light frames at 10 minutes each at ISO 1600 • 3 dark frames at 10 minutes each at ISO 1600 • 4 light frames at 7 minutes each at ISO 1600 • 4 dark frames at 7 minutes each at ISO 1600 After collecting all the light frames and dark frames, it’s time to start the processing phase. Processing in DeepSkyStacker DeepSkyStacker is a popular freeware program that allows you to register and stack all of your frames including lights and darks.

DeepSkyStacker can be. For my astro-photos that this tutorial is based on, I only used DeepSkyStacker at it’s most basic level. Thus, I loaded the light frames and dark frames then processed them with default settings. Here is the basic procedure: • Launch the DeepSkyStacker program. • In the upper left menu (under Registering and Stacking), click on “Open picture files”. Now select your first set of light frames.

To select multiple files, just hold the shift key down and click on the first file in the set and then click on the last file in the set. This will select the entire set of files. Click the Open button when all files are selected.

Repeat this step for other sets of light frames (i.e., if you had other sets with different settings in other folders). Be sure that only good quality light frames are loaded. It’s a good idea to review all the images prior to this step to eliminate any that are of poor quality. • Click on “Dark files” in the same section. Repeat the step above but select the dark frames that were captured. Include all dark frames for each set of light frames. • Across the bottom of the DeepSkyStacker screen will be a list of all frames that were loaded.

Here you will see the details for each frame that is loaded. Note that the column of boxes on the left side of the list are not checked. Just go back to the menu on the left side of the screen and click “Check all”.

This will automatically check every box in the list for processing. • Once all of the frames are selected, click “Register checked pictures”. The Register Settings box will pop up: I just leave the default settings as shown above and click the OK button. • Now the Stacking Steps box appears. Again, I leave everything default and click the OK button. • Now DeepSkyStacker begins the automatic processing phase. This part can take several minutes depending on how many frames are involved.

Basically, the program creates a master dark frame, does registration, subtracts the master dark frame, computes offsets, and stacks the frames together for a final composite image. • Click “Save As” and save as a 16-bit TIFF image. Here is the DeepSkyStacker output (cropped and resized). There is still much work to be done, but the composite image from DeepSkyStacker is loaded with information that will be drawn out in the next steps. ImagesPlus Digital Development This next step is performed in the program. In the past, I used ImagesPlus for DSLR control and image set processing. However, with the new Canon XSi, I use the EOS Utility for camera control and DeepSkyStacker from most of the image set processing (as discussed above).

However, I still like the Digital Development tool in ImagesPlus for enhancing the composite photo. I hope to eventually provide an alternate method in PhotoShop in case you do not have ImagesPlus. • Launch the ImagesPlus program. • Open the image file that was saved in DeepSkyStacker.

Go to the Color menu, Brightness Levels and Curves, and select Digital Development. Reference screenshot below. Enable Sliders. • Pull the Break-Point slider to the left until the desired amount of detail obtained. • Bump the Backgd Wt.

Slider slightly to the right to darken the background a bit. • Click the Done button when finished. • Save the file as either a 16-bit Uncompressed TIFF for further processing in PhotoShop (next section).

Here is the ImagesPlus output. As you can see, the Digital Development tool really brought the image to life! Now just a few tweaks are needed in Photoshop. Further Processing- Adobe Photoshop I won’t spend too much time on this part. Basically, the following tools in Adobe Photoshop are used to clean up the photo for the final version: • Crop (to center image) • Rotate canvas (for proper orientation) • Levels (tonal range and color balance) • Unsharp Mask (sharpens image but introduces noise!) • Color Balance • Hue & Saturation Photoshop Astrophotography Instructional DVD Learn to work with the basic Photoshop tools such as menus, layers, masks, and keyboard shortcuts. Making Every Pixel Count will help you learn your way around Photoshop.

Learn higher level concepts and procedures for processing astro-images such as LRGB production, high-pass filters, star replacements and substitutions, sky and star adjustments, noise reduction, star repair, and much, much more! Adam’s Block’s Making Every Pixel Count DVD contains 25 sections of on-screen training adding up to 9 1/2 hours of instruction! Tips & Tricks • Balance the optical tube in the area of the sky that you will be imaging in. Make sure it is loaded with all the equipment you will be imaging with.

The main purpose for this is so the gear mesh or backlash is minimized so that the telescope doesn’t have to take up slop and the autoguider has to take longer to track on the star due to this slop. It helps minimize strain on the gears and motor so that the telescope can track smoothly. • After focusing the DSLR for the first time, use a fine permanent marker and draw a short line on the telescope draw tube where it enters the telescope. This will make it much easier the next time to get the focus close for the DSLR. • It may be helpful to focus on a bright star before slewing the telescope to the target object. The diffraction spikes (from the Bahtinov focusing mask) may be clearer and more distinct with a bright star making it easier to determine thier symmetry. Jeff McClure Ray, I have a 60Da (new) and last week got a knock-out image of the Great Orion Nebula using five ten-minute exposures at ISO 6400 through my Skywatcher 120ED.

The only thing I changed from last week was to remove the 0.85x reducer/flattener. Last night i shot three 20 minute exposures of the Horsehead Nebula and wound up with a very dark image with only hints of the nebula. I can get a vague image by stretching the heck out of the results, but with the resultant extremely grainy appearance that comes with that.

I really don’t think that the Horsehead is that much dimmer than the fringes of Orion, which came through beautifully last week. Both nights were clear and nearly cloudless and cold. Location was the same. AstroPhotography Tonight Sorry I didn’t get back to you on this yet. I use USB over Cat5e extenders like these. Basically, I ran Cat5e cable underground and terminated each end on Cat5e jacks. The jacks were inserted into Keystone style surface housings.

I just plugged one of the USB over Cat5e extenders into my computer’s USB port and connected an ethernet cable into the other end and into the Cat. The other end at the telescope plugs into the Cat.

5e jack and then provides a USB port for the telescope equipment. I need to put together a diagram to help demonstrate. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks, Ray Shore. Jeremy Hi Ray, I’m new to astrophotography, and I have a canon eos T3 with a celestron power seeker. I have the proper attachments for the camera, and the scope, and I’ve tried various settings on the camera to get the right exposure for stacking using deepskytracker, the only thing i don’t have is a auto guide for the scope, ( kinda lacking in budget) so I tried using multiple shorter exposure time shot to create my white frames, while positioning the telescope after each shot. What can I do to try and get some better shots before I have the finances to pay for a more high end setup? Ray– I learned a lot from your first tutorial. The second taught me more.

Thank you for both productions. I use ImagesPlus for both camera control and processing. I don’t have PS.

(I’m a’gonna get it!) I use Nikon NX2 in lieu of PS. (It won’t do layer masking.:() I have the SSAG package on top of an AT8IN with a Nikon D700.

Mike Unsold is going to drop Nikon from the camera control package. So a change is somewhere in my future. I am contemplating CCD. I use an Orion Atlas EQ-G, which I think is similar or identical to your CGEM, without that fantastic “All Star.” Your ED80 shots are very impressive! I bet that refractor is a lot easier to use than any kind of reflector. Plus, it places very little load on your CGEM. (Almost) OT: What software do you use for your web site?

Do you know what kind of software “most” use for their web sites? Mine is all early 1990s vintage hard-coded HTML. I sure would like something easier with more flexibility. –Bill ps daltonstargazer told me you and I live within a dozen miles, or so, of each other.

AstroPhotography Tonight Hi Bill, Thanks for the feedback on my tutorials. It’s always nice to hear that they are useful! Jeff over at told me about you awhile back.

He said that you are capturing very nice images. I just saw your image gallery on your website and I agree with Jeffvery nice work! I have been interested in the 8” Astro-Tech AT8IN optical tube since it will have much more light gathering ability than my ED80. Very nice to see your results! Maybe I will try it someday.

I am pretty happy with the ED80it has been a nice scope for astrophotography. Sounds like you are located fairly close to me.

I am in Paola, Kansas which isn’t too far south of Kansas City. I use the open source program WordPress for this website. It’s a really nice program especially if you want a blog type of website. Another nice open source program that I’ve used for other websites is Joomla.

My older astrophotography website: is built on a program called Namo. It’s just a simple web page software program that I bought at the store. Keep in touch!

Thanks, Ray Shore. Vlassios Marangos Hello Ray! I am Brazilian, I’m 51 years old, and am researching a lot to get start this wonderful hobby that is the astrophotography. Here in Brazil all the equipment you use are very expensive and just thinking of importing the equipment discourages start this hobby.

But I want to congratulate you for your website is very comprehensive and instructive, very good, if i am not wrong, is the best I’ve seen so far. I will use it as a reference and hope that you can help me with doubts that i will have. Canon 5 D Mark ll and 1 D Mark lll, are very expensive. I’m considering buying the Canon 550 D T2i because is in production today and is one of the cheapest with all necessary resources for astrophotography relying with your knowledge and experience, you recommend me buy this camera? And advises me to replace the low-pass filter this camera by one astronomical filter?

Knowing that i can count with your help, thank you in advance, thank you! I do not know the language very well and I’m using the Google translator to speak with you. Shop Admin Hacking Tutorial here. I’m sorry if any word is unclear. AstroPhotography Tonight Hello Vlassios Thank you for the nice comments about my site. I haven’t used the Canon 550D T2i but I have seen some good reviews about it. One review shows that it has less thermal noise than the Canon 20Da and the Canon 1000D.

I’m probably not a good one to recommend removing the IR filter since I’ve never done this. I’m taking some pretty good photos with my Canon XSi without it being modified. I assume that the results would be better for certain objects if the filter was removed. I just don’t have experience with it to make a recommendation!

I may try it someday. Larry Hardman Hi Ray, this is one of the best start to finish tutorials I have read so far. The web is a great place for information but it is not usually all pieced together.

I have been reading and reading trying to come up to speed on what to buy for hardware, software and books on the subject so I can make the best cost effective decision. I was going to get a Nikon but then saw that the majority of people are using Canon and there seems to be more software support for it. I just used my Delta Skymiles to order a free Canon Rebel T2i which will save me a boat load of money. I will look again at the CGEM mount and compare it to the Orion Sirius. I was also going to get the Orion 80ED and the Orion auto guide package. A couple of questions. Why are you not using the Orion reducer/corrector between the T-ring and focuser?

I am assuming you have the mount tracking turned on and are using the auto guider to make minor adjustment? I have read about the modified Canon cameras and the Hutech and Astronomik filters you can attach to the camera for filtering. I am confused if you can also put some of these broadband or light pollution filters in line in the t-ring to focuser connection. If so would this not be the cheapest and easiest way of using filters with a DSLR? Lastly when I see what equipment and software people are using I see so many software/hardware/freeware solutions people are using. Maybe this is because there were no intergraded solutions when they first started out with AP or they are trying to save money using some freeware.

I am surprised there are not more in depth reviews and write ups of the functionality and workflow of the complete Image Plus package. If you are building a new system this seems to be the way to go but this is where I cannot find enough information. Thanks for sharing, Larry. AstroPhotography Tonight Hi Larry, thanks for the nice feedback about my tutorial. Nice that you are getting the T2i with your Skymiles! It should be a capable camera for astrophotography.

I think for the money, the CGEM and the Orion Sirius (or Atlas) would be a good choice. I went back and forth between the CGEM and the Atlas but finally settled on CGEM. I’ve been looking at the Orion reducer/corrector.

It actually puts the arc seconds/pixel closer to the sweet spot of 2.0. Correct on the autoguider. I do a close polar alignment then use the autoguider to keep the tracking right on. Very good question on using the broadband and light pollution filters in line when using the Orion reducer/corrector. The filters screw into the t-adapter but only the t-ring is used with the reducer/corrector. Will have to investigate further to see if we can also use the filters.

Very good question! My tutorials offer some information on using ImagesPlus but I haven’t actually written a review on it. I’m not using ImagesPlus as much as I used to. Now I use DeepSkyStacker for stacking the images and the Digital Development tool in ImagesPlus to enhance the stacked photo. Here is my latest tutorial that explains the process:.

Thanks again for your feedback and I wish you the best with astrophotography! Let us know if you figure out the reducer/corrector and filter thing! Larry Hardman Hi Ray, great idea on the USB Cat4 extender. I bought one for a test using the EOS utility and it turned out to be only USB 1.0 compliatnt and took about 25 secs to download an image.

What model/brand are you using? Seems you could place a USB hub at the telescope end and control the camera and autoguider with just one extender. I saw where another person with 80ED was using an extender/flattener from Williams Optics which allows filters at the nose end. It also allows you to easily rotate the camera to orient your subject. It is pricey but here is the link. Seems you can save $60-70 by buying imageplus without the camera control and use the EOS uitlity to control the camera.

Thanks, Larry. AstroPhotography Tonight Larry, I am using the Cables Unlimited USB-1370:. It doesn’t give me USB 2.0 speeds but seems to be working ok anyway. I’m downloading the RAW’s directly to my computer in under 10 seconds.

25 seconds would be a long time! I have heard of people using a USB hub at the telscope end so I’m sure it works. Another way that seems to be popular is to set the laptop at the observatory and run your programs on it such as the EOS Utility and autoguider software then take control of the laptop from a computer inside the house. You can either take control wirelessly or use a powerline adapter which sends the ethernet signal across the AC line. Thanks for sharing the link for the Williams Optics reducer. I will check it out.

Yes, you should be able to buy just the ImagesPlus processing program without the camera control program. The EOS Utility works pretty nicely. Thanks, Ray Shore. Ted Gardner Hello again Ray. I keep coming back to your site for the tutorials as I find them a very, very valuable! I’m starting into astrophotography using the XSi camera as well with the remote control with my laptop. Since Spring is starting here in Georgetown, Ontario, I came back to your description of your remote setup with the telescope and XSi with Cat 5e cable.

I hope there has been enough interest that you are considering documenting this setup. In any event, your pictures are amazing, especially those using Images Plus Digital Development. They come alive! Also, would you be interested in putting on a seminar for your topics on your website? I think you might have enough interest from other amateur astronomers. If you ever do, please let me know.

Best Regards, Ted. AstroPhotography Tonight Hello Ted. I’m glad to hear that my tutorials are useful! I’ve got plans to write more but haven’t had a chance. The next one will be about my most recent photo of the horsehead nebula:. I finally got an image of this difficult object that I’m pretty pleased with.

I still plan to do an article on my remote setup too. Sorry I haven’t posted one yet.

Sure, I might do a seminar someday for some of my topics. That would be fun! Thanks for all the nice comments!

Best Regards, Ray.