My Canon EOS350 Page
Images taken as an example that are not astrophoto's ....Bird......Engine driverimage cut to half resolution and using a 200mm canon telephoto lense.
Using it for Astrophotography...
The images below are viewed best on a 1280 by 1024 pixel resolution TFT display even so they are not the quality and resolution of the original images as they have been resized for web pages .The originals at 22mbytes each are impractical for downloading.It is also relavent to mention that the broadband light pollution filter used here doubles the exposure times and also modifies the colour content of the images.Without the filter and at a dark sky site the performance would be much better.
This is the first image taken with the EOS350 using the standard 55mm camera lens.It shows the view from my site towards the city of Birmingham several miles away with the light pollution at the bottom.M31 is shining above the city lights.To do this I made an adaptor between a 2 inch broadband filter and the standard 0.75mm thread of the 58 mm camera filter thread.The camera was piggy backed on top of my lx classic.The exposures were four 5 minute exposures and one 8 minute exposure using the camera onboard dark frame subtraction at 800ASA then registaxed to combine them ,stack them and improve the noise performance.The camera temperature was high at 18 deg C.
As an alternate to this picture there is another copy with the moon superimposed on it,It surprises non astronomers when they see it as they do not realise the size of this galaxy in the sky.
After this picture the weather closed in for several days so the next picture was taken over two nights snapshotting between the cloud cover.This was taken at the prime focus of the LX 12 inch classic unguided using five and seven minute exposures with the onboard darkframe subtraction. The same broadband filter was in use again inside the body shell of the LX.Absorption by this filter means longer exposures.Camera temperature was 20 deg C.
Registax helped here again,the original pictures were full format jpg at full resolution of 3456 by 2304 pixels.I have yet to do comparisons at this point with raw mode uncompressed images.It will also be interesting in the winter to see how the camera performance changes when the body temperature goes down to close to freezing. On time exposures the camera battery performance is good lasting out for all of these time exposures,however that has not stopped me from buying a power supply for the camera for future use.As an astro camera the sensitivity and noise performance is marginal but acceptable and could be better but where can you buy an 8.2 megapixel pro astro camera for this price and also use it for your holiday shots as well.
September is the best time for the M31 cluster as it is overhead so here is a picture taken using the Canon at the prime focus of the Orion 80mm wide field refractor.Exposure was a composite of five shots ranging in time from 5 to 10 minutes at 800ASA.Assembly using registax with a small amount of contrast and gamma correction using paint shop pro.A broad band filter was used and the camera temperature was 8 deg C.There is a lot more detail in this picture than first appears,you need to look at it with a bright high contrast monitor in a dark room to see all of it.It is a shame my filter double images on very bright stars.
This always reminds me of a firework going off, some firework, the crab nebula is in there somewhere. Taken with two exposures of four mins only at 800ASA,needs a longer exposure and some guiding and more exposures.
Taking pictures of the moon is more difficult than it
seems. Getting the right atmospheric conditions for sharp pictures is just the
same as any other object during the times you see it during the year. This is
an average but not very good composite of forty images of the moon taken with
the EOS350D.You never quite get absolutely matching exposures so you get
lines.Passes the time away ,may get lucky one of these days..
A composite of four 8 minute exposures using the 12 inch LX200 at F6.3 with the speed set at 800ASA.
Large field again in the form of the veil nebula supernova remnant or part of it as it is difficult to cover all of it.The LXD75 newtonian was used for this using four 3 minute exposures that are stacked and processed for noise reduction.
M51 the whirlpool galaxy
Globular Clusters such as M3 and M13 are easy to image because they are bright objects....
Conclusions
This camera is a cheap alternative to doing large format ccd imaging for any amateur astrophotographer.I seriously think that the days of the £2000 specialist CCD camera bought by amateurs are soon to end.With a combination of something like the Meade DSI,the Toucam pro and this camera would make a combination of cost less than £1000 that any amateur could do most astroimaging projects he or she decided to attempt.There never will be a universal camera as there never will be a universal screwdriver.The range of sizes of just the messier objects and the planets need all these camera's to cover everything.Even that may not be possible with just one telescope and one focal length excluding focal ratio.You have a complete imaging tool that does not need to have the millstone of a laptop PC to control it to take on any expedition anywhere,even to the end of your own garden.Any processing can be done at a later date just like the pictures you took of the baby and grandma on holiday.
