Wide-field Imaging With a Piggyback Mount
This level takes you a step further, by adding the use of a telescope. Many night imaging hobbyists never go beyond the first level, they achieve great satisfaction with what they can accomplish. However there are plenty who get hooked at the first level and wish to move to the next step.
It is called piggy back mount because you take your digital camera and mount it on top of a telescope with a special adapter that will create a firm, rigid connection. What this does is let you use the telescope to track the item you want to photograph, Once you found it, then you will see it in the LCD screen on the camera. When you are ready, you take the picture.
What you can do, that can’t be done in Level One, is actually use the internal tracking mechanisms of the telescope to keep the image centered. This lets you take exposures up to 60 seconds ( level one 30 seconds was the limit). In addition, if the camera has a zoom lens, that can be used for magnifying the object before taking the picture without losing the quality of the image.
Become familiar with a monthly star map, as they will tell you when interesting patterns are due to show up and help you find where in the sky to look
Celestial objects to try to photograph
Wide fields of star clusters that do not normally fit into a telescope lens. The camera will be able to see the entire formation of spread out stars, and even magnify them, whereas the telescope eyepiece can see small portions.
Constellations
The Double Cluster
Pleiades (Seen Sisters) star cluster.
Combinations of planets and stars near the Moon
Challenge: the Milky Way – if you find yourself in an area with a very dark sky and no glow on the horizon from a city or town
Moon rising over a lake or mountain
Constellations like Ursa Major (The Big Dipper), Orion the Hunter, Scorpius the Scorpion, and Cassiopeia the Queen.
Look for these objects when they are suspended over a picturesque background
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