My first focused picture (M42)
This post was originally published on my old blog dedicated to amateur astronomy.
All right, after studying some lessons from my professor and mentor in AP, Terry F.. I was able to take my first focused picture, haha. Me and my wife were spending the weekend in this nice property in the middle of the Praia do Saco beach in Estância - Sergipe, Brazil. I knew the place already as I have been there multiple times in the past. It has a nice sky and it was during the New Moon phase, so I took the opportunity to make some observations with my 114mm f/8.7 Newtonian, my 12x70 binoculars and to take some pictures with my wife’s Canon EOS 600D.
I had the camera setup on a tripod using the Canon EF 40mm 1:2.8 STM Lens. Using a 10m USB cable, I had it connected to my Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon notebook, running Manjaro Linux. With VT-d enabled, I had QEMU running a virtual Windows 10 machine. That’s because I wanted to use the APT program to control the camera, which is a Windows only software and I don’t really want to setup any dual boot on my notebook. I have Windows 10 running on my desktop machine, but it’s far from being portable.
That was my first time using this setup. I have programmed hundreds of exposures, I just wanted it to take a ton of pics in different configurations and exposures times so I could analyze later in my office. But turns out that every 10 minutes or so APT was losing connection to the camera. I thought it was the cable, because 10m is way too long for USB. But later in my house I tested the same cable with the APT on my desktop and it worked just fine. I think it might be something to do with the QEMU routing the USB device to the virtual machine, I don’t really know.
So I ended up with around 50 exposures, most of which were ruined by clouds. I selected only a single light frame and decided to use it to edit in Photoshop. No stacking, no dark frames, no bias, nothing. It was a 10” ISO400 f/2.8 picture of the Orion region. Which became officially my first focused picture of the night sky.
Author: Fernando Schuindt
License: CC BY 4.0
Camera: Canon EOS 600D
Lens/Telescope: Canon EF 40mm 1:2.8 STM Lens
Composition: 1x Light Frame 10” ISO400 f/2.8
Processing: Photoshop Levels adjustments and Camera Raw Filter
Location Name: Praia do Saco, Estância - Sergipe, Brazil
Location Aprox. Coordinates: 11° 24’ 28.3788’’ S 37° 19’ 16.1652’’ W
Timestamp (Local Time): 12-28-2019 21:46:46
Theme: Orion
Other Gear: Generic tripod, 10m USB cable, Thinkpad notebook, APT - Astro Photography Tool.
Astrometry: http://nova.astrometry.net/status/3147368
Full Resolution Images: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cJ9S8e6YP1nwGmMp8
The setup waiting the nightfall:
The property:
I just wanna say thanks to Catarina, my wife, for allowing me to play with her camera and lenses. To Terry F., my AP mentor, for the huge amount of knowledge and help he’s providing to me. And for M. and his dad, for the always great hospitality, for allowing me to take these pictures in their property and for even turning the lights down for us to stargaze.
BTW, I have omitted his name (also the coordinates are quite far from the real place) just for security reasons, you never know.