Set ups

[jpro747]

Hello,

My solar filter has arrived and is up and running.
I have managed to have a look at the sun and took a picture:
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n58/ ... _5379o.jpg

I have also edited the photo to give it a more sun like effect. Maybe not as interesting as it would be with H-alpha, but its great to see the sunspots

[grztus]

Nice photo, better than mine. I have a problem with waveing of warm air and the image isn't sharp.

[jpro747]

Thanks, Im not an expert on viewing the sun but your waves may be because of various reasons. My guess is that your telescope is on a roof, or balcony and heatwaves are rising off this. My telescope is on a Balcony, however the sun at that time of day wasnt very powerful and the balcony floor wasnt very hot. Perhaps when you took your photo the sun was more powerful creating a large amount of heatwaves to pass in front of your field of view.

Maybe you coluld try taking your telescope in the garden?

Anyway I hope this helps

[Masterploxis]

Hello All,

i am quite new to contrail spotting. The first pics i saw have been from conrtrailsuk on flickr. After i saw his pics i was amazed.

Now i have a Maksutov 127 / 1540 telescope with a Nikon D80 mounted via T Ring. The best pic i was able to take was this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/masterploxis/817432945/
The pic was taken in würzburg (there is a VOW nearby and busy airways, Frankfurt Apt is also 1h away).

Now i tried many times again but the main problem i have is the focussing. When the cam is attached to the Mak (direct without lens of course) i can get an image through the cameras viewfinder which is quite sharp and focused. After taking the picture the final result is not sharp and kind of blurry. How do you keep the fast moving plane in the small field of view and how do get the perfect focus ???

I have big problems moving the telescope to keep the plane in the field of view and just try to shoot as many photos while slowly turning the focus wheel on the telescope hoping that one pic is ok with sharp details and plane in middle of fov.

But as i said, the results are poor.

Greetings from germany
Andy

[grztus]

Hello Andy, nice to meet you
We have here some friends (like Maciejh76, panmichu), who are taking pictures with Maksutov scopes and DSLr body (you can try to write them private message). Mak 127 is unfortunatelly quite dark scope, so you need to use ISO 400 or higher in the middle of the day.
There is also small problem with air inside the scope, try to use it in shadow (behind the tree, house etc...), when the scope is colder, the pictures are usually quite better.
One more thing, are you taking pictures from the house (for example from the window)? If yes, this is your biggest problem, warm air from the walls is the killer of images. Try to get photos from the ground (park, street etc.)

If you don't have remote cord for your Nikon, get some money and buy it (about 25-30 Euro for MC-DC1 cord). In my opinion it is very useful for contrail spotting via telescope.

By the way, on the picture you have A340 (I'm not shure if it is A346) not B747
You can see the differences in the distance between engines and fuselage at those pictures: A346 vs B747