Anyone? I need some help! <BR>The live focus on the 40D doesn't pick up deep space objects or even reasonably bright clusters/nebula's so all focusing needs to be done through the viewfinder which is next to impossible. I'm looking for advice on how to cure this problem. I'm shooting prime with a SCT Celestron C8 2032mm. No barlows/diagnals.

Canon Angle finder C.

I can't help Barry but I got some great long exposure shots of the stars this weekend. <BR> <BR>When you get it figured out post up a few shots.

Rich, the word is they don't work too well when shooting anything with a magnitude of 3 or greater.I haven't tried them so I'm only going by the word of others. Have any experience? <BR> <BR> <BR>Here's a quick one I shot last night testing out the live view. <img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/87667/609526.jpg" alt="Upload">

lol! I'm a tool... <BR> <BR> <BR>Anyway, it looks horrible reduced and without the moons, but you get the picture.

Very cool !

Here's HH nebula single shot no stacking, which is why it looks like crap.<img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/87667/609696.jpg" alt="Upload">

This nice! <BR> <BR>I used one to manually focus my tilt shift lenses and I found it better then live view but I'll take your word for it for what you're doing. <BR> <BR>Maybe a body with a better VF and a different focus screen?

Thanks Rich! I'm a newb to this APhotography stuff, but it's great fun. It's a lot of work for just a mediocre shot. <BR> <BR>I just picked up a 40D because the 20D wasn't cutting it, what body would you suggest?

The 5D has a better VF and has a removable focusing screen so it gives you some choices for manual focus aid screens but it is a full frame sensor so you lose the sensor crop factor "magnification". <BR> <BR>I'd go on fred miranda.com and see what the other guys are using. I don't know which sub forum those guys might be posting on though.

<img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/87667/610114.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR>here's a better shot from tonight..

Barry, <BR>Is there any way to get more magnification ?

Rich, <BR>thanks for the advice! I'm going to stick with the 40d for now, but I'll read FM and see what the others are using. <BR> <BR>Walt, <BR>yes, but my exposure time is going to increase a great deal and that's a problem. My scope is polar aligned via an equatorial mount, but getting it exact on both axis is a major issue. If it's not perfectly aligned you'll get star trails/streaking on anything greater than 20 seconds. This was shot at about 50 seconds and you can tell my scope is not perfectly aligned due to the slightly oblong shape of the stars(it's really, really close, though). To magnify the nebula 2x my exposure time would be 4-5 minutes for the same results(roughly)which would most certainly show serious streaking, again due to lack of perfect equatorial alignment. This thing's 5200 light years away and my scope is a 2032mm focal length.. I'm not even going to get into the trouble it would take just to locate/focus the thing with another 2x and a major narrowed FOV/ lack of light. <IMG SRC="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":-)" BORDER=0> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_mount" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_mount</a>