The first step on astrophotography on the LightBridge was to attempt an afocal setup using a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS point-and-shot camera. After the counterweight issue was resolved, the next issue was to get the camera into position using the Orion SteadyPix Deluxe Camera Mount. The SteadyPix was completely adjustable but also made it more confusing to get everything to align but finally I did.
One problem was getting the image to look centered in the camera and also not have random spots displayed. I zoomed in a little and that fixed the issue.
Once the image looked good, I experimented with camera settings. I switched to the P mode manual option. I then set the ISO to either 1600 or 800. I changed the metering to “spot” but left it on Auto White Balance (AWB). I set it to the highest resolution JPG files. I turned off all flash settings. Lastly, I set the self-timer to 2 seconds to avoid any motion after clicking the shutter.
I took some test shots of an electrical pole in the distance. Overall, the images were fine though not as focused as looking through the eyepiece but the next step will be to try with astronomy objects.
Overall, the setup was fine but the SteadyPix was a little too complicated to get everything set. I had to remove the camera a number of times to remove the SD card to check the results on my computer. That wasn’t really the fault of the SteadyPix but made the overall configuration less than ideal.
