This is an exclusive session for 1 person where you capture images of deep sky objects through our telescopes.

You can do this onsite with your compatible DSLR / Mirrorless camera or use our Canon RA mirrorless camera.

OR you can do this online using our Canon RA mirrorless camera on our 17 inch telescope, and our CCD camera on our 4″ telescope.

Duration is 2 hours and is held on dark moonless nights.

You can choose which objects you want to image from the list below. You may wish to take a single image of each or you may want to take several images of fewer objects to stack and process at home to get richer images. You can choose the camera settings or experiment with (iso and exposure time) or we can advise what may work best.

Compatible cameras are ones where the lens can be removed and be fixed to the telescope with one of our adapters.

These include Canon, Nikon, Pentax DSLR Cameras. Sony Mirrorless cameras. Nikon and Canon Mirrorless cameras are also fine if you have an adapter that fits the Nikon/canon DSLR lenses.

Alternatively you can use our Canon RA mirrorless camera. You just need to bring a standard SD Card. Or we can sell you one.

We attach the camera body to our telescopes to take images of deep sky objects, like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters.

We use our 17 inch Planewave Telescope and our 3″ Refractor with your camera.

We can use our 4″ Takahashi FSQ edx4 refractor using our CCD camera. You will need to bring a usb stick if you want the images

If you have a wide angle lens we can take some images of constellations or the Milky Way.

If there are any planets visible, we can take a video and copy that to your usb stick. This can be processed to form an image. Bring an empty usb stick for this.

You must know your settings on your camera before you come.

• Manual Setting
• ISO Settings
• Exposure time settings
• Live View
• Magnify the live view
• Can Take an image without the lens attached (essential for mirrorless cameras)

Do a dry run before you come without your lens attached.

Online Session Requirements

We attach our Canon RA mirrorless camera to our 17 inch planewave telescope. This will take colour photographs. You and I can set the exposure times, ISO etc, and number of pictures you want of each object. These will be colour photographs in raw and jpeg.

We also can use our 4 inch Takahashi FSQ106 telescope with a astronomical CCD camera attached. This is better for larger objects in the sky, that you cant photograph with the 17 inch telescope. This takes monochrome images, but by taking images with blue, green and red filters we obtain a colour image after combining. This data will be calibrated with dark and flat fields.

To access online you will use a free program called radmin viewer if you want control of the camera. Alternatively we can have a Zoom Meeting where we can talk and you can see what is happenning but I can only control the imaging.

I mail you all the data on a usb stick. The data from the Takahashi telescope can be uploaded if you wish or added to the usb stick.

Dates & Times

This session is available on clear cloudless nights between 3rd Qtr Moon and 1st Qtr Moon Phase.

Dates for September at 10:30pm: 1st to the 9th.

If there are no bookings for the earlier Premium Session, we can bring this session forward 2 hours.

Price

Onsite Session cost (1 person): $165 + credit card fee if paying by card. You will not be sharing this session with anyone else.

Online Session Cost $190.

Bookings

Email the observatory [email protected] or call 0488 425 940

Objects that can be photographed

If not visible, select the download button to view