Woooaaa, here come the heavyweights!!!! Make way, make way!

You can bet I'll be there. USJ is my backyard lah. Can talk-talk plenty star crazy folks!

Ya, we go show how the LYN Astrophoto Group (u lah) shoot down the one and only blue moon of Malaysia!

deepyu, you've brought up the classic dilemma for any hobbiest in any field. What equipment to start off with? No single instrument can do everything you would like to indulge in.
My opinion is a motor driven equatorial mount (reasonably accurate, of course) is the starter kit if anyone wants to do astrophotgraphy with an existing camera (digital or analog, doesn't matter).
For those who don't have a camera, then they will need a telescope with motor drive of some sort and at least a webcam to do imaging on a tight budget.
After that, the sky is the limit as far as equipment is concerned. Each design has its pros and cons, and the choice will depend on which aspect of astrophotgraphy you want to excel in.
When you meet up with the members of the APGM you'll be dazzled by the array of equipment they have.............and enjoy yourself arguing over the selection.

I'm struck speechless, Mr.LKM!

Choostar, do u think I can catch some nice astropics with my new tiny Casio EX Z750? As u can see from my posts here, I've a long way to go.............my current goal is to capture a respectable shot of the moon with this digicam. Do u think it is possible? Or am I wasting my time?


Well, u expressed yourself very well there. Obviously you've been doing plenty of research on the latest telescope equipment......

deepyu, mountain climbing time!


You got my support. But i don't know how to run website lah. I only know how to kacau kacau.


ya, I CAN DO IT!....er i think.......

Excuse me, I got to run to join some friends at star party tonight in the middle of KL. If got clouds, we do something else lah...

Sabar sikit....you'll be hosting your own star party soon.......
Anyway, last night was not very good for star gazing. Only look at the Moon, very funny, everybody wait for 20-30 minutes, then the Moon break cloud cover so all rush to take quick look through the telescopes for 30 secs, then wait again.......... but got plenty of time to chit chat lah.
No chance to see Venus & Mars at all. The party was over at 10.30 pm. Driving back, I saw the Moon shining happily. This Moon lady very treacherous one.

Dat looks like the kind of moon shots i'm going to be limited to....
This is what i can get at max optical zoom 3x (35mm equivalent is 114mm)


plus a bit of digital zoom:

These pics are cropped, no resizing.
Obviously i can forget about closeups of the Moon with my Cassie.

Choostar, not withstanding afocal photography (which is what i did for the Sun pic with a Solarscope - see post #189) and the common tricks in digital photoediting, are there any techniques favourable to compact digicams for astrophotography? Right now everyone is going great guns on DSLRS.......
It seems that Astrophotography is only for the rich or for the Astronomy expert!

Sure can ah? u won't shoot back?

Aiyoyo, kena M16 eagle strike, i finish wor.
Okay, Mr.LKM, no more digital zoom (bad boy, March05, bad boy), get very bad image.

u spy on me again ah?

Tonite no Moon lady, rain rain so much. I'll catch up on my sleep instead......dream about 16" telescope.

ya, the M16 will blast u into a nebula...very dangerous. Stay away from Mr.LKM, our next 007.


See page 10 of this thread, post #189


I obviously can't fit the DCL28 on my Cassie, no thread on the lens. But while i have been exploring afocal photography (mainly for terrestrial objects), my main interest is really to see how far i can go wih a compact digicam without using any adapters - just the integrated lens.

I also got a palace in my dreams, can put this giant on one of the towers. U all can stay with me anytime, got 100 rooms for guests............hope i don't get a nightmare, instead turn into a haunted castle

u know the song......"to dream, the impossible dream".......


remind me not to annoy u.

i had nothing to do with it, so don't shoot me, ok?

30th October is rapidly approaching! Anyone got some nice Mars closeup from past few days? Choostar, any goodies from APGM? Pls share with us....we're hungry.

Hey right on, bro.
Only a small part of the moon will be in the umbra, though, so I guess most ppl will not even notice the event.
Are you going to do some shooting tonite, CompMac? U're our resident Moon photographer!
deepyu, can u think of any hill in KL with a clear viewpoint of the East Horizon to try some shooting? We only have about 3.5 hours to prepare loh!

no, no, don't keep them crossed, keep them on the shutter button!

Mr.LKM. are u ready down in Kluang?

Way to go, wKkay. Now we're international!
Any luck yet, anybody?
Silly me, everyone's outside now except me, still stuck in the office.....

The moon was in the penumbra during the height of the eclipse, so definitely the EV is lower. Maybe you can ask the shop to push the film a couple of stops for you. But then the rest of your shots will be over......
It was beautifool from here, the weather suddenly changed for the better at about 7.30 pm, the moon came out from behind the clouds and put on a jolly good show! Even Venus came out to see what the fuss was all about!
How did you do in Butterworth, CompMac?
I fear deepyu & Mr.LKM may have missed the action; they were last online at 10 plus this morning...........still no sign of them now.

Didn't notice Mars, had no view of the horizon.
Did you recover the lost contact? Hope it was a disposable type......

Anyway, here are my shots:-
First, how the eclipse would appear to the naked eye:


Eclipse at 8.08 pm in Klang Valley.


Almost out of the Umbra at 8.48 pm


Eerie Moon