Milky Way Imaging with your Dwarf III telescope
This tutorial will show you how to take stunning pictures of the Milky Way with your Dwarf 3 in EQ (equatorial) mode.
To image the Milky Way you will need to have your telescope in EQ mode. See here for the EQ setup tutorial.
By Polar aligning your telescope you will be able to take longer exposures with your Dwarf 3. This mode allows you to take exposures longer than 30 seconds without trailing.
01) As you will be imaging the Milky Way with the wide lens, you will need to pick a star or object that is in the middle of the area of Milky Way that you want to image. Ensure that you have the tele lens selected for this initial setup.
02) Using the atlas, search for an area of the Milky Way that you want to image. Locate an object that is in this central position ie, nebula, galaxy or star etc....
Using the Tele lens, centre this object using the normal goto function from the atlas. You are now tracking this object.
03) You now need to select the wide lens. Do this by clicking the Wide lens Window-in-a-window box (see picture below). This makes the wide lens the main view and the tele lens the small view.
04) This next step is IMPORTANT - Click "Function" on the right hand menu bar and select "Parameters".
Now click the word "Wide" (see picture below). This ensures that the wide lens is selected when it comes to changing the parameters.
05) Set your exposure (min of 30s - max of 90s) and set the gain to between 40 & 60. Then set the amount you want to take.
06) Double check that the wide lens is still selected and click the start button. Sit back and watch the pictures come in.
