Astrophoto thread (your own photos please)

[TSPenguin]

Zatnikitelman, that only took a 500mm (Telephoto?) lense to get such a close-up of the moon?

The moon is quite big

Also, the picture seems slightly out of focus to me.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Yep, it's a 500mm lens, but I'm not sure if it qualifies as "telephoto." I'll try again tonight if it's clear to see if I can't help the focusing. I've got the focus set to infinity when I take these pics (you should see the rejects! ) and I'll check to see if it's somehow sliding down or coming out of focus when the shutter goes off (I use timer mode so I can dampen the vibrations before it actually goes off). Tonight might also be less windy which could have caused some of the blurring.

 

[orb]

Zatnikitelman, that only took a 500mm (Telephoto?) lense to get such a close-up of the moon?

With Nikon's D80 CCD, it's about 3.2 degrees field of view for 500 mm lens, so by adding to it uncropped picture size of 3872 x 2592 pixels, it's pretty possible to get Moon that big, after cropping almost half of the image.

 

[jedimaster1214]

my attempt at astrophotography...
any suggestions for improvements?
Maybe better camera?
used: telescope:meade model 2090
25mm lens
camera: regular HP photosmart 935 camera

 

[Nerull]

Took this a few months ago, never posted it.

M33. 80mm f/7, ST-8 CCD. 10x2 minute exposures, stacked in CCDStack.

 

[Notebook]

Thats very good! Gives me encouragement to have a go.

N.

 

[george7378]

I should try and find M33 through my telescope. I can see M32 quite easily, so am I likely to be able to find M33?

 

[RisingFury]

My introduction into Astrophotography:

I've tried pointing my digital cam through the eyepiece of my 6 cm refractor, but no success, so this week I tried taking many images, just using optical zoom on my cam.

Here are the results:

Part of the constellation Orion:

The three bright starts top right are the Orion's belt. To my surprise, a bit of the Great nebula in Orion can be seen.
103 x 4 second exposure, ISO200, 4x optical zoom. A mistake I made was using F3.2, instead of F2.8. I didn't notice the cam change the setting until I was done shooting. Next time I'll use F2.8, which will give about 1.5 times brightness.


Pleiades:

Pleiades is a nebula / young cluster of stars. You can see it in the sky even from a light polluted city. A person with normal vission should be able to resolve 7 to 8 stars in a light polluted area.

It's located "towards the west" of constellation Orion, with a bunch of relativelly bright stars very close together.

This image was compiled from 76 images of 1 second exposure, 12x optical zoom, ISO200, F3.2.



These are my first two stacked images, so any imput is welcome.

The main problem I've had shooting with the cam on a tripod alone is that if I used zoom, I would have to restrict my exposure time, to prevent the stars from being smudgy. A 12x zoom will only allow a max of 1 second exposures. A 4x zoom will only allow around 4 second exposures...

Also, I'm restricted to using low ISO. I tried using ISO1000, but then DeepSkyStacker mistook the noise in the image as stars and the end result was horrible.

I know DeepSkyStacker wasn't really designed with digital cameras pointed at the sky in mind, so if anyone has any experience to share, I'd be thankful.

 

[TSPenguin]

Since you are a crafty person, I suspect you will be able to build an Equatorial Mount very easily. There are some good tutorials for homemade ones to be found on the net.
I am planning to build one myself but never get around to it But I might get my hands on a 300mm lens soon. That will certainly provide me with enough incentive to finally build one.

 

[RisingFury]

Build one, huh? That's a pretty good idea!

I'll have a look for some online tutorials. I have some spare wood and I should have all the tools I'll need. If I do build one, I'll be sure to make a thread

Thanks

 

[Yoda]

Here's is my image for tonight that I just took of NGC2903 just before the clouds rolled in.

Camera: Orion Starshoot II 5x7 minutes with Light polution filter using LX90 8-inch, autoguided.

Not too shabby.

 

[RisingFury]

Wow, that's impressive! :thumbup:

 

[george7378]

Here's a combination photograph of the beautiful red Moon I saw last night (One through a telescope at 36X, one at 3X zoom):

 

[Messierhunter]

That's a great shot yoda, what did you use for autoguiding?

 

[george7378]

I saw a wonderful Sunset this evening, and took some photos for my website - you can find them here:

http://georgek.heliohost.org/photos.html

 

[Messierhunter]

Here's a time lapse video of comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) that I shot this morning just before sunrise as the comet was rising over the trees. It's 43 minutes compressed into about 40 seconds, ending right as sunlight obscured the comet completely. The telescope was an 8" LX200 and the camera was a modified Samsung SDC-435 set at its maximum integration of 8 seconds per video frame.

 

[tblaxland]

Thanks Messierhunter. I was surprised to see how fast it was moving, it won't be long until it is no longer observable for a while.

 

[McWgogs]

Here's mine, taken during 30 minutes after midnight local time yesterday.
Panasonic dmc-fz8, 190x4s, 3600iso, 12x zoom (432mm on 35mm equivalent)

 

[Messierhunter]

That's a very nice shot of the comet McWgogs! You can really see the tail clearly. Here's a video of ISS I shot tonight. It was an 82 degree pass and I was able to follow it almost all the way up to the top; at the end of the video the LX200 started its automatic cord untangle maneuver (kind of like an equatorial mount flip) and I wasn't able to reacquire it on the other side until it was behind a tree.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB2-4ubEH3A"]YouTube- International Space Station - 6/24/10[/ame]

 

[george7378]

That's a very nice shot of the comet McWgogs! You can really see the tail clearly. Here's a video of ISS I shot tonight. It was an 82 degree pass and I was able to follow it almost all the way up to the top; at the end of the video the LX200 started its automatic cord untangle maneuver (kind of like an equatorial mount flip) and I wasn't able to reacquire it on the other side until it was behind a tree.
YouTube- International Space Station - 6/24/10

Beautiful - what was your magnification? I have seen the ISS twice at 180X using hand guiding, but I would like to try it at lower if possible, so that tracking is easier.