astrophotography results!

[grooveattack]

Hey,
these were the best results of my little trip to see the stars:

http://gallery.me.com/c.woolford#100221

thanks to everyone in my other thread for all the advise!

feedback please?

 

[mtbdudex]

Hey,
these were the best results of my little trip to see the stars:

http://gallery.me.com/c.woolford#100221

thanks to everyone in my other thread for all the advise!

feedback please?

Sorry I missed your other thread.
Nice first attempts, a couple of things:
a) I like your shots that have some ground reference in them @ rule 1/3
b) some seem slightly soft on focus.
I've had best luck with live view, 10x, then manual focus until the brightest star you can find gets small/sharp as possible. Sometimes that takes a back/forth on the focus ring until you find that center spot of focus.
Even if you have to crank up the ISO just to focus to show the star brightrest, then move it down for the actual shot.
Infinity marking on camera is a good start, but that varies on temp and zoom.
c) Was any PP done on these?

Are you bitten by the bug and thinking to do this again?

Here are 2 threads in this forum:
Misc Astrophotography (Shoot the ISS, etc) besides moon shots...
Full moon fever!!/Lunar "X"/General moon shots

Here is a thread from Canon POTN I made of CY2010 Top 10 in 2010 to shoot (Astronomy, non telescope), in there lessons learned and camera settings for each object I attempted to capture.

If you want to do more astrophotography I suggest trying:
-Star Trails (many exposure and stacking via software such as DSS/other method)
-ISS, Space Shuttle, Iridium Flares ;wide lens, long exposures (check out Heavens-above for info on where/when to look for these items, http://www.heavens-above.com/)

Keep looking up, neat things happening at night.

 

[grooveattack]

i think i will do this again, really enjoyed it.
there was a little PP in them, just B&W and contrast, nothing huge.

still need to work on the focusing, i could not seeing a thing on the camera so i had to blind focus/frame

is there a recommend lens to use?

 

[mtbdudex]

i think i will do this again, really enjoyed it.
there was a little PP in them, just B&W and contrast, nothing huge.

still need to work on the focusing, i could not seeing a thing on the camera so i had to blind focus/frame

is there a recommend lens to use?

"is there a recommend lens to use?" The one(s) you own or can borrow
Seriously, experiment.
Wide angle captures visually stunning star scenes and landscape together, while some zoom (50 or 85mm) and multiple shorter exposures can capture some of the more "famous" items in the sky; Orion-M42/M31-Andromeda


Stars have color! Really, don't B&W them.

I took these Feb-2011, Each is multiple 20 sec exposures stacked, taken with T1i + 15-85 lens @ 15mm, f3.5, ISO800.
North star trails (55min total exposure):

wide angle Orion's belt and nebula visible dead center top center of image:

Orion/M42 via T1i/50mm lens/DSS, taken Oct 17, 2010, 500 (2) sec exposures @ ISO800, 40 darks, 25 bias, shot via T1i+50mm f1.4 prime lens on tripod.
DSS took quite a while to crunch this.

M31/T1i/50mm/f1.4/via DSS
Manual focus on Jupiter (got as small/defined circle as possible), found M31, used ISO800, 4 sec exp, f1/4 (wide open!).
133 light frames, 31 dark frames, 20 bias frames:

 

[carldr]

I've really got to try some star trails, your result there is really excellent. I've tried a few times to get some wide field shots like your 2nd picture, but I've not been success in finding the right exposure length etc.

Here are my two latest astrophotography images.

Saturn : 1800 frames captured with a Philips SPC900NC, the best 180 frames stacked using Registax.

M51/The Whirlpool Galaxy : 14 x 270s exposures at ISO 1600 with a Canon 500D at prime focus of a Celestron C9.25" SCT. Stacked in DeepSkyStacker.

 

[mtbdudex]

Very nice shots and processing on your images carldr.
I had $3k set aside for a scope/mount, then our 9 year old fridge went and the replacement cost $2.1k......let's see food or astro photos...

 

[Laird Knox]

Very nice shots and processing on your images carldr.
I had $3k set aside for a scope/mount, then our 9 year old fridge went and the replacement cost $2.1k......let's see food or astro photos...

Ramen noodles don't need to be refrigerated.