Got this shot about a month and a half ago near Mt. Rainier National Park.
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Misc Astrophotography (Shoot the ISS, etc) besides moon shots...
- Thread starter mtbdudex
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Very nice! You got the perfect balance or pinpoint stars versus noise on your setup. Takes some work to get that right!
^^^ I think not, but a man-made object like a Satellite...
A true Meteor streak will show beautiful colors as it heats up, you can even tell the travel direction
When in doubt, look here also ....
A true Meteor streak will show beautiful colors as it heats up, you can even tell the travel direction
When in doubt, look here also ....
Darn. Hopefully next time then. I just looked and the next meteor shower is Oct 20-21. I'll try for some then.
Recently tried some astro photography, but unfortunately I had winds to deal with. 
Joshua Tree National Park - After Sunset looking West. Orion constellation to the upper left of the tree. The bright light to the lower right is Venus. The streek above Venus is a plane.
(Click for a larger nicer version)
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Lit tree with iPhone six light for 2-3 seconds.
3200 ISO
25 second exposure
F 3.5
16mm (Stock a6000 kit lens)
The moon through my Celestron schmidt-cassegrain scope. 2032mm connected to my Sony a6000. Taken from South Redondo Beach on the coast line.
If you'd like to see how the seeing was, check out a video of the moon.
Tried shooting Jupiter too that night. That was interesting.
Joshua Tree National Park - After Sunset looking West. Orion constellation to the upper left of the tree. The bright light to the lower right is Venus. The streek above Venus is a plane.
(Click for a larger nicer version)
Lit tree with iPhone six light for 2-3 seconds.
3200 ISO
25 second exposure
F 3.5
16mm (Stock a6000 kit lens)
The moon through my Celestron schmidt-cassegrain scope. 2032mm connected to my Sony a6000. Taken from South Redondo Beach on the coast line.
If you'd like to see how the seeing was, check out a video of the moon.
Tried shooting Jupiter too that night.
That was interesting.Had another attempt of astro photography at Joshua Tree National Park over two nights.
The first site I tried had a lot of people with white lights. There even seemed to be someone with a flood light out in the distance. I did get this interesting result from that location.
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I then moved onto another parking lot where I was the only one there. It allowed me to capture this. I think I've over processed it.
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Having experimented a bit the first night (above results), I went back to create some time lapse shots. This star trail is the result of 180 images over roughly 32 minutes of 6 second captures.
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The video from that can be found here:
Another video of the sunset casting a shadow on those same rocks can be found here:
The first site I tried had a lot of people with white lights. There even seemed to be someone with a flood light out in the distance. I did get this interesting result from that location.
I then moved onto another parking lot where I was the only one there. It allowed me to capture this. I think I've over processed it.
Having experimented a bit the first night (above results), I went back to create some time lapse shots. This star trail is the result of 180 images over roughly 32 minutes of 6 second captures.
The video from that can be found here:
Another video of the sunset casting a shadow on those same rocks can be found here:
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Had another attempt of astro photography at Joshua Tree National Park over two nights.
I then moved onto another parking lot where I was the only one there. It allowed me to capture this. I think I've over processed it.
![]()
I wouldn't call that "over processed", I'd call it "awesomeized"!
I was at Joshua Tree again. Thought this was appropriate.
Xstep, how far from Joshua Tree do you live?
Very nice work posted here!
It's been a while since I posted.
Clear skies and fireflies were very active 2 night's ago.
So I captured them from 10:45pm thru 1:10am. 300+ images, 25 second exposure each.
Result is star trails and a few plane trails.
11mm via Tokina 11-16 lens, f2.8, ISO 1000, canon 70D
Very nice work posted here!
It's been a while since I posted.
Clear skies and fireflies were very active 2 night's ago.
So I captured them from 10:45pm thru 1:10am. 300+ images, 25 second exposure each.
Result is star trails and a few plane trails.
11mm via Tokina 11-16 lens, f2.8, ISO 1000, canon 70D
Thanks for the compliment. I have a lot to learn.
I drive out from near LAX airport. It takes at least 3 hours, but if I leave at a bad time the L.A. traffic can very easily add an hour to the trip.
I end up staying in the town Twenty Nine Palms. It's very close to the North East entrance. Last time it was over 100F degrees during the days which made scouting areas difficult, but at least there wasn't a crowd to contend with. The North entrances are the closest to towns. The South entrance is a crazy long drive to anywhere in comparison.
After sunset you're limited to where you can be in the park. Several locations are "day use only". My biggest concern are rattle snakes but I haven't come across one yet.
Oh! An astronomy club has a permanent setup near the NE entrance. They open it up Saturday nights to the public and even have pads for people to set up their own scopes. I stopped by during the day and got to look at the sun through a scope. Went back at night and viewed through a couple of scopes. For those interested: skysthelimit29.org
The only flying bug problem up there are the ones that fly into my truck when I have the interior lights on. To get them out, I turn off the interior lights and shine a light from out side and they fly through the open windows or back door.
Your firefly photos still amaze me.
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I was last in Joshua tree late 1990's, so seeing your shots brings me back 15 years, this was before I got into astrophotography.
This crop of earlier shows the fireflies better, there was too much not interesting dark on the bottom
This crop of earlier shows the fireflies better, there was too much not interesting dark on the bottom
Some Perseids from last night/this morning.
Aug 11-12, 2015.
Did some imaging last night-early morning for the Perseids Meteor Shower.
These are the best. Looking North-East in the sky, 11:30pm thru 1:30am.
Used Canon 70D with UWA lens 11-16mm at 11mm, f2.8, ISO 1600, 13 sec exposure each.
2 captured in same single image here, the 3rd items with bright dots is a plane.
1 captured low but bright here
The meteorite going "up/down" is actually NOT a Perseids, it's a "stray", as not coming from the radiant which is on the RH side.
Early rising moon, capturing the near new moon and the un-lit portion that faintly shows via earthshine, light reflected from Earth onto the moon then back to Earth.
Aug 11-12, 2015.
Did some imaging last night-early morning for the Perseids Meteor Shower.
These are the best. Looking North-East in the sky, 11:30pm thru 1:30am.
Used Canon 70D with UWA lens 11-16mm at 11mm, f2.8, ISO 1600, 13 sec exposure each.
2 captured in same single image here, the 3rd items with bright dots is a plane.
1 captured low but bright here
The meteorite going "up/down" is actually NOT a Perseids, it's a "stray", as not coming from the radiant which is on the RH side.
Early rising moon, capturing the near new moon and the un-lit portion that faintly shows via earthshine, light reflected from Earth onto the moon then back to Earth.
I added 3 crop images to show more clearly the telltale color change of a meteorite streak
Now, I had a chance to process all the individual images in StarStax, so here's a star trail
There are really only 3 offending plane trails, so I might go thru those individual images later and PP them out then re-do the startrail, but here it is all un-PP just stacked:
Now, I had a chance to process all the individual images in StarStax, so here's a star trail
There are really only 3 offending plane trails, so I might go thru those individual images later and PP them out then re-do the startrail, but here it is all un-PP just stacked:
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I tried a bit of astrophotography for the first time last night. It was pretty frustrating getting the right focus, and my lens kept fogging. Live and learn I guess.
Perseids and the Milky Way:
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Perseids 2015 by Melissa Anderson, on Flickr
Milky Way (and an airplane trail):
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Milky Way 2015 by Melissa Anderson, on Flickr
Milky Way over my city:
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Milky Way 2015 by Melissa Anderson, on Flickr
Perseids and the Milky Way:
Perseids 2015 by Melissa Anderson, on Flickr
Milky Way (and an airplane trail):
Milky Way 2015 by Melissa Anderson, on Flickr
Milky Way over my city:
Milky Way 2015 by Melissa Anderson, on Flickr
Melissa;
Nice images.
You've also got M31 and the 7 sisters in the "Milky Way (and an airplane trail)" image.
What lens did you use?
My UWA f2.8 11-16mm Tokina is so easy to focus on infinity, however for my Canon general wide zoom lens with variable aperture focusing was a trick indeed. I have the 15-85 and also the 18-135 lens.
For either of those, I'd go live view 10x, focus back/forth till as sharp as I could get on the brightest star in real time (crank up the ISO to 6400 so can view it, then move it back to imaging setting), then I'd put the lens in manual mode and shoot away.
Nice images.
You've also got M31 and the 7 sisters in the "Milky Way (and an airplane trail)" image.
What lens did you use?
My UWA f2.8 11-16mm Tokina is so easy to focus on infinity, however for my Canon general wide zoom lens with variable aperture focusing was a trick indeed. I have the 15-85 and also the 18-135 lens.
For either of those, I'd go live view 10x, focus back/forth till as sharp as I could get on the brightest star in real time (crank up the ISO to 6400 so can view it, then move it back to imaging setting), then I'd put the lens in manual mode and shoot away.
Thanks!
I used my nikkor 10-24 f3.5-4.5. My camera body is a D5000 and has a pretty limited ISO range and my LCD screen is low resolution. I will try that focus technique next time - thanks!
This re-done timelapse has cumulative startrails in first portion and then individual frames in last portion.
Best viewed in HD on a monitor.
Best viewed in HD on a monitor.
Don't know if anyone has mentioned this but, if you can find them where you live or can order online, use a couple of handwarmers (the little pouches that you shake to mix-up the contents) in a sock tied around your lens or strapped on with elastics to keep your lens from fogging-up. The lens doesn't have to get very warm...just warmer than the ambient air temp.
~ Peter