Moon & Astro photography

DK32

Hi all,

The following was taken this evening 16-01-2011 *(Best viewed full size)



Taken using this setup:


Do any of you have experience in taking photo's through your telescope?
What are your experiences with using a T-adapter?

If any of you could share your setup details, types of in camera settings that you use etc... would also be very useful.

With the T-Adapter I have the 25mm eyepiece from the Meade scope inserted into the T-adapter. I then use the camera's viewfinder to assist in focusing on the moon. Whilst I'm not disappointed in the outcome from this evenings experiment, I would like to learn how to get sharper images and if possible improve the quality of the images. I noticed a fair bit of movement from the scope while in the garden tonight, mild breeze didn't help either.

Long term I'd like to be able to use the built in star tracking feature to make star trail photo's or timed sequences of photo's over several hours.

Apologies in advance if this is not posted in the correct area.
I am a keen participant over on the photography forum but I figured the people in the know would probably be telescope users.

Any help is much appreciated,
Dan

lord lucan

Can't answer your question unfortunately but that's an awesome photo,incredible detail. Thanks for sharing.:)

dmcdona

Dan - astrophotography is a huge subject. Equipment, techniques, software etc.

There are many astrophotographers on the IFAS board: http://www.irishastronomy.org/

Personally, I use a high-end CCD imager on a 14" SCT to carry out scientific work. There are many others on the IFAS boards you are doing exactly what you would like to do. And they are never shy in giving advice and tips.

Hope that helps
Dave

dbran

Hi

Adding to what Dave said, the South Dublin Astronomy Club and the Irish Astronomical Society have observing sessions near the sugarloaf in Co Wicklow on clear weekend evenings. You are most welcome to come along. They are usually advertised on the IFAS site and also here also.

Kind Regards

dbran

peterako

Very nice pic!

The guys at IFAS (www.irishastronomy.org) are extremely helpful.

I'm starting to experiment with a T2 adapter and my DSLR.

Might be more useful for Deep Sky though.....with a Webcam for Solar System.

But I don't know yet

Clear skies,
Peter

RichieC

Beautiful photo, DK32.

would a 600mm - 35 mm equivalent - lens be enough for astrophotography??

hal9000

Deleted User wrote: »

would a 600mm - 35 mm equivalent - lens be enough for astrophotography??

Depends what you want to do!
I think for the moon with a 35mm or a full frame sensor the lens would need to be about 2000mm for the moon to fill the frame. I took the image below with a C-6 SCT (which would be around 1500mm IIRC) and a APS-C camera so the moon is a bit bigger than the frame @ 1500mm (didnt get a chance to take anymore pics as it started pouring from the heavens 2mins after that shot!:D)

Iancar29

My ATTEMPT with just my Lumix tz 5. ha

Tea drinker

dbran wrote: »

Hi

Adding to what Dave said, the South Dublin Astronomy Club and the Irish Astronomical Society have observing sessions near the sugarloaf in Co Wicklow on clear weekend evenings. You are most welcome to come along. They are usually advertised on the IFAS site and also here also.

Kind Regards

dbran

I used to park on the high road right adjacent to the sugarloaf. Just a short walk with the scope off the road but sometimes disturbed by passing cars. Where do the club setup?

OP, you have a little noise in that image? maybe fiddle with the noise reduction. A shorty barlow will double the magnification (and shakes) without adding much more strain on the focusser.
Many people use webcams, they are pretty good. The smaller chip means larger image scale.

cocoshovel

Just stumbled across this thread. Thought I would post my lame attempt of photographing the moon tonight. My 2nd time ever taking pictures off the auto setting :rolleyes:

Prenderb

Cold! I know I can improve this one, but for handheld it's not too bad. Love the setup DK32, and HAL9000 - great photo!

cocoshovel

You must have one steady hand!

ceejay

I originally posted these in the Jupiter thread, thought they might be appropriate to re-post here:


Crater Tyco:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciaranwalsh/5365759040/in/photostream/


Mare Humorum & Crater Gassendi:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciaranwalsh/5365759978/in/photostream/


Mare Tranquilitas, Mare Crisium and Crater Proclus:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciaranwalsh/5365147491/in/photostream/


These were taken the other night with a Celestron NexStar 4SE, a NexImage CCD, and processed with Registax.

ceejay

I also took this shot of the moon through the eyepiece of the telescope using my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TX10. I just held it up to the eyepiece, so there's a bit of blurring. I'm wondering if it's worth investing in one of those universal camera mounts for this kind of thing (not a T-adapter), since the TZ10 has a lot of manual controls and could maybe be used for some long exposure deep-sky photography. Has anyone used these kinds of mounts with any success?

Crescent Moon:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciaranwalsh/5372472124/

hal9000

hal9000 wrote: »

Depends what you want to do!
I think for the moon with a 35mm or a full frame sensor the lens would need to be about 2000mm for the moon to fill the frame. I took the image below with a C-6 SCT (which would be around 1500mm IIRC) and a APS-C camera so the moon is a bit bigger than the frame @ 1500mm

Am heading to the Ozzie outback soon - real outback now over a 1,000 miles from the nearest city as the crow flies! There will be absolutely no noise pollution with the benefit of clear unpolluted skies at night.

I was hoping to get some experience doing some astro shots before I go. Potential for some good shots. I have a wide angle lens which should get some good milky way shots. Im hoping to get some Nebula/Galaxies in the distance shots.

Any ideas on equatorial mounts? How cheap can you go before that arent any good! I have a 80 - 300mm 35mm equivalent lens and was considering getting a 2x teleconverter to make it 600mm if it would give some half decent shots

calchas

with a 600mm lens you should be able to catch the jovian moons, I can with a 1 second exposure at 300mm over Dublin. With the camera in general you can look for lots of short or relatively bright astro phenomena: sunset green flash; constelations (should look amazing in the outback); planets, satelite trails; iridium flares; meteors etc.
If you add tracking on some sort of mount you can do nice widfield longer exposures and start seeing some deep sky ojects: andromeda etc. See astro-track or make a barndoor tracker on the cheap.

There are a few good books on dslr astro photography if you want to delve deeper.

Regards
Calchas

mickger844posts

Lately since getting a Sony NEX 3 DSLR camera i have got interested in Astrophotography.
I did a bit of research on the net but have found it difficult to get good quality shots. I have tried many different settings, ISO, exposure times and alike but i was wondering what are the best settings for taking pics of stars and galaxies? This is one shot i took the other night of Jupiter to give an idea what kind of results i have been getting so far. Any tips would be very helpful.

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/3848/dsc01156e.jpg

Tea drinker

unless you attach that DSLR to a scope you won't get the image size you want. Even then you are better making an avi and stacking the frames in registax. Alternately look into a philips webcam for astrophotography.
Needs a scope and laptop obviously.

sajjjht

Hi calchas
Any chance of you posting the titles of the dslr astro photo books?
Thanks

calchas

sajjjht wrote: »

Hi calchas
Any chance of you posting the titles of the dslr astro photo books?
Thanks

Google is pretty handy, In the case you don't know of it yet:
http://www.google.com/search?source=ie7&q=astrophotography+dslr&rls=com.microsoft:en-ie:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7GGLL_en

As for books:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Astrophotography-Practical-Amateur-Astronomy/dp/0521700817/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295905934&sr=8-1#_

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Astrophotography-Guide-Capturing-Cosmos/dp/1933952164/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295906648&sr=8-2#_ (I don't have this one, but the content page looks ok)

Happy searching

Calchas

sajjjht

Thanks for the reply calchas.
I would think most people on here know of google, it was just when you said "There are a few good books on dslr astro photography if you want to delve deeper." I thought you may have some specific relevant knowledge on the subject as against the hit/miss/miss of a search engine.:D:D

calchas

I have the first book,

However:
For a start try wide field shots with a standard lens. A tripod is close to a must, although there are ways to keep a camera still with cheaper suppors like handy wall tops etc. For long exposures a remote shutter release is also handy, but easier to do without: eiter use the timer (so you don't jog the fram when hitting the release) or a card to cover the lens while you press the shutter. Most cameras require a remote release for >30s exposure.

After that try high Iso shots of areas with deep sky objects. You should start to get good signs of things you can't easily see by eye before you get significant trails.

Then try star trails. Just open the shutter and wait (need to be beware of dew etc).

Then try capturing Iridium flares by opening the shutter just before they become visible and keeping it open through the flare.

Other things to try capturing would be: green-flash at sunset; noctiluminescent cloud; meteors.

Just go out and experiment with angles, iso, exposure, aparture.

After that it's probably time to try tracking. I gave things to look up for that earlier.

For use with a telescope: snap through the eye-piece (afocal): get a T adapter and an 1.25" or 2" nose piece and use prime focus. Or just use the mount and piggy back the camera. For the moon an planets a DSLR is of less use than it is for wide field and deep sky, but that's a whole massive subject of it's own.

Just go and try something. It's great fun even if you don't get magazine quality shots.

Calchas

P.S. most of the best nights are perishingly cold, so get gloves
P.P.S about a year ago someone posted a fantastic shot of Orion in this forum, it was not tracked. Might be worth searching for.

sajjjht

OK thanks for that, next clear night I am going to stick on my 300mm lens aim at Orion and push the iso from 400 to 6400 at 10 sec shutter, f16 and see what I get? I will post it if anything worth while comes out.:rolleyes:

clln

What wonderful pictures, please keep posting them no matter how humble you may think they are,they are beautiful to me and i love that you all take the trouble to take them and appreciate how cold and lonely it must be at times while doing so.

be assured they are very much appreciated by this poster,really great work,so share it!:)

calchas

sajjt
I'd start with a 50mm lens then go looking with the 300mm. Other wise you should be on a good start

Bohrio

Not much but I am pretty happy with this picture, I took it with my camera phone so dont expect much!

mickger844posts

Bohrio wrote: »

Not much but I am pretty happy with this picture, I took it with my camera phone so dont expect much!

Camera phone :eek: Great shot whatever way you took it.

Bohrio

mickger844posts wrote: »

Camera phone :eek: Great shot whatever way you took it.

Thanks

I just placed the camera lens on top of the eyepiece and voilá!

I was very impressed with the result!

mickger844posts

Bohrio wrote: »

Thanks

I just placed the camera lens on top of the eyepiece and voilá!

I was very impressed with the result!

You used a telescope, was thinking no camera phone would have a zoom that good Out of interest what telescope do you have??

Bohrio

mickger844posts wrote: »

You used a telescope, was thinking no camera phone would have a zoom that good Out of interest what telescope do you have??

oooopss!! sorry, imagine if my mobile could take pictures like that!

I have a celestron XLT150, havent used it in a while, missing it lately