Starting off in Astrophotography...

robertxxx

Well, last night i went out looking for Jupiter with my very cheap bino's, it was my first time ever to look at something other than the moon, and i was really amazed that i could actually see it and it's moon's!! but the view was very shaky.

So out came my Sony compact camera and it's stand, it has some basic manual control and after awhile i got some great (to me) photos of Jupiter and its 4 moons.

Well i could not believe i was actually taking photos Jupiter and it's moons, i really couldn't sleep last night as i kept on thinking if only i had a big camera and lens imagine what type of photos i could take was what i was thinking.

So here they are.

nanook5

Took This tonight(Tweaked in photoshop and lightroom) (Has Andromeda in it too :P) I Get Some Blurriness Around the edges ! Is this due to using f/2.8 ?? And Dss Seems to not like me stacking as when i stack i never get a better quality/smoother image than the RAW photos Do i need to lots of darks and bias ? Are they that important?
Until then when DSS work i will have to take long enough exposures

Thanks

ZeRoY

nanook5 wrote: »

Took This tonight(Tweaked in photoshop and lightroom) (Has Andromeda in it too :P) I Get Some Blurriness Around the edges ! Is this due to using f/2.8 ?? And Dss Seems to not like me stacking as when i stack i never get a better quality/smoother image than the RAW photos Do i need to lots of darks and bias ? Are they that important?
Until then when DSS work i will have to take long enough exposures

Thanks

Still too much star trailing but very good processing!! What was the exposure time?

Nerro

nanook5 wrote: »

Took This tonight(Tweaked in photoshop and lightroom) (Has Andromeda in it too :P) I Get Some Blurriness Around the edges ! Is this due to using f/2.8 ?? And Dss Seems to not like me stacking as when i stack i never get a better quality/smoother image than the RAW photos Do i need to lots of darks and bias ? Are they that important?
Until then when DSS work i will have to take long enough exposures

Thanks

Yah you are getting quite a bit of comma (field curvature) around the edges of your picture...did you use a fisheye lens?
Now dont think that DSS makes bad pictures good, it makes good pictures better.if you will use pictures with lots of star trailing end rrsult will be...crap.
Regarding darks, they are used mainly to remove "noise" and bad pixels from your picture...

nanook5

Hi Zeroy The exposure time was 30 seconds , i want to reduce it but im not the greatest at using dss and bias/flats/darks

Hi Nerroy i used a 17-35mm canon wide angle lens. I have a few other longer range lenses That i could use if that would help (but I was looking for a nice wide picture )

Thanks

Nerro

nanook5 wrote: »

Hi Nerroy i used a 17-35mm canon wide angle lens. I have a few other longer range lenses That i could use if that would help (but I was looking for a nice wide picture )

Thanks

well it all depends on the lens you are using and size of your chip.The larger the chip the worse end result around the corners.Plus you will never get flat field even on high end lenses wide open in astophotography.Hence the need for scopes Here is a nice page to read about them :
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/LENSES.HTM
Now you could try to step down a bit.Take a series of 15 sec shots.Those will be your light frames.Then at same settings cover the lens and take 15 sec shots (outside at same temperature) and those will be your dark frames.The more shots you will take, the better end result will be.
And finally stack it in DSS and play with photoshop if needed.
Like i mentioned DSS is ment to make good pictures better so if you see any ones with bad star trailing take them out...
Hope that helps...
P.S.
Founda nice blog to read about all the "scary" ligh, dark and flat frames
http://theguvnah.blogspot.ie/2008/10/lights-darks-flats-oh-my.html

ZeRoY

nanook5 wrote: »

Hi Zeroy The exposure time was 30 seconds , i want to reduce it but im not the greatest at using dss and bias/flats/darks

Hi Nerroy i used a 17-35mm canon wide angle lens. I have a few other longer range lenses That i could use if that would help (but I was looking for a nice wide picture )

Thanks

30 Seconds is defo too long, although at 17mm 2.8 on a full frame (35mm) it would be ok. You need to find out if your chip is 1/3 or something else and work out the longest exposure you can do without trailing.

Iancar29

nanook5 wrote: »

Hi Zeroy The exposure time was 30 seconds , i want to reduce it but im not the greatest at using dss and bias/flats/darks

Hi Nerroy i used a 17-35mm canon wide angle lens. I have a few other longer range lenses That i could use if that would help (but I was looking for a nice wide picture )

Thanks

Still a Great Shot Nanook in all considering!

Try 25 seconds . And every few shots move the camera a bit to keep the original target in frame.

I think i know what your problem is In DSS , when you finish your stacking, and then go to Save Photo to File... Make sure you have the
" save actions to file " clicked, i hadnt done this and was wondering why it didnt look anyway different.

I did some shots this evening of just jupiter and that before the clouds rolled in.. Hopefully have my connection for my mount by next week

Dont be scared of bias a flats.... nice and simply...

Flats - Make a folder for these coz you can use ones youve done and add more to the pile whenever .
they are shots with the exact same settings you are taking your normal shots at JUST WITH the lens cap on . Btw you can do these whenever you want as to not waste any time of clear skies

Bias - have the cap on again for this , same settings other than turn ur SHUTTER SPEED to the fastest it can go .

Do 20 of each say to start off with .. hope that helps.



Btw... anyone know roughly when Orion will start to rise earlier in the evening?

Tzetze

I think you're describing Darks there Ian, not Flats. =]

Tzetze

The astropix website that Nerro linked to above is a great resource. Jerry Lodriguss has produced some excellent books that are highly recommended.

Iancar29

Tzetze wrote: »

I think you're describing Darks there Ian, not Flats. =]

OOPS!

nanook5

Ok so Next time i go out ill try taking darks ,bias and flats

As for the camera , I have two , My Canon 1D mk ii has a 1.3x crop factor and a canon 20d 1.6x crop factor .

I see From The astropix site that nerro posted it says " In general, lens performance in the corners degrades as the sensor size gets larger."

So i guess im better off using the 1D mk ii ??

Ill try Stacking All the Photos like the One I Posted Previously And Ill put It it up

Thanks

ZeRoY

nanook5 wrote: »

So i guess im better off using the 1D mk ii ??

I would think so. @ 17 mm 2.8 on the 1/3 sensor up to 20 seconds exposure shouldnt produce star trailing. here's another good site I use for reference

nanook5

Ok so i stacked all of them and got a much better picture.
Thanks for that Iancar it helped greatly

Here is the stacked



and here is the original :eek:





Much better

Thanks

muckish

600 rule = time is seconds at focal distance where stars will start trailing

=600/(focal distance*sensor crop)
so 17mm on 1.3crop sensor = 27seconds.

Some say it should be a 500 rule
so 22 seconds for 17mm on 1.3sensor

ZeRoY

Another thing to consider for the star trailing is how close are you shooting from the polar region. The furtherest away the worse the star trail will get on longer exposure.

jfSDAS

Iancar29 wrote: »

Btw... anyone know roughly when Orion will start to rise earlier in the evening?

hi Ian,

Orion's Belt will peek above the eastern horizon around 9pm this weekend and will rise 2 hours earlier on December 10th.

The general rule of thumb is that a particular star will rise 2 hours earlier each month ...

12 months in the year * 2 hours = 24 hours, or one day.

Also, the celestial sphere is divided into 24 hours of right ascension (lines of "longitude" on the sky).

One hour of right ascension (R.A.) = 15° wide or 15 * 24 = 360°.

An interesting project is to photograph Orion's Belt rising at this time of year and then as the constellation is setting late-Spring next year. You'll notice that the Belt rises pointing vertically in the late-Autumn but sets parallel to the horizon six months or so later.

This is because Orion's Belt is bisected by the celestial equator and the geometry of it, our axial tilt, and the angle of the ecliptic gives rise to this interesting observation which many may have overlooked before.

talk soon,

John

Iancar29

nanook5 wrote: »

Ok so i stacked all of them and got a much better picture.
Thanks for that Iancar it helped greatly

Here is the stacked

Much better

Thanks

Ah brilliant! Glad to hear it was just that ! , great work pal.
You should put them up on flickr so people can see the hi res versions


jfSDAS , cheers !! Orion is at a perfect spot now with amazing sky this tonight but... sadly having to get up for work at 7 would be a killer if i stayed up for it.


Hoping for some clear nights like tonight during the week!

HOpe some of yous got some good pics also tonight!


Im gonna go look at Orion for few mins with the binos b4 i go sleeps..

nanook5

Tommorow is Supposed To Be Good Ian , In Limerick Anyway http://www.accuweather.com/en/ie/limerick/207621/astronomy/207621

Ill Have some Flickr Links up in a few mins

nanook5

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89901642@N06/8170768033/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89901642@N06/8170805772/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/89901642@N06/8170769303/in/photostream/

There You Go

Iancar29

Finally got a view at a reasonable time for the Orion Nebula!

Took 300 1 " Exposure shots ( still no connection for mount yet ) ...
3200 ISO
500 mm
F4 .

Heres a single shot.


Shall get cracking with stacking the rest when im home from work 2moro

Iancar29

And here is the final stack!



Landscapeaddict on Flickr

ThatDrGuy

Hi Ichar,
Nice image! What did you use to stack it ? The heavy orange there could be an artifact of light pollution. If so you can use a filter to reduce it or adjust downwards the red curves to get a more balanced image. The centre of the image is white because of over exposure - the so called core burnout. What you can do to correct it ( and bring back the famous trapezium ) is use a shorter exposure and paint that exposure on as a layer. Tzetze found this great tutorial to fix it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOPw3...ature=youtu.be

Iancar29

ThatDrGuy wrote: »

Hi Ichar,
Nice image! What did you use to stack it ? The heavy orange there could be an artifact of light pollution. If so you can use a filter to reduce it or adjust downwards the red curves to get a more balanced image. The centre of the image is white because of over exposure - the so called core burnout. What you can do to correct it ( and bring back the famous trapezium ) is use a shorter exposure and paint that exposure on as a layer. Tzetze found this great tutorial to fix it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOPw3...ature=youtu.be

Hey Man , ye i used DSS for this one. I messed about with the photo a bit more last night using curves , but anytime i tried to bring back the red curves or increase the other ones it just desaturates / over saturates the entire photo. So yeah , just gonna leave it as is and look forward to gettin another go at it with my celestron mount when i get the right dovetail bar for my camera. cant wait to do minute exposures!

Iancar29

My first tracked attempt using my new mount of M42... wasnt able to get the alignment great as im still a bit confused setting it up fully... so only could get 20" exposures with my 500mm.

Heres the result anyways of 50 stacked . ISO 1600 , F4.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/landscapeaddict/8200106348/in/photostream

ZeRoY

Iancar29 wrote: »

My first tracked attempt using my new mount of M42... wasnt able to get the alignment great as im still a bit confused setting it up fully... so only could get 20" exposures with my 500mm.

Heres the result anyways of 50 stacked . ISO 1600 , F4.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/landscapeaddict/8200106348/in/photostream

A good attempt I think however the colors are somewhat very pixelated? Did you convert the final picture for web viewing perhaps?

Kersh

It will take a little while to get the best out of the mount Ian.

Super stuff though

Iancar29

ZeRoY wrote: »

A good attempt I think however the colors are somewhat very pixelated? Did you convert the final picture for web viewing perhaps?

Cheers! Hmmm i didnt resize it for flickr no so that could be the problem.

Kersh wrote: »

It will take a little while to get the best out of the mount Ian.

Super stuff though

Thanks Man! , the more practice i get with it the better ...

Tzetze

Well done Ian. You're making great progress there. Can certainly make out a lot of detail in that image. Did you try any exposures at a lower ISO at all?

ZeRoY

Seeing a bit of clear skies tonight around 11pm I decided to take out the LXD75 to see if I could get prime focus. Done a quick Polar alignment using this method and then a 2 stars align using Autostar. At last the GOTO was accurate (it had been way off on previous attempts). With limited field of view I went for The Pleiades, centered in the 26mm then 10mm eyepiece and attached the Canon 1100D using the Tring + nose adapter onto the 1.25" eyepiece holder: no prime focus

As before with the 130EQ I could see that the focuser would not go far enough to get the focus ... After a bit of rethinking I came up with a solution, not the best but it works! I removed the nose + small ring from the T2 ring and using the 3 existing holes on the T2 I was able to firmly hold the 1.25" adapter that screws onto the focuser, here are some pictures;



And so went for Jupiter after reassembling all this, here is a single 1/2.5" exposure at 1600ISO:



And after this - before the clouds covered everything - I took this single 60" exposure at 1600ISO of The Pleiades:



Both pics have had some tweaks in LR/PS

The alignment & collimation was clearly not the best but at least I can see now I can use prime focus! Ideally I should get either a low profile focuser or a very low profile T2 ring.....