Astrophotography

[PlasticSpanner]

Possibly out on a limb here and may be posting these to myself!

Mars and Pleiades

Taken 02/09/05 @ 02:00
Praktica BMS, 50mm lens @ F1.8, 20 second exposure (a little too long, some trailing evident)

Post processing: Gradient applied to remove uneven field and colour, levels adjusted, black point set (15,25,45 RGB), minimum filter applied to remove the worst of the star bloating, cropped and finally de-speckled and sharpened.

 

[PlasticSpanner]

Date 02/09/05 @ 02:00
Praktica BMS, 50mm lens @ F2.8, Exp 20/1, iso 400

First attempt at NGC 7000 (North American Nebula)

Similar post processing as above and cropped near the very top. The green image is due to Tesco's lab apparently not being able to print night photographs anymore!

From this:-

To this:-

 

[PlasticSpanner]

Taken a while ago now and posted before but still my 2nd favourite AstroPic!


Can't remember the date, camera settings or post processing for this one (sorry!)

Polaris (The Pole Star) and surrounding stars in true colour.

 

[PlasticSpanner]

My Favourite so far:-

Mobile telephone transmitter mast pointing into the Milky Way!

(Yes there really are that many stars out there! :thumbup: )

 

[PlasticSpanner]

Three views of Andromeda Galaxy (Same image just cropped)

 

[SlySniper]

posting these to myself!

LoL, seems so, But, I'll help you out! Too bad its JUST morning here, so, I'll have to wait some time.

But, what exporsure do you reccommend?

 

[LaFoto]

A) I would not even mind if you gave only yourself a platform for your astrophotography here, Chris.

B) I know there are others on TPF who share your hobby, so there WILL be more in the course of time and

C) I really enjoy each and every of these photos, even though I won't ever be one to contribute. But I'll come and look. So keep sharing, please.

 

[PlasticSpanner]

For Mars at its highest I'd try about 15 seconds. 20 seconds was a little too long ad produced some trailing.


The closer the photograph to the pole star, the longer exposure you can use.

 

[SlySniper]

Also, did you have any lights near you?

 

[PlasticSpanner]

There are a few street light near my home but I also have a "Dark Spot" out in the country that takes me about 15 mins to drive to, but it's completely dark and produces about 10 times as many stars to the naked eye and very little light pollution.


If light pollution is a problem then try taking several, shorter exposures ans "stack" them together. 10, 6 second exposures stacked, will produce a similar image to a single 60 second exposure but with much less pollution and no trailing.

 

[jadin]

You're only using a 50mm lens?? I always thought you needed some good ZOOOM for space shots. You know, like a telescope attached to a camera type thing!! :sillysmi:

 

[PlasticSpanner]

50mm lens is fine for astro stuff. A 28 mm (or wider) is also very useful. A long tele lens is OK but should be mounted on a motor driven equatorial mount to track the Earths rotation otherwise trailing of the stars will occur.( A nice effect if that is what you're aiming for!)


Cameras can be mounted to the eyepeice focuser of a telescope and that would be more suited to Deep Sky or Planetary Imaging which these days is more often done with dedicated CCD cameras! (or even good web cams!)

 

[SlySniper]

Well, I tried to do it tonight but it is a star-less night out here, also, there are some clouds. I'll try tomrrow tho.:thumbup:

 

[pursuer]

Ok, I just discovered this theme. Here is some of my better stuff. Prepare to be spamed.

 

[SlySniper]

Wow, those are AMAZING persuer.

Did you take those with just a Normal Camera or did you, like, mount it on a telescope?