Diving into astrophotography. Pointers?

JohnS. · Jul 27, 2015

Recently, I've become quite fascinated with astrophotography. I've tried taking some shots myself with little luck. The weather hasn't been too great here and I live too close to cities with no knowledge or where to shoot outside of my area. I know someone that lives way out in the boonies and we're planning on having a small gathering to explore the sky some. I can figure out exposures and stuff fine but it's the equipment that I have questions about.

Onto a few issues I'd like to have addressed.

First issue:
I currently own a D7000, tripod, Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 DX, and Nikon 70-300mm VR (bunch of other things that don't pertain to astrophotography). The problem I seem to have with my camera is even with the focus on manual and set to infinity, everything is blurred. I have the AF fine tune set to somewhere around -15. It was that bad. I took a picture with my Tokina on and focus set to infinity on manual and everything looked bad. Like...extremely out of focus. I should've changed the AF tune to 0 but I didn't think about it at the time. Plus I didn't have a laptop with me to preview the pictures before driving off. It looked okay in live view but I honestly could barely tell on the tiny LCD. I turned the focus dial slightly away from infinity and did it a couple of times with shots at each "interval" and some were noticeably sharper than others so I did my best and guessed. The best focus was slightly away from infinity. Should I try with AF tune on 0? Do all D7000's have focusing issues or should I have my camera tested and adjusted?

Second issue:
How cheap can I go without sacrificing image quality? I'm not looking to get into deep sky stuff quite yet but I am interested in shooting the moon. I took a look on B&H and I saw $100 teleconverters. I don't know anything about them but the ratings seemed better than what I expected for a $100 TC lol. Are those worth it for the moon? Save for something better? I'm not looking to take any photos beyond 30 seconds at the moment.

Third issue:
I do not own any photo editing programs. I'd like to do my best and shoot in jpeg large/fine and be done with it. I know this is pushing it but editing is not my strong suit and I'd like to be able to get the taking photos part down first.

I've spent a lot of time Googling information and there is such an abundant amount on astrophotography... Seems like everyone and their mom are pro's. Any advice is appreciated in advance.

medic2230 · Jul 28, 2015

First issue:

To do what you're wanting to do you are doing it wrong. Camera's today aren't like the old film camera lenses that had a hard stop at infinity. Infinity is actually back a little from the stop. Set your fine focus back at 0. To focus use live view and the little plus button to the left of your screen will zoom the live view image in so you can focus on a bright star and get it perfect. You can also use the multi-direction dial to the right of the screen to move around in the zoomed in area to find the moon where you can focus on it. Of course this is going to be done with the AF turned off and you manually focusing the lens. After you get it in focus use the minus button to back your view back out. Leave the camera in manual focus and don't hit the focus ring on the lens. If you do you will be doing this all over again.

Second issue:

I have shot the moon with a Nikon 55-300 f/4.5-5.6 kit lens before. You do the focusing like I said in the first issue above. I usually start out on manual with ISO 100 F/11 1/125 second exposure. The moon isn't a star and if you treat it as one you will get a blurred or apparent OOF image. The moon is a daylight shot per say because after all it is the sun lighting it up. To get the images you see everyone post they are cropping the photo to fill the frame with the moon. Even at 300mm the moon is a little more than a dot in the photo when you look at it on the screen. You will also know right quick when you crop it like that if you got the focus right or not.

Third issue:

No excuse to not own a photo editing program today since GIMP is free on the interwebz for your editing pleasure. YouTube has all the videos you can sink your teeth into to figure out how to use it. It's similar to Photoshop but doesn't have all the options that Photoshop has. I'm sure you will find all you will need to do at this time with it until you can buy Light Room or Photoshop.

Link to GIMP: GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

I'm no expert at Astrophotgraphy nor do I claim to be but this has worked for me so far and it will give you a start in the right direction. I also shoot with a D7000.

BananaRepublic · Jul 28, 2015

I copied and pasted this from a posting I made yesterday. The guy there was using a different lens so just compensate the lens you have.

Before you go go to your camera settings and turn down the brightness on the LCD screen to the lowest you can see it. Also make sure you know how or assign a button to give you a 2/5 second delay after you press the take photo button or if you have a remote shutter release know how to turn it on in the camera.
Go before it gets pitch dark so you now what your doing bring a flashlight incase/anyway.
Try to pick an area that has the least amount of light pollution.
Use Manual mode and nothing else
Open the aperture to the widest possible something like f4.5 or 5.6 on that lens.
Use live view to focus your lens on something far away, turn off autofocus and do the thing manually and don't turn it back on. this can also be done using the brightest star you can see again in live view and once this is done thats it unless you up-scuttle it,live view can be turn off after.
You mentioned shutter speed, 1" 5" 30" the " symbol refers to seconds the shutter stays open 1" means the camera shutter will stay open for 1 second 30" means 30 seconds. use the 10' to 30" ones to use "Bulb" you need a shutter release.
Once you pressed the take photo button don't touch the camera until the cycle is finished thats why the you want the delay mentioned in point 1 as a slight nudge can a mess of a long exposer.
Others probably mentioned using low ISO, 100 to 400, thats garbage you want to go for something in the region of 1800 and up. the best way is to try whats suggested and see what is better.
When your looking at the photo review on the LCD zoom in on the stars a much as you can to see how sharp they are if there not at all then the focus is wrong.

astroNikon · Jul 28, 2015

a 2,000mm lens will fill the entire FF sensor. 1200mm a crop sensor (at least with my d600 & d7000)
a 300mm needs to be cropped like crazy.

The moon is moving, so the faster the shutter speed the better, especially if you are at long focal lengths.

OOF can be many factors as mentioned above but also - high clouds that you can't see and other atmospheric stuff which makes it look OOF but it's actually just fuzzy from movement or atmostpheric stuff.

It's best to shot the moon, if you are after IQ, when it is highest in the sky and less atmosphere between you and it. If you shoot it low in the horizon you will not get detail by comparison. If you live near the city, smog can be an issue, along with fog, other stuff in the sky you can't see. After all, you are shooting through about 240,000 miles of sky, it's best to be far away from a city to minimize atmospheric stuff ... then hope for a clear night.

Post processing is very helpful too.
This shot was at 2000mm with PostProcessing to soften bright whites and enhance the dark areas, increase contrast etc from a RAW file ==> Waning Gibbous 20140814 Illumination 81 Flickr - Photo Sharing

Waning Gibbous 20140814 Illumination: 81% by Steve Sklar, on Flickr

VERSUS, low on the horizon - NOTE: I didn't PP it much because of the loss of detail - it was part of a series of the moon changing colors and IQ was not part of the objective.

MoonColors_20150603-11 by Steve Sklar, on Flickr

ronlane · Jul 28, 2015

Nice post Astro. :clap:

KmH · Jul 28, 2015

Start saving your money now if you think you're going to want to photograph deep sky stuff.

This, plus an off-axis or auto-guider, t-adapter, etc, would be a good start for doing basic astrophotography (AP) of the Moon, planets, and brighter deep sky objects (DSOs).
For the dimmer DSO you'll need more than a 6" aperture.

I did AP 35 years ago using film.
I just got a 12", 1500 mm, f/4.9 Newtonian telescope for visual observing.

BananaRepublic · Jul 29, 2015

astroNikon said:
a 2,000mm lens will fill the entire FF sensor. 1200mm a crop sensor (at least with my d600 & d7000)
a 300mm needs to be cropped like crazy.

The moon is moving, so the faster the shutter speed the better, especially if you are at long focal lengths.

OOF can be many factors as mentioned above but also - high clouds that you can't see and other atmospheric stuff which makes it look OOF but it's actually just fuzzy from movement or atmostpheric stuff.

It's best to shot the moon, if you are after IQ, when it is highest in the sky and less atmosphere between you and it. If you shoot it low in the horizon you will not get detail by comparison. If you live near the city, smog can be an issue, along with fog, other stuff in the sky you can't see. After all, you are shooting through about 240,000 miles of sky, it's best to be far away from a city to minimize atmospheric stuff ... then hope for a clear night.

Post processing is very helpful too.
This shot was at 2000mm with PostProcessing to soften bright whites and enhance the dark areas, increase contrast etc from a RAW file ==> Waning Gibbous 20140814 Illumination 81 Flickr - Photo Sharing
Waning Gibbous 20140814 Illumination: 81% by Steve Sklar, on Flickr

VERSUS, low on the horizon - NOTE: I didn't PP it much because of the loss of detail - it was part of a series of the moon changing colors and IQ was not part of the objective.
MoonColors_20150603-11 by Steve Sklar, on Flickr

Cash is King in this game as shown above. He did ask for pointers

JohnS. · Jul 30, 2015

Thanks for the posts so far.

KmH - I definitely want to pick up a telescope one day but they do get quite expensive very fast!

medic - I honestly did not know you could zoom in on the LCD and focus at the same time lol. It's been quite a while up until last week since I lasted picked up my D7000. Before that, it was a new (to me) DSLR and I hadn't explored it much at all. Thanks for that! And I don't know about GIMP. Thanks again, I'll have to check that out. Honestly, I've always sucked at photo editing and always have had very little patience with it. I used to own PhotoShop a long time ago and always kept editing very minimal. Cropping, brightness/contrast, and color lol. I guess that's all you really need to get started right? If I had the patience to learn how to edit, I'd do it. Trust me, I've tried spending time on YouTube. One day I'll get it through my thick skull.

astroNikon · Jul 31, 2015

When the Nikon d7000 first came out alot of astro people bought the d7000 due to it's handling of black and ISO abilities (short of buying a FF body). There's alot out there about it such as this site ==> Weasner s Nikon D7000 DSLR Astrophotography

I used to have a meade 90 & 125etx and that group pretty much did the same equipment for a few years.
So there's a ton of info out there about using the d7000 for astrophotography with and without a telescope.

I still have my d7000, but my d600 gets most of the work nowadays.

astroNikon · Jul 31, 2015

Also watch craigslist for deals on scopes.
When I bought my used Meade LX200 12" I was debating between that and a 16" meade dobson for both about the same price. Alot of people buy these big scopes and never use them because they're too big.

waday · Jul 31, 2015

My advice is to ask @jsecordphoto for advice.

(His shots are AMAZING! No offense Astro, I like yours, too!

)

JohnS. · Aug 2, 2015

So my first official moon picture upload can be found here: First time shooting the moon Photography Forum

Like I said, I suck at editing. I'm still learning how to use GIMP too.

Can anyone recommend a decent teleconverter? One that isn't that expensive unfortunately. I don't want to cheap out and get crappy images but I'd like more reach.

KmH · Aug 2, 2015

If you cheap out, plan on making crappy images.
Note that a TC alters the cameras effective lens aperture.
A 1.4x TC costs 1 full stop.
A 2x TC costs 2 full stops.

A 300 mm set to f/5.6 mounted to a 2x TC is effectively at f/11.

KmH · Aug 2, 2015

For long exposures using a DSLR -
Orion Adventures in Astrophotography Bundle

jsecordphoto · Aug 3, 2015

waday said:
My advice is to ask @jsecordphoto for advice.

(His shots are AMAZING! No offense Astro, I like yours, too! )

that depends on what type of photos you are looking to make. These days, when a lot of people talk about astrophotography, they mean landscape astrophotography like I do. True astrophotography is more of deep sky stuff- which I know very little about