Need some advice on stellar/planetary photography....

Aviation&Hockey · Feb 22, 2007

My new camera has a pretty good zoom on it (as far as i'm concerned) and I ahve been trying out some pics of the night sky....the only one i have on my computer right now is this one...

of the moon and venus. I have some closer shots of both, but they are still on my camera. I will put them up asap.

I am curious as to what kind of settings to work with to get the best shots. Any tips?

Patrice · Feb 22, 2007

I'm interested in the answer to this as well. Last night I tried my first astro photo - D70, 85mm at f1.4, piggyback on an unguided EG5 mount. A 30 second exposure of the Pleides turned out horrible - you can about see the grouping but the whole frame is completely overwhelmed by a bright pinkish tint. Same thing on a 30 second. Next time I get a clear sku I'll try a few more combinations and post the results. Maybe some of the other members have some experience with astro photos. I did get some good views of Saturn and some it's moons around 9:00 pm local, but no pictures.

When and from where did you take the photo? At this time of year in the N hemisphere for that to be Venus I would think your photo was taken in the morning looking west.

sothoth · Feb 23, 2007

I used the advice on this web page to get myself started on night photography. Hope this is helpful.

Moon:
http://www.danheller.com/moon.html

Stars:
http://www.danheller.com/star-trails.html

Aviation&Hockey · Feb 23, 2007

Patrice said:
When and from where did you take the photo? At this time of year in the N hemisphere for that to be Venus I would think your photo was taken in the morning looking west.

actually, it was at sunset...well, right after it. here are some pics i got of venus and the moon.....

Venus:

i am not mounting my camrea on a telescope, these are directly form the camera lens. getting the stars to focus is hard, but i think if i go out of town i can get some good ones....

astrostu · Feb 23, 2007

Aviation&Hockey said:
I am curious as to what kind of settings to work with to get the best shots. Any tips?

It all depends upon what kinds of shots you're going for. Just conjunctions, like Moon-Venus, or moon shots, or what?

Aviation&Hockey · Feb 23, 2007

astrostu said:
It all depends upon what kinds of shots you're going for. Just conjunctions, like Moon-Venus, or moon shots, or what?

pretty much just going to be individual bodies.....I only have 8 sec of shutter speed for max, so i cant get any start-path shots.....

here is an interesting shot i got today....its right at sunset, so its too bright to catch the surface features, but you can see the shimmering edge

astrostu · Feb 24, 2007

Aviation&Hockey said:
pretty much just going to be individual bodies.....I only have 8 sec of shutter speed for max, so i cant get any start-path shots.....

here is an interesting shot i got today....its right at sunset, so its too bright to catch the surface features, but you can see the shimmering edge

For the moon, short exposures in manual mode are necessary. Your camera has no idea how to deal with the extreme contrast of a bright object against a dark sky and it will over-expose the shot. That being said, if you are using as much zoom as you appear to be in the above shot, exposures as long as 1/30 or 1/60 sec might be necessary, so you should use a tripod.

People on these forums will tell you to stop down the aperture some to like an f/9, but I have no idea why. The shorter the exposure you can get, the better because it will be less blurry due to any motion of the camera and especially motion of the atmosphere. So open the aperture as much as possible (hence manual mode), meaning the lowest f-number.

I don't know if you're using a point-and-shoot or an SLR. If a point-and-shoot, just set the focus to infinity. If an SLR, do the same, but in my experience, lenses have a slightly different idea of what in-focus at infinity means if they're at (for example) 70 mm vs 300 mm on the same lens. So some fiddling around might be necessary.

To get any resolution (be able to view any detail) on other objects, you're in general out of luck unless you're shooting through a telescope. One thing you can do is use the largest possible zoom and an exposure of around 5 seconds will allow you to see Jupiter (over-exposed) and its four main moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto).

Edited to add: As for ISO, you should set it to the lowest possible setting (usually 50 or 100). This will force you to take a longer exposure, but a low ISO for astrophotography is a necessity because a high ISO will add a lot of noise to the image.

Aviation&Hockey · Feb 28, 2007

Moon with following settings:
1/800, f/8.0, -1.5, ISO 80, Zoom 10X optical, 2X digital

Venus with the following settings:
8 seconds shutter speed, f/3.4, -2.0, ISO 80, Zoom 10X optical, 5X digital

EOS_JD · Feb 28, 2007

The small sensor on that Kodak is producing a lot of noise too.

Aviation
You have metered for the dark sky so the meter has way overexposed the brighter foreground.

Aviation&Hockey · Feb 28, 2007

EOS_JD said:
The small sensor on that Kodak is producing a lot of noise too.

Aviation
You have metered for the dark sky so the meter has way overexposed the brighter foreground.

i thought the pics looked wonderful....they were taken at sunset, so the not-completely-dark sky is due to that. it was done on purpose. what do you suggest?

Aviation&Hockey · Mar 2, 2007

ok here is a new one.....

PetersCreek · Mar 2, 2007

Much better! Being able to see the ejecta rays around Tycho is a pretty good indication that the exposure is on the money. They're among the first details to go when you overexpose. (Assuming you have the optics to get 'em in the first place.)

Since it's a sunlit object, the "Sunny 16 Rule" is usually a pretty good starting point for photographing the full Moon. At ISO 80, that'd be about 1/60s @ f/16 but then you may need to open up a stop or so to get it dialed in.

Aviation&Hockey · Mar 2, 2007

oh thanks for the Sunny 16 rule thingy!! ill def keep that in mind. and yeah i was happy to see Tycho in it! Im anxious for the full moon to come so i can get a few good ones of it

PetersCreek · Mar 2, 2007

If you haven't already visited, you might find the U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomy Applications website useful. They provide the following information for your location:

Sun and Moon Data for One Day

The following information is provided for Greenville, Pitt County, North Carolina (longitude W77.4, latitude N35.6):

Friday 2 March 2007 Eastern Standard Time
SUN
Begin civil twilight....6:13 a.m.
Sunrise.................6:38 a.m.
Sun transit............12:22 p.m.
Sunset..................6:05 p.m.
End civil twilight......6:31 p.m.
MOON
Moonrise................4:02 p.m. on preceding day
Moonset.................6:05 a.m.
Moonrise................5:03 p.m.
Moon transit...........11:51 p.m.
Moonset.................6:30 a.m. on following day

Phase of the Moon on 2 March: waxing gibbous with 98% of the Moon's visible disk illuminated.

Full Moon on 3 March 2007 at 6:17 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Aviation&Hockey · Mar 3, 2007

im greatly upset because i forgot about the eclipse last night!!!! gah!!!!

oh well, its a full moon tonight, and ill be on a lake, so ill get some great shots! looking forward to showin em.