Recent moon image

[Aloicious]

yeah, live view is what I used for my focus, just zoom in as far as you can in live view and fine tune the focus as best you are able to...many scopes have multi speed focusers on them to help with fine tuning it which is an advantage in this area over a normal lens. the focus stacking you mentioned would be pretty hard to get mainly because the atmospheric refraction differences aren't something that can really be planned for to do focus stacking the same way you would with something like macro shots.

also remember that your shooting through the entire atmosphere, and various conditions will make getting (and keeping) focus sharp across the entire moon surface harder than normal, and increasingly difficult with longer focal lengths...the night I got the image in this post, I took probably 50 images of the moon with different settings/etc, and because of atmospheric conditions, and other things, this one was the sharpest of the bunch, not to mention that with the large amount of MP from the D800, I can crop down and still have a large image to downsize, so my image isn't close to being a 100% crop.

 

[Aloicious]

also, just FYI, I used the D800 tethered to my laptop for control and image capturing with Nikon's camera control pro 2, so when I say I used live view, I was viewing it on the laptop screen, so that also helps out with focusing alot when it's on a much larger screen vs the one on the camera.

 

[Solarflare]

[...] I'd love to see some deep space shots yo manage with that telescope and D800!

Hmm. I'm fairly sure that professional Astronomers exclusively use high performance CCD sensors, not consumer cameras with Beyer sensors - which by very definition throw 2/3 of the light falling on them away and apply all sorts of algorithms to get a more "beautiful" result.

 

[Aloicious]

[...] I'd love to see some deep space shots yo manage with that telescope and D800!

Hmm. I'm fairly sure that professional Astronomers exclusively use high performance CCD sensors, not consumer cameras with Beyer sensors - which by very definition throw 2/3 of the light falling on them away and apply all sorts of algorithms to get a more "beautiful" result.

:scratch: umm...I'm not sure what you're problem is, or if you just have difficulty reading, but no one said anything about anyone here being a "professional" astronomer, and trever1t only said that seeing some DSOs would be interesting...in fact no one claimed that any 'pro' would use a DSLR in the first place...perhaps if you want to start a debate about 'professional' astronomer equipment, go start your own debate thread, and I'll go over there and explain to you in detail why your post here is useless, and riddled with flaws, assumptions, and misinformation. but thats not what THIS thread is for. so unless you have something useful to add to the discussion with us hobbiest astrophotograhers who are trying to improve ourselves in the hobby with the equipment we have access to, GTFO.

 

[LizardKing]

Thanks for all the tips and detailed explanation, Aloicious. I really appreciate it. I know what you mean about the troubles of properly doing focus stacking, but it's free to give it a shot on a clear night and see how it goes.
I'll keep on trying and improving my moonshots... and I think I'll give it a try to the Nikon Control Pro 2 software.

 

[Aloicious]

Thanks for all the tips and detailed explanation, Aloicious. I really appreciate it. I know what you mean about the troubles of properly doing focus stacking, but it's free to give it a shot on a clear night and see how it goes.
I'll keep on trying and improving my moonshots... and I think I'll give it a try to the Nikon Control Pro 2 software.

No problem, glad to help out....for sure, give it a shot, if it works out, post up your results, I might have to give it a shot too.

the control software is pretty good, but it's kindof expensive IMO, I think they have a 60 day trial with it or something though so give it a try, it'll probably help out with the focusing...

 

[480sparky]

[...] I'd love to see some deep space shots yo manage with that telescope and D800!

Hmm. I'm fairly sure that professional Astronomers exclusively use high performance CCD sensors, not consumer cameras with Beyer sensors - which by very definition throw 2/3 of the light falling on them away and apply all sorts of algorithms to get a more "beautiful" result.

They typically use gizmos from places like SBIG.

 

[Aloicious]

They typically use gizmos from places like SBIG.

yeah, SBIGs are nice, but I'd still consider them high end consumer/semi-pro type gear. I'd dig a good cooled monochrome CCD imager with some high end narrowband filters, but I doubt that'll ever happen.

on a side note, since the subject of 'professional' was brought up, it probably should have a short explaination IMO for others who happen to come across this thread looking for information in the future. a "professional astronomer", as it was put, as in someone who makes a living with astronomy, isn't going to be making their money from selling their images, they're using the imaging for various other purposes such as research. and will likely be using a very high dollar custom built and designed imaging setup, likely geared specifically to perform for a single purpose, and would be attaching it to a private (and insanely expensive) observatory scope, or satellite scope. Obviously this isn't an astronomy forum, its a photography forum, so it stands to reason that as photographers, we'd be using our photography gear in an ameatur astronomy capacity, no one here ever claimed to be a professional astronomer.

 

[Overread]

Your photo has been nominated for Photo of the Month
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...may-2012-photo-month-nomination-thread-4.html

 

[Aloicious]

Your photo has been nominated for Photo of the Month
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...may-2012-photo-month-nomination-thread-4.html

Righteous! I forgot the POTM's were still happening.

 

[Aloicious]

Thanks Amandarine!

 

[JoBoSlow]

I like the top image a little better. Some of the darker details are more visible.

 

[arwena]

Hi TCampbell,

Canon 60Da seems very interesting to me because I like stars and the sky.
Since I'm new to this, I have a few questions if you can help me answer.

1. What lens would you recommend for the camera?
2. Can you shoot photos of the beach at night or evening city scenes?
3. Can I shoot all sorts of night scenes other than the astrophotography?

Thank you,
arwena

 

[arwena]

I use Canon SX40.