Expert Astrophotography Tips & Discussions | Share Your Photos!

[428]

I've been lucky tonight and managed to snap a perseid :). On the left side you can see constellations Perseus and a bit of Cassiopeia, the Double Cluster, M31 is visible as well (near the center of the image). The gradient present is a glow of a city. Photo details: taken by Sony Alpha 100, 30s exposure, f/5, 100 iso, location: Brno, Czech republic

 

[Caramon]

Hey guys!
I currently have a Dobsonian XT8 Classic (8" Aperature) telescope and I do regular observing at least once a week. I own a set of Celestron lenses and filters so my gear is decent! I have been observing for a few months now and I've gotten to take a wonderful look at the Orion Nebula (M42), Jupiter, M22, among many other objects. I've recently become interested in Astrophotography and was wondering how I would be able to start. What equipment and necessary skills would be required to begin a life long journey in Astrophotography? If you would be able to explain some things about Astrophotgraphy or post some links for me to read that would be wonderful!

This was my first moon photo taken with a digital camera:
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/8422/moonpicture.th.jpg

 

[chemisttree]

I took this photo early this morning using an IR pass filter on a SPC900NC webcam. The moons are, from top to bottom, Ganymede, Io and Europa. Too bad there was no GRS visible.

 

[Stanwyck66]

I was out poking around in the sky last night and noticed a small spot on Jupiter I hadn't noticed before. The spot seemed a bit too small to be the GRS and looked like a dark point in my scope. Unfortunately, it didn't show up in the photograph but appeared where the arrow ends in this image.

Could it be possible I saw the shadow of one of Jupiter's moons to the bottom left?

 

[Chronos]

er, any picture with clouds and blue in the background are probably not mars.

 

[russ_watters]

Could it be possible I saw the shadow of one of Jupiter's moons to the bottom left?

Not sure where you live or when that makes "last night", but Europa made a transit from 10:30PM EDT on 8/19 to 1:00 AM EDT on 8/20 and Io made a transit from 2-4PM EDT on 8/18.

 

[russ_watters]

Jupiter, my new personal best!

 

[chemisttree]

Very nice, Russ!

 

[baywax]

Jupiter, my new personal best!

Whoa dude! El perfecto! Excellent clarity and detail... I understand the nearest object to the left in your photo is Neptune, is this correct?

I took my youngest son out to view Jupiter at its closest in 50 years and he was truly impressed. Then we went down to the 1m lensed telescope by the Planetarium... then he was like WOWed!

Cool!

 

[russ_watters]

Thanks, guys.

I understand the nearest object to the left in your photo is Neptune, is this correct?

The two other objects in the photo are Ganymede and Io.

 

[baywax]

Thanks, guys.


The two other objects in the photo are Ganymede and Io.

Ah... two of the 400 moons of Jupiter! thanks Russ!

 

[Redbelly98]

I got some photos of the lunar eclipse Tuesday morning.

I used a Nikon Coolpix 4500, with a Kenko 8x32mm monocular mounted to it. All photos were later resized to 40%.

Here's a shot of the full moon Monday night, a few hours before the start of the eclipse. I was mainly setting up the focus of the monocular + camera, so that I wouldn't have to use the autofocus feature later on.

.

The total phase, about 3:40 a.m. Eastern USA time:

.

The partial phase, 3:53 a.m.:

.

Two exposure settings for the partial phase, about 4:00 a.m. The right-hand photo gives me a real, and eerie, sense of the Earth casting its shadow onto the moon.

 

[baywax]

I got some photos of the lunar eclipse Tuesday morning.

I used a Nikon Coolpix 4500, with a Kenko 8x32mm monocular mounted to it. All photos were later resized to 40%.

Here's a shot of the full moon Monday night, a few hours before the start of the eclipse. I was mainly setting up the focus of the monocular + camera, so that I wouldn't have to use the autofocus feature later on.

Far out Redbelly... we missed the whole thing due to cloud cover, so, thank you!

 

[Borek]

Just realized I posted my pictures of Janury 4th eclipse in a separate thread - somehow I missed astrophotography sticky:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=460858

 

[Chronos]

Nice shoot, Russ. The limb darkening is striking. Is this a result of image processing? Is this a single shot, or stacked? I would probably need half a dozen stacked images to get one this bright using my Meade 8" ACF. I should probably try using my 'big' 10" SN scope, but, the little SC is easier to set up - no tube wrestling, counter weights, or polar alignment to mess with. I like bells and whistles when it's 10 degrees outside.

 

[russ_watters]

Nice shoot, Russ. The limb darkening is striking. Is this a result of image processing? Is this a single shot, or stacked? I would probably need half a dozen stacked images to get one this bright using my Meade 8" ACF. I should probably try using my 'big' 10" SN scope, but, the little SC is easier to set up - no tube wrestling, counter weights, or polar alignment to mess with. I like bells and whistles when it's 10 degrees outside.

You're talking about my Jupiter pic? It's something like 1500 stacked of each color for Jupiter, 200 each color for the moons, at different exposures. I've used Photoshop for overall brightness and contrast, but the gradient towards the limb is real. The outer planets don't have full phases like the inner ones, but unless it is exactly at opposition, one side will be a little darker than the other.

I don't know why you wouldn't be able to get it bright, though, it's just a matter of exposure and Jupiter is pretty bright. You should be able to get pictures with you 8" pretty close to what I've done. I'm shooting around 1/30th sec exposures.

 

[DLuckyE]

I took this one a while back

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doggettx/5264801104/

I tried it as a single shot at first but couldn't get detail on both the moon and Jupiter at the same time, so did 2 shots and combined them.

 

[Redbelly98]

I took this one a while back

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doggettx/5264801104/

I tried it as a single shot at first but couldn't get detail on both the moon and Jupiter at the same time, so did 2 shots and combined them.

Nice! Any idea what the faint spot is, to the right of Jupiter and slightly out of the plane of the moons' orbits? (Easier to see in the http://www.flickr.com/photos/doggettx/5264801104/sizes/o/in/photostream/" .)

 

[DLuckyE]

Nice! Any idea what the faint spot is, to the right of Jupiter and slightly out of the plane of the moons' orbits? (Easier to see in the http://www.flickr.com/photos/doggettx/5264801104/sizes/o/in/photostream/" .)

I'm not sure, but I think that's Io

 

[Drakkith]

Wow, this thread has been here for 4 1/2 years! I started to read the 1st page before I realized the date, and what got me to realize it was so old was Turbo saying how expensive CCD's were lol.

 

[HeLiXe]

I took this one a while back

http://www.flickr.com/photos/doggettx/5264801104/

I tried it as a single shot at first but couldn't get detail on both the moon and Jupiter at the same time, so did 2 shots and combined them.

This is really nice :)

 

[Chronos]

I recently purchased a canon T1i [500D] for astrophotography. The meade pro III ccd was disappointing. The sensor is just too small to yield a useful FOV. I hope it may still prove useful for autoguiding.

 

[Drakkith]

I've been itching for another CCD or something myself. I'll probably wait until I can get better with my Meade DSI II before I get something else though. Even if it is a huge pain in the butt most of the time.

 

[HeLiXe]

I do not even own a telescope -_- I do look at the sky quite often, and since I have moved light pollution is very minimal. I need to get a telescope before the beginning of next year but am still researching which one to get. Lovely pictures on this thread :) one day I will be adding some of my own.

 

[Drakkith]

You can get a 5-6 inch scope for pretty cheap. 100-200 bucks for a good deal, depending on what you want on it.

 

[Shovel]

Does anyone know where I can find data on meteor rates for various meteor showers? I was out last night with my T1i and tripod and managed to capture one. My shots are a little lacking though, and I spent a lot of time fiddling with my camera instead of watching the sky. I'd like to try again with some new settings and connect my laptop to the camera for automation, but I want to include some sweet, sweet math into the mix.

What I'm looking for is any data regarding the distribution of meteors in the sky by date, so I know roughly how many to expect given my view of the sky and I know when to stop looking. Any compiled data regarding the statistics of meteor distribution would be awesome.

 

[sas3]

Just trying out setting on my camera and caught a plane and a meteor and thought I would share it. 30 second exposure F3 cheap GE 14.1 meg pix camera.
It's a nice camera the cheap part was the price.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69555355@N07/6325503509/in/photostream/"

 

[Drakkith]

Nice! I don't even have a camera with adjustable exposure other than the one specifically for my telescope.

 

[Redbelly98]

Just trying out setting on my camera and caught a plane and a meteor and thought I would share it. 30 second exposure F3 cheap GE 14.1 meg pix camera.
It's a nice camera the cheap part was the price.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69555355@N07/6325503509/in/photostream/"

As Drakkith said ... nice! Even without the meteor.

I'm not spotting the plane, where is it?

 

[sas3]

The plane is the bright streak the meteor is to the right and much dimmer heading into the trees

 

[russ_watters]

Haven't done much lately, but here's a shot of Jupiter last week, with Io passing in front of it. I took a dozen sets and the quality was inconsistent, but this is one of the better ones. I'm still working on processing and will probably put together an animation of most of the transit.

 

[chroot]

One of my recent favorites, of the Andromeda Galaxy:

- Warren

 

[Jamie Kern]

There are lots of lovely shots here - I particularly like Russ' - I'm very impressed with the detail you got on those galaxies. I'm going to spend some time looking through all of these!

I feel a duty to link to my observatory's Astrophotography page. Not everything is up there - just some particularly nice shots people took through our old facility. We're currently in the process of setting up the main instrument at the new one.

http://www.bridgew.edu/Observatory/Astrophotography.cfm
Enjoy!

Edit: Wow, chroot - that's lovely. I'm confused as to how I missed it five minutes ago!

 

[sas3]

The aurora were out last night and I took some pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69555355@N07/6965195608/

 

[Drakkith]

The aurora were out last night and I took some pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69555355@N07/6965195608/

Nice!