Astrophotography

russ_watters

That makes sense - I agre with all of that. I also didn't notice before, but now that I'm looking for it, Venus is noticeably hexagonal in that picture.....except that no camera would need 1 minute of exposure. I have imaged Saturn at f50 and use about a .1 sec exposure. That's a little too much magnification, so most of my planetary imaging is done at f25, with ~1/30th second exposures.

chemisttree

Yes, shorter speeds are needed for range and detail but if it is the spikes you want instead, longer times would exaggerate that. He is already using a 6 second exposure and the spikes are only faintly there.

BTW, I'm going to take back my "focus Venus to a tiny point" recommendation. At that f number what he has is likely the best focus he can achieve. Any bluriness is most likely due to seeing.

That is a very nice picture, MikeyW! Just like a postcard.

mikeph

Thanks! I waited for a good hour for the right lighting. It's just a shame I didn't have my longer lens, I might have been able to get some resolution with a 200mm lens- although I don't know how I would have kept the camera still.

I took a similar photo handheld at about f/5.6, 1/30 second exposure and it was just a big blurry line, so I imagine at a large zoom I will need even more light.


You're right about the diaphragm blades, there are 6 which are slightly curved so at f/22 it is probably 80% hexagon, 20% sphere.

FawkesCa

ten points if you can figure out how i took this pic of Mars. (hint: i did cheat, but i DID take this with my own camera)

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FawkesCa

and just for kicks, ill throw this in with it

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adyarbakery

hi,

I took these photos of the sky from Yosemite.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adyarbakery/4827577169/

I found that there were streaks on the image - which could be a planet, comet or a meteor. I know it is not a planet (I checked on stellarium for that). However I can not figure out if it is a comet or a planet. These are 8 second exposures. Any idea if it is a comet or a meteor?

I tend to gravitate towards it being a comet, since it was in the sky for an extended period of time (photographs taken after 5 minutes later also showed the streak).

Any ideas how to figure out?

thanks,
ab

428

Hello.
It is probably neither. Firstly, the trail in the first picture is curved and it has distinct dotted pattern. Secondly, the object appears to be moving towards (or perhaps from?) the constellation Perseus throughout the gallery. None of them look like or behave like that. My bet would be a man-made object flashing at ~1s intervals (since the are around 7 light pulses in each photo and your exposures are 8s).

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

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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:

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.

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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?

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Chronos

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

russ_watters

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!

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chemisttree

Very nice, Russ!

baywax

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.

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