Astrophotography

sas3

Thanks I just through something together to take some pictures since this will not happen again for 105 years and I wouldn't have another chance to see it. I did have several people stop to see what I was doing and had one person try to look into the wrong end of the telescope, just love when that happens....LOL

sas3

Quote by Bikersquirrel

Hi noob here :) I only recently managed to really get into astrophotography (kids often dictate otherwise i.e no time!), and decided to test run my shiny new camera on the super moon. I did manage to get a few reasonably good shots, but they were all a bit too dark. I looked.up some advice on the best settings to use on my camera, and was recommended to switch the ISO to 100. I tried again the next night but just couldn't get the exposure right. Any suggestions? I'm using a fuji HS20 EXR bridge camera. Thanks in advance!

Put it into manual mode and just play with different ISO, aperture, and shutter speed settings until you get the right one, that is the nice thing about digital cameras no film to waste.
I have a GE 14 Megapixel camera similar to yours however with mine I do not have a way to set it to manual focus, (don't know if you have the same settings) so it is almost useless to use through my telescope. Manual mode on my camera lets me set the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed, but no dam manual focus....

Tigerbarb1

Only an amateur photographer and astronomer here, yet I love combining the 2 professions! Will post photos later... stay tuned...

LadyStardust

I just bought a Nikon D5100. I have an 18-55, 55-200 and a NIKKOR AF-S 50mm f/1.8 Lens. What else do I need? Can anyone give me any advice? I've only practiced at our local observatory but that was much easier. I'd like to do some astrophotography without the use of a telescope. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Drakkith

Quote by AnnieJackson

I just bought a Nikon D5100. I have an 18-55, 55-200 and a NIKKOR AF-S 50mm f/1.8 Lens. What else do I need? Can anyone give me any advice? I've only practiced at our local observatory but that was much easier. I'd like to do some astrophotography without the use of a telescope. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'd say you need something to mount the camera on. If you plan on doing any exposures longer than about a second or so you need a mount that tracks the sky. Luckily your camera has a relatively low amount of magnification so the accuracy of the mount does not need to be as good as what a telescope generally needs. If you're interested in astrophotography then I would suggest heading over to www.cloudynights.com and going to the forums there. That is pretty much the goto place for the hobby.

LadyStardust

Quote by Drakkith

I'd say you need something to mount the camera on. If you plan on doing any exposures longer than about a second or so you need a mount that tracks the sky. Luckily your camera has a relatively low amount of magnification so the accuracy of the mount does not need to be as good as what a telescope generally needs. If you're interested in astrophotography then I would suggest heading over to www.cloudynights.com and going to the forums there. That is pretty much the goto place for the hobby.

Sounds good...for when I have the time. I can barely get a breather with my studies, job AND internship right now :/ I always wanted to try it but browsing endless forums ... well, let's just say I went ADD after 5 seconds. I did figure I'd need a different mount. Which I can't even afford right now.

In the meantime, are there any particular settings I should consider?

Drakkith

Quote by AnnieJackson

Sounds good...for when I have the time. I can barely get a breather with my studies, job AND internship right now :/ I always wanted to try it but browsing endless forums ... well, let's just say I went ADD after 5 seconds. I did figure I'd need a different mount. Which I can't even afford right now.

In the meantime, are there any particular settings I should consider?

That depends entirely on what you are doing with the camera. And as I don't have a normal camera I don't think I can help you in this area.

chemisttree

Best one I've seen yet. Of course I didn't take it....

chemisttree

Quote by LadyStardust

I just bought a Nikon D5100. I have an 18-55, 55-200 and a NIKKOR AF-S 50mm f/1.8 Lens. What else do I need? Can anyone give me any advice? I've only practiced at our local observatory but that was much easier. I'd like to do some astrophotography without the use of a telescope. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'd use the f1.8 lens. Set your ISO setting to 6400 and everything else to manual. Manual focus to infinity, ISO6400, lowest f-number possible and exposure time to 30 sec. Any longer on the exposure time and you will get trailing stars. Aim toward the southern sky at around 11:00 pm at a dark site. You won't see as much near a big city. Do this when there is no moon.

Good luck!

Chronos

I believe most DSLR's are optimized at ISO 400 for long exposures. Assuming that is still true, you should get your best pictures with that setting.

Topher925

Quote by Chronos

I believe most DSLR's are optimized at ISO 400 for long exposures. Assuming that is still true, you should get your best pictures with that setting.

I don't think they are really "optimized" for it, they just happen to perform well around that much gain due to the nature of CMOS sensors. There's a lot of controversy around noise injection vs exposure time when it comes to low and high ISO settings. I've always had to use high ISO settings (1600,3200,6400 when its cold out) due to the limitations of my mount/camera but I just got a new mount last week and will soon be testing this theory.

Topher925

Finally got some spare time and clear skies a couple nights ago and got to try out my new mount for the first time. I had a lot of technical issues early on in the night but managed to get 15 x 1min exposures of M101. Haven't really had the time to fully process it though.

Drakkith

Not bad for 15 minutes! Get that exposure time into the hour+ mark to really start seeing some detail.

chemisttree

Nice round stars! What camera did you use?

davenn

Quote by chemisttree

Nice round stars! What camera did you use?

further to that... what was the telescope, telephoto lens ? prime focus setup ? etc etc

Dave

sas3

Just thought I would share a picture of my telescope

GEDC1879 by Scottsas3

Topher925

Quote by davenn

further to that... what was the telescope, telephoto lens ? prime focus setup ? etc etc

Dave

I use a Pentax K-5 (*gasp* not a Canon, I know). The scope was an Orion ST-80 which is in pretty bad shape but it works surprisingly well for a $100 scope. Mount was a CG-5gt which I quickly setup using a polar scope and two star alignment. If I did a four star alignment and sighted things up a bit I probably could have easily gotten up to three minute exposures I would think.

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sas3 Recognitions: Gold Member	Astrophotography Thanks I just through something together to take some pictures since this will not happen again for 105 years and I wouldn't have another chance to see it. I did have several people stop to see what I was doing and had one person try to look into the wrong end of the telescope, just love when that happens....LOL

Tigerbarb1	Only an amateur photographer and astronomer here, yet I love combining the 2 professions! Will post photos later... stay tuned...

LadyStardust	I just bought a Nikon D5100. I have an 18-55, 55-200 and a NIKKOR AF-S 50mm f/1.8 Lens. What else do I need? Can anyone give me any advice? I've only practiced at our local observatory but that was much easier. I'd like to do some astrophotography without the use of a telescope. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

chemisttree Recognitions: Gold Member Homework Help Science Advisor	Best one I've seen yet. Of course I didn't take it....

Chronos Recognitions: Gold Member Science Advisor	I believe most DSLR's are optimized at ISO 400 for long exposures. Assuming that is still true, you should get your best pictures with that setting.

Topher925	Finally got some spare time and clear skies a couple nights ago and got to try out my new mount for the first time. I had a lot of technical issues early on in the night but managed to get 15 x 1min exposures of M101. Haven't really had the time to fully process it though.

Drakkith Recognitions: Gold Member	Not bad for 15 minutes! Get that exposure time into the hour+ mark to really start seeing some detail.