Starting amateur astrophotography with an Olympus SP-550UZ

[Adyssa]

I saw this mentioned in a few threads, and I thought, seeing as I just inherited a 2nd hand digital camera from my dad, maybe I should give it a go. Any tips for a beginner?

I guess I should get a tripod. My camera is an Olympus SP-55OUZ with manual settings and 18x optical zoom. It's a half-decent machine, apparently, but my expertise is about zero, I haven't owned a camera before.

I'm in Melbourne, Australia by the way, in case location is important, there's a fair nothern hemisphere bias on his forum I think. :)

 

[KrisOhn]

Lots of good info here:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=41511

I do a bit of astrophotography myself, for some basic advice to get you started:
High ISO, Long shutter exposures, low F stop, on a tripod. Don't be afraid to play around with things and see what happens.

 

[Adyssa]

It pays to check the appropriate sub-forum, thanks for the link. :)

 

[Drakkith]

Check out www.cloudynights.com
That site is dedicated to amateur astronomy.