Find Answer

I was listening to podcast #108 where Martin dabbles in a little astrophotography. Up until I joined this community, my photography experience was limited to astrophotography. I had free access to a small observatory with a LX200 telescope (2000mm f/10), which I no longer have access to (moved). I thought I would put together a few basic tips for anyone interested in this fascinating type of photography. As I like to say, it’s all about the light. Gathering photons on that sensor.

Believe it or not, planets and the moon get boring pretty quickly–the real action reveals itself in galaxies, nebulae and star clusters. For the first time in history, anyone with a DSLR and even a low-range telescope can access vast expanses of our universe, full of color, shape, form and all of the other wonderful things that make up good photographs. But, occasionally, and especially to start, the moon is a nice target. Also, the preferred method of capturing planets is video! Don’t ask me why, but it is pretty much a hard fast rule. The idea is to get the planet in the viewfinder and roll HD video at 60 fps. The hard part of astrophotography is focus. Even if you get just 5 seconds of video, that’s 300 frames to choose from–and as the camera autofocuses, it inevitably nails a few frames spot on. You just go through the frames and find the best focused shots. Here’s an example of Jupiter–though not particularly in great focus




Here’s an example of a moon shot grabbing the camera straight out of the bag with no telescope or insane telephoto lens (I can’t remember which lens–probably 50mm):



Here’s another shot of the moon–this time with a tripod and a 300mm zoom lens. You can get pretty close with a 300mm lens and a tripod. Tip–white balance off the moon itself.



And finally, here is a shot with aforementioned telescope (2000mm f/10). Know that this telescope could optically get way down to inside of a tiny crater and fill the frame. Again, focus is the key–and shooting HD video at 60fps.



I’m going to update this post with some of my own images when I can get into my archives–so the next part about “deep sky” images (galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, etc.) will have some examples I just grabbed off of google images.


Deep Sky

Martin had mentioned in the podcast that he couldn’t get a particular shot because the stars were moving too fast. Indeed, they move faster than one might think. The closer they are to us, the faster they move–so the moon, planets and local objects move faster than say, the Orion nebula, which is millions of light years away. What many of the mid to upper tier telescopes do so well has to do with “tracking”. They have motors on them that move the telescope imperceptably to keep the subject in the frame in the exact same place as it moves across the sky. Have you ever seen star trails in photographs? No tracking system is used in these photos–so you’re essentially looking at the subject as it moves from east to west across the sky.

….

Ive tried a few times to get nice clear pics of a full moon.
Most not that sucessful.

Im using a 20d with 300L IS with an x1.4 making it 672mm

Ive tried a few / many different combinations of iso/speed/aperture etc
also i use mirror lockup with a tripod with a remote, raw and jpg’d too

Anyone any ideas of the best camera settings ?
I read 100iso 1/125th @ f8 which was sucessful but could definately be bettered

I am aware this is a hard subject to shoot and also there is a lot of dust / debris between myself and the moon making focus a little difficult

The best ive done sofar is with my 70-200L and enlarged it with a few PS tweeks

I was listening to podcast #108 where Martin dabbles in a little astrophotography. Up until I joined this community, my photography experience was limited to astrophotography. I had free access to a small observatory with a LX200 telescope (2000mm f/10), which I no longer have access to (moved). I thought I would put together a few basic tips for anyone interested in this fascinating type of photography. As I like to say, it’s all about the light. Gathering photons on that sensor.

Believe it or not, planets and the moon get boring pretty quickly–the real action reveals itself in galaxies, nebulae and star clusters. For the first time in history, anyone with a DSLR and even a low-range telescope can access vast expanses of our universe, full of color, shape, form and all of the other wonderful things that make up good photographs. But, occasionally, and especially to start, the moon is a nice target. Also, the preferred method of capturing planets is video! Don’t ask me why, but it is pretty much a hard fast rule. The idea is to get the planet in the viewfinder and roll HD video at 60 fps. The hard part of astrophotography is focus. Even if you get just 5 seconds of video, that’s 300 frames to choose from–and as the camera autofocuses, it inevitably nails a few frames spot on. You just go through the frames and find the best focused shots. Here’s an example of Jupiter–though not particularly in great focus


….

From Space.com

Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong may be notoriously private, but the first man on the moon recently reached out to a reporter to share some new details about his famous moonwalk with fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin in 1969.

It all started with a blog post that was published Tuesday (Dec. 7) on the National Public Radio (NPR) website. The post examined Armstrong and Aldrin’s celebrated first moonwalk on July 20, 1969, and questioned why the first exploration of the lunar surface covered such a small distance.

Robert Krulwich of NPR looked at a map from NASA that marks all the locations on the moon’s surface visited by Armstrong and Aldrin. He then superimposed that map onto a regulation soccer field and baseball diamond. In doing so, Krulwich determined that the historic moonwalk took the astronauts less than a hundred yards away from their lunar lander. Or, from the perspective of a baseball field, “Armstrong’s longest, boldest walk took him about as far as Joe DiMaggio used to jog every inning — from home plate to about mid-center field.”

The next day, Krulwich posted a follow-up, which featured an e-mail response from Neil Armstrong himself.

In his reply, Armstrong, who was commander of the Apollo 11 flight, explained the main reasons for traversing such a small distance, which include the extremely high temperatures on the lunar surface, uncertainties surrounding how the astronauts’ spacesuits with their water-cooled interiors would hold up, and requirements from NASA that the two astronauts perform experiments in front of a fixed camera.
More http://www.space.com/news/neil-armstron … 01210.html

This is hilarious.

From http://www.northernstar.com.au/story/2010/04/09/more-mysterious-objects-seen-over-the-region/

Ms Stewart was fishing at Evans Head the week before when she began taking photographs of the Moon.

Sometime after 10.30pm a strange object, which she could only see through the lens of her camera, appeared beside the Moon.

Ms Stewart said while she did believe in UFOs, she did not know if that was what she had captured.

First time with my new scope last night.

Before using the GOTO system i manually lined the scope on Jupier and its four moons. Even though my scope is obviously not the ideal for planetary observation i was pleasantly suprised to see Jupiter and 4 moons quite clearly. Ok it doesn’t fill the eyepiece by a long way but with the 2x barlow and 10mm eyepiece i could make out some colour banding on the planet itself.

I also looked at some DSO’s????

But i have posted about that in the appropriate section.

A bit of a heads up for you guys over in Blight-y.
Check your moonrise times and charge your camera batteries, if you get clear skies in the am, there’s a real photo opportunity heading your way, a delicious crescent moon and Venus in conjunction. I’ve just come in to re-charge (both coffee & batteries). It’s been a struggle since 04:50 to find a decent place for my camera to avoid either wind, vibrations (from the mud pumps) or both. I think I’ve got some half decent shots against the night sky. I’ll be back out in a bit to try for some against the dawn.
I was also viewing through the 10x42s, and what a goreous sight, the two in the same FoV! Wonderful, don’t miss it!!

p.s. They’ll be a fair bit closer together by the time you’ve swung round to them…

The moon will be at is closes to earth than it has been for 20 years. It should look 14% bigger and 30 % brighter. Will be 220,625 miles away. And its a full moon.