My First Images

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

Picture 1 : full Moon.

Taken with a Fujifilm S2500 Bridge camera @ 504mm (35mm eqiv) this is the shot that inspired me towards astronomy.

Picture 2 : Moon HDwebcam

my little 76mm /300mm dob @ f3.9 , this is my latest shoot. i used my converted HD webcam. seeing was very bad it looked like heat haze.

180MB AVI 309 frames stacked. camera has no IR filtering so image is converted to greyscale

please leave comments, advice and a general dig. they not the best but i learn for mistakes and advice and hope to become a better photographer

Tami

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

Took a couple of snaps with my canon 350D digital Kiss. slipped the canon EF 90-300 mm lens on.

Sky was somewhat hit an miss. to the eye a cloudy halo around the moon. i am more at home shooting wildlife and only taken a few night shots.

mono pod was to unstable so i propped myself and camera against the wall. 2x 14 shot bursts made then another 1x 5 shot burst. here was the final product after stacking in registax ( no darks used ), a full size and a cropped version.

settings:

F5.6 @ 300mm

exposure time 1/125sec

Iso 200

Auto WB

[rawhead]

Looking good to me

[Mike Hackenbacker]

looking good indeed i also use the 350D

[Stargazing_Cliff]

They great images well done.

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

thank you everyone.

i would love to hook up the canon to my SW heritage 76 dob, it should out do the canon tele lens. but i do not trust the small scope and cheap chipboard stand to carry the DSLR.

taken a few more over the past couple days, but every shot (80+ raw frames) have a funny looking cloudy view ( sky was clear) so that session has been binned.

the workflow is fairly simple, i have found registax complicated.

CR2 into Tiff 16bit.

import tiffs to RS, auto select alignpoints.

align / Limit / stack.

once i have stacked i mess with wavelets and do all.

all settings in RS left at default.

[CristiR]

Moon seen through a SW 127 f/11.8 and a Cannon Rebel XTi.

@ Sorry, I intended to post it as a new entry, not as a reply to yours. I'm so sorry...

Maybe a nice moderator can move this one up.

Thank you, and sorry again

[Telrad]

Nice images Tami.

I especially like the first shot. Well done!

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

thank you everyone.

at this time i am trying to photograph M42 in Orion, but it is bugging me a bit and i am having some problems to battle with.

new scope coming on monday, a SW skyhawk 114, they got mixed review and i need something to play with until after xmas. hopeful i can get some more lunar shots for this thread.

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

Here is another Lunar image. taken on 4th dec near the norfolk broads. a nice clear night with a nippy chill in the air. this image is made from 18 shots. stacked in batches of 6, then final restacking of 3 x stacked images

300mm focal (90-300 EF lens)

Canon 350d unmodded

ISO1600

1/2500s

F5.6

[Rocksnipem]

Looks great! Keep it up

[Quatermass]

Have you tryed using a barlow t adapter on your canon that works a treat for doing a moon montage

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[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

hi quatermass

i do not have a t adapter barlow for my 90-300mm lens.

i did for a while miss my fuji bridge cam, it had a lovely long 508mm focal length ( 18x optical zoom), it took the first shot in this thread and was my downfall into astronomy.

i moved onto a canon 350D and couple of lens, but i still missed the 508mm reach i used to have. i then went through a fad of wanting more focal length. trawled internet on 2x extenders large expensive lens, and mirror lens.

turned out a 500mm mirror lens was around f8 not very good for wildlife unless nice and sunny, and not very ideal purchase. then scopes came to mind so now i am in middle of saving for a new scope to hook the canon to.

thank you for the views everyone

[Quatermass]

Highly recommend the sky watcher 200p had mine for over a year now and very pleased with it takes great shots of lunar and deep sky

:)

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[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

they are nice the 200p also the 150p skyliners.

but i want to do mostly imaging and require a fast'ish scope from what i have been reading.

got another 2 months wait so am doing lots of research on best scope for imaging. or one that at least tracks, unlike the camera and me having to reframe every couple of shots lol.

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

going to say sorry first.

last night during a imaging session, i became ill. rushed into hospital with a mini heart attack.

been told it has to be sorted and a big lifestyle change in order. looks like sitting under the dark sky is a big no. have to keep warm and stress free. so there will be a lack of images from myself while i get this supernova in my chest sorted.

any ideas for relaxing astronomy ? reading items etc etc.

[Quatermass]

Goodness me so sorry to hear that :-(

Must have been a shock. I take beta blockers for my heart condition which help a great deal

Winter star gazing is off the cards for you but summer evenings are still ok. Well I do hope you get better soon ive had heart problems for 5years now so best advice is slow down and take things easy. Cold weather can be beaten with very warm thermal clothing and a pair of powerfull binoculars but best stay indoors relax and enjoy christmas for now.

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[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

was a huge shock.

expected to sit and sort out the subs i had captured, but instead had a supernova go off in my chest.

been a weird week for me. but as of now a complete lifechange is in order.

decided i will not be getting a large dob, and resorted to a smaller scope thats more easy to handle. maybe a small mak or smit cas in the skywater range.

well have to pluck up the courage and look at the subs that nearly killed me.

[Quatermass]

Well it takes time to get used to something going wrong with your heart and it worrys you a lot but you learn to adapt to it and carry on as normal. One good thing about photography is that once you have the subs, and the timer can do all that so you stay in the warm, you can then be indoors working on the images cosy and relaxed.

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[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

28th dec 2011 : Norfolk Broads, England

cold'ish night with clear skys, seeing is somewhat hazy/fuzzy.

been a while since i used the canon over christmas. been housed bound so was gazings out the window when i noticed a nice moon crisp and clear in the sky.

Canon 350D unmodded

EF 90-300mm @ f5.6 with a UV protector filter.

expsoure @ 1/200s

ISO800

AWB

registax : 36 shots used, stacking 5 shots at a time. then a final stack. cropped and un-cropped converted to JPG for smaller filesize.

[Quatermass]

Thats a great shot really nice. Glad you were able to do some imaging after the christmas period and hope your feeling better now

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[todd8137]

nice pics

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

Captured this unusual set of data via a 50mm homemade finder/guide scope.

i had captured over 1200 frames as a AVI @ 15fps, the whole avi file was around 1m. 24s

i was sorting the avi and running a preview when at 53 seconds into the avi,

this unknown object scooted across the lunar surface.

a quick peep on stellarium had shown no other objects crossing the path (north to south).

judging size of moon and the size of object it is fairly big. no aircraft in sight (or sound) when recording.

clear'ish skys with slight whispy upper cloud, around 6c temp.

Any ideas what it could have been ?

the avi file is ready for deleting, i tried everything in registax and just cannot get anything but a very grubby picture, even with 1200+ frame master dark taken right after. but this object is bugging me and i am holding off deleting the file.

[RikM]

Bird?

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[Quatermass]

Yes that is a bird flying across. One night when I was imaging the moon I had a bat come into the shot and another time I was lucky enough to get catch an aircraft in the shot