Venus and Pleiades (be kind lol)

[Rattler]

Well I knew I wouldn't get much here. My first time imaging anything other than the moon. All tips, criticisms and comments welcome. Unfortunately the second image has a telephone cable in the image.

Canon 500d on tripod and remote shutter

ISO 800, 1/1000, 5 second exposure on the 1st image and 7 seconds on the 2nd image)

[Rattler]

Anyone?

[nmoushon]

Not half bad. Its out of focus, which is why looks blurry. Also take multiple exposures at 5 sec. I would try for at least 30 and take about 20 darks. You'll notice an improvement right away. Though 7 sec exposure is brighter you have visible star trails so I'd stick with 5 sec.

[Les E]

HI Rattler,

Though I dont claim to be a expert, Id increase the ISO to allow a shorter exposure time,(under 3 seconds),and use the highest ISO setting available to get the fainter stars in,provided there is not too much noise on the image.Also be very careful to get precise focusing,and take several shots bracketing the focusing slightly and then pick out the sharpest image.

Regards and clear skies Les.

[bm1980]

Not bad but as alreary said the focus is off, dont get bogged down with trying to stack images yet, keep at it and you will see better results

Regards

Ben

[Rattler]

Thanks for the advice guys. I thought the focus was bang on when I took the photos. I tend to use the viewfinder as I find it harder to focus with Live View. I'll give it another go trying what you've said.

[David JM]

It looks like you have set your lens focus on infinity by widing it out all the way.

With my all-of-ten-days knowledge and experience if you did this you went "over infinity" on the focus. I use the following methods:

1] use autofocus on the moon then turn the lens to manual focus.

2] focus on a bright star or object manually, you will focus over infinity, back off a bit then refocus.

I've attached my image from last night. If you right click on the image when it's open in windows photoviewer you can then open the properties and scroll down to the lens, f-stop, ISO speed and shutter speed details. I drag this nect to the image and then do a screen shot and put it in the image as I'm too lazy to do a lot of typing.

Instead of using a remote shutter release I have set mine to a 2 second delay. To get images for stacking I use the repeat exposure setting, a 10 second delay adn a choice of 2-10 exposures at identical settings.

[Takahashi]

Rattler, have you tried using the 5x and 10x mag (top-right button on the back, and the one to its left to zoom back out) in live-view for focussing? It's invaluable, but you need a fairly bright target to focus on at first, then re-aim, so to speak.

[Rattler]

David- Your right. I did have the zoom all the way out. I'll give your way a go. Thanks.

Takahashi- I totally forgot about that. I'll use that too. Thanks.

[Beyond_Vision]

It's also worth checking the focus on a PC screen before you start an imaging run just to make sure it's ok. Thats assuming you are near to one at the time

Regards

Kevin

[Viv]

Another idea - one which has helped me immensley.

I wondered how on earth this helps / works, but trust me - it's makes so much easier / sharp focus.

Get or make a bahtinov mask.

I use venus for focusing at the mo. Even though I have backyard EOS, I'll use live view for the focus, make sure it's ok, then move on to take the actual image(s).

[Rattler]

Yeah I've got Backyard EOS. I'll use that and also give a Bahtinov mask a go. Thanks.