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Total newbie looking for advice of any kind.

Adamar98

By Adamar98
in Getting Started With Imaging

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Adamar98

Adamar98

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I recently bought a Canon 450d with 18-55mm lens. Ive always had a fassination with astronomy so i decided to point my camera to the skies! Heres what i got with my first results.M31 5x10' 50mm @ f/2.8 iso 800. Would love any advice on image processing, other good objects to image, camera setup?

post-26977-0-50070000-1353951565_thumb.p

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VigdisVZ

VigdisVZ

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That's one nice M31 you got there. Way better then when I tried the same. Amazed at what you can squeeze out of the standard lenses.

That's what brought me over to the dark side: Widefields at 18mm with my 18-55 Nikon. I was just out shooting in the fields outside where I live, now I'm sitting here with my EQ mount and a whole lot of clouds :D

Before you get a tracking mount, I would suggest you have a crack widefields, with some sort of terrain or buildings in them to give the image context.

I usually set my exposure time to around 10sec to avoid eggy or trailed stars. ISO at 400 (give or take) and F/3.5 @ 18mm.

You don't need to process these that much, just shoot in raw and try to perk them up a bit with registry tweaking and sharpness.

Here are some of my pictures from my light polluted neck of the woods. One day I'll get around to frame my widefields with some nice architecture, right now however I'll use my clear nights on the scope.

Really looking forward to seeing what you can produce!

Edit: I forgot to mention, try swapping white balance around a bit. I sometimes like a blue tungsten setting, but IIRC the last ones were shot with Auto WB.

Edit again: Actually when I check my RAWs i seem to have some at a higher ISO (but the image viewer might by lying here). So just experiment and try to find out what you like.

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Adamar98

Adamar98

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Cheers for all the advice. I've only been a member of SGL for a day and didn't expect much response. Your a friendly bunch! I've been trawling my way through the forum for the past few hours (so much help) looking for people in my situation. It's good to know that I can achieve good results with the kit I have. I see that a lot of advice people give usually ends up with a "spend more money". So I've just bought a fixed 50mm lens (nifty fifty). Can't wait for a clear sky to try it out. I also found that I live only 20miles from a dark skies site! I have a funny feeling I'll be asking more questions and spending more money in the near future. I'll have a play around with exposure times and iOS settings and I'll keep you posted. Cheers again guys!

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VigdisVZ

VigdisVZ

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Yep, I love the astro community. Never met a friendlier bunch online. The hobby also lacks a lot of the gear snobbery that you can find in other similar interest groups. Having a nice kit is always a plus, but it doesn't matter what you got. If you got a cheap pair of binos or a huge RC Astrograph. It's still the same sky, the same awe, and we're still just equal specks in the cosmos.

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earth titan

earth titan

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I recently bought a Canon 450d with 18-55mm lens. Ive always had a fassination with astronomy so i decided to point my camera to the skies! Heres what i got with my first results.M31 5x10' 50mm @ f/2.8 iso 800. Would love any advice on image processing, other good objects to image, camera setup?

post-26977-0-50070000-1353951565_thumb.p

Excellent.

Now give me you credit card and I'll show you what it feels like to be an astrophotographer - broke, a regular pub bore and knackered. :p

Typed by me on my fone, using fumms... Excuse eny speling errurs.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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You could do a lot more with the image in processing. The core skill is the application of Levels and Curves which Rob Hogkinson explains well here; http://www.middlehillobservatory.co.uk/

Have a read through this and then look at the histogram in each colour chanel. You should try to get the top left of the peak aligned in each channel. Your green is a long way out in the one you've posted, but I'm sure it could be sorted. It's a good capture.

Olly

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