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Photographer takes to the sky.

Waylandscape

By Waylandscape
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Waylandscape

Waylandscape

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Hello,

I've been a keen landscape photographer for a few years now, going back to pre digital days but now firmly in the electronic imaging camp. As such, I'm often out in remote locations at all hours and recently I'm becoming more and more interested in some of the fantastic night skies that I've seen.

Photography is very much bound up with the way I enjoy experiencing the World around me and I think that is something I want to extend to the night sky as well.

I've already experimented a little with star trails.

Castlerigg-Circles.jpg

And I've been lucky with shooting the Aurora a couple of times.

Northern-lights-Norway-5-3-2012.jpg

But watching BBC Stargazing live this week, I've been really inspired by the kind of images posted in by amateur astronomers from apparently fairly modest equipment.

Of course, I'm not foolish enough to think it is just as simple as buying a telescope and getting pictures comparable to the Hubble images, but I was genuinely surprised at the quality of some of the deep space images shown on the program from terrestrially sited scopes.

I'm here to begin a journey. My first steps will be to read a lot of the advice on this forum and research the kind of equipment that I really need, not just to view, but also to get decent photographs of what I see. I'm not going to rush into a shop and buy the first thing I see. I'd rather spend some time, and more money if necessary to get the right gear first time.

My knowledge of the sky is fairly limited. I can pick out a few constelations, mainly to navigate with but I am keen to learn more. I've had a long interest in the cosmos but lack the practical knowledge that I hope to develop here.

I hope you won't mind some of my hopelessly naive beginers questions as I stumble along that path. Any pointers in the right direction would of course be greatly appreciated.

I hope that in return I may at least be able to contribute some of my photographic and post production knowledge; although I am sure there will be members here with far greater experience than myself in that field.

So, that's just a little information about myself, I'm off now to start reading some of your back catalogue of posts. I may be some time...

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VigdisVZ

VigdisVZ

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Beautiful pictures!

The best advice for anyone starting out with astrophotography is to read Steve Richars book "Making Every Photon Count". That will set you off on the right track. Basicly it's all about having a stable and precise motorized mount that tracks the sky while the earth rotates, enabling you to take long exposure photos of the faint light reaching earth. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html

Good to have you on board!

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JamesF

JamesF

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Welcome to SGL

I'll second Carl's recommendation for the book. Imaging galaxies and nebulae is very different from "normal" photography because you're working at such low light levels -- often objects that aren't even visible to the naked eye. Often a single image will be the result of many hours exposure time. Reading Steve's book is an excellent way to get an understanding of what's required and how you might want to proceed.

James

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JamesF

JamesF

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From What I've been reading so far it looks like most of my money is likely to be spent on a decent mount rather than the actual optics.

Is that a fair reading of the situation?

Certainly a mount will be a reasonable chunk of the cost and may well cost more than the telescope. If you're using a DSLR it could easily be the most expensive individual component. The usual recommendation is to start with something like a HEQ5 or NEQ6 as a minimum. They are capable of giving good results with shorter focal length telescopes. From there the sky is the limit really. There are mounts that cost easily more than a small car :)

James

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Waylandscape

Waylandscape

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There seem to be several EQ5 mounts. Is the "Go To" function really needed or is the manual mount accurate enough for photography?

I don't mind having to learn my way around the sky but if the automation makes things more stable then that might justify the added cost.

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JonDoe

JonDoe

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Hi Waylandscape welcome to SGL, excellent pictures and a great intro, really looking forward to seeing more of your work.

im no expert but i think the motorized mount is a must if your thinking of taking pictures of deep sky stuff, hope thats right

soon you will be able to edit the signature setting in your profile, where you can let others know what equipment you have already.

save time repeating it when asking questions on the forum

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JamesF

JamesF

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There seem to be several EQ5 mounts. Is the "Go To" function really needed or is the manual mount accurate enough for photography?

I don't mind having to learn my way around the sky but if the automation makes things more stable then that might justify the added cost.

There are quite a few different EQ5 models. The basic one is completely unmotorised and from there you work your way up to motorised versions, ones with better quality drives and full GOTO at the top end.

You can live without GOTO if you can find the targets you're after. The HEQ5 Syntrek is probably the "entry level" for imaging in that case. As the weight of the kit you want to use increases then you need to start looking at the NEQ6.

I should probably point out that for wide field imaging you can potentially use a cheaper mount, DSLR and camera lens. It can be a little restrictive and you can run into some problems with colour aberration, but if you look in the imaging section you'll see quite a few people producing images with a DSLR and 200mm lens.

James

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Waylandscape

Waylandscape

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Thank you everyone for your kind words, as I said, landscape has been my main photographic interest until now and a quick google for my username will take you to some of my normal work. (I don't want to break any rules so I won't put a link here until I'm told I can do so.)

That's very useful James. I'm not going to rush into anything but it looks like that might be the way to go. It looks robust, adaptable and updateable if needed.

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SnakeyJ

SnakeyJ

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Hi Waylandscape,

Great images and thanks for sharing. Obviously put a lot of thought and work in on these. The aurora is stunning, hope one day to glance this first hand. Is the stone circle local Saddleworth/York moors - not one I've seen before.

Look forward to lots more in future!

Thanks again - Jake

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Waylandscape

Waylandscape

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Hi Waylandscape,

Great images and thanks for sharing. Obviously put a lot of thought and work in on these. The aurora is stunning, hope one day to glance this first hand. Is the stone circle local Saddleworth/York moors - not one I've seen before.

Look forward to lots more in future!

Thanks again - Jake

The stone circle is at Castlerigg, just outside Keswick in Cumbria.

It's photographed a lot but usually from other angles.

seven-rooks-BW.jpg

The Aurora shot was taken in Norway, not far from Bardufoss.

Northern-Lights-Norway-9-3-2012.jpgNorthern-lights-over-Shelter-and-Fire.jpg

I was camping out for a fortnight in the area last March when there was a lot of Solar activity.

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