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First Lunar Images - Camera only

Tommohawk

By Tommohawk
in Getting Started With Imaging

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Tommohawk

Tommohawk

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Hi all

Hoping for some tips. Just started out with the whole astro mullarkey thing, and finding it quite a (pleasant) challenge.

I used to be into photography back before digital, and recently bought a bridge camera - Fujifilm HS30EX. (30x zoom i.e. 720mm equivalent at maximum) When I bought this I wasnt particularly thinkg of astro stuff - just wanted an all-rounder - and in general pleased with it.

At some point will probably splash out on a telescope, but for now thought I'd have a bash at some night sky pics with camera only.  Iniital thought are:

Can get quite reasonable lunar images, though these lack the clarity of some images I've seen online. This may be simply poor camera res. - lots of pixels, but very small sensor. Or it might be focussing - finding infinity on these cameras is an absolute so and so. Am working on a method and will post on this if it works. Tried RAF format and no better.

Tried to post best image below - though I think I may have fallen at the first. Has uploaded as very small file size.

post-33831-0-13610200-1387286929_thumb.j

Have used f8 and 1/25 on tripod, ISO 100. Kept with ISO 100 cos quite bright image.

I also had a bash at the Pleiades, and this was fun. Three problems here:

1. Focussing difficult as above - I think I can sort this, and the results I got seem OK for focus.

2. Cant see image on camera screen or EVF (no optical viewfinder) cos too faint. I got around this by doing longish exposure with wider angle just to locate subject, then re-centred subjst amd zoomed in. Seems to work OK.

3. Long trails - suprisingly so for lowish (30x) mag. Did ISO 100 for best res, but of course needed 30s exposure hence trails. Looks like you can get away with very high ISO setting for astro cos noise reduction software seems very effective. I think if I do ISO1600 I might just get awy with it. Willpost again

I also got the idea of image stacking and played around with Avistack. I have some very spedific queries/issues with this, but will post this separately to keep threads clear.

I dont think my image is going to load, but any thought/ideas very welcome. If I can find a method that works I might try and get images of other M45 type objects. Longer term will probably get 130mm reflector and some kind of camera.

Thanks,

Tom

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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Quite a good first lunar effort. You could try to take a series of shots, and stack them using Registax (free software). As for stars: Constellations are easiest, so use a wide FOV, which means easier focus, and generally better F-ratio. Even so, a zoom is rarely very fast, and fast is what you need, especially without tracking.

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JessicaFaye

JessicaFaye

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I can't believe you can get that kind of image without a scope, that's great! I've not been exposed to a lot of photography (scuse the pun) but I'd love to have a crack at astro photography... I'm ploughing through forums for really basic starting off tips and methods!

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Tommohawk

Tommohawk

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Thanks for positive comments.

Jessica - yes, I thought its not bad for 30x zoom bridge camera, and there are 40x versions out there too. But my impression is that there will be a limited number of objects that can be imaged with a camera of this sort. Like you, I'm reading up on forums and making some progress. I want to see what can be done with a camera only, so next time there are clear skies I'll have another go. I think I can do Pleiades and similar.

Will have a look for post-Christmas bargain scope, but I dont think this camera is ideal for use with scope. You cant remove the lens, so prime focus not possible, and its too bulky to attach to the telescope for afocal imaging.

Can anyone tell me how to post an image please? I seem to have fluked it earlier! Thanks

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JKB

JKB

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very nice image and I would be proud of that. Try with around f11 to f22 similar speed but slightly higher ISO say 400. Should bring out some more detail.

Whatever a really good image and keep going, look forward to your next attempt.

Cheers

Jamie

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Tommohawk

Tommohawk

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Being a total cheapskate I used freebie Paint.net. Brightened it a bit and upped the contrast, and slight noise reduction. The pic I posted just now was shot very fast cos was hand held.

As you say weather pretty grim here. Fingers crossed for clear sky soon and will have another go.

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nicks90

nicks90

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download registax - even if you stick with single pictures and dont stack them, there is a wealth of options in there for altering wavelets, contrast, gamma and all sorts of alien things (non photographer talking!) and would be worth mucking about with on the photos you posted above.

I have used registax a couple of times when taking videos of saturn with a webcam - and it is fairly easy to get the basics of stacking pictures. I would imagine if you did a dozen short exposure medium iso pictures of the moon and stacked them, it would look absolutely corking.

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Tommohawk

Tommohawk

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download registax - even if you stick with single pictures and dont stack them, there is a wealth of options in there for altering wavelets, contrast, gamma and all sorts of alien things (non photographer talking!) and would be worth mucking about with on the photos you posted above.

I downloaded Avistack - just happened to come across that one first. Have played around with it a bit, and made some progress. Full size images were >5MB, and Avistack seemed very slow. Cropped them roughly, and then found Avistack couldnt align them because has max search radius of 64 (Px?) and loses image if its way off from the previous one. So next time out will take mutiple images of moon, do a batch crop, the process.

Will try same with Pleiades, and hope that by upping ISO to 1600 and cutting exposure to 1.5s I should get decent exposures without trails.

BTW I tried playing with wavelets and couldnt get much better - but did succeed in losing all the default settings! Need to find a way to restore.!

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Tommohawk

Tommohawk

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With star shots would landscape mode (infinity) be any use?

My camera wont do a high enough ISO to capture anything useable on stars and the file size plumets too.

Well - like you I always thought that landscape mode would force focus to infinity - but it doesnt!! Not on mine anyhow. Not sure what it does - something to do with colour balance maybe.

I have some thoughts on infinity focus, and will test and then post back cos it might be helpful for others.

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Tommohawk

Tommohawk

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Great image! I thng that PIPP will centre and crop single images, here: https://sites.google.com/site/astropipp/  Do stack as many as you can to build data.

Have a go at the freeware GIMP. It has some of PS's features and a lot of people use it.

Alexxx

Thanks. I did download PIPP, and noticed that it would crop. I used PIPP as an expt to convert MOV to AVI, so may play with the crop feature too. Wouldnt have time for all this with clear skies!!

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