first attempts

[houston]

first go last night with 1100d and couple of lenses on tripod. had a go on 200p dob but with no tracking bit of a nightmare.

[Ryan_B]

Nice work, you can see the smudge of M42 there! What kind of settings were you using? If you don't mind a bit of advice, it looks like your focus was slightly off in a few. I use a similar camera (550d) and I've found the best way to focus is to manual focus to infinity then using live view and auto iso, zoom in on a star then slowly wind back your focus until it's pin sharp. There's a sweet spot, and once you've got it it's easier to find again in the future. Don't forget to take your iso off auto afterwards!

Again, nice work, and I'm jealous that you've actually been able to see anything at all, let alone get out and take some pics!

Ryan

[Gomtuu]

What's the dotted line to the upper left of the last image? I'm guessing from the regular dots it's an aircraft with a strobe light..

[houston]

I took about 300 shots and really struggled with focus. All advice very welcome. Iso was 1600, 5 to 20 sec exposures. Had quite a few lines and dots on images. Got to be planes?

Sent from my GT-I8160 using Tapatalk 2

[GeohanSolo]

The light and stripes is a plane. an even stripe could be a satelite or a meteor. I was out recently and did some zoom imaging of the exact items you just shot. I am new to Flickr, but this link should show you what I got http://www.flickr.com/photos/114590823@N02/

I have a 550d with a tokina 11-16 for wide angle shots and a 70-200 with a 1.4 extender for closeups. On my zoom lens I use autofocus on Jupiter, and then I adjust manually. The difference between the 55-250 mm and the 70-200 mm with extender (98-280 mm) is striking. On my wide angle lens, I use infinity on manual.

Best, Solo

[houston]

Cheers for the advice solo. Have to give it another go next clear night. Nice images on flickr.

Sent from my GT-I8160 using Tapatalk 2

[Pete Presland]

nice set of images, fun isnt it? it shows anybody can get involved in astrophotgraphy, you have just got to get out there and snap away.

[LeeWilky]

Very nice   Its tough using just a DSLR and tripod without tracking as anything longer than 20 seconds and you get noticeable star trails.

With your high ISO longer exposures you can reduce the amount of red glare from ambient light by shifting the red colour in your histogram using Photoshop and then playing with the colour curves a little bit to tease out some more detail and reduce the orange glow.

As for focus i use the cameras live view to zoom in a close as possible to a bright star or jupiter then manaul focus until im happy then snap away.

[LeeWilky]

just had a very quick go by copying your image then spending about a minute tweaking what i mentioned above. 

Far from great as im learning this myself but you with your originals you should be able to grab some good results

[houston]

Nice. Much better than original. Lots to learn!

Sent from my GT-I8160 using Tapatalk 2

[LeeWilky]

There is a book called 'Making Every Photon Count' that i cant reccomend highly enough mate   Its will teach you everything you need to know plus so much more.

[houston]

Cheers lee. Might be bit of clear sky this evening so give it another bash.

Sent from my GT-I8160 using Tapatalk 2

[LeeWilky]

Good luck and look forward to seeing your results