Cygnus first attempt with "Point & Shoot"

[mcut]

i have bought a new camera for a holiday. Panasonic LX-3. has a starry sky mode that i tried tonight and it is my first ever image. not quite up to the QYH8 Atik or DSLR standard but i was pleased none the less. i have put the larger tiff as a file in ukastronomers.

(click to enlarge)

[barkis]

That's not bad at all. Bit of light Pollution crept in, it is reflected off the trees.

It should do very well piggy backed on a scope and guided for a longer exposure, and a LP Filter in place.

Ron.

[jgs001]

That's come out very well. 60 seconds is good for a P&S. The wide is also pretty wide for a P&S too (35mm equiv of 24mm, the Z2 wide was 38mm which isn't wide at all).

[mcut]

i have tried to get the light pollution down with something called "dark adjustment" in Silkypix Raw Converter that came with the camera. i have put a tiff file on ukastronomers which is 57mb. i do not yet know about processing and cannot afford the likes of Photoshop CS.

i will look into any primers later regarding levels and curves and the like, however, i do not have a guiding mount and am wondering whether, if i took a serious of sub 60 second shots to avoid light trails would i later be able to stack these jpeg's to get more detail.

[jgs001]

Martinb published some good info on using levels and curves, they are within the imaging section here. At 60 seconds you are beginning to get some trailing. Try 30 seconds and up the ISO from 80. You'll need to experiment with the ISO to find the best compromise between noise, LP and sensitivity. I have done just that with my first images using the Z2, Captured a sequence of 30 second exposures with the Z2 tripod mounted and used DSS to stack the jpg's. If the camera allows RAW though, I'd use that instead.

[themos]

Without a tracking mount you are limited to shorter exposures of a few seconds (up to 10 or 15) if you want to avoid trailing. One thing to play with is time lapse photography, there's some videos on YouTube.

[Lee]

Great widefiled shot,

Had a play with the LP. I hope you don't mind. You have caught quite alot of detail.

Lee.

(click to enlarge)

[Sam]

That's a very good effort for the first go the camera.

[algol]

great effort for just a point and click.

[Psychobilly]

yep very good for P&S

There are Free alternatives to photoshop such as GIMP... an also the PixinsightLE which can do lots of really useful things ...

Billy....

[ENWOD]

I had a quick go at processing it, hope my advice helps

[supernova]

Nothing wrong with that good first shot.

[SteelRat]

Nice shot that. Where did you get the camera from?

[mcut]

its just come out and is marketed as Panasonics high end point and shoot to go up against the Canon G9 and its impending (maybe) replacement.

i bought it from Bristol Cameras. quite pricey for a point and shoot at RRP of £399. however the lens is supposed to be a good one though it only has a 2.5x zoom to try and maintain IQ.

and thanks to Lee and Enwood for adjustments

[Andrew*]

Great shot - you've even got the NA nebula to the left of Deneb there

Andrew

[mcut]

i have realised that this shot was taken at ISO 80 and i may not be able to increase the sensitivity on the camera as starry sky mode is apparently fixed at ISO80.

is this going to cause me a problem as i thought that if i use higher ISO then i would get more noise anyway.

[jgs001]

The modes are normally just ways of setting what the manufacturer thinks is the best. Try setting it to manual and adjust the settings to find the optimum values, it'll take a bit of experimentation, but it's worth it.

[mcut]

sorry should have been clearer, without some kind of future CHDSK hack, i think i am currently limited to a maximum of 8 seconds on manual with the option of RAW. i only used the starry sky mode as it gave me the option of 60, 30 or 15 seconds exposure. i am still new to the camera and RTFM . although i can adjust just about anything with the camera, i think i am unable to go lower than 8 seconds

[jgs001]

Just been having a read and in manual mode it looks like it ought to go up to 60 seconds, and has an ISO range of 80 to 6400 (poss a little noisy )....