star photos

[Anthony1979]

hi... i want to take pictures of the stars but i only have a finepix s5600 camera....... is it possible... thanks

[George Gearless]

The short answer is; yes, probably.

As a matter of principal, I would argue that there is no camera that you CAN'T use for photographing the stars. But its usefulness depends on what kind of equipment you intend to pair it with. And what you wish to achieve.

 

 

[vlaiv]

What sort of pictures do you want to take?

There are couple different types of pictures that you can take with such camera. Some are more involved than others. You can for example take star trail images.

You can shoot constellations and milky way - this is what we call wide field astrophotography.

It can be as simple as putting your camera on solid tripod and doing couple of seconds of exposure. You can craft something called barn door tracker - it's device that counters earth's rotation so you will be able to take longer exposures.

Do a bit of reading on above subjects - wide field shots - how much exposure you can make before stars start to trail for example. Other would be how to make star trail images. Look up into stacking of multiple exposures. Also consult manual for your camera - can you shoot raw images, or does it always produce jpeg (that will limit you somewhat in quality of images that you can produce).

[happy-kat]

You'll need to keep your camera steady so either use a tripod or of you don't have one you might use say a small bean bag. To prevent shutter shake then look to use the self timer if it is available. Star trails or starstax are both free and create star trail image which can look great if there is an interesting foreground to the image.

[maw lod qan]

I built a barn door and it really works. Good alignment with Polaris is important to get the longer exposures.

[Anthony1979]

Not looking for star trails i just was to take desent enough images.... What sort of settings would i need

[wxsatuser]

I suggest you set the lens to the widest, ISO to 1600 and try somewhere between 5 and 8seconds.