First Mess Around

[drdre2030]

After trying out my daughters new Zhumell Z100, when she went to bed I decided to have a play around with my Nikon D5500 and the phone, best two shots I think I got - that didn't have massive light blurs, or horrible flares etc.

Nikon D5500, 35mm (f1.8), shot at f2.2 ISO400 touched up in Photoshop (not used it in years...so probably not great work either!)

Pixel 7 Pro, Astro mode and again touched up in Photoshop (mainly to remove the light pollution).

Edited November 8, 2023 by drdre2030
Moving the tags

[Elp]

Not too bad, the first you've actually captured M42 Orion Nebula if you look at the colour. It's quite easy to image if you've got the focal length for it as it's so bright.

[drdre2030]

7 hours ago, Elp said:

Not too bad, the first you've actually captured M42 Orion Nebula if you look at the colour. It's quite easy to image if you've got the focal length for it as it's so bright.

I did! I actually pointed the camera that way as looked up what nebula was the brightest and in view currently, then used Stellarium to see where it was! 

I've certainly not worked it out yet, and have seen a load of plugins, stacking, etc can all help. But will try to just get a feel for it for now, I have a D5500 with a 35mm f1.8, 18-55mm f3.5-5.6G VR and a Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 - so any tips would be very welcomed, as also been a while since I've properly used the camera too!

[Elp]

Do a bit more testing with the lenses as I've found the majority of lenses don't image stars well. Fixed primes are usually best, even some vintage ones work well. You'll be limited by the focal length without using a tracking mount but can image targets like Orion, Andromeda and Pleiades reasonably well with shortish exposures without tracking, but would have to take a few hundred/thousand to get any detail due to the short exposures, Orion is an exception and can be captured reasonably well around the central region with little data. Open star clusters will also make good targets.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Elp