Just stepping into the world of Astrophotography

[CKemu]

I have just recently been able to finally gather all the components together to start in the rather fascinating world of imaging the night sky.

Unfortunately I live in a city, and have a small urban back-yard, tihs combined with being VERY new at this field of photography has led to three rather un-spectacular photos from my first attempts, but of course we all have to start somewhere. But I shall present my fuzzy, and vaguely identifiable photos for all, as a reference point for my beginnings.

Hello Moon | Flickr - Photo Sharing! - Prime focus of the Moon.

Jupiter With Moons? | Flickr - Photo Sharing! - Well if I didn't tell you it was Jupiter, you couldn't tell I dare say!

Jupiter, sort of! | Flickr - Photo Sharing! - Focus, who needs that!

My equipment follows:

Meade LX90 8" ACF - UHTC

Nikon D300 (Had this for ages as I am a photographer, it is abit battered though!)

Meade Series 4000 eyepieces - 26mm, 12.4, 6.4 (77x, 161x, 312x)

Meade 2x Barlow

Dew Shield and Camera Bracket (for widefield) on order

Nikon T ring, prime focuse adapter and eyepiece projection adapter

Shutter release cable

iPad with GoSkyWatch, very usefull for finding out exactly what I am looking at.

I hope to share my photos with everyone via these forums, gain insight and critique as I go, rather looking forward to getting more practice in.

Assuming the sky is clear at some point this week, I hope to try some widefield shots, so any URLs or pointers you can offer for this type of photography will be greatly appreciated!

[Helen]

Welcome to SGL!

That's not a bad start. The moon is rather nice. The Jupiter ones are recognisable, and with a bit better focus and some post-processing in say registax or photoshop (to align the channels and pull out the detail) you'd get something to be proud of.

But be warned - its addictive

Helen

PS pop into the welcome section and tell us a bit more about yourself

[Beyond_Vision]

Welcome to SGL, it's great fun making your own record of the night sky and I'm sure we can help you on your journey

Regards

Kevin

[Demonperformer]

Welcome to the forum, CK, and to the 'dark side'

Astrophotography is a very steep learning curve, and you have made a reasonable start. Keep showing your pictures on the forum (even the ones you hate) and the advice you receive will help you along the way.

[ollypenrice]

Welcome. You are making life very hard for yourself by imaging with a still camera. Inexpensive fast frame rate cameras shoot thousands of frames for stacking in free software called Registax. You get by far the best lunar and planetary results this way. Might be worth thinking about?

Olly

[CKemu]

Firstly, thankyou to all for the warm welcome, and I certainly look forward to publishing more images here and learning this rather fascinating technical art.

Thankyou for the kind words regarding my first attempts! I hope my ability to focus improves!

I have been considering and looking into "fast frame" cameras for imaging, but I'm yet to be convinced, especially with the additional requirements of a laptop etc.

So I will ask, what are the advantages, say over my D300 taking 20 or so images with blacks (still researching the point of flats) etc included, if its a difficulty factor only, I enjoy a challenge, and as a photographer have enjoyed some bizzare jobs which where more "fun" because of the challenge.

Also I am hoping to photograph the Milky way, using my mount for tracking (want to run lower ISO, so shutter speeds will decrease - hence tracking), I need to check if my autostar has the milky way, if not what would I get my mount to track?

[ollypenrice]

Fast frame cameras beat the seeing (atmospheric turbulence) at high 'magnifications' (not really an imaging term but hey-ho) and beat the noise by capturing maybe 500 or more workable frames. All the best lunar-planetary-solar images are done this way but you can still get a result with a still camera.

If shooting through your SCT you can't image the Milky Way in any real sense because the long focal length means that your field of view will be limited to a tiny fragment and the term reallly applies the the great swathe of stars in the galactic plane as it spans the sky. However, if you piggyback a wide field camera and lens setup on the scope then you will have a field of view which will be large enough to shoot a piece of Milky Way in the true sense of the term.

At present the MW rises up between Orion and Gemini in the south, goes through Auriga and carries on through Casseopeia and Cygnus and sinks below the horizon in the NW.

Olly

[guyroch]

Welcome to SGL, I think you'll find a lot good resources here... and I'd say you're off to a good start!

Guylain

[Sam]

Your moon image is very good and the camera choice is fine for moon shots at that scale. The Jupiter shots are a great start with a band of colour just visible in the second one. For planets and close ups of detail on the moon a webcam is usually the best place to start as Olly as explained above.

[Fireblade]

Hi, like your first attempts.

I'm about to start astrophotography and have the same set up as you (lx90 and D300), but have not yet managed to connect the camera body to the scope yet. I have t-ring that fits the D300, but the threaded end is too small, by about 5mm, for the lx90. Do I need to just get a different t-ring or a further adaptor with large and small threaded ends to fit to the original adaptor. Simple question I know but your help will stop me falling at the first hurdle

Thanks.

[Helen]

It sounds like you need an SCT to T adapter like this Adaptors - Celestron SCT T-Adapter

HTH

Helen

[Fireblade]

Thanks Helen - you're a star.

M