What do you do when your surounded by street lights?

[DrGui]

Hello all. I feel rather intimidated by all the incredible photos I've seen here today. You see I'm new to all this new technology. I recently purchased a new scope and have begun to take my first feeble steps into the brave new world of Digital Astrophotography. For me, the biggest challenge is overcoming our city lights. Low pressure sodium vapor lights EVERYWHERE! I've been reading in various literature that to overcome this problem I need to maximize my gain and minimize my exposure time. Here is my first result. This photo is a stacked using 52-2 second exposures using my Canon Rebel XSi camera with an old Bushnel 400mm telephoto lens, piggybacked on my CGEM 800 (unguided). I used an intervalometer to control the exposures. (I screwed up on my format though, I forgot to set the format back to raw, so the image suffered from JPEG compression artifacts )

Anyone have any advise for this digital newbie??

[zhgutas]

Take a look over here, our fellow SGL'er is doing wonderful stuff even through his bedroom window! Superb tips on light pollution there as well.

HTH

[harry page]

Hi

I have to shield my scope or two nice orange monsters shine in the end of my scope

Nice images can be done from light polluted areas , it means longer exsposures though:o

Keep going its will only get better

Harry

[ollypenrice]

Agree with Harry, stick at it. You have the bones in place.

To answer your question, though, I moved a bit nearer the Mediterranean...

Olly

[Hawklord]

Great start.

Try an Eos clip filter (CLS filter). It works well with low pressure sodium lights. There should be plenty of room behind the 400mm lens. It slots inside the camera body in front of the mirror. You should be able to stretch to 1-2 mins unguided.

[dlp]

I too have 2 orange monsters irradiating my garden. A light pollution filter is pretty much essential and I have one by Skywatcher, which fits on the end of my 2" coma corrector when I use a Nikon, and an Astronomics CLS clip filter for my 1000D. However, the biggest improvement was using a large tripod and stand to erect a piece of cardboard to eliminate light getting into the scope end, even with a big dewshield fitted. Assume you'll be fitting the camera direct to the scope at some stage!

David

[rfdesigner]

I have a lumicon deep sky filter. When you hold it up to your eye it's like watching a power cut (except for the halogen lights), but the stars aren't too affected.. pics wise it makes a much bigger difference than you see visually (no idea why)

When I was working on film it made a tremendous difference... nice dark blue skys with tonnes of stars and nebual popping out vs a nice orange cast covering everything.

There are other versions at other (lower) prices. And the photos still look pretty natural... of course with CCD you can process all the noise away, or go narrow band with an Ha filter.

Derek

[Demonperformer]

With 2 second exposures, that is a great picture

[peter shah]

what do you do when you are surrounded by street lights?...now theres a question!......take them all out with a pellet gun:angel4:

No...A good LP filter is a start....

[Starblazer]

12ft fishing rod and cardboard boxes ... don't forget to take the boxes off and keep them safe if you want to use them again lol.

[PortableAstronomer]

That was 52 x 2-second exposures? My goodness you have a sensitive camera.

I don't think you'll want to swap your environment with mine though. My neighbourhood is bathed with fluourescent white street lights. I must go down and visit Olly sometime...

[DrGui]

Thanks to all for your responses I appreciate the input.... PortableAstronomer-- I should have included the ISO that I was using for those 52 frames was ISO 1600.

(Shoot em fast, shoot em often, stack em and rack em)