This is the best I have so far. It's not even that great, but I got into it after seeing some of the things I've seen in Elite.
Elite Dangerous got me into astrophotography
- Thread starter thegh0st81
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This is the best I have so far. It's not even that great, but I got into it after seeing some of the things I've seen in Elite.
...he says modestly. I know enough about photography to know that is one spectacular picture to pull off. I'm very impressed!
Very impressive.
Wow, that is very nice.
Some day i'm gonna get a telescope as well.
What equipment are you using?
Some day i'm gonna get a telescope as well.
What equipment are you using?
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It can be fairly complicated and I use some expensive kit for an Amateur, but it can be done cheaper.
I use a computer controlled tripod / mount (About £2,000) that follows the stars precisely was they move through the sky. I also use a guiding telescope for even better tracking. I then have an 8inch F2.4 (£2500) Newtonian telescope with a custom cooled (-20 degrees) CCD camera (£2000)
My shots are about 10 hours in exposure in stacks of 10 - 15 minutes (hence the precise guiding / tracking needed to maintain a clear picture). All of these images are stacked together and then processed to give the final image (takes about 3 hours to stack and process manually)
It can be done much cheaper with a DSLR and a tripod, but you have to reduce the exposures to about 5 seconds each (instead of 10 minutes) and of course the results are much different.
Try the following
1. Get a DSLR with a 50mm lens at set it to as low as F stop you can and set focus to infinity
2. Put it on a tripod and point it at Orion on a clear "Dark" night with no street or house lights about. Best to get out of town
3. Set the ISO to 8000
4. Set exposure to 10 seconds.
5. Take many pictures. Use a remote shutter control with a time delay to reduce shaking.
6. Download DSS (Deep Sky Stacker) freebie
7. Stack images
8. Process in Photoshop by adjusting balances / colour etc etc.
This is a relatively simple and cheap way of getting something nice and wide field.
It is a great hobby, but be warned, it is addictive and a money pit if you let it be.
I use a computer controlled tripod / mount (About £2,000) that follows the stars precisely was they move through the sky. I also use a guiding telescope for even better tracking. I then have an 8inch F2.4 (£2500) Newtonian telescope with a custom cooled (-20 degrees) CCD camera (£2000)
My shots are about 10 hours in exposure in stacks of 10 - 15 minutes (hence the precise guiding / tracking needed to maintain a clear picture). All of these images are stacked together and then processed to give the final image (takes about 3 hours to stack and process manually)
It can be done much cheaper with a DSLR and a tripod, but you have to reduce the exposures to about 5 seconds each (instead of 10 minutes) and of course the results are much different.
Try the following
1. Get a DSLR with a 50mm lens at set it to as low as F stop you can and set focus to infinity
2. Put it on a tripod and point it at Orion on a clear "Dark" night with no street or house lights about. Best to get out of town
3. Set the ISO to 8000
4. Set exposure to 10 seconds.
5. Take many pictures. Use a remote shutter control with a time delay to reduce shaking.
6. Download DSS (Deep Sky Stacker) freebie
7. Stack images
8. Process in Photoshop by adjusting balances / colour etc etc.
This is a relatively simple and cheap way of getting something nice and wide field.
It is a great hobby, but be warned, it is addictive and a money pit if you let it be.
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Great stuff guys.
It's really incredible what you can do with commercially available equipment now. I remember the thrill of seeing Jupiter with my own eyes via a cheap telescope.
It's really incredible what you can do with commercially available equipment now. I remember the thrill of seeing Jupiter with my own eyes via a cheap telescope.
Nice Job,
I have been doing astrophotography for ages too, and yet I haven't got around to getting a colour image of horse head because of bright city lights (that's my excuse anyway).
Here is a test monochrome image of horse head I took using a hydrogen-Alpha filter on a cooled camera to cut out the city lights.
More info on my experiment with HA filters can be found on my website www.billd.net
I have been doing astrophotography for ages too, and yet I haven't got around to getting a colour image of horse head because of bright city lights (that's my excuse anyway).
Here is a test monochrome image of horse head I took using a hydrogen-Alpha filter on a cooled camera to cut out the city lights.
More info on my experiment with HA filters can be found on my website www.billd.net
Nice pic, I was doing some of the Milky Way earlier this year, been promising myself to get out at night again over the winter but, well other things have got in the way so far.
Settings wise I was using a DSLR with 16mm lens @f4/iso 20000 and 25 second exposures. I also have a 600mm F4 lens (my wildlife lens) which I hope will be OK for nebula shots, need to experiment a bit.
Settings wise I was using a DSLR with 16mm lens @f4/iso 20000 and 25 second exposures. I also have a 600mm F4 lens (my wildlife lens) which I hope will be OK for nebula shots, need to experiment a bit.