clear sky tonight
Discussion
At long last we have a clear sky tonight and there are plenty of stars to be seen. Even through the horrific light polution of the city
.
Give me a field in the middle of nowhere on top op a hill and a sky brilliant with stars and i could sit there all night gazing upwards.
Anyway, i thought i would try my hand at astral photography.
I'll try and put some examples up later although they are not very good.
First batch was apalling - reason being that even on the tripod there is always something that disturbs it.
Second batch taken using the 10 second self timer to give the tripod time to settle. Much better although all i am getting is straght and pretty streaks of light.
I know the stars move fast but i set max withought bulb of 30 seconds at the lowest aperature of 5.6 that the 300D would allow me to.
I also found it better to set the iso to 1600 initially so the camera could see the damn things but the sky was comming out far too red.
The best results were taken with iso 800, shutter at 3.5 at f5.6 on my canon 75 - 300 ( which is a little disapointing )
The quicker shutter speed enabled round stars. Infact i found that right up to 25 secs at f5.6 was good untill distortion from the star moving.
Do you need a motorized mount or is there a special way of getting plenty of light into the camera but still keeping the stars round?
I would like to sell my xbox games tommorrow and get a decent tripod or remote for the 300D so i can use bulb setting.
My current tripod is a £25 jessops jobby and i never realised how crap it was untill i tried to keep it still for stuff like this or get it to point straight up.
try and get pics up later.
Cheers
Ian
Images should be here: www.pbase.com/bilko1971/image/37221543
>>> Edited by bilko on Tuesday 7th December 04:00
. Give me a field in the middle of nowhere on top op a hill and a sky brilliant with stars and i could sit there all night gazing upwards.
Anyway, i thought i would try my hand at astral photography.
I'll try and put some examples up later although they are not very good.
First batch was apalling - reason being that even on the tripod there is always something that disturbs it.
Second batch taken using the 10 second self timer to give the tripod time to settle. Much better although all i am getting is straght and pretty streaks of light.
I know the stars move fast but i set max withought bulb of 30 seconds at the lowest aperature of 5.6 that the 300D would allow me to.
I also found it better to set the iso to 1600 initially so the camera could see the damn things but the sky was comming out far too red.
The best results were taken with iso 800, shutter at 3.5 at f5.6 on my canon 75 - 300 ( which is a little disapointing )
The quicker shutter speed enabled round stars. Infact i found that right up to 25 secs at f5.6 was good untill distortion from the star moving.
Do you need a motorized mount or is there a special way of getting plenty of light into the camera but still keeping the stars round?
I would like to sell my xbox games tommorrow and get a decent tripod or remote for the 300D so i can use bulb setting.
My current tripod is a £25 jessops jobby and i never realised how crap it was untill i tried to keep it still for stuff like this or get it to point straight up.
try and get pics up later.
Cheers
Ian
Images should be here: www.pbase.com/bilko1971/image/37221543
>>> Edited by bilko on Tuesday 7th December 04:00
Heh - astrophotography already!
Never tried it myself but yes, the stars move relative to the Earth so after a certain time you get trails. The only answer is to spend shedloads on a motorised off-axis equatorial mount (I think) which will cost you far more than the camera.
Basically, for this kind of work you spend your budget on a telescope and just stick a camera on the end
Never tried it myself but yes, the stars move relative to the Earth so after a certain time you get trails. The only answer is to spend shedloads on a motorised off-axis equatorial mount (I think) which will cost you far more than the camera.
Basically, for this kind of work you spend your budget on a telescope and just stick a camera on the end
The remote release for a 10D and presumably 300D can be made from a Nokia mobile phone handsfree thingy (search google!).
However after spending all that on a camera, it's got to be worth the £20 or so for the remote release! I'm not sure if it is one that lets you specify a time of exposure or 'lock' the shutter open until you come back and close it (i.e. for really long exposures) though.
I'm quite interested in astronomy photos too, though I haven't really tried any. There is a program for a computer which allows you to control a 10D/300D from pc via the USB.
Cheers for the pics.. post back if you take any more!
Russ
'86 190E, '62 Elan
However after spending all that on a camera, it's got to be worth the £20 or so for the remote release! I'm not sure if it is one that lets you specify a time of exposure or 'lock' the shutter open until you come back and close it (i.e. for really long exposures) though.
I'm quite interested in astronomy photos too, though I haven't really tried any. There is a program for a computer which allows you to control a 10D/300D from pc via the USB.
Cheers for the pics.. post back if you take any more!
Russ
'86 190E, '62 Elan
pentoman said:
I'm quite interested in astronomy photos too, though I haven't really tried any. There is a program for a computer which allows you to control a 10D/300D from pc via the USB.
www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/Cat/0
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