Pictures You've Taken of Celestial Objects

[don4l]

central said:

014 by Fast an' Bulbous, on Flickr

That's very good!

What equipment did you use to take it?

Don
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[Puggit]

Here's the picture I always wheel out



Venus transit of the Sun back in 2004. Picture taken with a point and shoot digital camera pointing at the eyepiece of my telescope ***WITH SOLAR FILTER!!!***. I now own all the kit to take pictures of the nebulae, planets etc but I'm too lazy. Hopefully this thread will spur me on!

There will be a partial transit of Venus on 5/6 June - it will be visible in the UK at sunrise only Linky

[central]

don4l said:

central said:

014 by Fast an' Bulbous, on Flickr

That's very good!

What equipment did you use to take it?

Don
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Click "actions" ---> "exif info"

[RacingPete]

timbob said:

daveake said:

Moon from ~27km up


IMG_8435 by daveake, on Flickr

Fascinating website, Dave - really enjoyed reading it through

I agree - though that was a fascinating read too...

[nellyleelephant]

First attempt at Orion with a 200mm 2.8 lens at 200mm, no crop.
Quite happy considering I don't have a driven mount, just lots of 2 second exposures!



A refinement of technique (focus and PP) needed.

[jmorgan]

Nice. Been wondering what I can get away with. What camera, or web cam?

[nellyleelephant]

A 1DS, if I remember right the settings were....

25 exposures of 2 seconds
ISO 1250
F 2.8

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker.

I tried my 100-400 but at 400mm exposure times were very limited! Next up is some kind of mound to track, barndoor or eq#.

[don4l]

jmorgan said:

Nice. Been wondering what I can get away with. What camera, or web cam?

It depends on what you want to photograph.

For planetary work, a webcam is best. However, it is very important to get a good quality webcam. The Philips Toucam used to be the camera of choice.

Cheap webcams are not even suitable for learning purposes.


For deep sky photography you have two choices. You can get a DSLR or a dedicated astro ccd.

Most DSLR's have an Infra Red filter, which aids auto-focussing. Unfortunately, most of the red colour in nebulae is below the IR cut-off point.

I once took 10 hours of exposure on M16 before I realised that the DSLR was never going to provide an acceptable result. I ordered an Atik16, and it produced a better image in 20 minutes than the EOS300 had managed in 10 hours.

You can get a "modded" dslr, which has the IR filter removed. These cameras do produce good results.

If choosing a dslr, it is very important to get a camera which offers a "RAW" option. Canon are best at this.

By far the best option, for deep sky, is a dedicated monochrome camera combined with filters. Monochrome gives two main advantages. The first is that you three times better resolution. The second is that you will have the option to do narrowband imaging.

Don
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[nellyleelephant]

What mount would you recommend for tracking accurately with a DSLR. I'm not bothered about mounting my scope as it's too big to comfortably handle.

It would need to be strong enough to handle up to 5kg, possibly 10kg in the next 12 months!

[drewk1]

First attempt at M45.

Canon 40D and a Skywatcher 80ED

Working on a DIY autoguider to improve things.

[don4l]

nellyleelephant said:

What mount would you recommend for tracking accurately with a DSLR. I'm not bothered about mounting my scope as it's too big to comfortably handle.

It would need to be strong enough to handle up to 5kg, possibly 10kg in the next 12 months!

If you can be sure that you are not going to get heavier equipment, then I would suggest a HEQ5 PRO.

The problem is that you keep wanting to get better results, and this often involves new, and heavier equipment.

I started out with a standard EQ5, and within 18 months I had upgraded to the EQ6 PRO.

Some people complain that the Skywatcher mounts have a lot of Periodic Error. However, this is not a problem in reality. By the time that you notice PE in tour photos, you are likely to be autoguiding - and so the PE becomes irrelevant.

It is worth keeping an eye on Astrobuysell for secondhand stuff.
http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?typech...

Don
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[nellyleelephant]

I'm certainly not planning on mounting my newtonian, so weight shouldn't be that much of an issue.

I'll have a look on astro buy and sell.

Thanks

[don4l]

nellyleelephant said:

I'm certainly not planning on mounting my newtonian, so weight shouldn't be that much of an issue.

I'll have a look on astro buy and sell.

Thanks

It might be worth keeping an eye out for an AstroTrac.


Don
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[nellyleelephant]

don4l said:

It might be worth keeping an eye out for an AstroTrac.


Don
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They've always seemed quite expensive to me.

[prand]

I was reminded earlier in this thread of a pic I have of the Venus transit of the Sun. Although its quality is perhaps more suitable for The Shard thread, I'm very proud of it.





I saw the story of the transit on the news, dashed around the house scavenging some items to see this happening; an old brass spotting scope, a piece of card, gaffer tape, and projected the darkest surface I could find, a cover of 2004 diary (handy for reference). The shot was taken on a Nokia mobile phone.

[Puggit]

Well done Prand! That cost a fraction of the cost of mine

[jmorgan]

And safe. I keep missing transits or the weather is bad.

[scubadude]

don4l said:

scubadude said:

Jupiter, taken around new year.
I know its not that impressive compared to some but I'm pleased considering the scope and webcam used came to £70 total :-)

Given the £70, that really is a remarkable image.

What camera did you use?

Don

Hi Don,

Thanks :-)

I have a Tal-1M newtonian that I got off ebay and I bought a Philips SPC880 webcam bought online (morgancomputers.co.uk) with an adapter and filter, the webcam had to be flashed with new software to work properly but I found that online free via Stargazerslounge. The pics where taken using Craterlet (freeware online) and Registax (more online freeware)

After that it was just fiddling around in the dark and practice- oh er!

I use Craterlet to take a video clip for 10 or 20seconds then use Registax to pick the best frames and it then aligns and stack the frames to make a better still image from a the short clip then you can fluff around with some settings to bring out more detail before you finally save the image.

As it is its only good for planetary images, I need a diferent camera or further mods to take long exposures necessary for deep space objects but thats the next project, I've got to work out how to do it for less than £30 because I promised the missus "Astronomy won't costs £100's of pounds" :-)

[don4l]

scubadude said:

Hi Don,

Thanks :-)

I have a Tal-1M newtonian that I got off ebay and I bought a Philips SPC880 webcam bought online (morgancomputers.co.uk) with an adapter and filter, the webcam had to be flashed with new software to work properly but I found that online free via Stargazerslounge. The pics where taken using Craterlet (freeware online) and Registax (more online freeware)

After that it was just fiddling around in the dark and practice- oh er!

I use Craterlet to take a video clip for 10 or 20seconds then use Registax to pick the best frames and it then aligns and stack the frames to make a better still image from a the short clip then you can fluff around with some settings to bring out more detail before you finally save the image.

As it is its only good for planetary images, I need a diferent camera or further mods to take long exposures necessary for deep space objects but thats the next project, I've got to work out how to do it for less than £30 because I promised the missus "Astronomy won't costs £100's of pounds" :-)

Well, I wouldn't have believed that you could get that set-up for £70.00.

If you know someone with a better webcam, then it might be worth your while borrowing it.

I also promised the mrs. that I wasn't going to spend on astronomy. I was very wrong!

Don
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[don4l]

Bedazzled said:

Does this stacking software require you to keep the object centered, or does it somehow automatically line up the frames as it moves across the field of view? I've got a Dob so I can't track objects other than by nudging the scope.

Registrax will line up the object as long as it doesn't too much.

As long as you managed to put the object back in roughly the same place, then it should work ok. It will just ignore the frames that it couldn't line up properly.

Don
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