- Joined
- Jul 22, 2012
- Messages
- 752
Since work has picked up this past month I've not had much time to write up another 'How-To', for my 300'th post marker I'll start a topic I've wanted to start for some time. I wanted a place to post my night sky pictures and other astronomical photos. I'll try and keep the pictures within the forum guidelines for picture requirements, but if you want larger versions just ask.
Me, my brothers and dad are amateur astronomers and amateur photographers (working on becoming film photographers) and we've fell in love with the night sky and the challenge of spotting and capturing dark and hard to find objects in the night sky. From our current location our sky viewing is limited by the constant oceanic influence on the weather, so we make due with what viewing seasons we have and enjoy it while it last. Our favorite photographing targets are planetary, moon and solar events. Due to our location and equipment we can only enjoy viewing deeper sky events but we cant yet capture any of them. We have plans for bigger scopes and better camera equipment but those things take time and money which is not available right now. But we are happy with the viewing and images we've captured thus far and hope to do more in the future.
I'll start with our best picture of Saturn, I cant tell you how much better it looks through the scope. I guess I had higher expectations for a $200 camera, but I'm still satisfied with this picture.
A VERY fun thing to chase and attempt to capture is satellites. They appear between an hour before sunset until an hour or so after sun set (same for sun rise) as a fine white spec moving slightly faster than a high flying airplane. Spotting them at dusk and dawn is fairly easy (if you know what to look for), but capturing one is a different story. here is a pair heading due south on an overcast night. The orange clouds are caused by local city lights in the distance.
Just playing around with overexposure on a bright half moon.
Proper exposure with a neutral density filter on the scope.
One of my favorite moon shots. We'd adjusted the variable polarized filter just right and everything fell into place. All these pictures are done in single shots, nothing is stacked. One or two have up to 15 second exposure times but other than that everything was taken with one shot.
Here are 2 that show the effects of the coma from our 4" Celestron reflector coupled with high moisture content in the atmosphere. (the blue atmospheric looking line)
And here are 2 close-ups of the moons surface. It was about 30F* outside with a slight breeze but the atmosphere was clear and the viewing was perfect.
And lastly for now here is another accidental shot of a crescent moon. This was an overexposure and one of the first shots of the night but it turned out great anyways.
A lot of these are moons photos but as I said before my viewing is not the greatest and its one of my favorite targets. I'm working on some solar photos hopefully soon to share with everyone, plus a few planetary pictures. Enjoy.
Me, my brothers and dad are amateur astronomers and amateur photographers (working on becoming film photographers) and we've fell in love with the night sky and the challenge of spotting and capturing dark and hard to find objects in the night sky. From our current location our sky viewing is limited by the constant oceanic influence on the weather, so we make due with what viewing seasons we have and enjoy it while it last. Our favorite photographing targets are planetary, moon and solar events. Due to our location and equipment we can only enjoy viewing deeper sky events but we cant yet capture any of them. We have plans for bigger scopes and better camera equipment but those things take time and money which is not available right now. But we are happy with the viewing and images we've captured thus far and hope to do more in the future.
I'll start with our best picture of Saturn, I cant tell you how much better it looks through the scope. I guess I had higher expectations for a $200 camera, but I'm still satisfied with this picture.
A VERY fun thing to chase and attempt to capture is satellites. They appear between an hour before sunset until an hour or so after sun set (same for sun rise) as a fine white spec moving slightly faster than a high flying airplane. Spotting them at dusk and dawn is fairly easy (if you know what to look for), but capturing one is a different story. here is a pair heading due south on an overcast night. The orange clouds are caused by local city lights in the distance.
Just playing around with overexposure on a bright half moon.
Proper exposure with a neutral density filter on the scope.
One of my favorite moon shots. We'd adjusted the variable polarized filter just right and everything fell into place. All these pictures are done in single shots, nothing is stacked. One or two have up to 15 second exposure times but other than that everything was taken with one shot.
Here are 2 that show the effects of the coma from our 4" Celestron reflector coupled with high moisture content in the atmosphere. (the blue atmospheric looking line)
And here are 2 close-ups of the moons surface. It was about 30F* outside with a slight breeze but the atmosphere was clear and the viewing was perfect.
And lastly for now here is another accidental shot of a crescent moon. This was an overexposure and one of the first shots of the night but it turned out great anyways.
A lot of these are moons photos but as I said before my viewing is not the greatest and its one of my favorite targets. I'm working on some solar photos hopefully soon to share with everyone, plus a few planetary pictures. Enjoy.
