Calling all Astrophotographers, all skill levels. Post your work.

Got to keep this thread alive! It would be a shame to leave it at 99 flags.

Heres a couple images of Orion, the first was a 20 second exposure at f3.5, ISO 1600. I used a diffusion filter to bighten stars.


This one was from a failed imaging session. I left my Astrotrac shooting away for an hour then came back to find all the images except the first full of cloud! Some of them only had a thin layer which acted as a natural diffusion filter This was a 3 minute exposure, f4.5 at ISO 1600.

Was out with my camera tonight. Here's the moon setting at about 10 pm this evening:

Here's the Big Dipper, raw shot, with a Canon Rebel T3i. ISO 1600, 10 second exposure, F 3.5, no post processing other then scaling for ATS:



An aircraft trail taken with the same settings as above:

Taken a few nights ago in Sedona overlooking Bell Rock.. Other than resizing it I have not done any processing on it yet. Not amazing but I dont think it's that bad either!

reply to post by opethPA


Actually, I think this image is amazing, because it's close to what a person would see with his own eyes. Space photos with vivid colours and strange shapes are cool, but this image seems more genuine.

Here we go, nothing too special though. Slightly out of focus but you can clearly see an M1 flare. The vid before that shows the flare developing from nothing.
It was really the last time I have done anything due to the weather and have since modded the PST which has dramatically improved the scope.



Plus an old Saturn.



Also a plug for the link in my sig, that thread never got the attention it deserved.

And a Moon.

Originally posted by opethPA
Taken a few nights ago in Sedona overlooking Bell Rock.. Other than resizing it I have not done any processing on it yet. Not amazing but I dont think it's that bad either!

Not amazing my butt, that's unadulterated pure beauty! I'd frame & hang that!

Originally posted by opethPA

Having lived all my life in Portugal's biggest urban area, I only once had the opportunity of seeing something like this, during the summer vacations, when we had a power grid failure and got out to watch the stars and the fireflies.

Thanks for the photo and for bringing a little of the real night sky to a city dweller.

wow...thanks for the kind words folks... Looking up at the night sky is the most amazing thing I have ever seen.

this one needs to be resized also but was just a random shot straight up to the sky without focus to get the milky way but it also happened to catch something else!

Okay, took more pics of the Big Dipper last night, finally getting the camera to focus right to infinity.

Took three 10 second shots and three 15 second shots at ISO 1600 and ISO 6400. Used Deep Sky Stacker to stack the frames (including Dark Frames, Bias Frames, etc):



Now all I need to do is figure out a tracker for the camera. The only electronic tracker I have is the GoTo mount for my 5" reflector, but the mount was flimsy as heck, and one of the motor controller circuits burned out.

I do have a old German EQ mount that is very heavy duty, and I'm thinking of mounting a Barn Door tracker on it. Made on a long time ago, and might be fun to do it again.

That way I can take longer shots.

Only problem though: My Canon Rebel T3i can't take shots longer than 30 seconds I think.

reply to post by eriktheawful


What about MagicLantern you don't install it it runs from the memory card or buy a cheap intervalometer like I did,I have still to use that weather the has not been good.

Originally posted by wmd_2008
reply to post by eriktheawful

 

What about MagicLantern you don't install it it runs from the memory card or buy a cheap intervalometer like I did,I have still to use that weather the has not been good.

Ooooooooooo!

I have to check these out! Thanks! Star from me!

reply to post by opethPA


opethPa,
That's a nicely framed\cropped shot. What was the source of illumination for the rock formation? It looks like the top half is a little brighter than the bottom.

Here's a shot of the Pinwheel galaxy, M101, that I took last night with an Atik Titan-C and Orion ST-80.



18x300sec exposures.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
reply to post by opethPA

 

opethPa,
That's a nicely framed\cropped shot. What was the source of illumination for the rock formation? It looks like the top half is a little brighter than the bottom.

That's the cool thing, their was no external illumination source. Here are the settings:

BODY: Canon 5D Mark 3
LENSE: Canon EF 16-35 F2 8L
SHUTTER: 30 seconds *have to double check exif*
ISO: higher than 1600 *have to check exif*
FSTOP: wide open or 1 notch down *check exif*

My theories on the light other than the camera ..
1. That rock is sort of near the village of Oak Creek (sedona) so I am thinking it was either ambient light
2. The road is not far off from it and we got a headlight ..doesnt seem likely as all shots show that illumination
3. The 5D Mark 3 is a great lowlight camera.

reply to post by ngchunter



How's I miss this?
Lovely shot..Pinwheel really shows it's best side. Such a great show of structure.
Are you going to make more attempts? I'd love to see them.

Near panic!
I had my gear out...Camera, tripod, batteries, etc...was cleaning it all up...I've made a lot of trips to the desert with it.
I came home from work, and none of it was anywhere to be found. Except one battery in the charger.
Mother in law, bless her heart, has a bit of a memory problem. SO she forgot where she put everything when she "straightened up"..I looked everywhere that I thought she might put things.

About 4 hours later, I opened a duffel bag, That contains a sleeping bag and a flashlight. Inside was another duffel bag. A smaller one. and in THAT bag, was my camera bag. In the closet under the stairs. She had no remembrance of putting it there. And its all covered in lint again. The tripod is still missing.

so tonight, I have it mounted on a tiny little 3 inch tripod...pointed north...without a cable release..I am using tape to hold the shutter down. Hoping to catch the north star with a swirl of trails. I hope the tape holds the shutter down!

reply to post by spacedoubt


lol, I have similar problems .... but in my case, it is NOT my mother in law, but ME, lol .... If I get interrupted in whatever I am doing, I just put it somewhere, and later on I dont have a clue where I placed it, lol

Been cloudy here at night so I've not been able to do a lot.

One of the things I'm waiting for is next month when I don't have to stay up quite so late to try imaging the Milky Way. Right now I'd need to stay up to 2am and I'm just not as young as I used to be.