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

So I realized something: I've got WAY too many trees on my land........I think I need to break out the chainsaw.

Or....I could start a new fad: Trees At Night!

Go out an take pictures of trees at night:







Looks like I might have caught a very faint and brief shooting star in this last pic:

a reply to: eriktheawful

Your last pic looks to have two shooting stars ... or maybe a bonus satellite!

I could easily join in on Tree night.....

I just bought a T3 with a Canon 50mm lens, loaded Magic Latern on the SD.... haven't figured out the bulb setting for long exposures, guess it'll take me awhile to figure out those settings. All day I have been practicing in a dimly lit room lol.... I'm very impressed with this 50mm lens.... maybe later post a sky shot.

I'm enjoying my newfound hobby and liking the T3 camera, amazed at how much space junk is flying around. Almost every pic had something moving in it! Kind of scary to think about.


UFO or iridium flare?
4 sec. f/1.8 50MM
gif image


Orion
stacked 3 images
5 sec. f/1.8 50mm
ISO 1600

a reply to: imitator

Outstanding images!



Not sure what was playing Peek-A-Boo with you in your animted one, hehehe.

New stack for the Milky Way with some filtering adjustments:



I've ordered a new piece of glass for my camera, a 58mm 0.43x Altura Photo Wide Angle lens that attaches to my 18-55mm EF-S lens I have:



It was only about $30.00 so I couldn't beat the price tag considering how much a new wide angle lens itself costs. Suppose to be here by March 1st, so we'll see how well it does.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Great shot of the Milky way!
Definitely a nice price for a wide angle lens, I might check into that. : )


Looky what I built.... a barn door tracker!

It took 30 minutes to throw together, luckily I had all the parts around the house. I think it'll be good for 5 minutes of tracking. Later I could upgrade it with a motor and a radius curved bolt.

It's been wet and cloudy, I haven't tried it out yet... stupid weather!

Here's a better pic.... with a finderscope and analog clock app.


Constructing a Barn-Door Tracker
www.astropix.com...

a reply to: imitator

ooooooo!

LOVE that phone with the clock app on it!!!!!!

Who says the Barn Door has to be "low tech"?

I got my new toy in today:



Can't wait to give it a try, if the spring weather will let me!

The cool thing about the lens is you can split it, and it becomes a macro lens:



From one of these flowers here on my land.



So if I dial it all the way down, my 18mm becomes a 7.74mm, which means with the 500 rule, I should be able to do single frame exposures of up to 64 seconds before I get any star trails.

But.....I have to consider some of the light pollution from the security lights on the power poles.....I'm about ready to break out one of my .22 rifles, grrrr.....but that would get me in trouble, hehehehe.

a reply to: imitator

very impressed with your barn door tracker !

am i correct assuming, that you then handle the drive bolt manually ?

a reply to: lucia2389

In the one he built, yah, you slowly turn it keeping it turning at the same speed as a second hand on a clock.

a reply to: eriktheawful

cool lens. inspires me to check out photoequipments a bit more indepth.

loved your pics of the sky with your trees infront. beautiful landscape. hope you did not use the chain saw on them.

so i ventured out on a walk under the sunset sky to capture some astronomical phenomena and some trees on a bali beach. it's the evening star among the branches and that light on the lower left is a plane descending onto denpasar airport.




next night the moon and stars looked much better than i could capture.



again, those lights in lower left - aren't they too close together following each other to be planes ?

then again, it is only hours till the King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia's arrival in bali. he travells something like with 1500 personell and 7 airplanes

i know, probably only an astronomical illusion in the sky, put impressive nevertheless.

a reply to: lucia2389

My chainsaw is broke right now, so the trees are safe, heheheh.

Actually, I'd miss them during the summer as the provide a lot of shade in the heat.

Love your photos! Very artistic to look at.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Did you remember the crop factor

a reply to: wmd_2008

Not with this lens (the 0.43x) It attaches to the EF-S lens that is made for the Canon EOS. I don't need to worry about the 1.6 crop factor, because the EF-S 18mm to 55mm lens is made for the Canon EOS DSLR, and takes it into account already.

This lens is a attachment that screws on to the front of the existing DSLR lens.

Now, when it comes to that 500mm Vivatar old school lens I bought, yah, I have to consider the crop factor because it was designed for pre-DSLR cameras.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Your trees look good enough to me,
I can think of worse fads to start!

originally posted by: imitator
I'm enjoying my newfound hobby and liking the T3 camera, amazed at how much space junk is flying around.

If you are new to this, I have to tell you I'm very impressed with your early results.
Keep shooting, I'm looking forward to your future pictures.

Took this moon shot earlier this evening:



Hoping to use my wide angle lens later if the clouds go away long enough.

I think I'm going to like this new wide angle lens attachment.

Clouds didn't cooperate, but setting the lens close to 10mm, I took this 50 second exposure at ISO 800. Love how much more bright the local stars are. Can't wait for a crystal clear night to do more:

a reply to: eriktheawful

Great shot of the moon, it's been too cloudy for me to see it clearly. I always imagine seeing a face or someone setting on the crescent ...

and you sold me on the wide angle add-on lenses!


a reply to: lucia2389

lucia I'm liking that scenery, awesome beach views... That is the place to be!

originally posted by: OrbitalDecay

originally posted by: imitator
I'm enjoying my newfound hobby and liking the T3 camera, amazed at how much space junk is flying around.

If you are new to this, I have to tell you I'm very impressed with your early results.
Keep shooting, I'm looking forward to your future pictures.

Hey thanks! Yeah, I'm very much an amateur...
You should see the images that I don't post haha... I kind of jumped right into astro-photography, I probably should slow down a bit, and take some time to learn more... I could spend hours absorbing this stuff.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Looking great!
Could you take a picture to compare? I'd love to see the difference on the 18-55mm with and without the wide angle attachement. If you find the time of course.
It doesn't has to be a night shot.
Thanks.

Found an old picture from 2011. Taken with a 200mm+nd8 filter+polarizing filter If I remember correctly.
You can see the sunspots.

Here is a spaceweather.com link from the same day