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

I know you are out there, I have seen your work.
I created this thread for you to show off.
Whether you use just a camera and tripod, or have your own home observatory, lets give other a chance to see what you're up to in the dark!

Myself, I've only had the opportunity to take photos with a tripod, and digital camera with manual settings. Still, you can capture moments in "space time" that look pretty nice. That is, if you practice.

Here is a lunar eclipse from a number of years ago. I tried to leave the aperture open long enough to see the moon, and a couple of stars.



Taken with a Sony A-100. I was really just getting used to it. Has to take dozens of practice photos to get the settings correct.


I'll post more later.
The reason is this. I'd like to try and avoid a flood of images in each post. Keep it at one or two images (or videos). per post. And tell a little story with each one. As much as you remember. Perhaps the gear used, the story of how and why you took the image.

I think collectively we might be able to raise interest in this hobby. To let others see what can be done at all budget levels. Constructive criticism will be welcome.

Remember, there is the potentially show-stopping comet coming in the latter half of 2013. Let's make sure we have lots of eyes on the sky, Trained eyes!

Next week I had out to the Sedona, AZ area for 7 nights of astrophotography.
Rented various lenses, filters, remote releases and other fun things..
it should be awesome.

Originally posted by opethPA
Next week I had out to the Sedona, AZ area for 7 nights of astrophotography.
Rented various lenses, filters, remote releases and other fun things..
it should be awesome.

That sounds like a blast. Nice clear desert skies. Sedona has some elevation doesn't it?

Here's one nice moon shot I did when I tested my first digital camera. It's on a CC attribute license so feel free to do anything with it. I've shot astro few times but dont really specialise in it.
I really really really have to dig into my archive and find more CC shots and reprocess them.

reply to post by opethPA


I am officially jealous. I seriously need another vacation with which to haul out my scope to a dark sky location. I'm planning on taking some days off in a couple weeks, I'm thinking I should devote at least one weekend to that.

The lunar eclipse shot in the OP reminded me of a mosaic I took back during the total lunar eclipse of December 21, 2010. That's the latest total lunar eclipse I've had the chance to observe, and I was able to get what is easily my best shot of an eclipse to date.

farm6.staticflickr.com...

reply to post by opethPA


Please bring us links to what you capture, you can also post the images here directly without giving up your copyright in any way, shape, or form.

Springer...

reply to post by spacedoubt


Good idea for a thread on here may I offer another suggestion some of us on here have been messing about with photography for a long time both film and digital.

Now you may take a really good image for example this.



Then with a little tweak here and there it can look like this.



So if you have the odd image that you would like looked at post them I will see what can be done I wont promise an instant turn round it would be squeezed in with a 1001 other things.

Sorry for those that don't know that's M42 the Orion Nebula you can see it with your eyes looks better with binoculars or a telescope but needs a picture to do it justice.

I don't have much to offer now other than this photo of the moon I took last year. Cloud and bad Focus, but not bad.



The equipment isn't great, but it does the job. Skywatcher HEQ 5 Pro Goto, Saxon 4in Refractor, Cannon 1100d, various filters.

I have been waiting patiently for the "Dry" season to get here, and its finally here .

It is a real pain in the ass for me to polar align my scope, constantly moving around and hard to focus on the SCP. (tooo many clouds)

Now being the Dry, with very good seeing conditions, I hope to take some long exposures of the many close nebula and share them here.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Remember, there is the potentially show-stopping comet coming in the latter half of 2013. Let's make sure we have lots of eyes on the sky, Trained eyes!

I am waiting for it, as it will (I hope) be the first comet I ever see with my own eyes.

Because of bad weather I wasn't able to see comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) and I only had one day without cloud coverage on March 17, when it was too far away for it to be seen to the naked eye.

I took 5 photos, each with a longer exposure, from 1/30 of a second to 16 seconds (the longest my camera allows). I pointed the camera to where Stellarium said it should be, and on the last photo I finally got it, although I could only see it when I looked at the photo on my computer.

(click on the thumbnail to see the full size image, the comet is just above the antenna in the middle of the photo)


Camera:SAMSUNG WB5000/HZ25W
Exposure Time: 16
F Number: 4.0
Exposure Program: Manual
ISO: 64
Focal Length: 15.1 mm
Focal Length In 35mm Format: 85 mm

Oh, wonderful thread!

I love showing these types of pictures to my students. Seeing their wonder and awe...its amazing!

Nice thread!
As an amateur photographer i sometimes like to point my camera to the sky and try to capture the night.
Astro photography can be easy and to cheap with just a dslr and tripod( starry nightscapes, startrails, moonshots,...) up to very expensive and time consuming with scopes and tracking devices for deep space photography, timelapse,... all depending on what your objectives are and what output quality you desire.

For the moment i prefer to keep it cheap and use the time to enjoy just looking at the night sky.
This is an image of the milky way from several years back i wanted to share.

If I remember the camera data correct,
the settings were, 30 sec exposure at f4, iso 3200
It's titled, electric universe.

reply to post by intergalactic fire


Nice picture what camera was it taken with out of interest.

reply to post by ArMaP


Hi ArMap I have had no luck with Panstarrs due to weather and when it was ok I was doing other things will see what happens over next few days.

I missed one really good oppurtunity in I believe 2006 or 2007. It was the international space station and the shuttle was just going in for docking. I saw it and looked awesome but didn't have a change to shoot it

one of the sun in Ha spectrum....

another one of the sun

Some old film stuff from the 1990's...

First, comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake)


Next, the Lagoon nebula...


And Omega Centauri...


And the sun. Mercury (transiting) is the small dot at the top right...

reply to post by Hellhound604


Awesome-always wanted a hydrogen alpha filter,but those things are sooo expensive.
One day maybe.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Heres a frame from a video I took of the moon(Copernicus crater).
You can see the video in my signature link if you like.

reply to post by spacedoubt


This thread is the bees knees thanks,although i have no gear myself ,i will be coming here quite often.

SnF

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


wow thx for that..
with work like that, I am sure you would have good chances spotting those secret moon bases if there are any