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

reply to post by ngchunter


Great images nghunter. Keep them coming!

New street lighting has put an end to my astro-imaging until I move house in a couple of months. Garden now lit up like a football stadium at night!

Anyone know how to turn a web cam in to a telescope camera? Best web cam to use? Web Cam Must be windows 7 compatible

RocksFromSpace
Anyone know how to turn a web cam in to a telescope camera? Best web cam to use? Web Cam Must be windows 7 compatible

Google is your friend!

How to pick a camera

reply to post by wmd_2008


Been doing research but it's better when someone has already used a certain type of camera... most reviews go from one extreme to the other so it's hard to judge.

reply to post by ngchunter


Nice photos.. What size telescope?

RocksFromSpace
reply to post by ngchunter

 

Nice photos.. What size telescope?

The ones I've been posting the last few days with the exception of Mars were all taken with an 80mm refractor:
www.telescope.com...
For the price it simply can't be beat. The real "magic" is in the camera though, which is one of these (ST-2000XCM):
archive.sbig.com...
I only use the Samsung for lunar/planetary/ISS shots and I use it with an 8" LX200 Classic (which the Orion ST-80 rides piggyback on).

reply to post by ngchunter


Stunning! So beautiful, thanks for sharing your work!

Love this thread!

ngchunter


The ones I've been posting the last few days with the exception of Mars were all taken with an 80mm refractor:
www.telescope.com...
For the price it simply can't be beat.

Would you consider this telescope to be fit for beginners?

I bringeth my Blood Moon eclipse pics The forecast called for cloud cover, but we got lucky and had clear skies into totality a bit. Believe it or not, the first 5 were done by hand, no tripod. The rest were with a tripod.

First 4 were ISO 200, f/14, 1/250th of a second.

The full moon prior to the penumbra


The moon has begun to darken






Peek-a-boo
ISO 200, f/5.9, 1/125th of a second


Most of my totality shots didn't turn out, the breeze and my lightweight el cheapo tripod don't mix. Here's the best & least blurry of them

ISO 200, f/5, 4 second exposure


ISO 200, f/4.5, 4 second exposure


This is not the best of the bunch, but it's the best close-up I could manage for some reason...
ISO 200, f/5.9, 1 second exposure


And the clouds come rolling in. I used the backlight function to bring out the clouds, no other alterations.
ISO 200, f/4.5, 10 second exposure

Hollie

ngchunter


The ones I've been posting the last few days with the exception of Mars were all taken with an 80mm refractor:
www.telescope.com...
For the price it simply can't be beat.

Would you consider this telescope to be fit for beginners?

Depends on what you expect to do with it. Personally I wouldn't recommend it as a primary beginner telescope unless you're going to be doing a lot of birdwatching with an erecting prism. I find dobsonians to be much better suited to that purpose. It's extremely useful as an autoguider and as a very affordable widefield imager.

reply to post by ngchunter


I guess I don't understand what you mean. A dobs would be better suited for beginning astrophotography? Or a dobs would be best for bird watching? LOL. What would a person start with that wants to reach out to galaxies or other close clusters or planets? I am bored with the moon LOL. But I would like to see it in MUCH greater detail than I do now.

NICE eclipse pics posted everyone! Very nice! Mine turned out nothing like you two just posted.

Hollie
reply to post by ngchunter

 

I guess I don't understand what you mean. A dobs would be better suited for beginning astrophotography? Or a dobs would be best for bird watching? LOL.

Sorry, didn't make myself clear, probably because of exhaustion. A dob would be better suited for a beginner in astronomy, but not astrophotography or bird watching. The Orion ST-80 is better suited to bird watching (with an erecting prism) and widefield astrophotography when you get a bit more experience and a proper telescope to mount it on.

What would a person start with that wants to reach out to galaxies or other close clusters or planets? I am bored with the moon LOL. But I would like to see it in MUCH greater detail than I do now.

A dobsonian would let you view many more "faint fuzzies" such as galaxies in the eyepiece.

reply to post by ngchunter


So would an Orion SkyQuest XT8 get me to a galaxy far far away? It is a bit heavy and is likely taller than me, which I don't mind at all. It's only 350$ and I have a hard time paying for a 6" that is ONLY 75$ cheaper. Or would this be a complicated beast for a beginner? I just don't want to get bored with something smaller and turn around and spend even more a few months down the road.

Hollie
reply to post by ngchunter

 

So would an Orion SkyQuest XT8 get me to a galaxy far far away? It is a bit heavy and is likely taller than me, which I don't mind at all. It's only 350$ and I have a hard time paying for a 6" that is ONLY 75$ cheaper. Or would this be a complicated beast for a beginner? I just don't want to get bored with something smaller and turn around and spend even more a few months down the road.

I would highly recommend it with a caveat; if you're really going to get into amateur astronomy, know what you're getting into. You will see plenty of galaxies with that scope, but they won't look like they do in photos. The human eye isn't nearly as sensitive nor does it integrate light over long periods of time. They'll look faint and fuzzy, but some will have discernible shapes once you practice your averted vision. Finding them will take time and patience as you learn how to star hop.

reply to post by ngchunter


Hahah well what should I do? Should I be looking for the best telescope that would be the best fit for my Nikon? I mean, I want to see the rings of Saturn too! And have my own pics of Jupiter! And the sun! And galaxies and stuff! Oh man I suddenly feel overwhelmed. Maybe I should approach it in another way. Maybe I should look for something that best suits the equipment that I do have.

I have a Nikon D3200
I have a computer
I have the luxury of being in the glades.

That's it besides star gazing software. My place isn't too terribly polluted, but just 45 minutes to the West and I KNOW I can secure myself with night skies. So I guess I answered my first question, which is do I need to be able to move around with this scope. So first thing is, yea, I would like to be portable.

If Invest in an 8" anything, will I be able to tote it around? The Dobs look VERY very heavy. The 8" is a few inches shorter than me LOL. BUT, for the price difference, I don't see why I would invest in a 6" when an 8" is only a few more dollars.

I guess I am all over the place. I am overwhelmed and confused. I do know that a 6" likely will make me wanting more after a few months. It's times like this that I wish I had a beard of my own to stroke. Hrmmmmmm

Hollie
reply to post by ngchunter

 

Hahah well what should I do? Should I be looking for the best telescope that would be the best fit for my Nikon? I mean, I want to see the rings of Saturn too! And have my own pics of Jupiter! And the sun! And galaxies and stuff! Oh man I suddenly feel overwhelmed. Maybe I should approach it in another way. Maybe I should look for something that best suits the equipment that I do have.

Personally I would recommend taking things one step at a time. Astrophotography is difficult in its own right, I can't imagine trying to do it without a foundation of experience operating telescopes in basic visual observing. Basics first. A dobsonian is a good start, and you can use your Nikon with an adapter to take simple moon shots, maybe even the planets. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I really do believe it's best to start by learning how to visually observe before trying to delve into advanced astrophotography and photograph galaxies and the like. The latter really requires advanced equipment and if you really want to do it right, it's not cheap. A good mount designed for astrophotography will cost you considerably more than an entire dobsonian telescope to start off with. And if you find it too frustrating and not rewarding enough you've just sunk a lot of money into something you don't get enough use out of. I've seen that happen, and I'd advise against it.

An 8" or a 6" will do just fine, I used to tote around a 6" Newtonian with a very heavy equatorial mount. You do need some room for it, but it can be done. An 8" dobsonian would be much easier to transport than my old 6" Newt; though the tubes are the same basic design, most of the problem for me was in the heavy metal mount (very old fashioned).