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

a reply to: intergalactic fire

I have some day time comparison shots. Let me see if I can get them uploaded.

a reply to: imitator

Awesome! You can clearly see the Orion nebula and even the Horsehead and Flame nebula left side of Orion's belt.
Very nice mate!

Okay, here we go, sorry it took so long, I had to upload the pictures, but I also had some real life stuff going on.

First pick is the 18-55 lens by itself set to 24mm:



Second pic is with the 0.43x attachment on, still set to 24mm, but it's actually 10.32mm:



Looks like my skies are going to be clear tonight.

a reply to: eriktheawful
Thx for the fast reply. I always was curious about these lens attachments.
Quite a difference in field of view, so they actually work!
Any noticeable loss in quality?

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Little bit out of focus and viggggggg.....I hate trying to remember how to spell this word, hang on, vignetting on the extreme edges I think.

Turns out my camera doesn't technically have a Mirror Lock Up option. The T3i does (mine is the T3).

There is a way to fool it though: Live View. In order to do Live View, the mirror has to be locked up so that the CCD chip can give you a live view. Going to try that tonight.

All my moon shots last night ended up blurry due to the mirror slap (the exposures are, of course much faster than star shots, but still very slow so that the mirror slap and telephoto lens have issues).

Sigh.....the Moon be a harshly bright mistress......flooding my images with light:



Should set in about 4 more hours....but a lot of what I want to image will have set too......ppppppt!

a reply to: eriktheawful

Having the same problem here, the moon is just in Orion. I wanted to photograph Orion and get a couple hours of exposure but this winter hasn't been too good at night. Clouds, wind and when it was clear skies then there was the moon.
Orion is getting close to horizon now and the moon will be in the picture for another 10 days
Things were looking good the other night, everything was set up and ready to go. 15 minutes in... there came the clouds.
Managed to get 5 shots of 2 minutes each with not to much clouds, hopefully we can get some better nights these last weeks of winter

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Woah! That is excellent considering the conditions!

Look! You caught the Flaming Nebula and the Horsehead Nebula in Orion's Belt!

Those were 2 minute exposures tracked, right?

Also: Can you tell us the ISO, f-stop of focal length of the shots?

a reply to: eriktheawful
Thx!
Yes but there so much more to capture within Orion. That would need at least an hour of exposure I believe. Still indeed with just 5 images the most brightest nebulae were visible.
For the settings it was with a 50mm 1.8
exposure: 122sec
f/stop: 2.3
ISO: 400

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Actually, looking at your image, you can faintly make out some of the nebula that is around the constellation. Amazing job by you!

50mm at 2 minutes, yah, you had to be tracking that shot, hehehehe. Thanks for the other info!

a reply to: eriktheawful

yes sorry, it was tracked with the star adventurer
indeed you can see a very faint Barnards loop.

ps.love your new avatar!

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Thanks, was getting tired of looking at me, hehehe.

Oh I can't wait for my new mount to get here. Very tired of dealing with this cheap, flimsy tripod.

I found a way to hook up my telescope eyepieces to my telephoto lens. The 10mm eyepiece zoomed in on the moon greatly, but I can't take images with it yet, because when I breathed on the tripod, it moved.....sigh......

Just have to be patient until it gets here.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Make sure you don't breath and especially DO NOT FART!

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Yah, when you're zoomed in that much, it doesn't take a lot to move it all the way out of view.

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Awesome shot of Orion!
I have been checking out the star trackers on ebay, especially the Star Adventurer and Vixen Polarie, the Star adventurer looks more solid compared to the Polarie.

Before I save up for one I'm giving the barn door a chance, so far my longest shot was 30 sec. the minute shots have the stars looking like tiny bubbles... need to work on a steady hand.

a reply to: imitator

Take practice. I've not used one for so long that my pics would most likely end up looking like a I took the pics during a earthquake!

Right now what is holding me back is having to wait for my new tracking mount to get here (it was back ordered, with a 3/10 date for getting it in), and the weather.

Clouds and clouds, the spring where I live.

I remember back in 1997 when I purchased my first serious telescope, the day it came it it began to rain and for 2 solid weeks, it would cloud up and rain every single night. I was going insane waiting for it to go away!

a reply to: imitator

Thx.
It took me a while to make the decision on which tracker to buy. Eventually chose for the Skywatcher SA, it fitted more with my needs. So far I'm pretty happy with my purchase.
It's the only tracker(besides a barn door I made a long time ago) I used so I have no idea how it compares to other tracker in the price range.
If you're interested I can give you my opinion on the SA so far. I only used it for star tracking, but it has so much more options like moon and sun tracking, many timelapse functions with different speeds, possibility of guiding, remote control,...
They now also have a SA mini with the biggest difference payload and wifi functions. I believe it's a bit cheaper too.

Manual barn door is difficult but I've seen a lot of good results with it. It takes practice and more practice but that counts for every tracker i believe.

Good luck buddy, remember to post your results

I love all your images in this thread, have been subscribed to it for years!

Just thought I'd drop by and let some of you know (most of you probably already do) there is a great chance for some snazzy star snaps as the Zodiacal lights time of year is nearly here.

The dazzling, springtime zodiacal lights, which form a pyramid-shaped glow in the sky, will emerge from March 14 to 28...
The phenomenon occurs twice a year—once in the fall before sunrise (when it's known as false dawn), and once in the spring about an hour after sunset (when it's known as elusive dusk). Both of the times that it occurs, it's due to sunlight being reflected off dust particles in between the planets. It's so bright and widespread that you don't even need a telescope to see it,

www.countryliving.com...

a reply to: intergalactic fire
a reply to: eriktheawful

got it.... takes lots of practice, and more practice!

Clear skies.... and I just received a T-ring and scope adapter from ebay!

Broke out my LARGE Celestron 60 scope, haha..... target: Moon

Backyard observatory


Best I could do, has a little chromatic distortion to it...