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

a reply to: imitator

Good shot of the Moon!

originally posted by: abeverage
All the images so far are amazing! Here are some of mine.

Sunspot Detail

Sunspots during an eclipse (thumb link cause it is huge! lol)



Winter Orion

Perseid Meteor and Big Dipper

Jupiter and 2 moons through a 5" Schmidt-Cassegrain scope

Fantastic picture of Jupiter wowow

Well, I hope I get it right this time. I took it a few days ago. The weather hasn't cooperated since.

It was taken with a Canon sx10is. Other than a messed up sensor that puts a nice blue line through the picture that I managed to crop out, it's not a bad camera. I'm liking the crater shadows.

So went back out this evening and took these shots of the Moon:

With the 500mm telephoto:



And some using the 2x converter, plus my 10mm telescope eyepiece:



Seems to be lent on the eyepiece. It's old and seems to be there no mater how I clean it.

Here's what the camera looks like with all that:



My old eyepiece holder for when I used to do this with my old Canon AE-1 film camera:

a reply to: eriktheawful
a reply to: eql612

Nice shots of the moon.

Erik that is one mean looking camera lens....
Like that close up too, I didn't know those big 500mm/1000mm lenses can use eye pieces...

Awesome...

a reply to: imitator

Actually that's a through the telescope adapter I've had for years. Just so happens it will screw into the 2x converter and Canon mount adapter.

I can tell you that with all that the camera weighs a good 5 to 6 pounds, heheh. Very front heavy.

originally posted by: eriktheawful
a reply to: imitator

Actually that's a through the telescope adapter I've had for years. Just so happens it will screw into the 2x converter and Canon mount adapter.

I can tell you that with all that the camera weighs a good 5 to 6 pounds, heheh. Very front heavy.

Be careful you don't damage your camera to lens adapter(lens mount) with that weight! Does it have a tripod collar?

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Yes, it does. If you look at the lens you can see it.

a reply to: eriktheawful

You're right sry didn't saw that

Yesterday I've been testing the Skywatcher SA a bit. With the full moon out, so not too interesting for starphotography, I was doing some test hoping to perfect polar alignment. Every 15 min or so checking through the polar scope how polaris was behaving and adjusting alignment. Managed to get 180sec without any trailing at a focal length of 105mm.
At 3 minutes I got 60% usable shots(which is quite good I believe) and at 2 minutes I got 90% usable.

This is a mix of the result of 45 shots at 2 and 3 minutes exposure(1hr 15mn total).
ISO 800, f5.6 105mm
Taken from a medium polluted area with a 90% illuminated moon.

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Very beautiful! Great job!

a reply to: intergalactic fire

One of my banes is being out of focus with my lenses. Unfortunately none of them have a infinity mark, or stop.

For the past 2 months, I've been using Venus in the evening as I can zoom in on it in Live View and manual focus that way. Those nights, my shots turn out great.

Sirius is another I can focus on at times considering how bright it is.

Other stars.....I can just about forget it.

I have been trying to take a quick 10 second shot, and look at the shot, but I'm thinking I'm going to have to hook up my laptop to the camera for anything now. The LCD on the back of my camera is too small, and my eyes have gotten too old, even with my bifocals on.

a reply to: intergalactic fire
Amazing shot of Orion, very crisp and lots of details.

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get the belt all sparkling?
I remember seeing your post on making a Bahtinov mask.... I'm thinking that's it.
Also how many dark's, flats and bias you take?
Type of lens? haha....

Keep up the great work!

a reply to: imitator

Sparkling? You mean the sunstars? That's the effect of the diaphragm blades in the lens. The lens was stopped down to f5.6 so the effect is more noticeable.
The bahtinov mask is just for focusing.
This is the effect you would get with the mask. Used it on Capella to focus the lens.


Didn't took any darks or flats, only light images stacked in DSS. Just wanted to test if it's possible to get starshots with the full moon out.
Too my surprise the final had very little noise although I used ISO 800 and the camera I use for the moment isn't so good regarding noise.
This is a 100% and 200% crop of the unprocessed image.


The lens was nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 AF-D at 105mm.
Hopefully we get some clear nights coming in the next week when the moon is out the picture.
Planning to take the same shot and to compare it(moon vs no moon).

a reply to: eriktheawful

You could set a mark on the lens one's you got perfect focus so you just have to align it the next time.
Or make yourself a bahtinov mask, that could also help.
Laptop would also do the trick and you could watch your images instantly which can be another advantage yes.

a reply to: intergalactic fire

I was thinking of installing my Canon utility software on my laptop (allows me to control the camera and see the images right away), but the battery for it died and will no longer charge, and they don't make one for it anymore, so I'd have to run an extension cord.

What I'd love to do is install the utility software on my tablet, but it's Android OS and I don't know if I can make the Canon software work on it.

Took some shots at clouds yesterday, marking my lens with ink on where infinity should be. Next chance I get, I'm going to take shots using the marks I made and see what they look like.

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Ah... I see... I was thinking it was some-kind of filter, thinking maybe you left the mask on lol. BTW I did build the bahtinov mask, I haven't used it because of the weather etc.

Now that you say it's the diaphragm blades, that makes sense.. think I can see the lens blade pattern, maybe 9 or 18 blades?

Thanks for the info... I'm taking notes here haha.

Be sure to show us your (moon vs no moon) that will be interesting. Maybe the moon enhanced your shot, has a 3D feel to it, with faint stars bringing Orion up front.

a reply to: imitator

Yes indeed, it's a 9 bladed diaphragm which gives you 18 pointed sunstar.

If the weather cooperate I will post the results here.

The biggest problem with the moon out was that you can't get long exposures to bring out faint details. Your images are fast blown out by highlights. The 3 minute shots were taken at f11 and still Orion nebulas core was blown out.
Also noticed using f5.6 with this lens reduces tremendously the coma on stars.

a reply to: imitator

Yes indeed, it's a 9 bladed diaphragm which gives you 18 pointed sunstar.

If the weather cooperate I will post the results here.

The biggest problem with the moon out was that you can't get long exposures to bring out faint details. Your images are fast blown out by highlights. The 3 minute shots were taken at f11 and still Orion nebulas core was blown out.
Also noticed using f5.6 with this lens reduces tremendously the coma on stars.

a reply to: intergalactic fire

What white balance settings do you use?

a reply to: wmd_2008

Manual WB set at 6670K, this was during the full moon which otherwise makes your image too blueish.
Normally I would use 3000-4000K in my area, to neutralize the orange light pollution.