Share your pictures of stars, planets, the night sky, etc. Please include the camera settings and additional hardware(mounts, Star trackers, etc.)
That's not really what was asked for. He'd like to see photos you took yourself
my bad
I think it would be cool if we could expand this topic to giving some tips. I haven't really done any night sky photography yet, but want to get into it, so some basic tips would be great
Ive been writing a basic wide field astrophotography tutorial recently. This might be the motivation I need to finish it.
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Acquired a 20mm 2.8 AF Nikkor and have started playing with it, so for I really like this lens. Now to get away from the city and make a night of it.
@smileytown I am looking forward to your tutorial. This astro-photography seems to take a little post processing finesse.
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ive stopped writing it because i dont think i can provide enough information about my technique/preferences. however, watch this tutorial by a very talented new zealand-based astrophotographer, Mark Gee. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZD8KxkITw0
I follow his work very closely and im always learning something new from him.
those Nikkor 2.8 wide angle primes are seriously good stuff. super sharp with minimal coma in the corners. and your picture proves it.
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CanI use this thread to ask for tips for a first time "space" photographer"?
I have done long exposures at night before and all that jazz, but welcome tips and what kit you guys suggest?
well, it all depends on what you wanna do. like, do you wanna do wide-field or deep space (nebula, galaxies and all that).
ive only ever done wide-field, so thats all i can talk about. and first up, ill say that its an expensive hobby.
if you wanna get some gear that will help you produce some results, get a camera with good ISO and a dynamic range performance (nikon d7100/7200, d610, d750. Canon 6D, 7D. Sony A7 series). things like focusing/metering are less important in astrophotography. And get a wide, fast lens. rokinon 14mm f2.8 is a really good lens for the price. and lastly, a sturdy tripod.
i use a nikon d750 and sigma 24mm f1.4 as my main kit.
if youre gonna shoot at a really dark location (use darksitefinder.com to see light pollution in any area), use the following settings as a guide:
ISO: 3200
Aperture: f2.8
Shutter: 20 to 30sec
White Balance: 3500K to 4200K
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I havent had the motivation to go out recently and hook up my camera despite the few clear nights ive had. But its really dark where I live now so i need to get out and take images.
This is about a year old and the first image I took,
- Image is of Andromeda
- Canon 350D
- Williams Optics ZS71 ED. (f/5.9)
If I remember right it was less than a dozen 3-5 second exposures, I think at ISO 1600, in the heavy light polluted Glasgow.
You can see NGC224 Andromeda obviously. If you look closely despite the poor quality of the image you can see some of the dust lanes around Andromeda that are part of its spirals.
The smudge to the right of Andromeda is NGC 221
And last if you look at the tiny smudge in the top left is NGC 205
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living in Germany I have no chance of getting a clear sky unless I visit the Ukraine....I'll probably be able to get some shots in South Africa, when I go there in January.
But even camping here in a zone that is quite light polluted you can see so many stars at night. And just lay on your back, watch them move and feel the earth spin....
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awesome stuff. such a thrill to photography galaxies.
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You should play around in post a bit, hope you don"t mind I down loaded you photo and just hit it with contrast boost and a bit of highlight protection and turned into this.
Do you have the raw file, you should be able to tweek it.
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I don't mind at all.
I have all the source images including dark frames. I also have a few compiled tifs and I think this is the final one used (timestamps on the files are all the same :/)
I really need to name things better xD
Also Apparently I was wrong on the camera I used, seems I used a canon 350D
Google does some psychedelic stuff rendering tifs. On the other hand, it shows that theres so much more detail there then I was able to pick up on my try at processing, I kept the source files because i knew my first go wouldn't be the best, but it looks like theres a lot more detil there than I realized.
No bias frames unfortunately as can be seen by the four~ smudges google makes very obvious :p
consider this cc-by-ca so feel free to edit. Im going to have another go on darktable if i get time this weekend.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzIQtWCKOwiWeFNBSnZ3THdKdHM/view
what software do you use for stacking?
For that deep sky stacker if I remember right. I want something for Linux but I've not found an easy to use solution. I had been thinking of writing my own, it certainly would give me a much better understanding of processing images.
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Quick test with my sigma f1.4
Will find some good vantage spots to do this properly
Low res upload, actually looks a lot cleaner in original non web.
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which sigma 1.4? they have so many. xD
haha yeah sorry XD the 50mm ART, not a wide lens at all, but YOLO. Lens was on the camera already