Astrophoto thread (your own photos please)

[Yoda]

Messierhunter, what kind of trackingsoftware are you using; I've only done manual tracking thusfar through my LX90 but would love to dable a bit with trackingsoftware.

Thanks,

 

[Messierhunter]

@Messierhunter; fantastic! Any chance you could make a video showing how you operate your equipment while you do these captures? And include a data-list of the used equipment and settings etc?

I'm looking into buying a real telescope after summer, but I'm still too much a noob on this field to really know for sure what to aim for, so videos showing what others use, and how they use it, would be great (that request goes out to anyone else reading this post ofcourse Maybe not posting such videos in this thread but in a separate thread)

But the ability to correlate the capture-results, such as this video you got of ISS, with videos showing how they are captured (a kind of 'behind the scenes' or 'the making of') would be a great help I think. If you don't mind sharing your 'secrets' ofcourse

Great idea, I was kind of thinking about doing something along the same lines since everyone's always asking me to show pictures of the setup. Last time I did this during a public viewing there was a guy who had his camcorder all over my setup trying to learn its secrets lol. The way I do it isn't necessarily the best (the best would require a permanent observatory setup), but it's probably the most affordable way of doing semi-automated tracking.

I've spent more than I've needed to in vetting various cameras and configurations that turned out to be less than ideal, but if you bought strictly what you needed to in order to replicate what I do right now, you could do it for about $3,000 and even have the ability to automate it to a greater extent than I can with my older style classic LX200. The way I do it is very, very improvised. My budget is tight, so scotch tape and bungie cords are vital elements. But hey, you can't argue with the results.

---------- Post added at 05:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:09 PM ----------

Messierhunter, what kind of trackingsoftware are you using; I've only done manual tracking thusfar through my LX90 but would love to dable a bit with trackingsoftware.

Thanks,

Here's the software. It's abandonware in the truest sense, but it's now freely available and should work with the LX90:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/satellitetracker/
I'll do a tutorial video later. Basically though, the secret to making it work reliably and easily can be summed up in 2 words, "dual cameras." Having two cameras, one on your viewfinder, one on your main telescope, makes it much, much easier. I spent years experimenting with every other control option with only sporadic success.

 

[Unstung]

Two more of the ISS:

15 second exposures

 

[JEL]

This is a first for me I got Jupiter and 4 of its moons (Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto) using only a 300 mm lens while I was actually setting up the camera to take pictures of the moon (Earth's moon). I actually thought at first that something was wrong with the lens and that the lights was reflections of Jupiter, but when checking with Stellarium it seems quite clear that it must be 4 Jupiter moons I got. I didn't think that was even possible without a telescope.

You can see my Jupiter web-page here: http://jelair.jelstudio.dk/observatory/Jupiter/index.html

Or click the 3 pictures I've uploaded individually:

This one does have some trailing to it, but less chromatic aberration:
http://jelair.jelstudio.dk/observatory/Jupiter/20110820_JEL_3271_25percent.jpg
Photo date: 20110819 22:52 UTC (20110820 00:52 local)
Frames: 1
Dark frames: 1
Exposure time (each single image): 10 sec, ISO-1600, f/10, focal length: 70 mm
Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Sigma 70-300 mm F4-5.6 APO DG MACRO

This one does have some chromatic aberration to it, but less trailing:
http://jelair.jelstudio.dk/observatory/Jupiter/20110820_JEL_3276_25percent.jpg
Photo date: 20110819 22:54 UTC (20110820 00:54 local)
Frames: 1
Dark frames: 1
Exposure time (each single image): 1.6 sec, ISO-1600, f/4, focal length: 70 mm
Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Sigma 70-300 mm F4-5.6 APO DG MACRO

This one is a comparison of Registax and DeepSkyStacker, with the inclusion of 2 smaller crops where I raised the gamma to bring out the moons more:
http://jelair.jelstudio.dk/observatory/Jupiter/20110820_JEL_DSSandRegistax_compare_stack_Jupiter.png
Photo date: 20110819 22:46 UTC (20110820 00:46 local)
Frames: 381
Dark frames: 0
Exposure time (each single image): 1/60 sec, ISO-?, f/5.6, focal length: 300 mm
Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Sigma 70-300 mm F4-5.6 APO DG MACRO



After the Jupiter pictures I did 2 video-sequences each capturing a part of the moon. The pictures from each sequence was stacked and then finally the 2 stacked results was merged to form the full picture of the moon:
Earth's moon at 20110820
Photo date: 20110819 22:47-22:48 UTC (20110820 00:47-00:48 local)
Frames: 1845+652
Dark frames: 0
Exposure time (each single image): 1/60 sec, ISO-200, f/13, focal length: 300 mm
Camera: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Sigma 70-300 mm F4-5.6 APO DG MACRO

 

[Lucy]

Those are some great shots, JEL! Strikingly clear.

 

[george7378]

I love those widefield shots of Jupiter and its moons - just like a little solar system sitting above the trees!

I got a few more recently, but I've been on holiday too:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgekristiansen/6074541072/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/georgekristiansen/6074556236/

 

[JEL]

@george7378; Did you get to see a launch? You were at KSC if I'm not mistaken

 

[george7378]

@george7378; Did you get to see a launch? You were at KSC if I'm not mistaken

Yep - I saw Juno launch - here's a video I took:

I also got another picture tonight - I saw Iridiums 5 and 51 flare at mag. -7 tonight - within 2 minutes of eachother in the same place:

 

[Poscik]

My scrappy pic of ISS from 21st September. Equipment used is Canon EOS500D and old scrap Chineese 700mm telescope.

-1.8mag, 383.7km ISO400 1/200

 

[Unstung]

I just got my 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6 which appears as a 450mm with Nikon's 1.5x crop in DX format.
First up, the moon:

100% crop, scaled down to 80%.
(5:50 PM and 9:32 PM)

Later I will try Jupiter.

 

[RisingFury]

DOUBLE IRIDIUM FLARE!!! OH MY GOD!!!

On a more serious note, it's the first pic of a double flare I've seen. Well done!

 

[george7378]

Hehe, thanks

The Sky at Night were kind enough to feature a Jupiter picture I took on this month's programme. My 15 minutes (well, more like 15 seconds) of fame!

 

[george7378]

Got some amazing conditions last night - and some images:

My best picture of Jupiter - taken with a Panasonic Lumix and 10 inch telescope. The conditions were so great, that I could even see the Moons of Jupiter as little discs with slightly different sizes and colours!

A widefield image of the Moon and Jupiter on the same night.

 

[Poscik]

I bought new telescope some time ago. It is Synta 1200mm 8'' on dobson. I attempted to catch Jupiter and moon:

Jupiter from 8th October:

And moon also from 8th October:

In fact, I bought this scope for little bit different reason. I was aiming for plane photos. Here is the link to my personal "best selection" gallery:
http://images.extremespotting.com/GALLERY/Lipiak

 

[JEL]

plane photos

Wow!!
I especially like this one: "Yangtze River Express, Boeing 747-481(BDSF)". The shadow just below it is amazing. Fantastic.

 

[Poscik]

Wow!!
I especially like this one: "Yangtze River Express, Boeing 747-481(BDSF)". The shadow just below it is amazing. Fantastic.

Nice to hear that! You can check the gallery from time to time, as photos are gradually added there, if they are fine enough.

My best picture of Jupiter - taken with a Panasonic Lumix and 10 inch telescope. The conditions were so great, that I could even see the Moons of Jupiter as little discs with slightly different sizes and colours!

As I can see, you have Synta 10''. I have connected EOS 500D to my Synta 8''. Could you tell me how did you get such cool image of Jupiter? Any technique or something? Could you describe it for me? Jupiter is still on the sky during the night, so I can attempt to do such kind of photo. Thank you in advance.

 

[george7378]

Hi, sure - no problem! It's called stacking, and it involves taking a short video of the thing you want to image, and then running it through a program called Registax, which automatically takes each frame from the video, and combines the best bits of all of them to create a final image. I did a tutorial on how to do this, available here:

http://stargazerslounge.com/primers-tutorials/159989-afocal-astrophotography-tutorial.html

As you can see, it makes quite a difference!

 

[Poscik]

Awesome! I'll try to make such photo as soon as I have clear skies! And can't wait for Saturn, and her rings

 

[Messierhunter]

2005 YU55, 4 hour time lapse:

 

[Messierhunter]

Launch and initial cruise phase images of the Mars Science Laboratory (best viewed in HD):