Astrophotography

[Via]

Well seeing as I've not spent a penny on motorcycle related purchases in a long time and I'm getting very bored I thought I'd find something else to spend the money I don't have on.

Always been interested in astronomy since being a kid but living in London was a struggle ever seeing more than the moon. Where I am now isn't much better but recent Brecon trip sparked that flame again after sitting in pub beer garden watching satellites and the ISS pass over amazed how clear the sky is there.

So bit the bullet and purchased a new telescope along with a new fast lens for camera for starscape / trails shots.

Well unfortunately none of this stuff has arrived yet as on back order but had a break in the clouds last night so had a go at a few pictures with what I've got.

This was by no means meant to be an amazing photo, just testing focus was right and what I can do with camera but I'm happy at result for little effort, this is made up of 30 x 30s frames, stacked and then few minor post production edits for clarity and vibrancy. Vignetting is deliberate as makes it look better than the bits of window frame in the top corners of shot.

If you notice bottom left corner has a much brighter star appearing, thought this was a planet at first until I looked it up on planetarium software I've got on laptop, unfortunately didn't make a note of the name of star but it is actually a binary system.

Anyway will leave you with the picture and go sniff some petrol to hide my geeky side again for a while

 

[Gin]

Really like this! Looking forward to seeing more of your work in the future

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Geek away my friend, I look forward to hearing more.

[Six30]

Space and all that ... hard to get you head round that it never ends..... or does it ... the great unknown .

Look forward to some more pics

[Guest]

...Strangely enough, that's what the sky looked like last Saturday night at the rally when I got up for a pee at 2.45 am......

[Hoggs]

oooh space pictures! more plz

[Via]

Space and all that ... hard to get you head round that it never ends..... or does it ... the great unknown .

Look forward to some more pics

 

Yeah tbh could go mental thinking about it, unimaginable number of stars in this galaxy alone multipled by untold galaxies and still expanding... And people still think they are centre of the universe.

Will certainly get some more pics up as soon as I get some.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Am I not?

[Hoggs]

Am I not?

 

Not unless you're stood next to me

[geofferz]

Bought one of these lately; I have a reasonable mirror less camera but no telescope attachment...

How's the leg [mention]Via[/mention]?

[MarkW]

Space and all that ... hard to get you head round that it never ends..... or does it ... the great unknown .

Look forward to some more pics

 

Yeah tbh could go mental thinking about it, unimaginable number of stars in this galaxy alone multipled by untold galaxies and still expanding...

 

...and all created by an omniscient supernatural being just so the Pope can tell people not to jerk off.

[Via]

Bought one of these lately; I have a reasonable mirror less camera but no telescope attachment...

How's the leg Via?

 

Nice I've ordered the Celestron NexStar 127SLT (plus skyq link) thought going computer controlled will make it easier for photography, I can focus on the shots and let scope do all the tracking.

Got a T ring already from an old scope, only a few quid and well worth it, tempted to get a mono CCD camera though as can't beat filtered LRGB shots but bank manager strongly disagrees with me on that for now lol.

Still going slowly, can get around better now but still a lot of pain, was at physio today and been in agony ever since and all he had me doing was few stretching and balancing exercises then standing up from seated while lowering the height. Apart from the pain though mobility has improved massively over the last month, crutches are redundant now and just have a hiking pole I use for going out.

[Guest]

Bought one of these lately; I have a reasonable mirror less camera but no telescope attachment...

How's the leg Via?

 

Nice I've ordered the Celestron NexStar 127SLT (plus skyq link) thought going computer controlled will make it easier for photography, I can focus on the shots and let scope do all the tracking.

Got a T ring already from an old scope, only a few quid and well worth it, tempted to get a mono CCD camera though as can't beat filtered LRGB shots but bank manager strongly disagrees with me on that for now lol.

Still going slowly, can get around better now but still a lot of pain, was at physio today and been in agony ever since and all he had me doing was few stretching and balancing exercises then standing up from seated while lowering the height. Apart from the pain though mobility has improved massively over the last month, crutches are redundant now and just have a hiking pole I use for going out.

Great...keep it up, mate. You'll be back on 2 wheels before you know it!

[Joeman]

Heres a photo of Saturn I took a a few weeks ago.

Used my photos attached to my scope.

[Joeman]

Another of Saturn

 

 

The ISS

 

Jupiter with three moons visible

[MarkW]

Space and all that ... hard to get you head round that it never ends..... or does it ... the great unknown

 

You've plagiarised that from the last chapter of Stephen Hawking's PhD thesis.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Wow.

I know you said somewhere on another thread how you took those photos but I can’t remember where it was or how you did it?

[Six30]

Space and all that ... hard to get you head round that it never ends..... or does it ... the great unknown

 

You've plagiarised that from the last chapter of Stephen Hawking's PhD thesis.

 

No I didn’t ... great minds and all that

[Joeman]

Old Chinese made scope that my mum bought me for Xmas many years ago.

 

 

Attached a mobile phone mount and use a Bluetooth control to take the photo so as not to rock the camera when taking the photos

Moon pics are my favourites

 

 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

That’s clever.

I can’t believe the moon pics they’re amazing.

Bugger now I want a telescope thing as well as a bike.

@via you’re gonna have to get good quick, you have competition!

[Via]

I've got some moon pics somewhere taken with old scope I'll have to see if I can find them.

[mention]Joeman[/mention] some great pictures there!

My new scope still showing as back order, getting impatient now but new lens turned up today so hoping to get some clear weather again for another star trails attempt.

[Via]

This was my first attempt at the moon from 2016 using an old Meade refractor.

 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Oh that’s nice.

I didn’t know it was possible to take such good pics.

Are these telescope thingys expensive?

[Via]

They are same price scale as motorbikes, can get absolute bargains or need a remortgage.

The one used to take that moon pic was around £70.

The one I've just bought is on the cheap end of the decent scopes and with extras (Wi-Fi link and extra eyepieces) cost £700. The upper end goes into thousands of pounds.

Same with cameras, you can buy mobile mounts that use eyepiece and phone camera. Dedicated scope cameras which are effectively a webcam type camera which fits into eyepiece mount which start around £30 or high end around £300-500. Or what I've got which is a T ring and replaces lens on SLR camera with a mount that then fits into eyepiece mount on scope, these are a few quid for a simple bit of metal if you have a SLR already or want to get a cheap body only (as you won't need lens).

These don't scratch surface of what is possible though with patience and right technique, using multiple exposures over a hour or so can give you amazing photos of andromeda galaxy and other deep space objects like nebulas with equipment costing just a couple of hundred.

[geofferz]

[mention]Joeman[/mention] got any pics of uranus?