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Astrophotography (Page 1 of 2)
Friends In Your Head | Forums → Creations → Astrophotography
Posts: 1 to 25 of 44
Re: Astrophotography
One of my 2012 resolutions is to get marginally competent at astrophotography. What's your setup?
- Faldor
- Member
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Re: Astrophotography
I took a shot of the moon with a 200mm zoom lens if it counts?
- Snail
- Just Another Movie Enthusiast
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Re: Astrophotography
"Life is about movies; anything else is a bonus!"- Me 
- Owen_Ward
- The Doctor / Butler
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Re: Astrophotography
They look pretty cool!
- Saniss
- Pimp of Trey
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Re: Astrophotography
Holy shit, I actually started writing a thread a few weeks ago about this. I'll find time sometime this week to finish it and post it here. Glad the topic came up, I didn't actually think there would be people into astrophotography here.
- Teague
- Administrator
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Re: Astrophotography
I HEARTILY APPROVE OF THIS THREAD AND REQUIRE MORE PICTURES OF SPACE
+1
9 2012-01-17 11:53:27 (edited by Saniss 2012-06-29 17:23:58)
- Saniss
- Pimp of Trey
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Re: Astrophotography
+6
Re: Astrophotography
Those are some amazing photos.....enchanting!!
@Saniss.....the Orion Nebula looks awesome. Can't wait to see what you'll achieve with a new setup.
- Withkittens
- Probably Insane
- Offline
Re: Astrophotography
Definitely something I'd like to do, awesome photos.
14 2012-01-17 13:33:12 (edited by paulou 2012-01-17 13:57:49)
- paulou
- Knows all the Feminine Forms
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Re: Astrophotography
Spaaaaaace! This would be a fun thing to get into, never considered it before. Those shots are great. Would it be possible to set up a motion control rig, really low RPM motor or something for long exposure that counteracts the earth's rotation to get long exposure of the night sky without star trails?
PRE-EDIT: Just looked it up and it's called an equatorial tracking mount. And they're kind of expensive. Balls. Oh man, if you did a time lapse with one of those the horizon would spin around the frame.
- Saniss
- Pimp of Trey
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Re: Astrophotography
Yep, that's the most basic "tool" you need to get started in long exposure astrophotography. And if you want to shoot for like ten minutes without any trail, it won't be enough. With great focal lengths, after several minutes of shooting, you'll realize even the most expensive mount isn't perfect: periodic errors and stuff like this.
You're gonna need to set up a camera following a single star on an additional telescope and sending orders to the mount's motors to correct those errors. See what I meant by expensive field now?
- Owen_Ward
- The Doctor / Butler
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Re: Astrophotography
Saniss, that's some fantastic stuff!
- Saniss
- Pimp of Trey
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Re: Astrophotography
Thanks, guys. That means a lot to me.
Hopefully, if everything goes as it should, I'll order my new setup next month. My dream for a first shot with it would be the Orion Nebula once again, but we're getting close to the end of its visibility period. I might have to wait until next winter.
- drewjmore
- Beleaguer
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Re: Astrophotography
Wicked shots Saniss. I may get inspired enough to process the milky way pano I took last summer. T2i and a tripods all I've been using, but I have a t-mount for my 4" reflector, but it works best under daylight.
(UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada)
- redxavier
- Member
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Re: Astrophotography
Truly beautiful shots so far. I am genuinely inspired.
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. - Carl Sagan
- Ian
- Member
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Re: Astrophotography
Saniss! Those are gorgeous!
I wonder how easy a DIY equitorial tracking mount would be. Probably one of those things that seems easy in theory, but impossible to actually get to work. I'm thinking some sort of spinning platform (aligned to polaris?), that spins based on one of those clock-building kits, with a 1/24 gear ratio thing going on in there somewhere. That'd work, right?
I've got some shots I snagged during the Perseids meteor shower a year back- I should see if I copied em to this computer.
22 2012-01-20 18:08:31 (edited by Saniss 2012-01-20 18:09:33)
- Saniss
- Pimp of Trey
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Re: Astrophotography
What you described would probably work. There are two elements that need to be taken under great consideration though :
- the "quality" of the motors. Autoguiding is always the solution for long exposure, but it won't save motors with too much periodic errors. You can imagine such an equipment needs some precision to be efficient.
- balance. Your setup must be perfectly balanced with counterweights and stuff in order to work properly. Otherwise you'll lose efficiency and it will kill the motors.
I've seen several DIY equatorial mounts on the web; google it, you'll probably find useful information about all this.
Thanks for the comment!
- Snail
- Just Another Movie Enthusiast
- Offline
Re: Astrophotography
Damn, Super Moon is behind the clouds here. 
Thanks for the pic!
"Life is about movies; anything else is a bonus!"- Me
- Tomahawk
- Also The Doctor
- Offline
Re: Astrophotography
I've taken a few shots of the night sky and the moon, but I can't even begin to compete with telescopes.
Posts: 1 to 25 of 44
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