Sheila Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 Well i need a few tips on how to photograph the night sky.... dont laugh. This is with a normal unmodded DSLR and a tripod .. no tracking. I want to try for the Milky Way as I am travelling to Australia at the end of next week. Will be in some very dark places. Just simple advice/tips and exposure info etc would be appreciated. Plus some processing advice might be good as I am taking laptop with me. I do have modded astro camera but think I will have enough luggage without that Sheila Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 You're not going to get any useful advice from me Sheila, but I will be looking forward to seeing some of your holiday snaps. Hopefully including some Magellanic Clouds. Have a great holiday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ibbo Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 (edited) Short exposures unless you want star trails I would try 20 secs or less ISO about 800 but do try others and see what noise is like stack as many as you can and stretch to taste as normal darks and flats may help as well Focus can be a pita unless tethered to a laptop running APT or the other one I cannot remember bakyard EOS ?? Edited June 28, 2016 by Ibbo Sheila 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ibbo Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 a fish eye lens may be a good idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perkil8r Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 Take someone with you to help. I'm available Sheila 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 And there's me thinking you had gone visual! Maybe you do need to sneak a look through an eyepiece while the other stuff is doing things. Have a great time and I can't wait to see how it turns out. Omega Centauri!.........ooh did that come out loud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Graham Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 Sheila if you want a really lightweight mount to take you are more than welcome to borrow my Adventurer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheila Posted June 28, 2016 Author Share Posted June 28, 2016 Thanks graham but not thinking of taking anything but camera and a tripod. Won't have time to do a lot so will just try dslr and just normal widefield of the Milky Way if I can Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Graham Posted June 28, 2016 Share Posted June 28, 2016 No probs Sheila. Just remember everything is going to be upside down in Australia Sheila 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Bino-viewer Posted June 29, 2016 Share Posted June 29, 2016 (edited) We're expecting big things from you Sheila Omega Cent is on my bucket list. I'll be off to the Canaries in another few weeks and hope to image it. Check out todays beautiful APOD image of it. This was taken from Crete. Its not such a 'southerly' object as you might think. Centaurus A (NGC 5128) top Omega Centaurus (NGC 5139) Edge on spiral NGC 4945 bottom right (Image courtesy of APOD) Edited June 29, 2016 by Bino-viewer Werisit and Sheila 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted June 29, 2016 Share Posted June 29, 2016 Sticky tape. Once youve got focus in manual, stick it in place so it doesnt move. Then theres no faffing focusing next time. Short exposures keep fl down to wide and max 25 seconds (test shots will show how long you can go without too much trailing). Flats and darks if you can. Sheila 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheila Posted June 29, 2016 Author Share Posted June 29, 2016 will do my best but i am not expecting anything any good as never tried this before and its been too cloudy to test anything We will see how it goes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werisit Posted July 1, 2016 Share Posted July 1, 2016 Hi Sheila. This really feels like teaching grandma to suck eggs but here goes! At our 52 deg north, I recon about 15 secs with an 18mm lens. After that you'll start to get noticeably oval stars. The RA and DEC you shoot at will effect the trailing time and what effect being at 25 deg south (central Australia) will have, I'm not sure. My 450 is quite noisy at ISO 800 but you probably need that speed to record much. It's probably best to stop the lens down 1/2 a stop to sharpen it up a little. Take an intervalometer and get as many shots as you can. I've stacked over 100 shots in DSS and it's very forgiving about frame alignment. Dark frames - good advice. It's really annoying to have little trails of red and green dots across your pictures! Star trails would be interesting. Not only upside down but also going backwards! These shots might give you some idea and ideas. I think you would need a 27 sec exposure (50/18=2.7) to get the same amount of trailing with an 18mm lens. Nikon D300, 50mm lens at f4, 10 sec, ISO 800. 002 DSC_8531. 1x10sec. f4. iso800. 50mm by A PIGGOTT, on Flickr Stack of 21 frames in DSS. 003 A Polaris-Stack-1.1. 21x10sec. f4. iso800. 50mm by A PIGGOTT, on Flickr Same frames processed in "Startrails". 003 B Startrails. Polaris. cs5.1 by A PIGGOTT, on Flickr I also did a animation from the same frames (too big to upload) so you can really get your moneys worth out of a set of pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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