Anyone interested in Astrophotography?

Got a note from someone asking about Astro today. I don't see any posts so I'll just drop this here and ask if anyone is interested in Astro. I haven't done much because I live in the SF Bay Area and it's not dark.

Here's one from a trip out to Mono Lake.



Post your favorites...

 

I've dabbled a little, but there's a lot of light pollution at my house. A few years back, I was able to get a pic of Jupiter and the four main moons just with my Nikon D200 and tripod. I took this pic with my DSLR back in 2019 right after I bought the Runner:



The Milky Way is sort of visible above and behind the truck. I have a pic somewhere I took a long time ago with the ISS and one of the Space Shuttles in the same pic, both with star trails. I think
the Shuttle was on it's way to docking to ISS. I'd like to try more with a telescope, but I don't think I could justify the cost of the telescope I'd want to get.

 

I have a telescope as well and will likely put it outside once the weather improves. It’s got a CCD imager. It’s a 14” SCT.

 

I've never gotten serious about it enough to get a real camera, and not sure I feel like diving into a new expensive hobby. These were all taken on a camera phone, LG had some really excellent manual controls in their camera apps that others are only starting to catch up to. Now I've got a Pixel 5 that I haven't had a chance to take out yet. Still a tiny smartphone sensor, but Google has some really excellent software for astro. I threw a few of my favorite fireworks photos from the top of Mammoth mountain as well.

Somewhere out in the MNP


Chair 4 at Mt. Baldy


Red rock cliffs on the 14


Tracks behind work


MNP again


Rhyolite


If Mammoth has a good snow season and good coverage in July, they will occasionally shoot fireworks off the peak for the 4th. Really recommend if the chance comes up. Here's two different years but both spectacular.

 

My elementary school friend, Erik Muendel, got a good shot of Halley’s Comet when it passed us..,2.8f/2500Iso/4 seconds...

 

One more..

 

I don't have the skills most of you all have, I get lucky sometimes, but not really good at it. But I wanted to share an amazing site I know everyone will appreciate.
If you go to the bottom and click on the archive tab, they have years of pics logged. These are some of the best photographers and subjects ever seen, as well as pics from the hubble and ground based observatories.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

 

Cathedral Rock Sedona AZ

 

This one is less astro, mostly because of the big blood moon. Dove Springs area during the fires, when everything in the sky was orange.

 

Google does have some pretty good tools for processing Astrophotography images on their smart phones. I've seen more than a few MW shots processed with them.

 

I like using PVS14's to watching space debris burn up. So many more stares to see using night vision.

 

Milky Way from Rimrock AZ summer 2020

 

I saw the string of Space-X’s Star Link satellites last night but couldn’t get my Camera in time I was in awww....

 

Yes.

 

Very cool. Some really incredible shots in this thread.

Nothing else reminds us of just how small we are quite like staring up at the vast expanse of the universe.

 

Here's a little 6 minute video made by Matt Dieterich.

https://youtu.be/8QqNfak2LvI

He's also doing a webinar on the 27th-check his website for that if you're interested.

 

That moon! 10 second delay cell phone. Midnight.

 

These aren't edited, so they're a little overexposed. I'm gettin' better
https://imgur.com/a/jj9qlh1

 

I still teach occasional "Starlapse" workshops...here's a few from the archives...

 

These are all amazing photos! Amazing how much you can see without light pollution - used to be the normal before electricity. Went to the Galapogos about a decade ago and you could clearly see the milky way and many more stars perfectly clear while on a ship in the pacific. Want to get a telescope when my wee one is a bit older but as someone else mentioned, not sure I can justify the cost of the one I'd like to get

 

Astrophotography was one of the reasons I bought our 4runner - the need to get out to dark sky locations. From home I do mostly solar imaging. Sun has been getting more active lately. Took this a few days ago. Small telescope but with a special filter to show the prominences and active areas. It was a monochrome image, added color shading in software.

 

My house is about 25 miles from one of the darkest areas in the US for astrophotography. The area is about 15 miles north of Deming, NM and I-10 on Hwy 180. There is a small housing developement of people who move there to do the astrophotography. They have domes set up for the telescopes and some of the domes are electronically controlled. One gentleman has the 2nd largest home made telescope in the US. I’ve been in his dome and saw the telescope. It’s big. This area is dark because there are no city lights for miles and miles. My house is pretty dark also, cuz I’m in the mountains.

 

[QUOTE="FN2187, post: 368951, member: 27707...Want to get a telescope when my wee one is a bit older but as someone else mentioned, not sure I can justify the cost of the one I'd like to get[/QUOTE]
When my students see me shooting with a few $6k cameras with high end lenses I tell them to shoot with what youhave ...the skills are the same it’s the effort and practice that counts...lots of motivation in those shots that are “almost”...

 

I have a Canon DSLR with a telephoto lense that I've tried taking some pictures of the moon with. Some came out great but I have a lot to learn about manual camera settings because the auto settings just don't cut it - usually too bright or too dark for detail. I'd like a telescope that I can hook the camera up to

 

I did a lot of it back in the early 1980's with hypersentitized 2415 film (B&W), a Celestron C8 and Nikon F camera backs. I can't seem to find any of the pictures/negatives. They probably got pitched somewhere in one of my moves. I still have all the equipment - scope, camera bodies, adapters and hypering chamber and a empty hyper gas tank. I haven't had the scope out since the mid 90's showing the neighborhood kids the night sky. Since then the night skys in NE Ohio are more light polluted and the urge to either freeze or get mosquito bitten in the late evenings while observing has left.

 

There are a few tried and true starting points when working manually...simple guides that’ll get you in the ballpark on your 1st shots making it easy to make small adjustments to fine tune...
“Lunar 11” f11 @ 1/iso
“Sunny 16” f16 @ 1/iso

so if you’re shooting at iso 320 your shutter speed would be 1/320th

 

Almost forgot about this. The solar image is stunning. Lunt Solar and a couple other folks regularly post on IG and over the last month or so, it seems like there have been a number of events. It looks like you are using Ha filter?

Thanks for the Revival Ric!

I've upgraded a little. An Williams Optics RC71 telescope, EQ6R mount. I'm driving it with an ASI AIR Pro (it's a small Raspberry Pi running several tools that allow for off axis guiding and camera control. Since the scope came, it's been nothing but marine layer. So aside from basic setup and some practice guiding, no real imaging.

I'm thinking about going down to Pinnacles National Park which is south east and in fairly dark skies. Camp for a couple of nights and see what I can come up with.

 

Thats me! 1978 C8. Used to work at a summer camp as a teenager in Central Oregon desert for our local science museum. Once the campers were in bed I would take photos (+hour long exposures guided by eyeball) until twilight and then head for the darkroom. Usually had some prints to share by breakfast time. Slept until lunch. That would kill me now Still have the gear in the garage (including hyper tank).

 

Yes, using a double stack of 60mm Coronado H alpha filters on a TV-76 refractor.



I used a Raspberry Pi to control my Nikon during the 2017 total solar eclipse (Central Oregon). Worked great. Was able to get multiple images at multiple exposures that I combined later into an image that covered a wide range of the corona.