My Astrophotography
This page outlines my journey into astrophotography.
Armed with a camera and a telescope, I am learning the techniques necessary to grasp photos the stars and other night sky objects and place them here. Special thanks to my sister, the professional photographer in the family who is helpful with tidbits of information that I had not thought of. (The latest pictures will always be at the top of the page.)
After the last few months of vertical learning curve, there is a fair amount of improvement in my astro-photography. Namely, I purchased a T-adapter that connects my Nikon DSLR directly to my telescope, essentially making the telescope the lens for the camera.
There are still some issues in that there is always more equipment to buy . . . I still need a bahtnov mask to help with focusing . . . still need a wedge that will help my telescope track stars better . . . and I need a guide scope that will guide the camera during long exposures.
There are two things that I did find that have greatly helped my astrophotography were two pieces of software . . . Namely, digicamControl and GIMP. digicamControl connects my camera to my laptop and allows full remote control of the camera right from the laptop.
The second is GIMP (Graphic Image Manipulation Program) aka "poor man's photoshop" has allowed for refining the photos. Notice the two photos below of the Ring Nebula. The photo on the upper photo of the Ring Nebula below is the raw image that I took through the telescope. GIMP was used to remove, isolate and intensify different amounts of light that were captured in the raw photo to produce the lower photo of the Ring Nebula below. All of the stars and color existed in the original photo, however, much of this was lost in the visual noise. GIMP was able to remove the noise, emphsize the color and bring out the hidden stars.
This is the view that I have through my telescope . . . It is not all that impressive (and at the time that I took the photo, I didn't realize that I had captured the ring . . . . I could not see the ring on the screen at the back of the camera. It wasn't until I looked at the photo on the computer when I realized that I had actually captured the ring.):
This is the same view that the camera can capture through the telescope . . . The camera captures a much better view after the photo is processed, though no color is ever added:
Click here for High Resolution Ring Nebula above.
Click here for High Resolution Andromeda Galaxy above.
Click here for High Resolution Orion Nebula above.
6 September 2019 Tonight is the hunt for a photo of the Andromeda Galaxy. When my eyes were younger, I could spot Andromeda with no assistance. Tonight, with a 1/2 Moon shinging bright, I was just not able to make out our nearest neighbor galaxy without the help of a small pair of cheap 8X21 binoculars. Just off of Cassiopia and nearly in line with Daneb and Vega, it took my about an hour and about 125 photos before I found the elusive target. Learn more about how to find Andromeda Here..
Click here for High Resolution pictures of Andromeda faint in the distance.
I took over 100 photos of Andromeda. Most were blurry or otherwise unuseable. This photo was not.
Click here for High Resolution pictures of Andromeda.
This was the sharpest photo of the group, tonight.
Click here for High Resolution pictures of Andomeda
5 September 2019 I had the single goal of taking pictures of a double star system known as Mizar and Alcor. These stars sit in handle of the Big Dipper and appear to be one star to the naked eye. This was the first double star (where the stars rotate around one another) that was ever discovered. More information about this star system can be found Here. This star system is circled in green below.
Mizar and Alcor:
I took about 90 photos while adjusting the focus and the other settings.
Click here for High Resolution pictures of Mizar and Alcor above
Below is the metadata that was from the shot above. (Notice how the aperature is set to 3200 and how there is little extra noise (i.e. color specs) there is in the photo:
Next, I wanted to try to capture star trails on these two stars. Star trails appear when a stationary camera has the shutter open long enough to capture the rotation of the Earth. (In this case, the shutter was left open for 140 seconds.).
Click here for High Resolution pictures of Mizar and Alco star trails
In the metadata below about the star trails photo, note the high aperture of f/32. This is keeping the photo dark, so only the stars show up. However, this high aperture setting also allows for lots of noise in the picture that shows up as color specs throughout the photo. This noise is especially noticeable in the high resolution photo of the star trails. Another photo was taken with a much lower aperture setting and that photo was over exposed and washed out in white star light.
These are the first astro pictures taken with a Nikon D3500 on September 4, 2019. The night sky was hazy with lots of clouds . . . These photos below were of the stars in the Big Dipper and Cassiopia that the lens was able to capture through the clouds.
Big Dipper:
Click here for High Resolution Big Dipper above
Click here for High Resolution Big Dipper above
Cassiopia Shots:
Still figuring out how to play with shutter speed, aperture, ISO . . . and oh yeah, that focus thingy.
Click here for High Resolution Cassiopia above
Camera is slightly out of focus in the pictures below . . . not by design.
Click here for High Resolution Cassiopia above
Click here for High Resolution Cassiopia above
Click here for High Resolution Cassiopia above
Click here for High Resolution Cassiopia above
Click here for High Resolution Cassiopia above
Click here for High Resolution Cassiopia above
Click here for High Resolution Cassiopia above
Click here for High Resolution Cassiopia above
Click here for High Resolution Cassiopia above
In the photo below, the shutter was open for 95 seconds and the camera was on a fixed tripod. This was too long of a stationary period, as one can see that the stars are drifting across the photo.
Click here for High Resolution Cassiopia above
In the photo below, Jupiter is shown flanked by three of its moons. This photo was taken on August 28, 2019 by a simple cell phone being held up to an eyepiece on a telescope.
Click here for High Resolution Jupiter above
In the photo below, Saturn is shown with its rings. This photo was taken on August 28, 2019 with a simple cell phone that was being held up to an eyepiece on a telescope.
Click here for High Resolution Saturn above
The unboxing of a new toy . . . so much desert night sky, so little time!!!
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