Astrophotography - First Attempts

[Eddie.]

I went up to Fort William a couple of weeks ago, and was fortunate to be treated to perfectly clear skies.

So with my new Canon 500D, I made my first attempts at astrophotography.

Not overly happy with the first two as I didn't shoot in RAW (yes yes, I know) so the editing isn't really there.

The last one though, I was reasonably happy with. The Milky Way was in clear view, and while I maybe didn't capture it perfectly, I'm still quite happy with the outcome.

 

[Knuckles]

Love them! Especially the second one

 

[Ay Ay Ron]

They look good for your first attempt mate.
What lens did you end up shooting with?

I managed to get one of the milky way on Saturday, wasn't great and had to bring it out a bit in light room but you could see it fairly clearly with the naked eye which was surprising in November.

 

[Eddie.]

Lens was the Canon 18-55mm one.

Only very basic, I was craving for something wider at the time, with a crop, 18mm just isn't wide enough.

 

[mace¬]

Looks good to me. Without sounding silly, is that exactly what you can see with your eyes? I've never been anywhere without lots of light pollution

 

[Ay Ay Ron]

If you go somewhere without the light pollution and let your eyes adjust, it's amazing what you can see.
In the right months, the Milky way is extremely visible, as are hundreds of satellites, comets and meteors.

It's worth a long drive out somewhere on a clear night to see it to be honest.

 

[Advikaz]

Great - especially for a first attempt.

 

[Eddie.]

Yeah, as said, once I'd spent some time out of the chalet and in the darkness, my eyes had adjusted enough to clearly see the milky way.

I live in Manchester, so it's rare that I'm in a dark enough area to see that sort of thing, but it was truly amazing.

 

[Habitual]

I'd love to have a go at this. Those are great IMO. I would be thoroughly chuffed if I had taken those.

What were your settings/methods for each picture?

 

[Eddie.]

Ooooft, that's asking a lot, it was more than 2 hours ago!

Something along the lines of:

18mm @ f3.5
Focus to infinity (I actually auto focussed on the moon then switched to MF)
ISO @ 3200
BULB (about 40 odd seconds)

My main error was shooting in JPEG, and for such a long exposure on the last one.

I do have a couple in RAW, but I'm not fully setup with some editing software so I just used the quick and easy JPEGs.

Thanks for the positive comments though

 

[Scrooge]

I like them!

 

[mace¬]

My Mrs will think I'm up for a bit of dogging if I ask her if she wants to go for a drive late at night into the country.

 

[Eddie.]

My Mrs will think I'm up for a bit of dogging if I ask her if she wants to go for a drive late at night into the country.

Don't be so bloody daft....




... You don't have a mrs.

 

[andywa]

Cracking shots for a first attempt. I'd live to try this out. I've got the north York moors on my doorstep so may give it a go,

 

[The Fatty]

Don't be so bloody daft....




... You don't have a mrs.

he's talking about dave

 

[Niall]

Good stuff, Eddie. I’d love to have a try of some similar stuff one time.

Also, I don’t know too much about photographing stars so if I’m wrong then correct me, but is it necessary to shoot at ISO 3200? Just there’s some noise on the mountains in the second one and I’m guessing that the only way around it is to have a longer exposure?

 

[Ay Ay Ron]

The higher the iso, the more stars you will see in your picture. If you have a low iso and a time slower shutter speed then you will start to see trials, which is OK if you are stacking, just not very good for static shots.

 

[The Fatty]

The higher the iso, the more stars you will see in your picture. If you have a low iso and a time slower shutter speed then you will start to see trials, which is OK if you are stacking, just not very good for static shots.

+ use a lower F stop to let as much light in as possible to reduce trails and allow a lower ISO to be used (to help reduce noise).

 

[Šįk]

Love the 2nd picture op! I really wana try this.