Attempt at shooting Saturn

[lamborgini8]

Here's my rather poor attempt at photographing Saturn and Arcturus. My camera is far from good enough to get decent pictures but for a £250 camera on a £3 tripod its not all that bad.

Arcturus has a twin because I was photographing through double glazing... too cold outside .

The tracking software...

The pics...

Any recommendations or anything for this kind of photography? What kind of cameras should I be looking for? Or even a mount to attach my camera to a telescope?

 

[UncleGrumpy]

Canon used to make an astronomical version of the 20D, not really sure if they still do though.

 

[Jamie]

Can you not look into that bedroom window with that zoom then?

 

[lamborgini8]

Canon used to make an astronomical version of the 20D, not really sure if they still do though.

I will take a look if theres any around... I use a Canon PowerShot SX110 IS at the moment.

Can you not look into that bedroom window with that zoom then?

10x Optical and 40x Digital zoom, 50x combined so yes I can :rasp:.

 

[Scott™]

Cannon sx10 is? Thats what i have. How do you find it? Good pictures tho. Id never have a clue at what planets what tho? They all look like stars to me. Trying to shoot the moon atm but its been too cloudy lol.

 

[lamborgini8]

Cannon sx10 is? Thats what i have. How do you find it? Good pictures tho. Id never have a clue at what planets what tho? They all look like stars to me. Trying to shoot the moon atm but its been too cloudy lol.

I think you have a better model than me there, mine is the SX110 (that picture doesn't do justice to how long the lens really is.

Saturn and Arcturis are long gone over the horizon now though, you might still be able to see Mars though. I generally use a callendar I found online to tell me the rough dates of these things and I track them using Stellarium. There are a few plugins for it to show satellites and such which is interesting.

The moon is fun to take pictures of... when you can see it that is :rasp:. Here's two of mine using the same SX110 camera last year.

 

[Ribena]

ooo, I love a bit of astrophotography. You need thousands of pounds for a proper setup though - telescope, equatorial mount and then there's the camera itself (and lenses, depending on which route you take). But it also depends on what you like to shoot.

If you like your planetary shots, I gather a decent webcam attached to a telescope is the way to go.

 

[Scott™]

Where do you get a calender and plug In from mate? Well intrested!

 

[Derelict-UK]

I took this one at 200mm the last time it was a Wolf Moon...

You just have to be ready for when it is the closest to Earth, then you can cheat lol.

 

[lamborgini8]

If you like your planetary shots, I gather a decent webcam attached to a telescope is the way to go.

Does that actually work? I have a fairly decent webcam with a manual focus ring on the front. I would just attach that to a telescope?

Where do you get a calender and plug In from mate? Well intrested!

Heres the one I use, it doesn't show everything but its useful.
http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy_calendar_current.html

I took this one at 200mm the last time it was a Wolf Moon...

You just have to be ready for when it is the closest to Earth, then you can cheat lol.

Woah, that's awesome.

Focusing is the problem I had really, my moon shots above were using the auto focus. I couldn't get it sharp enough using manual focus...

What were your settings when you took that?

 

[Derelict-UK]

One down from infinity on manual then sharpen it in Photoshop. Camera was on a tripod and fired with a remote to reduce camera shake.

 

[lamborgini8]

One down from infinity on manual then sharpen it in Photoshop. Camera was on a tripod and fired with a remote to reduce camera shake.

Il try it when the moon is visible again... I don't have a remote on mine so I generally set the camera on a tripod and move the tripod slightly into position and then set the camera to a 10 second delay.

Has anyone tried shooting the moon in daylight?

 

[lamborgini8]

For anyone looking for Saturn and Arcturus, its visible again now. Look East for the only star in the sky

 

[Ribena]

Does that actually work? I have a fairly decent webcam with a manual focus ring on the front. I would just attach that to a telescope?

You need a webcam with a CCD sensor to get the best images. there was a Philips webcam that was quite popular with the astrotoggers but I forget which model it was.