Astrophotography

[waynecrider]

Wondering if anybody out there is doing any astrophotography? I’m looking to pick up a telescope and tracking mount but need suggestions. Figure something used and round about $1K to $1.5K.
I’ve decided it would be more fun sitting in my dark backyard with a drink looking at the stars and taking pictures then running around the countryside chasing pictures & burning gas. Of course I’ll still own a film camera for something (maybe) but I’ll be selling off 95%+ of what I own including developing equipment. It’s time for a change.

 

[Sirius Glass]

One needs to have a location long distance from lighting to do astrophotography. For me I would have to drive several hours to get to the desert and away from city lights.

 

[OAPOli]

I've done a few wide milky way shots. Got myself a tracker but it's not 100% necessary if shooting wide and digital. It's not as fun as you might think though. Setting up the tracker is quite finicky, and some nebulae might not show until 3am! But if you live in a dark area you'd have plenty of opportunity to experiment. Here are a couple samples from this summer.

milky3-1 by Olivier, on Flickr

Sony A7R3, Tokina 20mm f/2. About 15 frames tracked, aligned and stacked

30m exposure tracked by Olivier, on Flickr

Pentax 6x7, 55mm f/4, 30m exposure

 

[waynecrider]

One needs to have a location long distance from lighting to do astrophotography. For me I would have to drive several hours to get to the desert and away from city lights.

Luckily the distance between small cities up in Ga. is enough to find a decent dark area what with the mountains. Even my back yard is pretty dark. I know there’s a club around so I’ll track them down.

 

[waynecrider]

I've done a few wide milky way shots. Got myself a tracker but it's not 100% necessary if shooting wide and digital. It's not as fun as you might think though. Setting up the tracker is quite finicky, and some nebulae might not show until 3am! But if you live in a dark area you'd have plenty of opportunity to experiment. Here are a couple samples from this summer.

milky3-1 by Olivier, on Flickr

Sony A7R3, Tokina 20mm f/2. About 15 frames tracked, aligned and stacked

30m exposure tracked by Olivier, on Flickr

Pentax 6x7, 55mm f/4, 30m exposure

 

[waynecrider]

Nice. Thanks

 

[abruzzi]

I've experemented a tiny bit, but haven't tried that hard, mostly becuase I don't spend that much time with my digital cameras, and astro, while possible with film isn't the easiest. The summer I took a drive and spent the night in Arches. I mostly use the Sinar norma on the trip, but I also brought the K1ii. I probably should have done a longer exposure to get more prominant star trails. This was a 35mm lens, and I don't rally have an interes using a telescope or very long lens, since Ireally want the photo to have a ground based presence: