A newbies guide to Astrophotography PLEASE

[colin_jones]

Hi, I would love to take some photos of the stars and sky above me.

Whilst I have no chance of producing stunning pics due to lack of

equipment, I was wondering what the best techniques I could use with

my poor kit bag.

 

Here goes, EOS 650, 28-105mm, 75-300, 35-70, tripod of course.

 

So as you can see not the best line up, but what can I do, what is

worth trying and what is it not bothering with.

 

I have a good grasp of photo basics but do not know how to turn that

into astral photos.

 

So if anyone could advise on a starting point as to shutter speed

duration, aperture, film speed etc etc, I would be hugely grateful. I

would like points of light not massive star trails.

 

Any pics of peoples works would be great too as I just love the

stuff.

[robert_kennedy]

You WILL get star trails. PERIOD. Unless you use a special motor driven rig which will rotate the camera in time with rotation of the earth, star trails are unavoidable. I suggest you get a good book on amateur astronomy and familarize yourself with the basic principles of telescope alignment and motor drives.

[bobatkins]

I'd also suggest you buy a 50/1.8. Your current lenses are very slow.

[stemked]

If you are not going to get a moter drive then I agree with the other poster; a fast 50mm, 35mm, 28mm or 24mm lens is the way to go. The 50mm is obviously faster and would likely be the best choice. I've had 'good' success with a 50mm f1.4, 15-30 seconds and ASA 800/400 speed films.

[larry h.]

Colin, I like Bob's sentiment, and an EF 50mm/1.8 for $70 is a good idea anyway. But, if you really want to start taking wide-field astrophotos (through lenses, not telescopes, that is), I would spend my money on an older, fully manual SLR and 50mm/1.4 lens. A Canon FTb, Minolta SRT, Olympus OM-1, Pentax K1000 or Nikkormat or any number of more obscure makes will do well. The Minolta or Canon could be had for $100 with 1.4 lens. (You don't need to worry about the mercury batteries because you don't need batteries for astrophotography with these cameras. With your EOS, you'll wear out the batteries very quickly.)

 

I am not saying this to be flippant. These really are the best tools for the job. I have an EOS system for most of my photography, but my SRT102 is perfect for astrophotography. Prime lenses (preferable to zooms for astro work) are cheap and sharp. Look through auction sites or the KEH website to get an idea of what you can get cheap. An old screw mount camera and lenses may be your best bet.

 

If you want to give astro work a try with your current equipment, use your 28-105 set at 28mm and f/3.5. Get to the darkest location near your home you can get to and stay awake to drive home. Use Fuji Superia 800 print film at exposures of 30 seconds, and 1, 2, 4, and 8 minutes to see what you get. Don't expect much. You will get some trailing and you will get very blurred stars at the corners of the field, if not at the center. If you get the 50/1.8, stop it down to f/2.8 and use the same exposures.

 

Then come back to your computer and do searches on the net for Michael Covington, Rachford and Reeves and astrophotography. Also, do a search for barndoor tracking devices. Look at the Sky and Telescope and Astronomy websites as well. If you get stuck, email me.

[larry h.]

Bob, why does this thread show up for me under 'New Answers' but not under 'New Questions' ?

 

Colin, with a 50mm lens, you might also try 8 & 15 seconds to try to avoid star trails, but I can't find my book with the formula for the shortest exposure w/o trailing for different lenses. I also meant to mention that you will need a relatively expensive electronic shutter release with your EOS for exposures of >= 1 minute, I believe. For my suggested older manual camera, all you need is a lockable cable release.

[thidglance]

Do a seach on barn door tracking mounts. The faster the lens the easier the job. F1.4 and F2 are your friend. With a good barn door you should be able to track for atleast 10min. With a bi directional design (imagine two barn doors) you can track for up to an hour. With a telescope tracking is easier still. You can either guide by hand, or with a motor.

[stephen_ratzlaff]

Unlike most of the other EOS cameras, the 600 series and I also think the EOS-10s and RT only use battery power to trip the shutter (open and close) but no power is used to actually keep the shutter open.

 

The Elans, EOS-5, A2, A2e, etc. all use battery power to actually keep the shutter open so you will run down the battery with long exposures.

 

I have a 630 I use for night shots specifically for this reason.

 

Search for "astro barndoor" in Google and you'll see many inexpensive devices you can build to help eliminate the star trails.

 

Here are a couple from that search.

 

http://www.jlc.net/~force5/Astro/ATM/Barndoor/barndoor.html

http://defiant.yk.psu.edu/~kxt7/Barn%20Door/BarnDoor.htm

 

Or, alternately, you can buy a telescope and piggyback it by guiding the scope either manually or automatically (more $$$).

 

I really don't recommend manually guiding because it really is a pain and you can get easily distracted.

 

Regards

[stephen_ratzlaff]

James beat me to it.

[craig_gillette]

Here's another site with some info on mehtods and links to instructions on mounts:

http://www.geocities.com/gologa/astro.html

 

This little note sounds like a lesson he learned the hard way!:

NOTE: (never let the lab cut your negs or slides if they are astro-photos, they will invariably cut down the middle of a prize shot since they never look at your film anymore and the machine cant tell the difference between 2 dark shots; have the film developed & scanned and take 'em home to view on a PC).

[gordonr]

Don't forget the article on photo.net <a href="http://www.photo.net/astro/star-streak">Star Streaks</a> by Philip Greenspun (http://www.photo.net/astro/star-streak).

[dave_mueller]

<P>Get the book "Astrophotography for the Amateur" by Michael Covington, and check out Jerry Lodriguss' site www.astropix.com</P><P>With a fixed camera and tripod (ie no tracking mount), you're going to get star trails. The length of the trail depends on two things:<BR>-The star's declination<BR>-The focal length of the lens.<BR>To make the stars "appear" as points, use this table to determine exposure time:<BR>

<TABLE BORDER="1" WIDTH="100%">

<TR>

<TD>

Focal Length vs Declination>

</TD>

<TD>

0 Deg.

</TD>

<TD>

30 Deg.

</TD>

<TD>

45 Deg.

</TD>

<TD>

60 Deg.

</TD>

<TD>

75 Deg.

</TD>

</TR>

<TR>

<TD>

20mm

</TD>

<TD>

50

</TD>

<TD>

60

</TD>

<TD>

75

</TD>

<TD>

115

</TD>

<TD>

220

</TD>

</TR>

<TR>

<TD>

50mm

</TD>

<TD>

20

</TD>

<TD>

23

</TD>

<TD>

28

</TD>

<TD>

40

</TD>

<TD>

75

</TD>

</TR>

<TR>

<TD>

100mm

</TD>

<TD>

10

</TD>

<TD>

12

</TD>

<TD>

14

</TD>

<TD>

20

</TD>

<TD>

40

</TD>

</TR>

<TR>

<TD>

200mm

</TD>

<TD>

5

</TD>

<TD>

6

</TD>

<TD>

7

</TD>

<TD>

10

</TD>

<TD>

20

</TD>

</TR>

</TABLE>

0 Degrees is the Celestial Equator, and 90 Degrees is the Pole (Polaris in the Northern Hemisphere).

</P>

<P>One of the most important specs for the lens is the actual diameter of the aperture. A 50mm/1.8 makes a great lens because it has a large opening (and it's cheap).<BR>For film, I use Kodak Elite Chrome 200. It has excellent reciprocity and is available at a lot of places. For aperture, under 100mm stop down 1 or 2 stops to reduce light falloff (similar to vignetting). At 100mm or longer, you can shoot wide open. You really want to get to F/2.8 or wider.

[cisko]

Here's another good site with plans for a barn door mount:

<A HREF="http://casa.colorado.edu/~rachford/widefield.html">http://casa.colorado.edu/~rachford/widefield.html</A>

 

<P>Not sure what you're planning but I'd recommend color film. Usually I take B&W but color star photos can be stunning since you usually won't notice the color of individual stars.

 

<P>Cheers,<BR>

Dave

[robert_kennedy]

Make sure you are FAR from any lights if you do color. I've done color in locations that were pretty dark, but not far enough away from the city lights, and you get a nasty greenish glow in some pictures. Especially if part of the FOV is "towards" the lights of the city. Your eyes will lie to you given half a chance. I figured if I could see a zillion stars it was "dark enough". Opps!

[colin_jones]

Thanks for all the comments.

 

I have seen some great shots of star trails on Astropix as recommended above. Somehow the chance of getting close to those is NIL but I do like the style of them. I will have to brush up on my DIY skills to get a barndoor knocked together.

 

Also I am also investigating the possibilty of a old manual M42 mount camera my Mother-in-Law has. With a lockable cable release it will make long exposures a darn site easier than holding my EOS shutter button for five minutes.Being frozen to the spot is something I would like to avoid as much as possible.

 

I suppose a just need to bite the bullet and get out there. If stars don't work theres always the moon to look at.

[tom_wagner3]

Colin,

 

This is a bit late but I could not log on last night. Like Larry Hample said, good material to check out would be by Robert

Reeves. He wrote a book called WIDE-FIELD ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY. Apparently the whole text is available as a HTML download at

http://www.robertreeves.com/class.htm I would check that out if I were you.

 

If you know and like to see the constellations you can shoot decent images of them with as little as 30 second exposures, 400 speed film and a 50 mm f1.8 or faster lens set at wide open. In fact, too much time tends to hide the defining stars that make the constellations readily visible.

 

Good luck,

 

Tom Wagner

 

P.S. Last night Robert Reeves was telling the members of a satellite observing group we both belong to that he is currently corresponding with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. The astronaut is trying to shoot astro-photos out the window! What I wouldn't give for a ride on the ISS. Apparently the astronaut can send and receive e-mail from above.

[greg_hill]

I don't know if this is really relevant, as you do not want star trails, but I recently took a shot in rural Missouri of a moonless sky, using a barn as a point of interest. I used a 90 min. exposure with an f2.8 apperture and got a result I am very pleased with. As your lenses are quite slow you may want to look at it and see - I have uploaded it to my gallery.

I am a 'newbie' to photography (been working at it a little over a year now) but find experimenting with this type of thing very gratifying - why not try a few different methods, noting your settings, and see what happens? Go on, just a roll or two.

As a byenote the night was so dark I had to get my girlfriend to illuminate part of the barn with a flashlight for frameing, before we retired for a drink or two.

Good luck

[jonathan_bundick]

Colin,

 

Don't give up on Astro photography in one or two tries. It takes time to get good results, and I still haven't had a good shot. Just droped a mailer off yesterday that was half shots taken using a barn door made on these plans.

 

http://www.tucsonastronomy.org/barndoor.html

 

Good luck.

[larry h.]

Colin, check out this shot as an example of how star trails can be worthwhile too. It's a beautiful shot of Orion rising over some mountains. Try your hand at many types of astrophotography; it is rewarding!

 

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021225.html

[work-page]

One of the ways to get more out of modest gear is to pre-flash. This is easiest when your camera features multiple-exposure. Hold a gray card in front of the lens, and flash with flash exposure of -3 EV. In this way the film has received an even initial exposure that raises its responsiveness to dim light sources (albeit at the expense of contrast. After this, a short exposure (in the order of just a few seconds) suffices to get many more objects on film without trails.<P>

Without multiple-exposure capability, the same effect can be reached by pulling the gray card away during exposure after pre-flashing.<P>