Astrophotography again

A beautiful still warm evening encouraged me outside to take some more astrophotography shots after I'd had a quick go a couple of weeks back. This time I think I achieved better success with 30 second exposures at higher ISO. I found that again focusing to infinity is hard with my 35mm prime, but the live view enables a zoom in which does just about work when there is a star in the view. I;m particularly pleased with the wide field view showing some detial of the Milky Way and the fennel shot which has a couple of clusters in the view. Next time I need to improve on the colour cast which is a bit pinky here at my chosen manual white-balance (~4500K). These first of the cropped shots below show detail of the camera shake generated by passing lorries due to the night closure of the A14. The second demonstrates the slip over time from my rather cheap and cheerful tripod. Ooh for a Manfrotto.

35mm - f/2 - iso 1600 - 30s

35mm - f/1.8 - iso 100 - 30s

35mm - f/2 - iso 1600 - 30s

35mm - f/2 - iso 200 - 256s

35mm - f/2 - iso 200 - 417s

2015-08-22

Solar Eclipse Not

In line with tradition, Britain put on a fabulous show of cloud for the eclipse today. I tweeted that if it had not been for Patrick Moore I would probably have lost interest in astronomy due to the repeated times that cloud got in the way of astronomical events. Meteor showers, eclipses, conjunctions. You name it, thick cloud always made viewing highly impossible.
Today with the eclipse was no different. Cambridge was under cloud all morning. It did at least go gloomy and Dr K and I wandered outside to "watch" the maximum occlusion of 85%. The birds went all funny and started signing and there was a nice odd atmosphere. But no fabulous view to behold. Then about an hour later, just after the eclipse ended what did I spot but a shadow.
Slow hand clap to the clouds there for their almost remarkable timing. A glorious sunny and warm day then unfolded.
The event did remind me fondly of the 1999 eclipse. For that I went to Munich in Germany to view totality. We were having a family holiday in Austria and mum drove me north for the day especially. It was quite exciting as we darted round the roads trying to track breaks in the cloud in which to observe. We met fellow observers lining the route. A totality neared the cloud thickened and we were driving madly around trying desperately to find some visibility. In the end we just had to screech to a halt and enjoy the cloudy moment as totality came and went. It was impressive none the less, but no diamond ring or Bailey's Beads for me. One day perhaps.
well done clouds, very drole
2015-03-20

My first ever view of Mercury (just next to Venus). #astrophotography

For the first time this evening I saw Mercury. Dr K was gazing out of the window enjoying the rich deep blue of the evening sky with silhouetted tree branches when we spotted the planet peaking out from behind a tree trunk. A quick check on Heavens Above revealed it to be Venus as expected, but also showed that there should be Mercury close by. I've never seen Mercury before so was keen to have a look. From our vantage point indoors we couldn't spot it, but just along the road there was a slither of sky free from trees and sure enough, just to the right of Venus was a smaller spot - Mercury. Dr K suggested it seemed redder than Venus, and is certainly an order of magnitude less bright. I nipped in to get my camera and captured these slightly shaky photos below. For an interesting listen regarding Venus then download the BBC Inside Science podcast which I was listening to just last night.

Venus and Mercury in context of the surrounding shrubberies

Venus and Mercury low in the evening sky

My first photo of Venus and Mercury in shaky cam.

2015-01-15

A Spot of Astrophotography

I saw an advert in the paper this week for tips on astrophotography brought to you by Cannon. So I took my Nikon (ha! take that advertising) out into the evening chill and snapped a few shots of the sky. The darkness wasn't incredible and the haze was building, but it was good enough. Actually what first got me outside was the terrific sound of some military jets flying around. I thought for a moment it was the Avro Vulcan which I once saw fly over Southampton, this had the same gravity, but by the time I was outside the lights were on the horizon. But looking up I noticed the Pleiades glowing attractively in the early darkness so I popped back to get my camera for a few test shots.
Some experimentations this time - high ISO, shooting RAW and Kelvin rated white balance. The high ISO ~1250 was recommended in the advert, but having read some astro photo websites such as Deep Sky Stacker [thanks to @cawhitworth] their conclusion is that high ISO doesn't help more light enter the lens so it a false economy. However, this time I wasn't going to be taking multiple identical shots to superimpose - might try that at the New Moon this weekend. The Kelvin white-balance was a discovery I made in Croatia this September and is a much more sturdy way to get the colours closer to what you see than any of the pre-sets with their +/- offsets. I have found that working around the 6000K level gives the best night-time recreation of the colour. As for shooting RAW - my aging 4-year-old MacBook Air can't really handle such mega files. To be fair it does do rather well, especially since the replacement of the SSD with a higher speed and capacity one shipped from OWC. But I can't afford 0.5 GB per mini shoot of only 20 files.

wide view East towards the Pleiades : 18 mm | f5.6 | ISO 140 | 30 sec

Pleiades comparison : 70 mm | f7.1 | ISO 1250 | [L:5 R:2.5] sec

Pleiades comparison : 70 mm | f7.1 | ISO 1250 | [L:10 R:5] sec

Pleiades comparison : 70 mm | f5.6 | ISO [L:1250 R:100] | 30 sec

Pleiades comparison : 29 mm | f7.1 | ISO [L:1250 R:500] | 10 sec

Capella with shorter exposure and low ISO : 70 mm | f7.1 | ISO 100 | 10 sec

Capella with longer exposure and high ISO : 70 mm | f5.6 | ISO 1250 | 30 sec
2014-11-17

Astrophotography tip of the day

Last night I think I learnt a valuable lesson when it comes to astrophotography - leave long exposure noise reduction off. Two things this does, firstly it speeds up the whole affair meaning that after a 30 second exposure you don't gave to wait another minute while "job nr" displays before you can see if the image was any good. This also saves a heap on battery life. Instantly you can check if the composition was gold and if you got the white balance anywhere near something sensible. Secondly the image is not devoid of stars. Yes the black of night is not a lush deep smooth black, but then that's pretty much what I'm after - stars, which to a machine look a lot like digital noise. The other win last night was the raw K white balance setting allowing a far greater gamut of colours from 2500K to 10000K. I settled on about 3500 toy give the green of trees and the blue of the night sky. Results to be posted later.
2014-09-01

Astro Photography - Orion

A wide view of Orion rising in the Autumn night sky

Stunning triplet beneath Meissa, Lambda Orionis, Orion

M42 : The Orion Nebula
[04-06-2013]

March Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter with the Moon

From the top: Moon, Venus then Jupiter near the treeline

On the right you can see Orian, and I think you can make out the Pliades near Venus