Toute l’astronomie en un site

A beginners Astrophoto slide show.

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A compilation of some of my photographs. Full size images can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12094908@N07/sets/72157601663626021/
All images were taken with a Nikon D70 and DBK21 webcam.

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My Astronomy Photos up to March 2007, to the music of Lenny Kravitz

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I am a beginner astronomer and I am very interested in space. I enjoy stargazing and wish to buy either a telescope or a camera for astrophotography. I am looking for a telescope/camera that is powerful enough to observe nearby planets clearly but with a maximum price of around $1000.
Thanks!

It is not possible with that budget.
http://www.astrovid.com/imaging.php

The you can hope to do is to use a modified web camera and learn how to do image stacking.
http://www.backyardvoyager.com/Planetary.html
http://www.astronomie.be/registax/

For a telescope, you want something that will align and track your object for a long period of time and provide stability. Something like this will get you started.
http://www.telescope.com/control/celestron/celestron-computerized-telescopes/celestron-c6-sgt-computerized-schmidt-cassegrain-telescope

Now, astrophotography has an incredibly steep learning curve and is not for those who are impatient. it takes time to do it well and it also takes good equipment to be able to do it well. Start first with learning your telescope and how it works with the night sky. then you can begin to figure out things like focusing, exposure and image processing. It’s a slow and exacting process.

Saturday Morning Science:
Astrophotography from the International Space Station.

(March 1, 2003) — Expedition Six NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit narrates this video downlink of astrophotography images taken from the International Space Station.

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This is the first video of a 5 part series I put together on my methods of stretching, color correcting, and curves adjusting my astro-photographs. View some of my work here:

http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2043

I have learned many of these techniques from various places online, and from tips from very good DSLR astrophotographers. I will not say these are the best methods for processing astro photos, and any tips are welcome. These methods have worked best for me, and I am always learning new tricks.

This is two photos of M42, the Great Orion Nebula. Image Info :

Shot the night of 11.25.09 from Southern UT

Image Info:
Scope : Orion 10″ F4.7 OTA
Camera : Canon Rebel XSi, (Self Modified)
Corrector : Baader MPCC
Mount : Orion Atlas EQ-G (EQMOD)
Images : 18 Lights @ 180sec ISO 800 – 12 Lights @ 10sec ISO 800 (core data)
9 Darks
10 Bias
Software : Subtraction in Iris, Registration stacking in Registar

If you not sure what any of the above means, google it

I plan on doing another series as well that goes over the basics of astrophotography, how to aquire the shots, the equipment needed, and how to get them ready for processing. This series is mainly for people who have already stacked an image, and are looking for good methods to stretch and process it for the final result.

In This Video:

I start with two photos, the first is a series of photos stacked to bring out the fainter part of the nebulae, the second is a series stacked to bring out the bright core. This video will show how I go about the *initial stretching* of the data to bring out the data we want, and throw away the data we don’t need.

Enjoy!

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Google Tech Talks
March 21, 2007

ABSTRACT

Photographic Technology Day 9: This session covers amateur astrophotography, particularly automation, gear (cameras, telescopes) and some of the technical challenges of photographing dim objects across the universe from your backyard or remote observatory. Credits: Speaker:Ben Lutch

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How do you get into astro photography? How do you connect to a telescope.

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I am looking at the Nikon D70 is that a good one?

There are actually two DSLR’s made for shooting astrophotography (have extended UV and IR sensitivity)

The Canon 20Da and Fujifilm Finepix IS Pro

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/FujiFilm/fuji_ispro.asp

Or you can have your camera converted.

http://www.lifepixel.com/forensics/

I am wanting to take astrophotography for a long time. But do i need like a special camera? and i also need to know what i need for a telescope. I am going to buy one but i don’t know what else to buy with it. i was looking and they had like filters and lenses. so i need to know what to get

Thanks

As a minimum, you’ll want a tripod with a barn door tracker, and a camera – preferably digital. The cost for this set up is likely to be a few hundred dollars, less if you already have a camera and a sturdy tripod, more if you go for a DSLR.

At the other end of the spectrum, it’s easy to spend tens of thousands of dollars for a nice scope on a good sturdy equatorial mount with a dedicated astro camera and a set of filters for color and narrow band imaging.

I can’t make specific suggestions without knowing what kind of budget you’re comfortable with, but here are some guidelines for setting up a system capable of shooting nice deep sky images.

The most important part of an imaging system for astronomy is the mount. For exposures longer than several seconds, you’ll want an equatorial mount that has a tracking motor.

The Orion Atlas is an example of a "reasonably priced" mount that’s stable enough for imaging with a decent sized scope and a moderately heavy camera. Their Sirius mount is a little less expensive, and can still comfortably handle a 6" newtonian tube for imaging. Astronomics and Burgess Optical are two companies that are working to bring out mounts with capability similar to the Atlas for under $1,000. If cost isn’t a concern, consider mounts made by Astro-Physics. If cost is a major concern, consider making a barn door mount. If you’re reasonably handy with basic tools you can make one of them for well under $100.

On the optical tube, if you need to hold down cost, buy a newtonian that’s advertised for imaging. Orion sells some at reasonable prices. If you have a healthy budget, consider an apo refractor. But bear in mind a $200 newtonian scope on a $1500 mount will give better results than a $2000 apo on a $500 mount. The dirt cheap option would be to use whatever camera lens you happen to have available.

Otherwise, scopes with lower F ratios (shorter focal lengths) will be more forgiving of tracking errors.

Cameras are electronic, so the cost for a given level of performance drops every year. Decent dedicated astronomical cameras start around $800, and there are a lot of interesting choices when you get up around $4,500. On the low cost side, look for consumer digital cameras that can go with exposures of longer than a minute. DSLRs are easier to work with than ones where you can’t remove the lens.

If it’s still in your budget (or later when it is) you might consider adding a small inexpensive guide scope, and an autoguider. This is apt to add about $500 to the overall cost, but it will make a huge difference in your longer exposures.

Finally, no matter what your budget is, it makes sense to track down a local astronomy club, and join it. The members there are likely to be nice people who will be happy to let you check out their scopes, and you might even make friends with someone who owns a nice scope on a sturdy mount who would be happy to let you take some pictures through it with your camera if you share copies of the photos.

My avatar is a photo of my smaller scope when set up for imaging. Some examples of photos I’ve taken can be found here:

< http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/13640785 >