Still learning
Aug 24, 2016 12:18:15 #
This is just my third night sky shot attempt. The first was in my back yard, we are just outside the city limits of a 80,000 pop. town, learned I needed a remote shutter release. Second attempt was at the lake and got messed up when a sailboat, at the last minute, anchored with a bright mast head light, right in my shot. This time, a mist of clouds rolled in, when the weather had been clear for days. I'm not an astronomer but I think the one shot has Vega, Altair and Deneb. The other shot, I got a meteor, I think. I need to learn how to change my white balance to custom settings, or how to manipulate my raw files to improve color. Not sure about my ISO settings, when I went up they were washed out but I should have the milky way and don't really see it like I've seen in other photographers pictures. I used an old Canon FD 24 mm 2.8, starting to wonder if the cheap adapter I got may me slightly off as the stars don't seem as pin point as I would of thought or the old glass is not that good.
Aug 24, 2016 12:20:26 #
Aug 24, 2016 12:22:01 #
Aug 24, 2016 15:00:44 #
Well you are on our way Bill!
Good shooting!
Others far more astute in identifying may be along to help.
I'm pretty sure what you caught in the one is actually a satellite. If you were time exposing (say 20-30 seconds), satellites become a thin white streak like that. To the naked eye, they are a small white dot (Sun reflection) as they course along.
There seems to be a tremendous lot of junk flying around up there. Airplanes create a dashed pattern with their indicating beacons.
Keep shooting at the stars!
Good shooting!
Others far more astute in identifying may be along to help.
I'm pretty sure what you caught in the one is actually a satellite. If you were time exposing (say 20-30 seconds), satellites become a thin white streak like that. To the naked eye, they are a small white dot (Sun reflection) as they course along.
There seems to be a tremendous lot of junk flying around up there. Airplanes create a dashed pattern with their indicating beacons.
Keep shooting at the stars!
Aug 24, 2016 15:08:23 #
SonnyE wrote:
Well you are on our way Bill! br Good shooting! br... (show quote)
We debated the satellite/meteor, knew it wasn't an airplane. Thanks for that info.
Aug 24, 2016 15:25:00 #
wmurnahan wrote:
We debated the satellite/meteor, knew it wasn't an airplane. Thanks for that info.
It does start out faint and get brighter, like a meteor, but it doesn't have the characteristic final flash of the meteor. So perhaps the satellite was coming out of, or into, the earth's shadow and this was the source of the brightening trail. Once at full brilliance, it was steady state brilliance like a satellite would be. And the abrupt end is where your shutter opened or closed (we don't know which direction the satellite was moving unless you followed that with a second shot where you see it farther across the display.
Another hint is that if you see it is successive images, it is a satellite. Meteors move too fast.
Good start. And yes you have Vega, Deneb and Altair. I zoomed in to see if I could spot the ring nebula near Vega, but the focus was a little off, so couldn't tell. As for WB, the Sunlight setting is good. If you want to try to change the color of the sky, try tungsten.
Aug 24, 2016 15:38:57 #
wmurnahan wrote:
This is just my third night sky shot attempt. The ... (show quote)
Hi W Murnahan, welcome to the Astro Forum.
Your first shot is very nicely done. When shooting long exposures on
a tripod you are not going to get pinpoint star. The settings are pretty
good. You're shooting at a higher ISO than I would at ISO 1600. The second
shot is at 20 sec & ISO 6400 and probably 5500k white balance. Again
I like to shoot mine at 30 sec, ISO 1600, f/2.8, 4500k white balance.
Good luck and keep those shots coming.
Craig
Aug 24, 2016 15:39:59 #
Wish I lived there so that I could run out on the perfect night, instead of only getting to have one night to do it and being able to stay up later, we had to catch a flight the next day. Need to start working with what I've got near by and find a nice spot to practice, there is a local photographer that has posted on the state park web site, of a great milky way shot over our lake south of town.
Aug 24, 2016 15:49:13 #
Thanks for the words of encouragement. Love capturing the universe, making me really want to invest in a fisheye as my second new lens purchase in over 35 years.
Aug 24, 2016 15:50:42 #
wmurnahan wrote:
Wish I lived there so that I could run out on the perfect night, instead of only getting to have one night to do it and being able to stay up later, we had to catch a flight the next day. Need to start working with what I've got near by and find a nice spot to practice, there is a local photographer that has posted on the state park web site, of a great milky way shot over our lake south of town.
Maybe they would be willing to share some info with you to help you there locally?
Aug 24, 2016 15:53:22 #
Aug 25, 2016 08:54:16 #
dlmorris
Loc: Loma Linda, Ca
I took your first image and brightened it up a bit. What lens did you use? You got the entire constellation of Cygnus, you *almost* got the North American Nebula (very faint, but I think it is in there), the constellations of Delphinus and Lyra. Pretty good, actually. The focus seems to be very good. Some slight trailing when you blow it way up, which is to be expected for a tripod shot, but all in all, I think a very nice image! Keep it up! I tried to work with the color in the second shot, but when you are shooting in a light polluted area, there is only so much you can do. I have the same problem where I live, but it is at least good practice to learn your camera and what it will do....
Aug 25, 2016 10:49:42 #
dlmorris wrote:
I took your first image and brightened it up a bit... (show quote)
I'm an old film photographer, so I have a huge learning curve on Photoshop/lightroom. I was a photoshop user in the '90's but kind of fell out of using it as I couldn't justify the up grade costs and I was only using it for printing, newsletters, brochures, ads (not photo printing), was still printing my film photos the old fashion way, printers had not caught up yet. The lens is a 1970's Canon FD 24 f2.8. Wanting to get a Samyang/Rokinon 12mm 2.8 fisheye.
Aug 25, 2016 11:25:54 #
dlmorris
Loc: Loma Linda, Ca
I think the lens you were using for the first image is very good. Fish eye lenses are kind of speciality lenses... I have one, but don't use it a lot.
Aug 25, 2016 11:51:14 #
wmurnahan wrote:
This is just my third night sky shot attempt. The ... (show quote)
http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/how-to-shoot-photos-of-meteors-or-shooting-stars
Craig
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