Star shots: I took this image from my backyard Sunday night. While some stars/planets appear reasonably sharp, others not as much. I’m uploading the jpeg version of the image. Any...

Abrown1966

I took this image from my backyard Sunday night. While some stars/planets appear reasonably sharp, others not as much. I’m uploading the jpeg version of the image. Any comments o. How to improve the quality of the image, ie settings would be appreciated. Unfortunately a neighbor chooses to blare his flood lights towards our yard so this along with a lot of trees limits the points of view from home.

PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia

What settings did you use? What focal length? Gut response is that it is not in focus but that may be a product of the focal length.

Marc G Loc: East Grinstead, West Sussex, England

The obvious problem to me is focus.
Also it would be helpful if we knew what equipment you are using.
regards Marc

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

Definitely not in focus. As to the neighbors light, there are a couple ways to correct that problem, but probably best discussed in a separate topic.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

Marc G wrote:

The obvious problem to me is focus.
Also it would be helpful if we knew what equipment you are using.
regards Marc

Focus does appear to be a problem. As one of the members in our local astronomy club keeps harping on, "focus, focus, focus..."

bwa

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

When using a DSLR or Mirrorless system, I would carefully put the lens on infinity and tape it to ensure it did not creep. Shooting stars is the definition of infinity focus. The real issue in your shot is the shutter speed. You are getting blurry images of stars because the sky is moving faster than your shutter speed can accommodate.

To get sharp images of the heavens, you need a startracker that will keep your lens pointed at your target as it follows the movement of the stars.

What was your shutter speed?

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

rgrenaderphoto wrote:

When using a DSLR or Mirrorless system, I would ca... (show quote)

The Infinity mark on a lens is quite often not 'infinity'. You do have to focus regardless.

The stars are out of focus not trailed.

bwa

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

bwana wrote:

The Infinity mark on a lens is quite often not 'infinity'. You do have to focus regardless.

The stars are out of focus not trailed.

bwa

👍👍👍

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

[quote=Abrown1966]I took this image from my backyard Sunday night. While some stars/planets appear reasonably sharp, others not as much. I’m uploading the jpeg version of the image. Any comments o. How to improve the quality of the image, ie settings would be appreciated. Unfortunately a neighbor chooses to blare his flood lights towards our yard so this along with a lot of trees limits the points of view from home.[/quote

It can be very hard to get good focus at night. With my DSLR I can connect it up to a laptop and view the image in live view and then enlarge it to focus on a star very carefully. If your camera has this capability it can be real useful for this type of imaging.

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

On my R6, I can turn off auto focus on the lens and turn on manual focus peaking. Two lines form a V and when it gets closer to focus, the two lines pivot closer to form a straight vertical line. You can also choose to have a red or green color fringe around the objects (stars in this case), when they are in focus. It hasn't missed yet.

bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada

alberio wrote:

On my R6, I can turn off auto focus on the lens and turn on manual focus peaking. Two lines form a V and when it gets closer to focus, the two lines pivot closer to form a straight vertical line. You can also choose to have a red or green color fringe around the objects (stars in this case), when they are in focus. It hasn't missed yet.

I use a few methods to get a good focus:

1) A Bahtinov Mask and a bright star works wonders.

2) I also use Focus Peaking and simply adjust focus until Focus Peaking shows the most number of stars in the field-of-view.

3) Of course it is also possible to get an autofocus on the Moon, if visible, and lock this focus in.

bwa

Abrown1966

Sorry for the delay in responding. Too many hours working but that’s another problem I don’t expect anyone here to solve. The Equipment, Canon R6, two lens choices RF24 - 105 and RF 109 - 400. I’m attaching an image from tonight with manual focus, using the 100 to 400 zoomed to 400. Thanks for the help!

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Abrown1966 wrote:

I took this image from my backyard Sunday night. While some stars/planets appear reasonably sharp, others not as much. I’m uploading the jpeg version of the image. Any comments o. How to improve the quality of the image, ie settings would be appreciated. Unfortunately a neighbor chooses to blare his flood lights towards our yard so this along with a lot of trees limits the points of view from home.

Have you considered a light pollution filter that will block wavelengths from Incandescent, LED, and sodium lights?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082XM39SN?tag=georiot-us-default-20&th=1&psc=1&ascsubtag=dcw-us-1004828536663395300-20&geniuslink=true

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P2D68BT?tag=georiot-us-default-20&th=1&psc=1&ascsubtag=dcw-us-1034076365638313100-20&geniuslink=true