Night Sky Photography

[Snaphappyscottie]

Is anybody out there interested in night sky photography as i am looking for some tips in this field.

Hoots man thurs a Scottie loose aboot this site

[bradzo66]

And a crazy Aussie chasing him from post to post !!Ha ha ha . I love all photography but really have my most fun with bulb or long exposures , moon shots and anything related , I'm not sure exactly where you were wanting help though?

[mseigafuse]

I am into night sky photography as well. What kinds of tips are you looking for? Some easy ones are links to sites with useful information:

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php - great resource for finding times of sun & moon rise/set times

http://stargazing.suite101.com/ - they post monthly summaries of what activities are going on during each month. It helps you plan things you might want to shoot

http://skytour.homestead.com/index.html - another site with information on pending astronomy "Events"

Of course you can also search the forums here and also check out the blog for articles like this one - http://digital-photography-school.co...cking-software

Hope to see some night images from you soon

Mike

[Snaphappyscottie]

Aye and i'm still trying to catch that blinking postie

The help i am looking for is what is the best lense to use or can i use any?
Once i get to grips with posting pictures on the internet stuff i will post some of the Northern Lights i did back in 2004 when i stayed near to Inverness, North of Scotland.

For some 20 years or more i have had a great time doing astronomy for fun and at the moment i am writing an astronomical quiz book in the hope to getting it published, But i have never realy tried astrophotography.

[bradzo66]

Originally Posted by Snaphappyscottie

Aye and i'm still trying to catch that blinking postie

The help i am looking for is what is the best lense to use or can i use any?
Once i get to grips with posting pictures on the internet stuff i will post some of the Northern Lights i did back in 2004 when i stayed near to Inverness, North of Scotland.

For some 20 years or more i have had a great time doing astronomy for fun and at the moment i am writing an astronomical quiz book in the hope to getting it published, But i have never realy tried astrophotography.

Scottie , You are pretty close to the mark , depending on what you want to do you can get great star trails with something as small as a 17-85mm lens , if you want crisp moon shots anything from arond 200-300 all the way up to 1000mm, all will give great shots with a remote shutter release and a tripod as for yr northern lights images I would die to see them. I've seen images on here but never in real life and its a goal of mine to see this spectacle before I die , if you want real star stuff there is an Australian guy on here called Mike Salway and he produces some of the most amazing shots I have seen , you could try googling him but he uses something more akin to a telescope to take these images . Hope this helps . All the best .

[Snaphappyscottie]

Thanks for that Bradzo I will google Mike Salway as i do use a telescope also but have never tried it with a camera, "is it FUN"

[ressalg]

Originally Posted by Snaphappyscottie

Thanks for that Bradzo I will google Mike Salway as i do use a telescope also but have never tried it with a camera, "is it FUN"

More fun than humans should be allowed!!!

If you're going to use camera lenses (as opposed to shooting through a telescope) usually prime focus lenses are the ones recommended most. They usually have the larger apertures and less distortion towards the edge of the field.

You should be able to find a lot of useful information on this website's page about "Digital Astrophotography:

Chapter 13: Digital Astrophotography

Both authors are awesome but I've actually met and spoken to Alan Dyer on a regular basis since getting into amature astronomy and he really knows his stuff.