How to shoot the night sky (astrophotography)

[jgomez65]

Originally Posted by anuragh27crony

Awesome....i wondered how to photograph stars and at times my attempts went in vain....thanks so much...this post is like answer to my million dollar question

Your wellcome, please post some of your pictures on this post after you try it.

[two30grain]

Originally Posted by jgomez65

No problem. Please post some of your pictures here, so we can see them.

will do. projected date is the evening of the 24th.

[RMD]

a few questions in regard to astro photography:

1. Is stacking in Deep...the same as laying over of images in a program such as photomatix?

2. Does anyone recommend (or not recommend) customizing the picture style in the following format for astro photography:

Sharpness +7
Contrast +4
turn ON high ISO noise reduction

3. Has anyone tried to use a 200mm lens and adaptor (1.4x or 2x) for shooting consteallations, stars, planets, etc...?

Thank you in advance for your kind assistance.

rmd

[dpleasants]

Does the photos all need to be the same exposure or different?

[jgomez65]

Originally Posted by RMD

a few questions in regard to astro photography:

1. Is stacking in Deep...the same as laying over of images in a program such as photomatix?

2. Does anyone recommend (or not recommend) customizing the picture style in the following format for astro photography:

Sharpness +7
Contrast +4
turn ON high ISO noise reduction

3. Has anyone tried to use a 200mm lens and adaptor (1.4x or 2x) for shooting consteallations, stars, planets, etc...?

Thank you in advance for your kind assistance.

rmd

1. I think the Deep program is much better as it identifies the starts automatically and aligns them in the correct possition in the pictures.
2. On the second question, I am not sure if those setting might improve the images. Try them with and without the settings and let us know.
3. I did tried it with a 300mm lense. The main problem I found is that the time you can keep the lense open while avoiding the star trail is grealty reduced, therefore less light gets in. Unless you are are shooting with an lense with large apperture (f/2 or f/2.8) it is not worth it. Regarding adaptors, I don't recommend it.

[jgomez65]

Originally Posted by dpleasants

Does the photos all need to be the same exposure or different?

All pictures in the same set should have the same exposure.