Official Digi Cam Pic Thread!

[AGibbon]

Western Veil (Ha) area - Orion St-80



North American Nebula area

[RFtinkerer]

Awesome! I tried to shoot the NA nebula. Not a chance. That thing is ALL Ha and my sensor response is no. Got an Astronomik CLS filter so that should help. But I really should stick to ones with higher frequency components. That Veil nebula looks interesting...OIII and Hb from checking too.

[**G.I.BRO**]

Nice astro shots guys, so jelly, i cant seem to do it right...
Its probably my weakest thing to do in photography.

Your shots inspired me to try a few from my backyard. FAR from anything decent
But i guess i gots to start somewhere.

[RFtinkerer]

That looks great! Awesome colors. You should look into /r/landscapeastro on Reddit, lot's of good and similar photos. Here's one I took that I like, Orion rising:



Also tonight took a moon shot I like. Clouds are coming over for a few days then the Moon will screw up my DSO targets, but at least it posed for me on this pic.

[**G.I.BRO**]

Nice ones!!
I guess it also depends on ones star layout and the amount of city lights in the area. I should really drive up north for about an hr or 2, makes a world of a diff on the visabilitiy of them star things!

Any special settings?
I pretty much used 15/20sec iso ranging from 100-800 on a 70-200 lens @ f/8-11. Hmmm maybe i should use crop mode for an extra 1.5x. I have a wireless trigger but i figured shooting in liveview would be the same seeing the shutter is already up thus reducing vibrations.

[RFtinkerer]

Nice ones!!
I guess it also depends on ones star layout and the amount of city lights in the area. I should really drive up north for about an hr or 2, makes a world of a diff on the visabilitiy of them star things!

Any special settings?
I pretty much used 15/20sec iso ranging from 100-800 on a 70-200 lens @ f/8-11. Hmmm maybe i should use crop mode for an extra 1.5x. I have a wireless trigger but i figured shooting in liveview would be the same seeing the shutter is already up thus reducing vibrations.

Don't stop down. The slightly decreased sharpness at wide open more than makes up for the fact you get more photons at less exposure time, reducing streaking. Unless, of course, you want that. I guess maybe the CA sucks too, but you be the judge. Don't use liveview. Liveview heats the camera body which increases the noise on the sensor. In fact, some have gone to great lengths to cool the sensor: http://www.jtwastronomy.com/products/icecube.html. Also, for an extended night session I've had to swap camera batteries and any decrease in "on" time stinks. Pay the $20-$30 for the remote. OR do what I did, attach a laptop with BackyardEOS to control the camera. Very great for fine focus, preview, and exposure scheduling.

Dark sky definitely DOES make a difference, and equipment too. Look at what AGibbon gets from a white zone! Drool-worthy. (Breakdown map: http://darksitefinder.com/maps/unite...-15color.html). I live in yellow. Far from perfect, but at least I can glimpse the Milky Way. My neighbors insist on keeping lights on all night, so I have trouble with that. For the Orion rising shot, I'll let you in on my "secret":

1) Photo at about 50 mm of the normal landscape. ISO 6400, f2.8, 7 s.
2) Photo at 280 mm of Orion nebula cluster. I integrated to about 1 hr, 20 minutes of 80 second frames at f5.6.
4) I took the photo from high res, added layer in PS to main photo. Scale, rotate, register high res photo. Add mask and "paint" in desired features.
4) I figured out I hated the residual color and purple fringing from overexposure on the main photo. Channel mix main photo using red and blue channels only and send to monochrome. Green channel has significant light pollution and low DSO components, so bye bye. I thought about keeping color in the nebula but dismissed that too because my eyes don't see the color and that was what I was trying to express.
5) Added blueish tint to obtain desired twilight feeling.

Really none of that was necessary, but I like to experiment with processing.

[**G.I.BRO**]

Thanks for the suggestions, notes and heads up... ill definitely play around with it some more. With winter coming the skies will be clearer, less haze i should say, and i would like to capture some goodies this season. I didnt realzie some shoot at such a high ISO.

[AGibbon]

Great start GIBro. I couldn't even achieve focus when i started.

I am stuck with narrowband or solar system stuff. Luckily, 30 minutes away is a green zone, but will have to invest in an inverter I think.

Moon shots from last night


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[RFtinkerer]

Oh snap! That crater and mountain range definition...

Seriously, you need to start an astrobin account or something and post these to Reddit /r/astrophotography or cloudynights.com. You need to get these to a larger audience.

[biggerC]

What kind of processing did you do here? Looks neat.

Thanks. Converted to HDR then created an action that gave it that faded look.

[RFtinkerer]

Trying to be cool like AGibbon.



Sinus Iridum partially lit past the terminator.

[AGibbon]

Trying to be cool like AGibbon.



Sinus Iridum partially lit past the terminator.

:P

Very nice. Much better than even my 50th pic. I struggled way more than you at first.

Couple more


Plato


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[MasterGoa]

I dont even...

[**G.I.BRO**]

mind boggling... just wow!
So any debris from the moon landing?

[GravY]

mind boggling... just wow!
So any debris from the moon landing?

What moon landing

[AGibbon]

mind boggling... just wow!
So any debris from the moon landing?

That crater is around 60 miles across. Need much more resolution. That's about all I can muster with any of my scopes.

Last Saturn of the year.

[ThirdEye]

Mind blown.

Incredible shots gibbon

[RFtinkerer]

That's crazy. Swear I can see the hexagonal cloud on the north pole.

[AGibbon]

Thanks guys. That was shot about a month and a half ago, and I forgot all about it. I was probably at about 6000mm focal length - F/30. Shot this about 5 months ago at the same focal length. Not sure if I had posted it or not though.

Mars



Here are my left over shots of the week, before full moon/eclipse. Finally got enough time to go through them.

Clavius/Tycho area



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Sinus Iridum



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Montes Apenninus



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Top area near Plato



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Lower area near Schickard



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Copernicus



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Lower area of the sun

[MasterGoa]

Wow...

I could not even fathom how you would do such shots untill I read
where you live... 15% humidity nights really help!

I actually have to go up to the top of a ski hill, 30 minutes away,
to get "over" the humidity here...

What is your shutter and how do you stabilize your rig?

[RFtinkerer]

Took a pic of the eclipsed moon and Uranus last night. No really, that's Uranus on the left, as in the planet, not your-anus. Though the moon is a little bloody, should get that looked at.



Edit: Slightly better shot.

[GravY]

Gibbon I am so impressed by those.. wow!

Nice shot RF!

[AGibbon]

Wow...

I could not even fathom how you would do such shots untill I read
where you live... 15% humidity nights really help!

I actually have to go up to the top of a ski hill, 30 minutes away,
to get "over" the humidity here...

What is your shutter and how do you stabilize your rig?

I shoot as fast as my camera will go. I will take a few thousand fast pictures and stack the best 500. So each of my pictures is 500 rolled into one. The faster the shutter, the better. I try for 1/64th - 1/1000. I look at it different though. Basically I need to keep the framerate as high as the camera allows (if possible). You would like to freeze the seeing in a way. Plus, with the environment, you are lucky to get many good shots.

As far as stability, I take my scopes out at least an hour ahead of time for acclimation, I polar align and make minor tracking adjustments manually. Balance my setup also.

You can fit 3 of the cameras I use in the palm of your hand. The main item I cannot do without on the moon shots is a IR Pass filter.

[AGibbon]

Gibbon I am so impressed by those.. wow!

Nice shot RF!

Thanks brotha. Appreciate it.

[AGibbon]

Took a pic of the eclipsed moon and Uranus last night. No really, that's Uranus on the left, as in the planet, not your-anus. Though the moon is a little bloody, should get that looked at.



Edit: Slightly better shot.

Nice.....glad you captured it. We were clouded over.

[RFtinkerer]

Glad you all like it. What it didn't capture was the fact I stepped out into an array of stars first...the night was crystal clear, completely still, and usually the full moon will wash out all but the brightest stars; now it was glorious. I found Orion first, of course, and the rest of the constellations filled out as I wandered out to see the moon on the horizon. It was brilliant...I love astronomy.

[AGibbon]

Yea, some nights are outstanding. Sky looks 3 dimensional when the transparency is great. Many times I will just pull a pair of binos out in those conditions. If I just didn't have this



beaming straight up 3 miles from my backyard.
Serves zero purpose, other than a weiner weilding contest.


Jupiter from the other night.

[RFtinkerer]

Wow! That is a great pic of Jupiter! Sheesh, I am amazed what you get next to the freaking Luxor.

[necropimp]

[GravY]

someone get busted..

[fleetnorton]

How do you post images here? Please help!

[RFtinkerer]

How do you post images here? Please help!

Use an image host service like imgur to upload your images. On the tool bar for the reply box you will see an icon with a pic of a woman's face. Click that, insert the direct link and you're off and running.

[Tyr-Sog]

Can flickr leave their damn format alone for more than a month?

Christ, I just get use to a new format and they go and revamp it all around again.

[**G.I.BRO**]

?? hasnt changed for me, its been like this for a while for me... which are you talking aboot?

[Tyr-Sog]

?? hasnt changed for me, its been like this for a while for me... which are you talking aboot?

It tossed me in to another beta but I finally saw the option to opt out.

I'm sure there is another change on the horizon.

edit:
Going back and looking, it may just be under the GROUPS section.

[**G.I.BRO**]

I think i may just give up on flickr and other sites like 500px, there are no specific reasons why i need them anymore. Back in the day it was a great tool to let people visit your galleries, but now with FB pages and other cloud services that type of service is not needed any more. Even ecommerce i can do via my website if enabled, still playing around with that idea of course and I still have my pro accounts until next yr... I just doubt that i will renew when it comes time.

[AGibbon]

Couple of Solar pics from this morning.



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[GravY]

again... outstanding..!

[Tyr-Sog]

I think i may just give up on flickr and other sites like 500px, there are no specific reasons why i need them anymore. Back in the day it was a great tool to let people visit your galleries, but now with FB pages and other cloud services that type of service is not needed any more. Even ecommerce i can do via my website if enabled, still playing around with that idea of course and I still have my pro accounts until next yr... I just doubt that i will renew when it comes time.

Make sure you read FB terms as far as posting your pictures. I thought that I read a long time back that if you use their service, you give up rights.

I did not renew my zenfolio this year. The price hike and just the lack of use made it pointless. They were pretty aggressive with trying to get me to renew. Calling me, emails that threaten that if I did not renew right away that my entire account will be deleted with out the ability to get it back lol.

[Tyr-Sog]

Couple of Solar pics from this morning.



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Amazing!