Well, I received some gift cards for Amazon.ca as birthday gifts and decided to buy myself a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera. I got the nikon D3300. It is not on the highend model side not just because I did not want to spend the extra money but more so I won't feel too bad if I scrape the camera once I open it up and remove the infra-red and ultra-violet blocking filter. This will of course allow the camera sensor to pick up those very short and very long wavelengths which are invisible to our naked eye and in doing so allow these wavelengths to be photographed, enhancing many of the rich nebulae and galaxies of the Universe. Yay!
Let me rethink that yay.
Astrophotography is proving to be very difficult. Near frustratingly difficult. There are many obstacles to overcome that I had not even considered before. I had considered many of the obstacles as there is plenty of literature on the subject. Problems like how to illiminate star trails when taking long exposure photographs (read polar alignment, and right ascension). How to reduced camera shake while taking shots(use a remote timer).
One problem that has been vexing me is how to get crystal clear focus in my telescope when I can not look through it because there is a camera attached. Live view is not even able to pick up the faint objects I am trying to capture. So I am stuck taking long exposures over and over trying to see if I can get the stars into smaller pinpoints which does not seem very reliable with the tiny view screen of the camera. I'm thinking of maybe geting an external screen that I can clip onto the tripod leg and connect with mini hdmi to the camera. The kind of screen you might find on the back of a car seat for the kids to watch movies on long trips. But then who wants some device spewing light out into your pristine dark sky and ruining your dark adapted vision.
Editing the picutres is a whole other issue (and I must say that I hate Adobe's new keep giving us money but never own anything software). I really suck at digital art, photo editing or anything alongs these lines and it is definately going to be the biggest learning curve part of all this astro photography. I love being out there with the stars but once I pack up and head home I have zero time left to learn photoshop and lightroom, curves, masks, etc,etc,etc.
Well that's it for this journal entry, I hope it doesn't sound too much like a rant. I got some great pictures of the moon, a few of the milky way, M13, The Pleiades, and I took my best shot at the Andromeda Galaxy.
1. Very bad shot of andromeda. Out of focus and none of the dust lanes can be seen, only the core is visible.
2. Milkyway is an ok shot, I'm sure I can do better.
3. Messier 13 is just a little out of focus. Had it been perfectly in focus this could have been a prise winning shot.
Not too shabby a shot of the moon. Again I think the shot is just ever so slightly out of focus. The crater detail along the terminator could be more crisp, it certainly is when viewing through the eyepiece.
Disclaimer: all the above photos were taken by me =)
Cheers and clear skies.
-Mark