These images are amazing! It's one thing to do star trails or star fields, but the true astro-photography is amazing!!! I so wish I could afford the equipment to get the results shown on these submissions.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...sterpieces.html

Those are absolutely amazing photos Counterman.


Wheels

You would be surprised at what can be achieved with quite a modest setup. Obviously, high quality equipment (ie expensive) will yield higher quality images, but the experience and knowledge of the user is a huge factor in the outcome.

Here is a shot I took earlier this year of M51 using my 10in SCT:


There is still plenty of room for improvement but it shows good detail in the spiral arms.

This image of the same galaxy was taken with a small 70mm scope that cost me $150 (factory refurbished), a $50 tripod that has a tilt plate (for polar alignment) and the same CCD camera that was used for the image above (about $500 new). The little scope could not cope with the weight of the filter wheel, so the image had to be monochrome.



A few more:

M17 The Swan Nebula using a Hydrogen-Alpha narrowband filter:


M27 using the same setup:


Jupiter:


Part of the Abell 2151 'super-cluster' of galaxies in Hercules:


and without the labels:


M13 Globular Cluster:


You can basically sink as much, or little, as you want into astrophotography. Some invest many thousands of dollars, but for most of us, much less.

Way cool Man. I think I am about sold on trying this out at some point in my life.

But my question is...

How do you find anything? I would assume to see that "M51" you need pin-point precision on your aim. Or do computers help?

For me, computers do the hard work. Others (especially visual observers) like to manually 'star hop' to their targets using a good old paper map.

My scope has an onboard computer that points the scope, but I hook it up to my laptop and drive it with a program called 'The Sky' (there are lots of alternative plaetarium programs available that will drive a 'GoTo' scope. It's pretty neat to watch once you have it all sync'd. Click on a star or other target and then click on 'Slew' - and off it goes. You have to make minor adjustments if the slew is big (I usually sync on a bright star close to my intended target which helps immensely). I'm a bit of a gadget man, so I get a kick out of running things with the computer. On cold nights I use RealVNC to remotely operate my laptop, so I can stay in the house for most of the session (cheating I know, but it beats freezing).

Amazing pictures! I'm still waiting for a tripod to deliver

Thought this was suitable for this thread.

http://www.slate.com/id/2227828/

Interesting read - thanks!

What a last 7 days for space photography. Now check this one out:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...-night-sky.html

Stunning!

Here is my latest (also posted in the Community Hall)..
NGC 7331

So Paul,

Are you adding the color like how that article talks about? Or is this how your eye (computer) sees it when you take the shot?

The camera I use is monochrome (which is more sensitive and gives higher resolution than a one shot colour camera). So to get a final colour image I shoot three sets of data, each one through a different filter (Red, Green and Blue). Usually I also shoot a longer set through a clear IR-cut filter which is used as the Luminance Layer. I then combine the Red, Green and Blue monochrome images into a RGB colour image using Photoshop. You then use the RGB image to colour the Luminance image.. Here is a link to a Cloud Nights forum thread where I explain the process (you will find my post about halfway down the page).
Link

If you are serious about giving this a try then I highly recommend joining the Cloudy Nights astronomy forums. You will get a lot of great advice and the people are very friendly.

Fantastic write up Paul!

I am curious if I can use those same techniques to do star fields and star trails. They never look right in the exposure, perhaps I can get something more interesting..

Whatcha think?

Certainly worth trying stacking for star fields. The more 'sub frames' you stack the smoother the result will be (because random noise will be averaged out).

Star trails would probably not work well with the stacking technique, but there is no harm in giving it a try.

Shooting through coloured filters won't be of any benefit if you are using a colour camera, but I think you were referring to stacking short exposures right?

I'm looking forward to seeing your results!

Happy Birthday Paul, I love the astronomy stuff very awesome.

Thanks Jeff .

Great images as always Paul, thanks.

Oh, and happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Mate! You really have me into this stuff now, at least enjoying the photos.

Here are some from the Royal Observatory:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35937237@N08/

Happy Birthday Paul!

Happy birthday Paul

Stunning images as always!