simple astrophotography w/ p&s digital camera?

Hi all,

Astronomy has been a casual hobby of mine for the past several years
(I have an 8" f/6 dob and live in moderately light polluted suburbs).

I'll be getting my first digital camera this week, and although I
didn't really have any astrophotography in mind, I still wouldn't mind
dabbling with it as much as I can - given my modest equipment. I will
be getting a Canon Powershot A75, which has some good manual settings
for a relatively inexpenisve digicam.

I'm looking for suggestions for good websites/books about using the
camera to get half-decent results for light astrophotography work,
both for the camera on its own, as well as eyepiece projection with my
dob. I'm a complete newbie as far as this is concerned, so any and all
help is appreciated!

Terence

Yes, some photography is possible with that camera. I highly recomend
this yahoo group

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital_astro

jjb



(Terence) wrote in
om:

Hi all,

Astronomy has been a casual hobby of mine for the past several years
(I have an 8" f/6 dob and live in moderately light polluted suburbs).

I'll be getting my first digital camera this week, and although I
didn't really have any astrophotography in mind, I still wouldn't mind
dabbling with it as much as I can - given my modest equipment. I will
be getting a Canon Powershot A75, which has some good manual settings
for a relatively inexpenisve digicam.

I'm looking for suggestions for good websites/books about using the
camera to get half-decent results for light astrophotography work,
both for the camera on its own, as well as eyepiece projection with my
dob. I'm a complete newbie as far as this is concerned, so any and all
help is appreciated!

Terence

Without tracking, you'll be "limited" to photographing the Moon, Sun
(with filter of course), and the planets, but you can get some really
good shots, especially in steadier skies. For such bright objects, fast
exposures (e.g., 1/30 sec to 1/640 sec for Sun) will capture craters,
bands, rings, sunspots, Syrtis Major, etc. Now, some of that can be
done handhled, but for best results get an eyepiece camera adapter such
as whthoseat scopetronix sells. (I use a Canon A70 with a scopetronix
adapter on a generic plossl and it works well.)

But to get the deepsky, you'll need longer exposures and hence tracking.
OTOH, it's always worth trying. I got a nice snapshot of comet Linear
the other evening through an 8" dob like yours.

Also, just put the camera on a tripod (skip the scope) and you can take
great constellation shots with 15 second exposures and ISO jacked up to
200 or 400.

There's a lot of exciting stuff to do. Once you get it going, post back
and let us know how it all works.

Larry Stedman
Vestal

(Terence) wrote in message . com...

I'm looking for suggestions for good websites/books about using the
camera to get half-decent results for light astrophotography work,
both for the camera on its own, as well as eyepiece projection with my
dob. I'm a complete newbie as far as this is concerned, so any and all
help is appreciated!

Terence

Having a massive (or at least steady) equatorial mounting with a
drive really helps. Because you can just relax and not worry about
moving the telescope or rushing a shot. You may find the Moon your
best target with a Dob.

Just hold the camera up to the eyepiece and take lots of images with
everything on auto. Though I have found setting to infinity helps. My
best results came after I bought a 15mm Meade 4000. It suits my 6" f/8
refractor perfectly on the Moon. It doesn't disgrace itself with a
barlow either. Most importantly it has a decent sized eye lens that
just suits my Sony P71 camera.

Capturing the planets is much more difficult than the Moon though.
Probably as a result of my not using a proper camera mounting. Having
thousands of perfectly acceptable images on your hard drive is the
only price of going digital. Apart from the cost of the camera and a
big memory stick or card. 128 meg helps extend the evening's fun.

I've just bought a cheapo 5" B&W 12 Volt TV with an s-video socket and
can feed the image from the camera into that. To save squinting at the
tiny LCD screen on the back of the camera. Which is often difficult on
a refractor. Next step is to mount the camera properly at the eyepiece
to avoid camera shake on the planets.

The wonder of a digital camera is that it can capture slightly more
than you can see through the same eyepiece. You'll soon find out what
works for you. After that it's just practice. Don't be afraid to post
your best images on MySky. Just remember to use ASTRO in the title.

Chris.B

http://www.mysky.org/mysky/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital_astro/?

http://mysite.freeserve.com/fullersc...k4/index.jhtml

"Chris.B" wrote in message
om...

Just hold the camera up to the eyepiece and take lots of images with
everything on auto. Though I have found setting to infinity helps. My
best results came after I bought a 15mm Meade 4000. It suits my 6" f/8
refractor perfectly on the Moon. It doesn't disgrace itself with a
barlow either. Most importantly it has a decent sized eye lens that
just suits my Sony P71 camera.

I have a Sony P72, a similar model. I found the images to be too
noisy for long exposures. A friend's Canon D60 did much better, and
at a fraction of the price. That and the fact that the Sony "Memory
Stick" is proprietary, like a lot of Sony stuff recently, leads me to say
no to Sony in future.

I wrote:

A friend's Canon D60 did much better, and at a fraction of the price.

Oops, I meant to write "A60." The D60 has been on my mind recently...

"Ed" wrote in message ...

I have a Sony P72, a similar model. I found the images to be too
noisy for long exposures. A friend's Canon D60 did much better, and
at a fraction of the price. That and the fact that the Sony "Memory
Stick" is proprietary, like a lot of Sony stuff recently, leads me to say
no to Sony in future.

You may be right. But I don't ever do long exposures. The 128 Meg
Memory Stick was not a Sony due to large price differences. Slow
download is a problem when transferring any new images to the
computer when there are already a large number of images already on
the Stick. I'm not sure if this is common to other types of camera
memory or my choice of OEM Stick.

I have to say that the Sony has offered me a great deal more astro fun
than my 35mm SLR attempts ever did.
Being able to see your own efforts on a screen moments after taking a
shot is quite magical after decades of waitng a week for 6x4 prints.
With immediate disappointment usually the norm in my case. Rather than
immediate and endlessly repeated success with the Sony.

Even my very unsophisticated handheld methods achieve enjoyable
results on the Moon. I have even captured Plato's central mini-crater.
When I couldn't even see it with any eyepiece on the night in
question! I'd recommend simple digital camera techniques to anyone
feeling a bit jaded with visual obervation. Just be ruthless in
discarding poor images or your computer will bulge at the seams. :-)

Chris.B