Astro Photography

chivychiv

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11 Apr 2010 - 9:22 PM

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I have recently purchased a Canon eos500d camera and really have not got a clue. I can take a normal photo and am prety pleased with the results but in general i have not got a clue what i am doing. The moon and stars have long been a pasion of mine so i thought it was time that i got rid of my old digital camera and bought a real one that could take quality pictures. I have tried taking pictures of the moon but all i get is a ball of light. Could somebody tell me the best way to take a proper picture of the moon and then maybe tell me how i can see further and get pictures of other planets and stars. I do not know what other equipment , if any, i would need or even the best place to purchase it from. Money is tight and i saved long and hard to get my camera and would really like to learn about photography in general. Please can anybody help or even face me in the right direction of getting some lessons.
Thanking you in advance for your help.
Regards
Kevin Chivers

User_Removed

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11 Apr 2010 - 10:42 PM

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Google the Stargazers Lounge, a very helpful forum dedicated to astronomy.

The moon is pretty bright against the darkness of night, so auto exposure is a big no no. One thing to consider when togging the moon is that it moves a quarter of its diameter each minute, so within 4 minutes it has shifted the distance of its diameter. But this shouldnt worry you if you select the correct ISO and exposure, less than 5 seconds.

Ideally you will be using a 500mm lens for the moon otherwise all you will get is a little white light in a sea of darkness.

For widefield star photography, any lens will do, i use my kit lens on my 350D, as well as my 70-300 zoom. Even at the 18mm mark i can capture the faintest star in the sky, even those invisible to the naked eye, but there is a bit of photoshopping involved to make those small points of light shine brightly, its easy to figure that one out

Really for photographing planets, galaxies and nebulae you need need a good telescope with a good attachment, which you will find links to once you have googled the above website. Now for the crappy bit, this game is not cheap, telescopes cost a lot of money, even more for tracking telescopes, which you will need if photographing deep space.

As Swills said, you wont go wrong by finding a local group, astronomers are more than happy to pass on information, and really are helpful, in fact within a week of joining the above site i was invited to a meet at Kelling Heath later this month.