A glimpse at Astrophotography

After a long hiatus, I'm going to post about a very different technique.  One of the things I really enjoy doing is astrophotography.   I've been doing some very basic astrophotography until recently.   I'll talk a little bit about my techniques to try to see if there is much interest in this topic.  If so, I'll dive in a little deeper in later posts.

My initial shots were taken with ordinary gear.   I started with a wide angle lens and focused on trying to get shots of the Milky Way.  Given I don't live too far from a major city (Chicago) I didn't have much of a chance around here.   It was only on vacations when I found darker skies that I could capture the amazing glow and details of our own galaxy.

10mm f/4.5 ISO 6400 30 second exposure

The key to shots of the Milky Way include the following:

Dark/Clear skies

Wide and fast lens

higher ISO 

solid/steady camera (tripod)

It's pretty fascinating to think you're looking in toward the center of our galaxy.  

I also started to learn about new photo techniques like photo stacking.   Despite not having a good telescope or a motorized mount, I was able to get decent (for a beginner) shots of another galaxy, Andromeda.   This helped to build my interest in astrophotography.   To think I was able to capture details with an ordinary camera lens of an object that is 2.5 million light years away was amazing to me.

This is the result of 16 images stacked using Deep Sky Stacker.  I used a 200mm f/2.8 lens.

I also started to take images using my DSLR and a telescope (an 8" reflector).   This time I was targeting planets.  I was able to get images of Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and Mars.   The images weren't stellar, but it was still pretty cool to be able to see details on these planets.   I was also learning a new technique using video rather than still images.   I used a software tool called Registax to stack images from video clips.   

Another exciting event that I was able to capture using my DSLR attached to my telescope was the Venus Transit.  I had to stack multiple filters and minimize the opening on my telescope to just 1" in order to block the light (I don't recommend this.  It's best to use a specialized solar filter.)

Although the quality isn't great and I cracked a filter in the process, which is why you see the odd lines in the image, I was happy to be able to not only see this, but to get photos of it.   This even won't happen again for over 100 years!

This past winter I upgraded my telescope and also purchased a specialized planetary imaging camera.  I badly wanted to improve my photographs of planets.   My new (used) telescope had a motorized equatorial mount that would be able to keep the planet in view.   Previously I "chased" the planets across the sky.   Also with the new camera and its very small sensor, I was able to get far more magnification and hence far more detail.   To my pleasant surprise, I was quickly able to produce images like this:

This image shows not only nice details of Jupiter, but also shows its moon Io as it creates a shadow on the surface of the planet.   This image also was the result of running video through Registax.   My next goal is to replace the image above where I have Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Venus with brand new images of this higher quality.

Hope you enjoyed this quick glimpse of Astrophotography.  I'd be happy to share more on the details of how it's done if you'd like.