Astrophotography first attempts at it (1 Viewer)

[andySu]

A few little astrophotography night shots outside.
Camera is, Fujifilm Finepix S4400
First a bit of trail and error then I started to get somewhere with the different camera modes Custom and Aperture and different ISO settings and leaving camera on 10 second timer standing away from camera mounted on tripod until picture was processed and the checked for results.
Batteries charging up at present and I'll pop out in few hours get a few more.

 

[Sam Posten]

Good start, keep at it!

 

[andySu]

Cheers Sam. I was enjoying and even though I can see some noise on the picture I'm chuffed with it. Can always improve but I know it can be a costly thing if I moved to DSLR, but I'm pleased with how it came out with digital camera.

If its clear skies enough tonight I'll try and see if I can't capture the ISS in the picture? But since its a moving object it might appear as white line moving across the sky.

 

[Sam Posten]

If you capture a white streak of ISS you'll have done better at Astrophoto than 99.999999% of earth's population =) Go for it!How far tele can you go? As someone who has only recently done it within the past couple years I will tell you that there are VERY few things cooler than the first time you capture Jupiter's moons and see M42, the nebula in Orion!

 

[andySu]

Well I only at least a few chances as I imagine it will be extremely tough on a moving object travailing at 17.500MPH with only 5 to 7 chances and setting the camera up for each move or placing the camera ahead of the ISS on the same path its travelling across and the camera shutter/processing image may or may not capture it, Its trail and error.

 

[andySu]

Thu Jun 19, 10:06 PM 5 min 20° 10 above W 11 above S
The above tonight's time table is going to be tough as south UK isn't fully in shadow at around 100% until at least 10:30pm, plus there is cloud coverage that may not clear up in time as its now 20:08 hours. Checked out the window the wind speed is slow so this cloud won't ve clear by 22:06 hours

 

[andySu]

A totally useless night last night. Clouds didn't start to clear up until at least 1am and by then I wanted to go be bed.

ISS won't be around for maybe a few weeks as its course heading has been changed.

Oh, well then if its clear skies tonight I'll try for some more night time pictures of the stars.

 

[andySu]

June 22nd 2014.

Took this a little early around 10pm and had the ISO set a bit high. I can just see some faint stars,

Taken around I think 12.00am or 00.00 hours.

ISS won't be around for maybe weeks until its course heading is changed and pending clear skies of challenge to capture it?

 

[andySu]

Moon taken from window with window open. 7th September 2014.
Text mode with zoom in and digital zoom and one taken with Night Tripod mode.


Fujifilm finepix S9200.

Night Tripod zoomed in with digital zoom.

Text mode half zoomed in.

Text mode zoomed bit closer. Both images a bit too bright with this shooting mode.

 

[JohnRice]

No reason to use the camera's meter for the moon. It will rarely do it right. The moon (in this situation) is basically the same as a sunny day, so the "Sunny 16" rule applies. The exposure is the equivalent of 1/ISO at f/16. Since f/16 is wasted on a subject at infinity, try opening 3 stops to 5.6 with shutter speed of 1/800 sec. At 100 ISO.

 

[andySu]

Cheers John.

 

[andySu]

I tried another picture on manual ISO1600 but looks more less like one taken with Night Tripod shooting mode.

 

[JohnRice]

There is no reason to set the camera to ISO 1600 for this situation.

Set the camera to ISO 100.

Set it for manual exposure, with the big dial (turn it to "M") on top of the camera.

Set the shutter speed to 1/800 sec

Set the Aperture to f/5.6. Those two should be visible through the viewfinder.

Make sure the flash is off.

Take the picture.

 

[Sam Posten]

Imagine how lucky this new AstroTog is!http://np.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/2jglxm/can_you_help_me_identify_what_i_captured_here/