What did i do wrong?

[Jay-91]

Hey guys

I set up my tripod and set my aperture settings for 30 seconds i think and the photographs look distorted. My camera is a cannon eos1100d and the lens was a efs 55-250mm.

[Astroman]

Hi Jayden,

Welcome to the exciting world of Astrophotography..

Can you post the picture so we can see what you mean? Your description is a little vague. What were you photographing?

[Jay-91]

Thanks :)How can I post a photo? The photo is quite large, like 4 meg.

[Scorpius51]

Hi Jayden

When you reply to the thread, scroll down to the "Additional Options" panel below and use the "Manage Attachments" in the "Attach Files" box. There you can browse for your image. You will have to reduce it to ~ 200k before uploading.

Cheers
John

[Jay-91]

http://i.imgur.com/2ZA0C.jpg ok here is the link to the photo. Sorry the photo was so large in size even when i made it smaller was still over 700 kb

[Jay-91]

even with the tripod the photo looks bad :(

[Forgey]

What im seeing looks like star trails. If you had the camera lens at anywhere between 55-250mm for 30seconds you are going to get star trails because the lens is zoomed in.
You are going to get these if you use a standard tripod because the earth's rotation.

[Jay-91]

would a 55mm lens help? I didn't have it on the full zoom but.

[Scorpius51]

I agree. Zoom out for an exposure that long, or reduce your exposure time if you want the longer focal length. You will need to experiment with the particular equipment you are using to achieve images without star trailing.

[Jay-91]

Ah alright. Thanks guys.

[Forgey]

At 55mm @ 30seconds you will still get star trails, i tried to do it once and i got star trails.
Try 20sec and see how it goes. And experiment with all sorts of lengths, seconds and iso.

[Jay-91]

Are there any settings you can suggest that I should attempt to use next time?

[Scorpius51]

That would reduce the star trails.

I suspect that you want to zoom into Jupiter, being the principal object in your image, with the next brightest object of Aldebaran (in the constellation of Taurus) up to its right.

If you want to image Jupiter, you will need higher magnification and a tracking mount. You can use manual tracking on a suitable mount and take a video that can be post-processed to get a good still image. You might find this difficult with a standard camera tripod.

[JB80]

With a 50mm lens 8-10sec is really the max you can use before trailing gets really noticeable. At 55mm I'd try at 8 seconds and starting with an ISO of 800 is a good start, you can try higher or lower ISO's and see which looks better in the end. If you still see trails try 6 seconds.

Give those settings a whirl and see what happens, 55mm for 8 seconds on ISO 800.
Hope that helps a little bit. :)

[ourkind]

Hi Jayden,

If you follow this link there is a table "The 600 Rule" which will give you the best time setting for your focal length at 55mm. Essentially you're looking at exposures between 4 to 6 sec max with your lens capturing the widest angle possible ie. 55mm.

http://www.capturingthenight.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/web600rule.jpg

Greg Gibbs uploads many of his images to IIS in the nightscape section he is one of the maters in this field, his username is obsidianphotos. check him out.

Hope this helps :thumbsup:

[alocky]

Another thing - make sure you are using the mirror lockup (also called mirror pre-fire) to reduce vibrations. If your camera doesn't support this feature, you can set the exposure to 30 seconds, and use a piece of black card to cover the lens for a while after you start the exposure.
cheers,
Andrew.

[ourkind]

Ah that's a great tip, now I know what to do with that setting :thumbsup: Cheers!

[2stroke]

Mirror lockup isn't needed lol, the exposures arn't short enough. You can do mirror lockup vai apt anyhow with the 1100D using the live view simulation from what little i've read. Anyhow just experiment its the best way to learn, tinker with iso and exposure time. Using the 1100D along with a notebook and copy of apt or backyard eos makes life million times easier and less frustrating. It save a lot of time in the dark when your new to a dslr and everything can be done through the software, but you can also use the free canon utils which cost nothing to start out with :)

[alocky]

Beg to differ - its about eliminating the shake from the mirror moving about, and nothing to do with exposure length. Although it was necessary back in the days when I used medium format and 35mm film for AP it's a habit I retained.
Certainly makes a difference with the D800 but with the silly resolution of that sensor you need to use it even on the tripod.
Cheers
Andrew.

[jjjnettie]

My two cent's worth.

Use the cameras inbuilt timer, set it for 3 seconds, that way you won't shake the camera when you take the shot.

[naskies]

Hi Jayden,

To take pleasing images of deep space objects, you really need a tracking mount that can rotate your camera in sync with the apparent movement of the stars across the sky.

A good place to start would be something like a Vixen Polarie Star-Tracker (http://www.astroshop.com.au/guides/vixen-polarie.htm) or AstroTrac (http://astrotrac.com) that can be used in between your camera and tripod. These are somewhat pricey though - starting at $500 for very basic devices, all the way up to $20,000 mounts and beyond.

If budget is a problem, then you can easily build your own tracking mount for a few dollars worth of hardware and a bit of handyman skills (Google "barn door tracker").

Another option is to use a "faster" lens or very wide angle lens. Your 55-200 mm zoom lens has a maximum aperture of f/4.5 at the 55 mm setting. The Canon 50 mm f/1.8 lens is a very cheap lens (really great value) and will let your camera record about 2-3 stops more light in the same time, i.e. instead of taking a 30 second exposure with your 55-200 lens at f/4.5, a 50 f/1.8 would only need about 5 seconds at f/1.8.

Many of the nightscape shots that you see showing an arching Milky Way were shot with ultra wide angle lenses, around the 10 to 20 mm range. At such wide angles, even longish exposure times won't show star trails (much).



Agreed. If you look closely at the brightest object in the photo you posted, you'll see elongation due to the lack of tracking - but also a random curved squiggle at one end of the elongation. This strongly suggests camera movement either at the start or end of the exposure, such as vibrations from the shutter opening.

[doppler]

I am also just starting out with digital astrophotography. My images have got a lot sharper since I started using mirror lock and a 2 second delay. I now also have a wired remote shutter release switch. ($8 online with free postage). You will need one to take exposures beyond the built in 30" camera limit. I have also ordered an adapter ring that should allow me to use some old 35mm film pentax lenses I have. I am keen to try out a 135mm f2.8 on the Pleiades and the Orion nebula.