ISS+Exposure of Achernar region

[andrew]

Used my new Canon 400D tonight for the first time tonight in astrophotography. Was aiming to image in particular the International Space Station, which I did......although it's very out of focus :( I was using the 18-55mm lens, zoomed in a bit, and I took a 13 second exposure at F5.0, this (http://www.luke-hamilton.com/andrewf1/Pics/IMG_0145.13s.F5.0.jpg) (324kb) was the result :(

Later, I did a 1min31second exposure of the Achernar region and got this result (http://www.luke-hamilton.com/andrewf1/Pics/IMG_0150.151s.F8.0.jpg) (418kb) with the minimum amount of zoom (looks okay to me..)

All the time I was set to manual focus, but clearly I'm unfamiliar with how to focus the camera when I'm zoomed in on stars, can someone help me with this?:shrug:

If it weren't for the focus aspect, I think the ISS image would have come out quite nicely :)

[[1ponders]]

Andrew, either the links aren't working properly or your images are very large (> 1meg) as they were taking a long time to open up. :shrug:

[sheeny]

Andrew,

I guess three methods spring to mind (for me) to help focus.

If you have a laptop PC and the right cables etc use DSLRFocus.

If you don't, maybe look into getting a focus magnifier for your camera. I have an Olympus Vari-magni Finder which magnifies the view finder by 1.25x or 2.5x. It is designed for the OM-1 but I gather it fits Canon 300D and 350D viewfinders as well... it might fit a 400D? I'm sure there would be similar gadjets made specifically for the 400D.

The last suggestion would be to use focus lock. I assume the 400D has focus lock? Use auto focus to focus on a bright star, set the focus lock, and hopefully it will be accurate enough as long as you don't change camera settings or zoom.:shrug:

I'm sure there are others with better advice;) . I don;t have a DSLR so I am not speaking from experience here!:P

Al.

[iceman]

Hi Andrew

Probably a good idea to warn people how large the images are if you're linking to an offsite image. In this case, they're > 300k and > 400k.

Look forward to more results with the 400D!

[andrew]

Yep, sorry about that :doh:original post has been edited now :eyepop:

@Al: Thanks for those suggestions :) Is focus lock the same as AE/FE lock? If so, then I'll try this out tonight and see how it goes, thanks again.

[sheeny]

AE lock is auto exposure lock, so your aperture and exposure time will be fixed with AE lock on. FE lock?:shrug: The acronym currently evades me...:rolleyes: Not sure...

PS if you do have a focus lock, you may need to focus on a bright star or the moon. Some cameras don't find (auto)focus on the night sky very well.

Al.

[sheeny]

Just home for lunch so thought I'd check on my C5060...

For me to use auto focus and lock the focus, I:

press the shutter halfway down to achieve auto focus;
then press the AF/MF/Macro select button while still holding the shutter halfway down - this switches automatically to manual focus at that focus position;
then press the OK button on the back of the camera to lock the focus.The Canon may be a different procedure, but you should be able to do it!:thumbsup:

Hope it works. Let us know if it works or not!

Al.

[andrew]

Well, I had another go tonight, and I think I'm making progress on the focus problem, and the procedure is very similar to what you said Al :) Focus first on AF, then switch to MF, don't change any settings, and shoot.

Took this pic (http://www.luke-hamilton.com/andrewf1/Pics/IMG_0202-re.jpg) (483kb) tonight :) (Yes that's cloud in the center :P )