First attempt at stars

[Chrissyo]

I'm not sure if this should be posted here, as this isn't exactly galaxies or nebula... but it sure aint planetary.

I discovered my sisters digi-camera has a manual mode in which you're able to take exposures of up to 30 seconds. So, I jumped on iceinspace, tracked down some star field shots so I could have a try myself.

I took 10 shots, 7 15secs, 2 25 secs, and 1 30 sec shot. (I wanted a variety of times, hoping that the small star trails in the longer ones would be cancelled out by the shorter ones in Registax).

Anyway, I figured that throwing these pics into Registax would give me nice stars with no trails. However, my result looks like a long exposure pointed at the southern pole (see attchment). I was trying to get the scorpio section of the milky way, so I don't know whats going on.

I'm not using anything but a tripod, and I am guessing this is my problem. I thought registax would simply align all the stars? Can anyone help me with this problem and suggest some tips. Even though the result image is quite silly, I am quite fond of it. :P :ashamed:

Btw- sorry about the small picture size, I couldn't remember the size limit for pictures, so I decided to be safe.

[astro_south]

Chrissyo

I can notice the telltale shape of Scorpio from your pic. The "star trails" are due to field rotation. Others may know of some software to help correct some of that. You also have some Milky Way peaking its way through - so good effort. Its great to experiement hey :thumbsup:

[avandonk]

You have taken the first step.Taken some pictures.Keep going, learn from your mistakes.The only way to get better is to keep doing it.Its much better than my first attempt!

Bert

[beren]

Chrissyo youll be surprised how much detail you can get with your cam set at its shortest FL using a tripod and some tweaking in PS .....keep going :thumbsup:

[Itchy]

Yep, this is the right spot:poke:



If all you have used is a tripod, you've done pretty well. Anything over about 10 sec is going to produce trails. Also registax is not real good at rotating images, which is what really needs to happen here. One thing you might try is to use about 30x10sec shots.


Without a tracking mount, a program like registax is going to struggle to cope with the translation and field rotation.

If you are not ready to buy a tracking mount you could try a barn door mount if you have some handiperson skills. This will alow you to track and use the full 30sec capability.

http://hometown.aol.com/davetrott/page6.htm
http://www.skynews.ca/pages/resources/barndoor.html




They are never silly. This one is most important. It's your FIRST ;)

Well Done

[iceman]

Well done, my first widefield star shots started the same way - on a fixed tripod. I never used exposures longer than 10-15 seconds, otherwise you'd get trails. I took usually 3 shots and stacked them. Registax couldn't handle any more than that while keeping the stars sharp.

You can find one of my best efforts here:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/images/images/widefield/sag-20040820.htm

and the rest here:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/?widefield

Though they're very old now.. lately I use my EQ platform with a tripod on top. My camera can only do 30 seconds, so I take many 30 seconds exposures and stack them. I now also use registar, and find it much better than registax at handling rotated images.

A couple of my best on the EQ platform are here:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=3732
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=3143
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=3142

Good luck!

[atalas]

Chrissyo you have taken your first steps congrats !

Louie