Jen's first ever pics of the moon

[Jen]

Ok :D well here is my story first of all, they arnt as good as some of the gorgeous pics that float around here but........ I have been dying to participate in this part of the forums for a very long time now :D
I have been playing around taking a few pics here and there a few months back (but i have been too chicken to post them :whistle:)
Well now its an amazing clear nite outside but i have had way too much to drink to get the scope out so i have decided to show off my proud pics to you all :lol::lol::lol:

Well we gotta start somewhere right :rolleyes:

Anyway, what i DIDNT use no flash cameras, no tracking, no 5 x frames every 10min :lol: no regitax thingy or whatever u call it :doh:;)

All i did was used an old crappy camera Kodak 5 mega-pixel camera(which now no longer works grr) Put it up too the eyepiece and pushed the button woohoooo (im sure you all have started off doing this right:P)

Anyway for what i had i must say i was pretty smitten with my first shots :thumbsup::thumbsup: Now i have the bug to get some awsome pics :help:

Thank for looking cheers :)

:camera::camera:

[Enchilada]

Jen,
Well done! No bad for your early attempts, and certainly better than my first few that I did. (I'll have to dig some up and digitally scan mine so you can compare them.)

If these two images were good cheesecake mine would be certainly have lots of sand in them - yes they are that grainy.! :doh:

In the end you have nothing to be embarrassed about at all!

Ta for sharing them!! :thumbsup:

:party2::party2::party2:

(Might now try some myself too when the weather clears at bit!)

[markseibold]

Hi Jen

Welcome to the forum!

Yes many of us have started here too, just to concur with you. I appreciate (and sympathize) with your fine efforts. I am glad to see that you displayed these. You will be surprised what you can learn from starting here.

I actually started to display award winning photos from an old world film camera (35mm) in an online site locally at my astronomy club site here in Portland Oregon where they were discovered for commercial use eventually by a music recording company in London. But I never used a telescope. They were time exposures of large areas of the night sky, that ironically cannot be easily done with the new digitals without stacking images in segments (as you may know you cannot take a long time exposure in a single frame with the new digitals as noise builds up.) It requires much work in the computer later to enhance the images.

Although seeing the lunar 'details' first hand with the eye through the eyepiece frustrated me when the digital (also a consumer grade 5.1 mgpxl Sony Cybershot that I use now) would not show them well even when I carefully mounted the camera on a tripod over the eyepiece for maximum stability. So I then turned to hand sketching as i did earlier since childhood (Please see my recent post here- 'Lunar Sketches') as there is something else that takes place that as 'photographers only' do not see. That is the artistic process of 'seeing much more while you sketch'. I know this sounds old school or old-world but it is actually true!

While you sketch your eyes will develop a method through the creative process of art melded with the scientific methods of observation to actually see much more detail than those who only simply look and photograph; then the process of putting it down on paper becomes another story. It can seem at first to be a frustrating process, as many people will easily say "I cannot draw". This is actually false statement. What they might mean to say is that the patience it may take compared to the wanting of immediate images at the push of a button and not to labor for them can seem difficult and laborious at first.

But alas! With a little practice, the result with some repeated effort can produce a masterpiece of art that is worthy of a gallery or museum wall. It will contain something no photograph from the camera can. The artist's personal brushstrokes and signature hand imprinted to it. (Where photographs after awhile may all look like they came from the same camera and rather un-personal.) With more intense work, some of these sketches can fool some people. I get comments about some of mine that they are mistaken for photographs. It is true that the live eye observing can actually see more at times than a photograph can capture. But the art may take even much more effort than the camera. I guarantee that this will eventually pay off.

Although it is not for everyone, many accidentally discover sketching after many years of photography. You should see the comments as these discussions surmount at the forums in the states. Things like, "I never knew what I was missing in observing for years until I put the camera down and started sketching".

Sorry If I rambled a little here, but I would like others to know that I am not trying to convert them away from photography. There are many who go onto award winning time exposure photography of deep sky objects that approach the Hubble Space Telescope images. You have probably seen some of these amateur images in NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

I would like to possibly see others discover what sketching can do for their seeing and ultimate enjoyment while observing. I still use my 5.1 Sony for reference photos, sometimes only hand held over the eyepiece to take several close-ups of the terminator and the whole moon to refer to later while sketching to get the placement of surface features but then after getting the details in several technical sketches, I float them around the whole moon image and finally do an imaginary landscape at the bottom of the entire 22"X 30" black pastel paper. www.markseibold.com (http://www.markseibold.com) will also link to my gallery the Cloudy Nights Astronomy Forums in the states.

There are many award winning night sky photographs, star trails, comet Hale Bopp, total solar eclipses, etc, aside from the pastel sketches >
http://www.cloudynights.com/photopost/showgallery.php?ppuser=37924&cat=500 (http://www.cloudynights.com/photopost/showgallery.php?ppuser=37924&cat=500)
(*7 gallery pages here - the detailed lunar sketches are scattered between the middle pages, also containing film photographs, maybe one digital of comet McNaught.)

Good luck in your future efforts with the camera. You will see improvement as you experiment. Your first images are quite well done considering only hand-held and considering the camera you are using. What I found challenging was mounting the camera on a simple tripod, as any tripod will do, to steady it, try to move up in magnification, although this gets quite testy with an old 10" Dobsonian and without tracking no less. You will find the image moving and must keep shutter speeds at least above 1/30th sec while you constantly realign the telescope and move the tripod also but you can get amazing results sometimes with careful focusing and steady atmosphere.


Mark Seibold, Artist-Astronomer, Portland Oregon

[stephenb]

Very nice Jen. Well done. I love that last quarter image!!

[Kevnool]

Congrats Jen,Its about time.
The Astronomer is coming out in you now.
The pics are great.
More will come now, and i,m waiting for the Orion nebula from you since thats your fave,but i,ll wait 6 months for that one.

Thx for sharing.
Cheers Kev.

[peter_4059]

Great first images Jen. I really like the crescent image.

Peter

[astroron]

Good start Jen:)
Look forward to more of your efforts in the future:thumbsup:

[PeterM]

Go Jen!
Nice first quarter!
The Malin awards await your glowing presence.
PeterM.

[sheeny]

Great start, jen! Good exposure, sharp...

We want more!:P:thumbsup:

Al.

[Rick Petrie]

With a little bit of fiddling in photoshop or something I am sure you could turn them into your own private emoticons.:whistle:
Great first up photos Jen.:thumbsup:
Cheers Rick

[Jen]

:D:D:D Thanks guys they can only get better from here i guess ;)
Im very proud of my first pics :D:D

[multiweb]

Yay! Jen is imaging now! :thumbsup: There's no turning back :lol: Great shots. 2nd is my favorite. Sharp as.

[dpastern]

That's a good start Jen. We'll be calling you Dr Jen Malin soon ;-)

Dave

[TrevorW]

More alcohol while filming produces results

This is how I took my first shots too Jen, hand held to the EP with a Canon Powershot

Great Effort

:camera::cold::bowdown::computer::t hanks:

[StephenM]

Nice shots Jen! :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Stephen

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol: i wish :P do they have a prize for the best dunken afocal shot :)

[acropolite]

Wel done Jen, the second one is light years ahead of the first.:thumbsup:

[Inmykombi]

Nice one Jen.

I like the Crescent one the best. Contrast is nice and its sharp too.

Keep 'em coming OK

Well done.

[Quark]

Very well done Jen,

Great to see you have launched yourself into astro imaging, but beware it is addictive.

Regards
Trevor

[lacad01]

Great job, the crescent's a winner :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

:D Jen, I've been offline for a couple of days now and see what I missed!!!!!
Well done. You're well and truely on your way!!!!!:thumbsup:
Lovely images.

[RobF]

Hang on to your wallet Jen!
Those innocent first pics often have a way of becoming addiction.....

(and congrats too!! - that 2nd one is great:thumbsup:)

[marki]

Great shots Jen, the quarter moon is a ripper. How did you manage to hold the camera still at the eyepiece with a UDL in each hand :D.

Mark

[Octane]

Jen,

Onya. You're going to be perpetually broke from this point forward.

Regards,
Humayun

[Octane]

I disagree with the statement below.

If you're referring to afocal point-and-shoot shots of the Moon, it may hold some water. As far as everything else is concerned (studio, fashion, landscape, macrophotography, deep-space astrophotography, etc.) it's just not true.

Regards,
Humayun

[dpastern]

hahahah!!! :lol::P:thumbsup:

Dave

[alan meehan]

Good on ya JEN good to see your smitten with the dark side,your quarter moon shot is very good,yes we have all put a camera to the eyepiece and gone wow! very well done.more to come.

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol: yes i am addicted already im in the process of working out the best way for me to go on taking more pics look out saturn and jupiter here i come woop woop :P they are next on my list hehe then the horsehead neb :D if i can just get shots of those i will be one happy girl i can tell you :lol::lol::lol:

[Jen]

:D:D:D:D:D:D
Thanks for all the lovely comments im much more confident now :thumbsup:
:D:D:D:D:D:D

:thanks::thanks::thanks::thanks:

[Chillie]

Great first shots Jen.:thumbsup:

Can I give you just one tip? Cut out (or at least cut down) the booze and put the money saved towards a bigger telescope ... say an 8" or even a 10". That way you will get even better pictures than the ones you have already taken. By better, I mean more detail. Although there's nothing wrong with the pictures you have.:thumbsup:

[Kevnool]

Jen your images are attracting attention with 31 comments.
Just wait till Orion is captured, You,ll probably double it.
Cheers again.....Kev.

[Glenhuon]

Nice pics Jen, the crescent is certainly the better one. I'm another who started off with a point and shoot at the eyepiece. Won't be long before your eyeing up all these astropic goodies and depleteing the bank account :). Astrophotography is more infectious than swine flu, and there ain't no cure. :lol:

Bill

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol: yes i will be getting a bigger scope one day :thumbsup: Thanks :D



:lol::lol: LOL Kev yeah i cant wait for that day to happen ;)


:lol::lol: lol Bill thanks buddy :D

[Ric]

Well done Jen, a fine start.

This is how it all starts with a few innocent photo's. There's no turning back now.

Cheers

[Jen]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: Thanks Rick :D

[toryglen-boy]

just noticed this !!

nice one Jen, its a great feeling to look at something you took yourself and think

"woaahhh!! i did that!"

soon you'll be on the slippery slope, and end up buying a DSLR, an EQ6, Autoguider, ED80, ST80 etc. etc. etc. like i did

keep them coming though, cant wait to see your shots of the planets

:thumbsup:

[Jen]

Thanks Duncan :) I know im still in the process of wondering what to buy next its neally tax time so look out astro shops Jens on a mission ;)

[erick]

Oh Jen Jen! Dear oh dear - you've been sucked in! :doh:


But those are better Moon shots than I got first and mine haven't improved much :whistle:

[Jen]

:lol::lol: yep Erick i sure am hooked now :) i finally got that motor drive but they sent me a double one instead of a single one so i sent it back so i still have to wait grrrrrr now im thinking i should have kept it because i realised the double ones are a lot more money and i paid the price of a single one :doh::doh:

[leon]

You have done well, young Jen, ;) excellent first results, :thumbsup: keep em coming. :)

Leon :thumbsup:

[Jen]

:hi::hi: Hi there Leon :D
Thank you i will try and keep em coming thats for sure :thumbsup: i just need a few more toys first :lol:

[Tamtarn]

Just caught up with this one Jen. Great start :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Bit of bad luck the camera not working now though.

Seems like you'll be going shopping soon for more toys anyway. We look forward to seeing more from you :)

D & B

[Jen]

Thanks D & B
Yeah a broken camera is a good enough excuse for me to go shopping hehe:P

[TheDecepticon]

Very cool, Jen!:D The second one is a beauty! Print it out on some nice paper and frame it. It will inspire you no end!!:thumbsup:

[spacezebra]

Well done Jen!

Cheers Petra d.

[ColHut]

Well done long live the 10" dob!:P

[White Rabbit]

Nice one, that exactly what made me want to get into photography, holding my girlfriends 3meg Nokia N73 phone up the eyepiece. I was really impressed with the result. I use that picture as my wallpaper on my itouch. It's amazing what you can do with house hold equipment.

Be careful though, now that you have the bug, it starts to get very very expensive lol.

Thanks for sharing.

[Jen]

:lol::lol: yep ive already printed it out and framed it :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Thanks all for the nice comments xoxoxoxoxooxo:love2::love2:
:thanks::thanks::thanks::thanks:

[Inmykombi]

Hi Jen,
I just came back for a second squiz at your Moon images.
:thumbsup:

More please....

Geoffro.

[Jen]

:D:D Awwwww thanks Geoff im very proud of them too :thumbsup: as soon as i get some more toys there sure will be more pics from me in the future :)
Thanks for looking :D