My First steps into night sky Astro Photography

[wayne anderson]

I picked up a cheap Sony Nex-3 today so this is my first attempt at the night sky.
Just one shot, no guiding, no tracking, no processing just resize for uploading.
I just placed the camera on the garbage bin in the back yard pointing up.

I will have a mounting ring adapter for the Nex-3 arriving soon and will try it again on the scope
at prime focus, but the scope has no auto guider or EQ wedge so it will be fun getting it to work well.

Sony Nex-3
18-55 Lens at 18mm f /3.5
15 sec exposure at iso 6400

[silv]

the rubbish-bin-mount. :lol:
congrats to your new camera!

fascinating, aye!
discover in color what is up there - so cool!

I like what your Sony captured!
Does it come with the option for Noise Reduction at high ISO in the Setup menu?
In such short exposures as you are planning on a non-tracking mount (?), that option is not so annoying and it really helps.
(annoying: because it doubles the time of capturing and drains the battery)

[Poita]

I've used the garbage bin as a mount more times than I'd care to admit!

You know you can easily make your own wedge from some timber, just create it at the angle to match your viewing site.

[wayne anderson]

Thanks silv for pointing out the noise reduction at high iso and yes it is in the setup menu I will use it next time, I noticed you have the Sony Nex-5N and I have been reading your going prime focal thread lots of good info. After I get the hang of using short exposures and stacking I may try longer exposures and consider that timber wedge idea , thanks Peter. I think next time when shooting without the scope a cheap tripod would be better than a smelly bin mount.
I just need these clouds to go away and I can try again.

[silv]

ah, that's great you gaining something from that thread, too. :thumbsup:
I bought mine mainly because of it's good performance reviews regarding noise in low light. I don't remember the Nex3 being mentioned but I assume the sensor chip is the same? Great!

[wayne anderson]

Thanks again silv for that noise reduction at high iso tip, it really works well I tried it again with noise reduction on this time,
1 shot at iso 6400 13 sec exposure saved as raw file then converted to jpg.
Next step for me will be to try several shots at iso 3200 or 1600 then learn to stack in registax.

[silv]

Oh, I actually like the first picture better than this new one... ??
I think that's because the pink puts me off and the pixel-ish appearance, too.

Registrax?
Cool.

Just as a comment though:
DSS, the beta version (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DeepSkyStacker/), supports Sony NEX raw image format.
There'd be no need for loss of signal by compressing to JPG - or TIFF, for that matter.
(First, install the normal version of DSS, then replace the .exe with the beta .exe linked above.)

I believe it would be better to convert the RWA to uncompressed TIFF 16 bit - IF your software of choice can't deal with Sony raw format, I mean.

:)