Introduction how I got into Astronomy and my first night shots

[AstroJason]

Hi all,

Firstly let me introduce myself. My name is Jason and live in beautiful light polluted Sydney!! I have been a long time reader of this site but I just joined today. Not sure why it took me so long!

I have been interested in astronomy since I was about 8 years old! I was introduced to the night sky by my mother, who, bless her, bought me a Tasco 60mm Telescope one year for my birthday. It was one of those old red plastic refractors that could barely focus on anything other than the moon! I had it for years and eventually I even managed to see the rings of Saturn through it.

When I was about 13 mum eventually forked out some more money and bought be a 4.5inch Tasco Reflector. I remember it like it was yesterday, got the scope home and then it rained for 2 weeks straight!!! From our home in Bankstown, I used this scope pointed at the night sky from my bedroom window for years. I remember sketching the terminator of the moon in pretty good detail. By time I would finish the sketch the actual terminator had changed slightly, because of course, the moon was moving in its orbit. I could see the rings of Saturn much clearer now and would draw countless star clusters. I wonder where those drawings are now. I wish I kept them! I began buying Sky & Telescope magazines and still have my first issue... July 1996. Comet Kyakutake had just passed through and Keck II saw first light! Wow how things have changed since then. CCDs were just coming out... Anyway I digress.

Pretty much from my first pay cheque I saved up and purchased what I thought at the time was a scope I would keep for the rest of my life! A Meade 12" Starfinder Dob. The truth is, it hardly got used. It was so big and heavy! By this stage I had just turned 18 and started going out every spare night I had... Anyway couple years later (I’m 32 now...) I'm back in the hobby. The Starfinder was sold years ago but I’m looking at my options now for a new scope. So right now I'm scopeless and have massive scope envy!

My current gear is a Canon 60D on a simple tripod. Lenses used here are Sigma 8-16mm and Sigma 50mm f1.4. I also have a Canon 70-200mm f4L IS lens which I have taken photos of the moon with, will post these later. The shots were taken from Newington in Sydney in where you learn to live with the light pollution from all the stadiums!


Anyway that’s a bit about me. I didn’t really intend to write so much in the Beginners Astrophotography forum but these are my first try at Astrophotography. So feedback is greatly appreciated!
Also I would be interested to hear how others got bit by the "astro bug", so please share your stories below! :)

[multiweb]

Great story Jason. You might want to check the vixen polarie (http://www.myastroshop.com.au/guides/vixen-polarie.htm)to make immediate use of your Canon 60D on longer exposures and ease back into it.

[pluto]

Hi Jason,
I'm in a pretty similar situation to you, I live in Sydney (and I'm 32 as well!).
I spent a few years getting into widefield astrophotography just with my camera and a tripod. I found I got reasonable results by doing fairly short high ISO exposures and aligning/stacking them with Deep Sky Stacker. I posted some pics taken this way here a few weeks ago: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=95675
The middle one was taken with the Sigma 50 F1.4 and the last one there was taken with the Canon 70-200 F4L (although they would be longer on your camera).
As my focus is photography I've just recently got myself an ED80 on an EQ5. While I'm very happy with it so far I'll leave it to someone with more experience to give you advice on what scope/mount to get.

Good luck!

[omegacrux]

Hi Jason
I got my astro bug when I was about 15 , living on a farm at West Pine about 10 klm's inland from the coast .
Realy dark skies nearest neighbours a k away my brothers and me would get the banana lounge's and get out front and just look up .
And as got older I wanted to see the rings of Saturn with my own eyes
About 3 years ago I got an 8in Dob seen the rings they blew my small brain !
Three scopes later here I am !

David

[AstroJason]

Hey Marc, thanks for the suggestion on the Vixen Polarie. That is a very neat bit of kit. I really do like that it could also be used not only for long exposures but also for panning during time lapse photography.

Hugh, sounds like we have very similar lenses! Your photos are incredible mate! No tracking at all and yet the detail you are getting in those shots is really amazing. ISO 25600 on the mk3 huh!?! That is nuts and yet there is no noise as far as I can see! And the amount of stacking you put into those shots. Just incredible. I really like the locations you choose to shoot from too. The cemetery at night though, very game, but very cool.

David, I really don’t have to tell you how lucky you are to have grown up and to be living under dark skies! Sounds like you have some nice memories looking up at the stars. Seeing Saturn and the rings for the first time is a moment I’m sure many of us never forget!

[Sarge]

Welcome Jason,
:welcome:
Great introduction. Although I have been observing for a number of years, I have only recently taken up astrophotography, and have posted a couple of my first attempts. I love it, and I'm sure you will too.
But word of caution, this is a very addictive hobby which can easily mount up the dollars. Start small and slow.:lol:

Clear skies

Rod
:D:D

[AstroJason]

Thanks Rod! :) Yeah astrophotography is definitely something I want to pursue further. At the moment I am thinking of sticking to wide angle photography, basically because I already have most of the equipment required. I bought a cheap $12 shutter release remote for the 60D off ebay a couple days ago, just waiting for that to arrive and my plan is to do some time lapse shots/videos. I’m really liking the panning kit used in some of the time lapse vids some guys are producing right now. Alex’s recent video of the ASKAP is a great example of this.


That said I have been thinking of purchasing the EQ6PRO mount. Not exactly starting small and slow though is it?! :lol: It’s obviously more than enough to handle the 60D and my 70-200mm lens. However I’m thinking of mounting maybe a 10” Newt on it for deep sky observing as well as using it for astro shots. Still undecided here though and that’s mainly why I don’t want to rush into it too quickly. I really learnt my lesson from my 12” Starfinder and really just want something that is portable and good enough for both visual and photographic use.

[multiweb]

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Widefield will be less demanding on guiding so good move. And there's plenty to do with lenses. I've been doing a lot of widefield guided and there's much fun to be had.


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EQ6 will be perfect to do longer subs at longer FL and progressively deeper. Then you can start thinking about getting a refractor or small scope for anything over 400mm to 600mm FL. Then the natural progression will be to get a cooled CCD down the road.

But when you get the mount buy a small guide camera such a QHY or other and get into autoguiding while still imaging with lenses. That will help you for later on when you decide to get a scope.

[lacad01]

Hi Jason, welcome to the site :welcome:
I feel the pain living in inner west Sydney :( but anyhow a bunch of us sometimes get to Katoomba airfield on new moon weekends so you're more than welcome to come along (see details here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=96712)) - weather permitting I hope to be there next weekend and plan to bring along my Polarie. I've only used it once so still getting used to it :)

[AstroJason]

Thanks for the tips and advice Marc, appreciate it. I would definitely be going down the CCD path once I push the limits of the 60D. But gee some of the CCD prices I have been seeing are freaking the hell out of me to be honest! Not sure what my other half would say if she saw some of their astronomical prices *pun intended* :lol:. The FLI CCDs come to mind here...

But for now I’m really surprised at how much detail the 60D can pull out of my light polluted skies. On a typical night I have ANZ Stadium, All Phones Arena and Skoda Stadium to contend with, not to mention the flood lights from a nearby shipping depot which never turn off. Drives me bonkers.

One of the things I really have to get my head around is processing the images I have already taken. I have GIMP and Lightroom for editing shots but I am finding that I’m getting a lot of vignetting when applying contrast to my shots. This is pretty visible in my first shots attached here with my 50mm lens. I need to take the time out to read up on processing techniques. But it’s so hard to concentrate, I rather just look at all the incredible pictures people take! :)

[multiweb]

FLI are the high-end of the scale. There are a lot of choices in between. You can pick up a good CCD for $1k second hand or there about. I use a QHY9 mono (http://qhyccd.com/QHY9.html)from home (https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=6930D3AD12D5044C&id=6930D3AD12D5044C%21863#cid=6930D 3AD12D5044C&id=6930D3AD12D5044C%211152).


That's why I do narrowband (https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=6930D3AD12D5044C&id=6930D3AD12D5044C%21863#cid=6930D 3AD12D5044C&id=6930D3AD12D5044C%211099). If you don't mind black & white you can get a decent Hydrogen Alpha filter and LP won't be a problem.


It all comes with time and practice. Lightroom and LR timelapse are great to do animations and even out a lot of pictures. Photoshop, any version is good for any processing. I also use Pixinsight (http://www.pixinsight.com/)which is a little cumbersome at first but has some neat features.

[AstroJason]

Hey Adam,
Thanks for the welcome and invite! I have seen this post and do intend to tag along and come out one night soon. I really am desperate to have a night under really dark skies but I do want to have a scope first. If that changes this week I will be there for sure! Plus yes, hopefully these clouds disappear by then… hearing we have some wet weather ahead of us unfortunately. And you have the Polarie? I would be interested to see the results of your shots from using it.
If I do end up getting a scope this week (leaning more and more to a GSO 10” f4 on a NEQ6PRO mount) I’ll be there!

[AstroJason]

Just been checking out your site Marc and you have some really incredible shots. Those mosaic shots of the Milky Way must take some time to compile and stitch together. Really nice work there.

I don’t mind black and white shots. But now that you mention narrowband. I do like the “Hubble Palette” narrowband images that seem to be getting more and more popular. For example could you create an image using the Hubble Palette from using the 1 narrowband Hydrogen Alpha filter you mention? Or do you require different filters to accomplish this sort of image? I am thinking that you would need different filters for this. Would they be as LP resistant as the Hydrogen Alpha?

So much to learn!

[multiweb]

They're good value and incredibly easy to do. So it's a good thing to start with. You won't be disappointed. Registar (http://www.aurigaimaging.com/)and Photoshop are used to stitch and blend the panels in a matter of minutes. No skills involved really. It's all about pushing buttons :)


Hydrogen Alpha is the easiest. There is a lot of Ha out there. Oiii and Sii are more challenging. Sii requires a lot more exposures because there is so little of it. Oiii does suffer from light pollution and light extinction if the object you image is too low on the horizon. In a nutshell Tri-color is a lot more work. I did some occasionaly but favour Ha overall because it's quick and easy. If I want color I try to do that on new moon week-ends when I get away from a dark site and I shoot with an OSC. No filters.

[AstroJason]

Really? The software stiches the images together? I really thought you had to orientate and align it all up.

I see your point with preferring to stick with Ha. Thanks for explaining the differences with Oiii and Sii. I was going to ask you what OSC was but Google is great. One Shot Colour. I can see why this would save a lot of time!

[multiweb]

Yes - provided you have enough overlap it detects the stars in your picture and will match from panel to panel. I reckon registar is the best to do star alignment with multiple panels on the market. It will even match images shot with different cameras or scope so different image scale. It's an amazing piece of software and it's very affordable.

[AstroJason]

Wow that is pretty impressive, would like to see the coding behind it that works that all out. Especially that it can match images from other cameras and scopes.

Will have to check Registar out, sounds like it will be a handy piece of software.