The Saucepan | DSLR

[TheAstroChannel (Sean)]

Taken from the outer Suburbs of Melbourne, while I waited for the Aurora which was supposed to engulf my excitement..

I enjoy taking these sort of photos at the moment, so here is my shot of the Saucepan!

Three 2 second images stacked in DSS.
ISO 800
300mm zoom lens on my Sony A57 DSLR.
F/5.3

I'm still a beginner so tips and feedback would be lovely!

http://s981.photobucket.com/user/the...tml?sort=3&o=0

[IanP]

Sean, it must be exciting experience to assemble an image using several frames, stretch it and find out that there is really more than just some dots-stars. Bravo!!!


Although from my experience Sony cameras are not the best “tools” for AP, you can still take amazing shots with your A57 – all what you need is something like Polarie or SkyTracker that will allow you to take longer shots, say, 30sec, 60sec, 2min .. depending on the FL of used lens ..

[gregbradley]

Off to a good start there. 300mm lens is a tough place to start though. A 14 to 24mm focal length is a lot easier.

Greg.

[Ross G]

Nice capture Sean.

My first digital astro photo about 7 years ago was of the same object with a Minolta 7D camera and 135mm lens. If you continue, you have an amazing journey ahead of you.
As Ian suggested, your next step should be to track so you can increase your exposures. Even a cheap equatorial mount with a single axis drive will take your photos to a new level.
Your Sony DSLR has an excellent, low noise chip and is ideal for widefield astro work.
Take Greg's advice and use a shorter focal length. Even at 100mm you can get great photos of many objects.

Good luck.

Ross.