Someone of you will have been following my trials and failures trying to take Astro Landscapes.
Anyway, to help me can someone suggest some basic settings please?
I use a D5000 and currently have it set up at ISO 3200, f4.5, bulb, RAW images and with a lens 18-50mm. I use an Intervalometer which is set to 15 sec exposure and take 8 exposures. However, the last two nights on trying these have not be saved to my memory card
As for your images not being saved to your card, it sounds like your intervalometer is doing something that you are not expecting. Perhaps your camera is still open on the first shot and is staying open in bulb mode forever, or it may be that it fires the first photo, then tries to fire the second photo while your camera is still busy saving or applying in camera noise reduction. For my camera (with in camera noise reduction on) it takes a second image and then applies a subtraction of the images and then saves, so a 15 sec shot actually takes 30 seconds plus a couple more. Ideally you want the intervalometer to fire only after the camera is ready to take the next shot.
You could try without the intervalometer, just put the self timer on to 2 seconds, enable mirror lockup, put the camera in manual mode, 15 secs exposure, the widest f-stop you have, and simply press the shutter. I did this eight times in a row to get my images to stack.
As a rough guide 18mm focal length should be ok for 20-30sec, the more you zoom the shorter the exposure time will be if you want to avoid stars trailing. An f4 lens will work, but at f2 will give you many more stars in the same exposure time. Also the sky moves faster the further you are away from the celestial pole, so shorter exposures are required there.
the only suggestion I can make that I don't think has been covered is to make sure there is an adequate gap between the 15 second exposure and the next 15 second exposure - to allow the card to write the file to disk. double check the settings on the intervalometer.
Thanks for those suggestions and you both hit the nail on the head! I hadn't left enough time between each exposure I have now 20 second exposure with a 42 second gap to make sure it is enough and I now have some exposures of different parts of the night sky. Now it's just to work out how I can get them looking like decent photographs :-/
Oh and just realised that I need a wide angle lens
No, you don't need a wide angle lens as such. The 18mm end of your zoom is wide angle. You need a wide aperture lens f2 rather than f4, for this you may need a lens that is not a zoom. If you read Mike's articles you will see his sort of setup. The 18mm f4 should work well in the milky way area around the southern cross.
Hi Mis, It's hugely overexposed, so that you can't see any surface detail,
and your focus looks to be a bit off. How are you focusing? with
Live View, or some other way. Any other factors can be addressed after these first two are corrected. Play with single exposures and look at the
results on the LCD screen until you get the exposure right.
raymo
Focus is soft I can't remember the camera used but if you have live view, zoom in x10 and focus before shooting. Glad you sorted the card writing issue
Hi Mis, It's hugely overexposed, so that you can't see any surface detail,
and your focus looks to be a bit off. How are you focusing? with
Live View, or some other way. Any other factors can be addressed after these first two are corrected. Play with single exposures and look at the
results on the LCD screen until you get the exposure right.
raymo
Hi Raymo - Would you expect to see surface detail? As I wasn't using my telescope. My focusing has been done by turning the lens to 50 (using an 18-55mm lens) and then through my eyepiece focusing on the target. I do struggle as my dominant eye is the one where I only have partial sight I don't use the live view as I don't see any detail.
I shall do as you suggest with the single exposure next time I have chance.....bloody clouds abound now!
Quote:
Originally Posted by rustigsmed
Focus is soft I can't remember the camera used but if you have live view, zoom in x10 and focus before shooting. Glad you sorted the card writing issue
Hi Russell - The camera is a Nikon D5000. See reply to Raymo about how I'm focusing.
Anymore help is more than welcome. I am getting there slowly
When I said surface detail, I obviously wasn't referring to festoons etc:
I was referring to the two cloud belts, which should be visible, even if only poorly, on a disc
the size it is in the image. Live view is still more accurate than your eye, just mag x10 as Russell
said, and focus until the star is as small as you can make it.
raymo
Last edited by raymo; 22-03-2015 at 03:01 AM.
Reason: more text again
sorry i'm not familiar with the d5000 - I would assume it has a digital zoom function but maybe i'm wrong.
otherwise set the lens to infinity (if it has that function) - or in the day time focus waaaay off into the distance and mark or take note of the position of the lens. good luck
Hi Mis, I'm not familiar with your camera either, so don't know if it has
the "Live View" feature. Most later DSLRs do. If it has, just aim at a bright star, enable "Live View", centre the star in the white bordered box on the screen. There should be a button that will when pressed once, magnify the screen 5x, and when pressed again will mag 10x, and pressed again will return to normal view. When magged 5x or 10x a star will appear in a small box at lower right of the screen. Adjust focus of the magged star until it is as small as the tiny one in the box.
If you don't have "Live View" a great alternative would be a Bahtinov mask [ about $35-$40], easy and quick to use, and probably cheaper on ebay. You can, as Russell said, focus on a distant object during the day, and put a mark on a piece of tape stuck on the lens. This is not super accurate, but would give a good starting point. A Tedious way of doing it
would be to take a shot using the aforementioned mark, and zoom the
LCD screen to check focus; if not spot on, change the focus very slightly, and check again, keep doing that until you get it spot on. Setting to infinity often doesn't help much, as most modern lens focus beyond the infinity mark on the lens.
regarding cloud belts on Jupiter, the disc of Jupiter shown in your posted
image is plenty large enough to show at the very least a hint of the belts.
raymo
Last edited by raymo; 23-03-2015 at 12:24 PM.
Reason: more text.
Well this is another attempt at Jupiter and i would appreciate feedback on the image. Is it better than the first etc.?
I had the settings better this time ISO3200, exposure 5 secs, camera lens at 50mm, Bulb and f5.6. I can't get it lower than that when lens is on 50mm.
Another question is when I look to do the Milky Way and use Live view on the camera I do not see any detail? Anyone know why? Trying to get this in focus is obviously impossible if I do not see detail.
All thoughts, comments, advice greatly appreciated
You can't use "Live View" to focus on the milky way; in a wide field the
stars are too small[and therefore too dim] to register on the screen. It
only works with fairly bright stars.
This Jupiter is still over exposed, 5 secs is much too long. ISO 3200 is
noisy and unnecessary, as Jupiter is bright. I suggest using 800 and start
with around 1/10th sec. Enlarge the resulting image to maximum on your
LCD screen, examine it, and shorten or lengthen your exposure as necessary
for each ensuing attempt until you get it right. Have you not got a lens
longer than 50mm?
raymo
Last edited by raymo; 29-03-2015 at 12:33 PM.
Reason: more info
Yeah the Milky Way won't show up until you've got at least a few seconds on the sensor. Use live view to focus using a bright star and then don't adjust the focus afterwards. By bright, I mean go for something around mag 2, as the brighter ones like Sirius might cause some glare or bloom which would make finding focus harder.
I have now 20 second exposure with a 42 second gap to make sure it is enough and I now have some exposures of different parts of the night sky. Now it's just to work out how I can get them looking like decent photographs :-/
