ISS+Exposure of Achernar region

[andrew]

Used my new Canon 400D tonight for the first time tonight in astrophotography. Was aiming to image in particular the International Space Station, which I did......although it's very out of focus I was using the 18-55mm lens, zoomed in a bit, and I took a 13 second exposure at F5.0, this (324kb) was the result

Later, I did a 1min31second exposure of the Achernar region and got this result (418kb) with the minimum amount of zoom (looks okay to me..)

All the time I was set to manual focus, but clearly I'm unfamiliar with how to focus the camera when I'm zoomed in on stars, can someone help me with this?

If it weren't for the focus aspect, I think the ISS image would have come out quite nicely

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Andrew, either the links aren't working properly or your images are very large (> 1meg) as they were taking a long time to open up.

[sheeny (Al)]

Andrew,

I guess three methods spring to mind (for me) to help focus.

If you have a laptop PC and the right cables etc use DSLRFocus.

If you don't, maybe look into getting a focus magnifier for your camera. I have an Olympus Vari-magni Finder which magnifies the view finder by 1.25x or 2.5x. It is designed for the OM-1 but I gather it fits Canon 300D and 350D viewfinders as well... it might fit a 400D? I'm sure there would be similar gadjets made specifically for the 400D.

The last suggestion would be to use focus lock. I assume the 400D has focus lock? Use auto focus to focus on a bright star, set the focus lock, and hopefully it will be accurate enough as long as you don't change camera settings or zoom.

I'm sure there are others with better advice . I don;t have a DSLR so I am not speaking from experience here!

Al.

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Andrew

Probably a good idea to warn people how large the images are if you're linking to an offsite image. In this case, they're > 300k and > 400k.

Look forward to more results with the 400D!

[andrew]

Originally Posted by iceman

Hi Andrew

Probably a good idea to warn people how large the images are if you're linking to an offsite image. In this case, they're > 300k and > 400k.

Look forward to more results with the 400D!

Yep, sorry about that original post has been edited now

@Al: Thanks for those suggestions Is focus lock the same as AE/FE lock? If so, then I'll try this out tonight and see how it goes, thanks again.

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by andrew

@Al: Thanks for those suggestions Is focus lock the same as AE/FE lock? If so, then I'll try this out tonight and see how it goes, thanks again.

AE lock is auto exposure lock, so your aperture and exposure time will be fixed with AE lock on. FE lock? The acronym currently evades me... Not sure...

PS if you do have a focus lock, you may need to focus on a bright star or the moon. Some cameras don't find (auto)focus on the night sky very well.

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

Just home for lunch so thought I'd check on my C5060...

For me to use auto focus and lock the focus, I:

• press the shutter halfway down to achieve auto focus;
• then press the AF/MF/Macro select button while still holding the shutter halfway down - this switches automatically to manual focus at that focus position;
• then press the OK button on the back of the camera to lock the focus.

The Canon may be a different procedure, but you should be able to do it!

Hope it works. Let us know if it works or not!

Al.

[andrew]

Well, I had another go tonight, and I think I'm making progress on the focus problem, and the procedure is very similar to what you said Al Focus first on AF, then switch to MF, don't change any settings, and shoot.

Took this pic (483kb) tonight (Yes that's cloud in the center )