Geoff, those are very good images.. did you stack them with Registax?
Greg, since it seems we are located very close (7km, I am in Mt Waverley) feel free to drop in at any time, I am always happy to help with those things..
Start off maybe learning with a friend from a star party. Buddy up and learn from them. Once you have the basics mastered - rather than buy low end gear consider instead renting time on a professional level gear in Chile.
Jase tried this out a several months ago with stunning results. Strange as that may seem - its probably the cheapest and most cost effective way to progress in this field. It's a very costly hobby to start - you can easily drop $9K - $12K, whereas learning from a friend for a few weeks / months then buying time on a 20" RCOS on a PME with professional filters and a lab grade CCD might end up costing you less than $50 for professional grade shots of DSOs.
You want cheap astro photography. Try this
First download free programs PHD and DSS and get the hang of operating them.
Next download TheGimp for processing your pictures (unless you already have photo shop).
Use a cheap digital camera that can give multiple time exposures time exposures.
Place camera on the ground pointing high in the sky. Take 40 or 50 frames at 20 second length with a 50mm lens setting. Cover the lens and take a batch of similar exposures to be used as darks.
Stack the pictures in DSS and stretch (process) in TheGimp and see what you can get.
I saw this done last Saturday night and the results are surprising!
When you have mastered the art of processing etc. Try piggybacking the camera on a polar mounted tracking scope. This will allow longer exposures say 50/60 secs and also (optical) zooming the camera to take a smaller field on subjects you like to select.
Master this and then you will be hooked and the price of real equipment will no longer matter because you will just have to have it.
Barry
Here is the result of the simple astro photography I suggested. It is not great but still better than I was ever able to do with film. The camera was propped up to point at the galaxy centre.
Thats the type of path I need to take now due to cost limitations, I would be best to upgrade my crummy old 114mm newtonian before I shell out huge sums on photography equipment. Both of those methods seem to be what I'm going to go for.
g__day, your right, I should join on of the groups here in Melbourne to learn more about it.
Thanks Bojan for the offer, I live in Clayton so as long as you dont mind me leaching your brain for information then that would be great, especially during the warmer months with a clearer sky. I got into astronomy by myself and I'm planning on doing a few trips to the Mt Dandenongs in Spring/Summer to get away from all this surburban light, the more the merrier I say, especiallly when they exceed my knowledge
I used to organise star-gazing parties for my (now former) workmates, on John's Hill ( Melway 124 K11). Also on one occasion, couple of people from this forum were present as well, and it was a great experience. Sometimes I go there on photo-safari :-)
This is public place, a lookout, but not very crowded, and significantly less light polluted than Mt Waverley (definitely not a really dark site).
Perhaps I will try to organise something again next month or later. If I do, I will post the announcement here.
There is another place, on Mt Martha (Briars), where some people are gathering over weekends (it is a private property, so invitation and/or announcement is required. Unfortunately I was never there (always something more important happened on those weekends), however I intend to be there on first occasion.
If you have an slr, you only need a tripod to start taking pics.
The pictures you can take from a static tripod would be,
The Milky way
Star Trails
Wide field shots of deep space
Wide field shots of the planets
Open clusters
Stacking of images is the real key, to not having great mount with tracking.
Unfortunatley you would need a dslr, or have your images converted to cd.
I would advise, buy a cheapish dslr. A Canon 350d will only set you back $400. It will allow you to do alot of things.
Some people would think it a waste of time, not buying the full kit straight away. However after a couple of weeks with a dslr, no tracking mount, and only a sky full of stars, I can happily say I am still having a blast....
You can buy small tracking mounts for under $200, or you can build your own "barndoor" tracking unit (which I am trying).
You can purchase adapters which will mount your dslr / slr to a scope. These will let you take short exposures of the moon, jupiter etc.
You would need a tracking mount to do deep space stuff....
Geoff, those are very good images.. did you stack them with Registax?
Greg, since it seems we are located very close (7km, I am in Mt Waverley) feel free to drop in at any time, I am always happy to help with those things..
Hi,
I didn't use registax. All images are single images and they were then added to a single image via Paint Shop Pro.
Thanks for the information Mitchell, dont worry I ramble as well, at least yours is informative
Thanks as well to Bojan for the barndoor link. I'm going to construct one of those soon. Also, if there are any viewing nights that you plan on organising in the near future, please inform those of us in the SE of Melbourne. I would really like observing with others, not only for the knowledge gained, but also for a bit of rambling
