Misc Astrophotography (Shoot the ISS, etc) besides moon shots...

[mtbdudex]

I'm wondering if you have tried such software that runs on OS X. Here are two I've located over the years.

Keith's Image Stacker

StarStaX - Cross platform star trailer.

Hey thx for the tip on Keith's Image Stacker, I'll try that out!

Agree on StarStax, as a matter of fact I used it since 2011, including this image earlier in this thread
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/15274658/

I've also consulted with Markus Enzweiler and donated to him, since his software contributed to my hobby pursuits.

I see he added "Gap Filling", have you tried that out yet?

 

[Doctor Q]

How to Shoot the Milky Way On Easter Island - even with a lowly point-and-shoot camera!

 

[Laird Knox]

Oooo, now I want to go shoot Easter Island with my long exposure pano technique.

As for the mention of StarStax - I agree, it is a great program but I am now using the Advanced Stacker Photoshop action from Star Circle Academy. (It looks like their web site is overloaded at the moment.) I like the results better.

 

[xStep]

I see he added "Gap Filling", have you tried that out yet?

I haven't a need for this type of software yet.

 

[mtbdudex]

Startrails and fireflies mid-year 2013.
Took this shot June-30th 10:45pm thru July-1 1:30am.
Cooler weather here in SE Michigan, so the fireflies were not so active this year as past 2 years.
Slight clouds took away some of the fainter stars also.

 

[atmenterprises]

From 6/13/2013

 

[mtbdudex]

it got humid/hot and the fireflies came alive again, so was out last night.
Via http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php

12 July 2013 Eastern Daylight Time

SUN
Begin civil twilight 5:35 a.m.
Sunrise 6:09 a.m.
Sun transit 1:41 p.m.
Sunset 9:13 p.m.
End civil twilight 9:47 p.m.

I started imaging at at 10:28pm, 75 minutes past sunset, and took images till 1:12am, about 2 1/2 hours worth.

Each image is 15mm, 20 sec, ISO800.

Image#1: Here is that rough composite of all 460 images, using StarStax.
I like the bright sky still showing star trails with so many fireflies.

Image#2: Then trying to get the sky darker used images from 10:42pm

Image#3: Then trying to get less clouds used images from 10:55pm

Image#4: and finally wanting just dark skies for clear star trails, used images from midnight

The skies are supposed to be totally clear tonight, so I might be out again, trying to capture maximum fireflies and startrails w/o clouds.

 

[mtbdudex]

made a time lapse video

 

[mtbdudex]

Another hot and humid night July-13-2013 Saturday, so I captured star trails and fireflies from a different angle, our driveway end

 

[nburwell]

Here is some recent astrophotography work I have done:


Nubble Milky Way by nburwell22, on Flickr

Above & Beyond by nburwell22, on Flickr

Untitled by nburwell22, on Flickr

 

[mtbdudex]

Great work nburwell!


Going frame-frame thru the images in my post 2 above, I noticed 4 meteorites - looks like 1 exploded!
(the meteorites differentiated from fireflies via the classic colored streak indicative of material heating up)

#1, full image with what I think is an exploding meteorite.

#1 crop, looks like it skipped the atmosphere twice and then exploded brightly?

#2 full image

#2 crop

#3 and #4 smaller, shown only as crops
#3

#4

 

[mtbdudex]

Was rainy/cloudy all weekend, so went out early Tues Aug-14, capture a few dim ones and this single bright one.

full image, T1i, ISO800, 25 sec, f3.5, 15mm:

Scanning thru the 100's of images taken here are 2 of the faint ones that with PP show up sorta decent enough to share.
Both full size image, no crop.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Was rainy/cloudy all weekend, so went out early Tues Aug-14, capture a few dim ones and this single bright one.

full image, T1i, ISO800, 25 sec, f3.5, 15mm:

Image

Scanning thru the 100's of images taken here are 2 of the faint ones that with PP show up sorta decent enough to share.
Both full size image, no crop.
Image

Image

Nice capture. It was cloudy/rainy here all through the weekend and most of this week.

 

[joepunk]

I did some backyard camping with my 8yr old nephew and managed to get my first meteor shot on Tuesday, Aug 13. I saw up to 7 that evening before I declared it a night. Always around this time it is either cloudy or the kids are visiting and I can't get the necessary day rest that would be required for an all night star/meteor fun.

I had to crop out the house from the top of the photo.

 

[nburwell]

Here are a few from this past weekend:


Milky Cornfields by nburwell22, on Flickr


Above the Cornfields by nburwell22, on Flickr

 

[mtbdudex]

I did some backyard camping with my 8yr old nephew and managed to get my first meteor shot on Tuesday, Aug 13. I saw up to 7 that evening before I declared it a night. Always around this time it is either cloudy or the kids are visiting and I can't get the necessary day rest that would be required for an all night star/meteor fun.

All it takes to ignite a lifetime passion is exactly what you did, expose someone to something neat and cool, Kudos to you!

Sleep is overrated, there are times I'm here at work running on 3-4 hours....honestly I turned 50 and I feel it now more than just a few years back.

 

[NeGRit0]

Going frame-frame thru the images in my post 2 above, I noticed 4 meteorites - looks like 1 exploded!
(the meteorites differentiated from fireflies via the classic colored streak indicative of material heating up)

#1, full image with what I think is an exploding meteorite.
Image

#1 crop, looks like it skipped the atmosphere twice and then exploded brightly?
Image

Wonder if it was the same as this one?!
http://vimeo.com/72228503

 

[mtbdudex]

Wonder if it was the same as this one?!
http://vimeo.com/72228503

Thx for posting that!
from that post

I learned more about the phenomena recorded here. While this does show a meteor breaking apart, the resulting, expanding ring is called a "persistent train" and is NOT a debris ring. Rather, it is glowing gas - charged gas that has been heated by compression caused by the meteor and giving off electrons (similar to how a neon sign works). It happens fairly often but it isn't so regularly documented.

I have 100's of frames, will make a video clip to see if there is any hint of glowing gas or not, cool stuff to learn about.

Here is a gif from http://www.universetoday.com/104149/incredible-footage-shows-a-perseid-meteor-exploding/ where this was discussed in depth.

 

[VenusianSky]

Took this last year with iPhone 4 and telescope.

 

[Sylon]

Here really soon, the ISON comet will be passing by Earth. It should already be visible via telescope now, becoming visible to the naked eye (and fancy camera ) in November. Although comets are very unpredictable, especially considering this one is going to get really close to the sun, if it survives its approach, it could be the brightest object in the night sky, visible all around the world.

I want to capture this comet in photos, anyone have any tips? I know long exposure is a must, but my biggest issue with night photography has been focusing. Do you guys manual focus these kind of shots when you take them? And how do you combat general nighttime sky movement?

 

[mtbdudex]

Here really soon, the ISON comet will be passing by Earth. It should already be visible via telescope now, becoming visible to the naked eye (and fancy camera ) in November. Although comets are very unpredictable, especially considering this one is going to get really close to the sun, if it survives its approach, it could be the brightest object in the night sky, visible all around the world.

I want to capture this comet in photos, anyone have any tips? I know long exposure is a must, but my biggest issue with night photography has been focusing. Do you guys manual focus these kind of shots when you take them? And how do you combat general nighttime sky movement?

Hopefully it will improve it's visibility, per this report kinda fell short of expectations so far
http://earthsky.org/space/mars-orbiter-first-to-capture-comet-ison-sweeping-past-mars

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s HiRISE camera has produced some stunning images of Mars’ surface. If the Comet ISON image acquired by the orbiter on September 30 – the day before the comet was closest to Mars – appears lackluster, that may be because the comet itself continues to appear fainter than expected. Scientists are happy, however, because the fainter Comet ISON with what they called “low coma activity” is best for determining the size of the comet’s nucleus, or core. That knowledge in turn is important because the size of Comet ISON’s nucleus will in part determine whether the comet will, or won’t, break up when it passes within 800,000 miles (1.2 million km) of our sun on Thanksgiving Day 2013.

My take on focusing

Tip on focus camera with live view:

I've had luck with live view, 10x, then manual focus until the brightest star you can find gets small/sharp as possible.
Sometimes that takes a back/forth on the focus ring until you find that center spot of focus.
Even if you have to crank up the ISO just to focus to show the star brightest, then move it down for the actual shot.
Infinity marking on lens is a good start, but that varies on temp and zoom.

Obviously you have a stable/sturdy tripod, that's a given.
For widefield shots at 15mm or 18mm on a crop camera I take 20 sec shot max for crisp stars, if you push it to 25sec the stars are not as crisp points rather show some oblong from earth rotation.

----------

For reference, these taken last night when I missed the major aurora activity by a few hours,

these are 15mm @ 20 sec
7 sisters

Orion:

Now, zoomed from 15mm to 85....kept 20 sec exposure @ ISO800, upper limit for my 4 yr old T1i without major sensor noise, newer sensors can go to ISO3200 or even ISO6400 without major sensor noise, which opens up more opportunities to capture stuff crisply via shorter exposures when on fixed mount - a tripod vs a eq mount.
Orion's belt here, you can see the great nebula barely lower 1/3, see how the stars are now oblong?

This forum software downsizes them, my facebook account has them full size
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.680376871975299.1073741848.100000089764867&type=1&l=5d8ed0eeb3

In the past facebook used to strip so much data from jpg images, now they seem on par PQ wise with my Google picasa account images.

 

[Sylon]

Awesome, thanks for the reply! Even if ISON ends up fizzling out, there's a lot of good info there, thanks!

 

[Astroboy907]

Here are a few from this past weekend:

[url=http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7456/9506921230_d0f61c71fe_z.jpg]Image[/url]
Milky Cornfields by nburwell22, on Flickr

[url=http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7429/9487426657_3e56e3f0fe_z.jpg]Image[/url]
Above the Cornfields by nburwell22, on Flickr

Well, please excuse the dumb question, but I'm a clueless newbie to "professional" photography. I really like the effects in the first shot of your pic with the stationary stars, etc. I was just wondering how one would go by recreating that?

 

[mtbdudex]

Well, please excuse the dumb question, but I'm a clueless newbie to "professional" photography. I really like the effects in the first shot of your pic with the stationary stars, etc. I was just wondering how one would go by recreating that?

Sturdy Tripod, clear skies, away from light pollution helps, shoot at widest angle you have, 20-25 sec max for still pinpoint stars, ISO800 - ISO3200 - ISO depends on your camera, and higher ISO allows quicker exposure for less star blur...trial and error...have fun

 

[nburwell]

Well, please excuse the dumb question, but I'm a clueless newbie to "professional" photography. I really like the effects in the first shot of your pic with the stationary stars, etc. I was just wondering how one would go by recreating that?

For the star trail image (second image), I set up my tripod, manually focused for the stars and used my intervolameter to shoot an exposure every 30 seconds approximately 75 times. In post, I opened up Photoshop and all 75 images, and used the "stack" feature in the program. This combined all 75 images to give me the star trail effect that you see above. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific/technical questions.

-Nick