Advice for astro newbie :)

Hanley

Hanley

Messages
1,120
Name
Paul
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all

I know we've got some real experts on here in terms of astrophotography so I was hoping I could tap into a little of your knowledge.
Astrophotography is something I've wanted to delve into for quite some time now, however it does seem a little daunting.

I had a trip to the Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank on Saturday night and had my very first attempt at it, obviously the results weren't amazing but I have to say I loved the experience of being out that late in the peace and quiet of the early hours.

I'm looking at buying a tracker and to be honest it seems a bit of a minefield so I was looking for suggestions.
I'd like something that is worth buying and will give me good results but not too advanced, budget isn't really a problem but I'd rather not spend too much at this early stage.

A couple of pictures just for reference, couple of the telescope and another of a sky shot, I know it's not great and I've got a lot of learning to do, both from the actual photography itself and the post processing perspective. The sky image was processed in Syril with some histogram stretching and then background extraction and then edited slightly in Lightroom.

On the software side what do you guys recommend to use on a Mac?

These images were taken with Canon R3 and R5, both with the RF 50mm f/1.2L

2022-04-24 03.01.25-2.jpg
2022-04-24 01.53.31.jpg
2022-04-24 01.53.31-2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Excellent pictures of Jodrell bank, I can actually see that from my garden.
Your starry sky shot is good too, you can see the Milky Way. Some post processing and you might be able to get more out of it.
Do you have more than one image? if so aligning and stacking them will bring out more detail.

Your Canon cameras are more than up to the job. They are fairly heavy so you need a decent tracker to handle the weight, especially if you use a longer focal length lens. When doing long exposure astrophotography the most important piece of kit is the mount as cheap ones are simply not good enough to track properly.

I started out with a Star Adventurer mount similar to this one. It can handle up to 5Kg of payload. Tracker. (my one was an earlier version.)
It also has a built-in auto-guiding interface which is something you might want to use for really long exposure shots in the future, if you get the bug.,

You also need to ensure you have a sturdy tripod.

You ask about software.

If you want to view the night sky then Stellarium is excellent (It's free as well)

If you want to do image processing then there are lots of packages that can do that. Photoshop is the standard, but Affinity Photo has come a long way and now has some superb AstroPhotography functions. It can stack images and there are lots of free macros you can get that allow you to do some top-notch post-processing.

Beyond these two general-purpose packages, there are many specialist Astro packages but they are not cheap and only worth considering if you want to go further.

Word of warning astrophotography can hurt your wallet?

Hope this helps.

ps. If you do have multiple star field shots and are happy to share the raw files I can have a quick play. Let me know.
 
Can’t disagree with the above. I’m fairly new too but I got myself a move shoot move and for what I want (miky Way) it’s perfect.

www.moveshootmove.com

Most portable 2-IN-1 star tracker for photographers of any skill

Move Shoot Move Travel Star Tracker for Astrophotographers, GAUDA Passive Motorized Time-lapse Pan/Tilt Rotator, SiFo Move-Shoot-Move Mode Motion Control System, Plug and Play for Panorama Photography with Built-in Battery, Free Shipping
www.moveshootmove.com www.moveshootmove.com


Also using an R5 and tone honest the iso performance is so good you may not need to stack
 
wornish said:
Excellent pictures of Jodrell bank, I can actually see that from my garden.
Your starry sky shot is good too, you can see the Milky Way. Some post processing and you might be able to get more out of it.
Do you have more than one image? if so aligning and stacking them will bring out more detail.

Your Canon cameras are more than up to the job. They are fairly heavy so you need a decent tracker to handle the weight, especially if you use a longer focal length lens. When doing long exposure astrophotography the most important piece of kit is the mount as cheap ones are simply not good enough to track properly.

I started out with a Star Adventurer mount similar to this one. It can handle up to 5Kg of payload. Tracker. (my one was an earlier version.)
It also has a built-in auto-guiding interface which is something you might want to use for really long exposure shots in the future, if you get the bug.,

You also need to ensure you have a sturdy tripod.

You ask about software.

If you want to view the night sky then Stellarium is excellent (It's free as well)

If you want to do image processing then there are lots of packages that can do that. Photoshop is the standard, but Affinity Photo has come a long way and now has some superb AstroPhotography functions. It can stack images and there are lots of free macros you can get that allow you to do some top-notch post-processing.

Beyond these two general-purpose packages, there are many specialist Astro packages but they are not cheap and only worth considering if you want to go further.

Word of warning astrophotography can hurt your wallet?

Hope this helps.

ps. If you do have multiple star field shots and are happy to share the raw files I can have a quick play. Let me know.
Click to expand...
Thanks David

The starry sky shot was taken from a single frame, I did take multiple shots but earlier in the morning but this later frame was better, despite being a single frame.
I'm watching reviews on the Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i so I'll probably end up getting that soon.

I use Affinity and they have a built in astrophotography stack so I'll probably use that to start with.

Anything to do with photography hurts my wallet, but I know using the R3 / R5 with the 1.2 lenses and the 15-35mm 2.8 means I don't need to invest in any more kit other than a tracker for now. That's what I'm telling my wife anyway :ROFLMAO:
 
  • Like
Reactions: RIR
Ordered the SkyWatcher Star Adventurer 2i WifI Pro and a Hoya Starscape filter, my friend I was with at Jodrell Bank was using one of the filters and taking the same shot with and without it, it's clear it makes a huge difference in blocking out unwanted light.

Hoping to get out Errwood reservoir this Friday night, although I probably won't have my tracker then, but I'll see how I get on. :)

Thanks for all the advice.
 
Don't forget its essential to polar align your Star Adventurer before taking long-exposure images.
 
Can you let me know so,e info on the starscape filter? Does it just deal with the light pollution?

Where did you get it? I would need to get one to fit a square filter system as my primary lens doesn’t take round filters.
 
Hanley said:
I've watched a couple of YT videos explaining the process so hopefully I'll manage to align it correctly.
Click to expand...

I’d suggest getting some practice locating the North Star - not hard but a bit overwhelming when you first do it
 
2022-04-30 04.13.01.jpg
First image taken with my Sky Adventurer 2i. Magpie Mine which is near Bakewell, Derbyshire.
I wasted a lot of time, couldn't work out why I was getting star trails on 1 minute exposures, I kept re-aligning to Polaris but kept getting trails, I suddenly noticed a switch on the side of the tracker "S - Stop - N", mine was set to stop :ROFLMAO:
So as a result I only had time to grab a few frames, the above image is taken from:
  • 13 1 minute exposures
  • 8 corresponding black frames
  • Affinity Photo for stacking and background extraction
  • Syril for histogram stretching
  • Photoshop for star removal
  • Finally some light tweaks in Lightroom
The core was the other side of the mine so I took a single frame of the mine and then composited the sky image onto it.
 
Last edited:
Hanley said:
View attachment 352085
First image taken with my Sky Adventurer 2i. Magpie Mine which is near Bakewell, Derbyshire.
I wasted a lot of time, couldn't work out why I was getting star trails on 1 minute exposures, I kept re-aligning to Polaris but kept getting trails, I suddenly noticed a switch on the side of the tracker "S - Stop - N", mine was set to stop :ROFLMAO:
So as a result I only had time to grab a few frames, the above image is taken from:
  • 13 1 minute exposures
  • 8 corresponding black frames
  • Affinity Photo for stacking and background extraction
  • Syril for histogram stretching
  • Photoshop for star removal
  • Finally some light tweaks in Lightroom
The core was the other side of the mine so I took a single frame of the mine and then composited the sky image onto it.
Click to expand...

Out of interest did you go here on your own? I went on the first of April, got there at 1am no one else about and just got totally spooked so sat in the car for half an hour and drove home….! So you did better than me

Lovely shot!
 
Hanley said:
View attachment 352085
First image taken with my Sky Adventurer 2i. Magpie Mine which is near Bakewell, Derbyshire.
I wasted a lot of time, couldn't work out why I was getting star trails on 1 minute exposures, I kept re-aligning to Polaris but kept getting trails, I suddenly noticed a switch on the side of the tracker "S - Stop - N", mine was set to stop :ROFLMAO:
So as a result I only had time to grab a few frames, the above image is taken from:
  • 13 1 minute exposures
  • 8 corresponding black frames
  • Affinity Photo for stacking and background extraction
  • Syril for histogram stretching
  • Photoshop for star removal
  • Finally some light tweaks in Lightroom
The core was the other side of the mine so I took a single frame of the mine and then composited the sky image onto it.
Click to expand...

Nice effort :)

Don't be afraid to over expose. The sky is pretty dark in this image and does have some magenta in it. When shooting sky vs foreground, think of your exposure settings with regard to blending later on, too much of a difference and it becomes fiddly! Stick some lights inside the buildings ;)

Awesome foreground too play with though!
 
A_S said:
Out of interest did you go here on your own? I went on the first of April, got there at 1am no one else about and just got totally spooked so sat in the car for half an hour and drove home….! So you did better than me

Lovely shot!
Click to expand...
No I went with a friend and his missus, I'd have been completely spooked on my own :ROFLMAO:
 
Let me know if you plan to go again as I’d like to go but wouldn’t like to go on my own…!!!

Also any other suggestions around the peaks would be good. I’m thinking mam tor might work quite well
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top