moon

[rtphokie]

Just got a Canon mount for our telescope here's my first attempt

1000mm at f8.8 with a Meade reflector telescope with a 4.5" mirror with my trusty Canon Rebel XT.

Hardest thing is getting it focused and I'm not quite there yet. next hardest thing is keeping it in frame. You dont realize how fast earth is moving until you start looking through a telescope.

Best I could do with Saturn. Just couldn't get it focused before the mosquitoes started feasting on me. Note the dead pixel in the upper right. I've noticed it before but it's really obvious against a dark sky.

 

[ColleenG]

Those are really cool shots! I've tried taking some of the moon but have not had much luck. First it would help to have a clear night when you can see it.

 

[oregondaddyof2]

That is amazing... Great pictures

 

[jann1033]

very cool shots. saturn looks really cool. can you pick up galaxies or do you need something stronger for that? husband loves astronomy but refuses to buy a telescope...wish he would as i've seen some really beautiful astro-photography shots ....course then he'd want to borrow my camera

 

[kaffinito]

Those are great photos! I love the detail on the moon shot.

 

[rtphokie]

very cool shots. Saturn looks really cool. can you pick up galaxies or do you need something stronger for that? husband loves astronomy but refuses to buy a telescope...wish he would as i've seen some really beautiful astro-photography shots ....course then he'd want to borrow my camera

on a very clear night, I might be able to get some galaxy shots. Being able to see Saturn or a spiral galaxy from your driveway is pretty cool. Great way to get kids interested in science.

 

[zackiedawg]

Very cool - I'd love to get a good telescope I could mount my camera to...but then again, Florida atmosphere is just horrible for astronomy - bad light pollution, heavy cloudy skies, heavy marine layer, smog, and humidity. Plus your afformentioned mosquitos!!

The best I've managed with the moon has been with my big Tamron 200-500 lens at max zoom, on a 1.5x crop body, for 750mm:

I had to crop that about 50% or so to pull that close, but the detail is decent.

Surprisingly, I was able to photograph Jupiter and 4 of its moons with the 500mm lens - they're a bit blurry and have no detail at all, but it was still pretty cool to be able to zoom close enough without a telescope to see this:

With my old ultrazoom, I tried combining 5 photos taken during an eclipse of the moon to show the progression:

So far, Saturn's been a bust...no rings visible in several attempts. I do believe a telescope is going to be needed for that one, as my camera just doesn't pick up enough light or detail through the 500mm without a longer exposure, and then I get a bunch of blur from the earth's movement.

I'd love to see some galaxy shots if you can get them! Always interesting to look at.

 

[rtphokie]

Very cool - I'd love to get a good telescope I could mount my camera to...but then again, Florida atmosphere is just horrible for astronomy - bad light pollution, heavy cloudy skies, heavy marine layer, smog, and humidity. Plus your afformentioned mosquitos!!

The best I've managed with the moon has been with my big Tamron 200-500 lens at max zoom, on a 1.5x crop body, for 750mm:

Very clear and very nice detail of the rays extending from the asteroid impacts.

 

[YesDear]

My best taken with a 300mm, so that would be 450mm with the digital crop. Always remember that when it is dark on earth it is daylight on the moon and set aperture and shutter speed accordingly. This was taken at 1/125th second at 5.6 and ISO 200.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

Good shots everyone.Here is my attempt. I just held my Pentax upto the telescope. I need a mount.