Tonights observing & images

Thats a great session you had last night. I think your images are excellent and i especially like the one with you and the Tal 1...nice one!

Great report Martin. Well im just in and got these few images. I tracked down alot of Messiars with the good olf faithful binos and used C1 for abit aswell. Lovely sky. Oh and earlier about 6pm i seen a very bright bit of space debris falling and burning up. Was about mag -2

Looks like you had another great session with the binos and Tal1. I think the last image is fantastic!!! Had a very late one last night myself.

I stood for a cold, still 30secs lol I went for that part of the sky because of m45 and mars

One thing you might like to experiment with for those type of shots is using the flash, or even just a torch.

Basically set the flash to go off at the start of the exposure when you are posing, and then when there is no light on you can relax or even walk away and let the exposure continue for the starlight.

You do need to be careful is there is any ambient light from streets and houses if you walk out of shot as that can cause you to show up as a ghostlike image wandering about. Cameras remember bright things not dark things. Though you can work that into an artistic shot as well if you like.

The result gives you a well lit and defined picture of yourself and strong stars in the background. This does take a bit of work though. In the image you posted you are a little out of focus (and so is the scope so its not just you shivering!). You need to experiment to find the best combination of composition and depth of field so that you are in focus as well as the stars.

Oh and doing this really ruins your dark adaption, so dont try it in the moddle of an observing session!

Cheers,
~Albert

Hi Conor,

Just clicked on the weather link you give at the bottom of your posts. Love the section on Satilite images. I'll add them to my Favorites...... Er.... might even learn to read them some day :lol:

Damon

Thanks albert for the advice!
Im glad it helped you