Advice

Tried my first attempt at some astrophotography last night, didnt see santa but i did manage to get this.
Taken on a nikonD300 with a 600mm f4 lens, i took it from my back garden which is why i converted it to black and white to get rid of the orange glow. ive been reading a bit about it and skytrackers seem to be a must for this type of work if i want to get more detail out of the images, couldnt find anything for the 600mm when i googled it so was just wondering if anyone nows of anything available or if theres a telescope option with a tracker that i could mount my d300 2.

think its trapezium in the photo stand to be corrected on that though.

That is a very fine photo, Donal, of M42. You also got M43, And Theta 2 Orionis. If you used higher magnification, you would have imaged the Trapezium Theta 1 Orionis. It is in the image alright -just that it is crushed into one bright star to the right of the "mouth" of M42.

Very pleasing image for a first timer -well done. If I were you, I would make this image as desktop background!!

Aubrey.

Hi Donal. You can take a lot of encouragement from that image. The lens is quite fast and I guess the Nikon has a good sensor, so you have captured a bright image with what appears to be a short exposure. Seems like you have been doing a lot of background reading, so I hope the following pointers are not too basic for you.

As regards tracking, there are several products designed to allow cameras, or very light telescopes to track the movement of the stars, that way you can use your existing lenses. Several products such as the SkyTracker are available, and that is a relatively low cost way to get a huge improvement in results. There are many fine examples of images obtained in this way on this forum.

The next step would be a motorised "German equatorial mount" heavy enough to carry a telescope and track the stars accurately. That way you could either attach your camera to the telescope, i.e. use the telescope as the lens, or "piggback" the camera and lens by mounting it on the telescope. Clearly, that would involve a substantial outlay on new equipment, and kit needed for accurate tracking and "deep" images is expensive. You can see the fantastic images that dedicated imagers achieve on this forum, but I would suggest that you continue to experiment with your current camera and lenses for a while before deciding if you want to take the plunge into serious astrophotography.

The other area that you can experiment with is using software to "stack" multiple images to get much brighter results, and to optimise the resulting images. That will make an enormous difference to the quality of the images without the need for any additional hardware. I have only dabbled in astrophotography, but programs such as "Deep Sky Stacker" or "Nebulosity" are worth checking. The jargon can be intimidating and the learning curve is not insignificant, but with a little experimentation you will quickly get satisfying results.

Good luck with the imaging, keep posting your shots and you will find lots of advice and encouragement on this forum.

Mike

That's sound advice from Mike the Donal, if I could add that there is also the 'astrotrac' and vixen 'polarie' if you should wish to use your camera and tripod only

Keith

thanks for the advice guys, been dying sick over christmas so i havent managed to get out again since, i look up those sky trackers you mentioned mike. but ill prob just keep shooting with what i have in the meantime before i invest in anything to expensive.