My First Photos!

Very basic photos, but any suggestions would be welcomed. The ones of Mars and the 'Polaris' one were taken out the front of the house with a lot of street lights about. The 'Polaris1' and Plough one was taken out the back garden. The Plough looked great on the LCD, but is well out of focus. I'm using a 300d.

The link would be a help :roll: www.flickr.com/photos/83561606@N00/

Thanks for the ling, erm, any chance of a name?

I took a look at the pics and they look OK. The polaris pic is the nicest of the bunch with the star trails.

Can you give us any more info on the setup you are using to take the images?

Kepp 'em coming!

Cheers
Dave

Ah you can just call me why!

Canon 300d.
Tripod.
One of Dave Lillis' shutter release cables.
Canon 35-80mm lens.

I was actually kind of disappointed with the polaris one. I gave it twenty minutes, and was expecting a nice black sky when I looked at it! Still though, glad to have made a start. Astro photography is something I've wanted to do for years. Cheers for the comments Dave.

Hi,
Its a good start, You can take out alot of that sky glow using photoshop, I'm glad you're making good use of the camera and cable.

Why :

The bright sky on the Polaris pic will be due to light pollution - a real bummer. As Dave says, you can reduce the effect with after image processing but if you can eliminate/reduce it when collecting the image data (ie taking a picture) all the better.

You can eliminate it by going to a dark, or reasonably dark site. Believe me, its worth it. Alternatively, you can use a filter designed to reduce the effects of light-pollution. But I'm not sure if you can get one that would attach directly to the 300D but I'm sure folks here could help out with advice. The DSLR's are not my field of expertise but they're sure making a big impact in the astrophotography world.

Have you any thoughts on your next step or ultimate astrophotography goal?

Cheers

Dave