Taking photos of stars

[BlueCorn]

OP you should check your lens. Focusing at infinity might work, but my lens is a hair off. If I can I focus on the moon because I've found that if I just set to infinity on my lens and body I'm a tad off tack sharp. I'll use the moon, or shine a powerful headlamp on a tree more than 30' away and focus on that. Another thing I've used are city lights off in the distance. You'll need to experiment with your gear to see what method will work best.

The problem with the infinity bit is unless you're using a prime, there is no 'fixed' infinity. It's different depending on your zoom range. I have my autofocus set to only be active when I push the * button with my right thumb. It keeps me from having to fumble with the AF/MF switch while wearing gloves.

Just remember to recheck your focus anytime you alter your zoom.

 

[jroovers]

Further to what IPT said, infinity on my 14 mm lens is not infinity. It is actually way off but that is common on my lens based on what I've read.

Another point to consider, shooting in live view or even better while tethered to a computer (never tried it) should allow you to manually sharpen your focus even more accurately then looking through the viewfinder or using the focal distance settings on your lens.

 

[IPT]

Sorry, it was a Nikon.

LOL, I guess you made her drink the Kool aid too .

 

[worm5406]

Outer Banks NC this Past November

 

[bpcardona]

I need to give this a try. Never took the time to play with it.

 

[toothybugs]

I need to give this a try. Never took the time to play with it.

It's fun - the world is a different place when it's been dark for a while and everyone is long asleep

I'd post a few of mine but they are still lacking sorely, IMHO. I need to get my post-processing down to bring out the colors of the galaxy.

 

[worm5406]

Ohh I took those with my good camera. So those are really large pictures. I can only show them at 800 max though, from the host company. I prob should have moved them to one of the other hosts.

 

[Nihoa]

I haven't had much luck without a bit of moonlight to paint the foreground.

Moonlit Boobies on Rose Atoll, American Samoa
https://flic.kr/p/pUsDjA

Tree pose in a tree. Kadavu, Fiji

 

[bpcardona]

Love the tree pose pic!

 

[andrewkw]

NTP66 F11 is too slow. Faster will help.

Astrophotography requires some to a lot of processing to pull out the details hidden in the picture.

Here is a recent picture of comet lovejoy I took.

It's a cropped image from about a 100mm lens just a cheapo 75-300mm lens. The tail is actually several times larger then the moon in the sky just 1000s of times dimmer. This was taken piggybacked on a telescope mount to track the star rotation but still is only 5 minutes 30 seconds total exposure time.

 

[jroovers]

NTP66 F11 is too slow. Faster will help.

Astrophotography requires some to a lot of processing to pull out the details hidden in the picture.

Here is a recent picture of comet lovejoy I took.

It's a cropped image from about a 100mm lens just a cheapo 75-300mm lens. The tail is actually several times larger then the moon in the sky just 1000s of times dimmer. This was taken piggybacked on a telescope mount to track the star rotation but still is only 5 minutes 30 seconds total exposure time.

Fantastic! Great photo. Hopefully it gains some strength over the coming weeks.

 

[NTP66]

I certainly appreciate all of the feedback, and am awed by the shots posted in this thread. I'm going to try and get out a little more this spring/summer in hopes that I've nailed down my methods by the time we go back to Maui next year.