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FrozenGate by Avery

Some New Astrophotography Stuff

Oh, I thought the $10/mo thing was their cloud versions where you access things through a browser, not an actual license to use the real software.

Yeah, those prices.. it's absurd! Hell, I'd buy Lightroom for $40 if they offered it for that, and I almost -never- buy software (just use free alternatives).
 





NEW PICTURE! This new one is of Andromeda and is my first time attempting to capture it! It was a phenomenal experience to be able to see something like this coming off the camera! First is the finished picture, and below that is one of the 481 photos that went into it.



 
Wow. Stunning picture! I hate that I won't be part of a generation that will see that out the port of a spacecraft...

What's the galaxy behind it?
 
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crazyspaz said:
Wow. Stunning picture! I hate that I won't be part of a generation that will see that out the port of a spacecraft...

What's the galaxy behind it?
Click to expand...

Thanks man! Here you go:






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EDIT: My diagramming skills are getting better :D
 
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Thanks guys! Eventually I will invest in a tracking mount or a telescope, but I love the fact that until then I can still get acceptable/satisfying results straight from the camera.
 
Possibly dumb question; how are you locating Andromeda in the night sky? I've done a few test shots of astrophotography, all single exposures, and gotten decent results so far, but I can really only locate a few things reliably (Summer Triangle (Altair, Deneb, Vega), Venus, Jupiter, Big Dipper, Orion(winter only)). The rest is too faint or without point of reference.
 
Very nice picture! And Sig, most systems follow a pattern in the way they move, so it's somewhat easy to predict were they are and will be.
 
Sigurthr said:
Possibly dumb question; how are you locating Andromeda in the night sky? I've done a few test shots of astrophotography, all single exposures, and gotten decent results so far, but I can really only locate a few things reliably (Summer Triangle (Altair, Deneb, Vega), Venus, Jupiter, Big Dipper, Orion(winter only)). The rest is too faint or without point of reference.
Click to expand...

So I also had a lot of problems finding Andromeda until I finally knuckled down and taught myself how to read a Star Wheel. Star Wheels come based on your latitude. They look like a clock, and when you line up the date that you will be shooting with the time of day you will be shooting, the window on it shows you the night sky. The front shows as if you are facing north.



So what I did was use my phone's compass app to orient myself towards a northerly direction. Then I looked for some landmarks. Cassiopeia is one of the ones to look for, and when facing north Cass is in the milky way, so you look for the jaggedy back and forth constellation(technical descriptions ;) ). Once you find Cassiopeia, you can use a few of its stars and draw a line from one through the other going towards the constellation Pegasus.


Now, I don't have the ability to just look up and get it. I got myself pretty close to where Andromeda was, and in the end that was all I needed. I put my lens on the widest it could go, pointed it in the direction of where I thought it was, and took a very long exposure.

Sure enough, you could see Andromeda in the long exposure and then all I had to do was center it and start taking pictures at the most telephoto my lens goes.
 
Ahh, well that certainly helps in finding it. I went out last night after reading some tips, and tried to find her but no luck. I saw Cassiopeia easily, but couldn't make out any hint of Andromeda. I was trying a method based on drawing a line between Ruchbah and Alpheratz, but I think I confused the latter with it's neighbor Mirach. Still, I couldn't see anything resembling the galaxy with naked eye, or with long exposure shots (though they may have been aimed too low because of the guide star confusion).

I've been using Stellarium, which is like a digital star wheel, but I have to go on memory since I can't bring it out into the field, heh.

L61BBuQ.png
 
Looks like i found myself another new hobby :D hahaha

Thank you for sharing this :) i love it!
 
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I went out tonight with more people and a new piece of gear and got the following. I think these are better overall than the prior ones. The first is Andromeda, the second is the Triangulum Galaxy, and then the rest are of an abandoned chapel we happened upon that had a great angle for the Milky Way. The last picture is what the sky looks like when you look up in a truly dark site.













 
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For those who need some help locating stars - I found a great app called SkEye that uses your location, motion sensors, and internal magnetometer to show on the screen of your phone what it's pointing at. You can also search on the program to have it give to directions to orient yourself towards various objects. I think it even has an option to let you mount it on a camera or something? Check it out. Pretty cool.
 
Ugh those pictures...So unbelievably breathtaking. It really, really pains me I wont ever get to see that with my own eyes....
 
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