Starry Night

Starry Night

First of all, make sure you click on the image so you can get the full effect from the larger image. I am learning the ropes over again with my new(er) camera with an aim to do some serious astro-photography. I have a few new bits of kit inbound, so soon I will be able to attach my DSLR to my telescope. I should (in theory) get some good shots. The shot above was just a bit of test work to get a rough idea of exposures etc. It came out better than I hoped and since I like it, its up on here for everyone to look at.

Taken with Pentax K100D mounted on a tripod. A control cable to my laptop was used to control tha cameraand help avoid all possible blur (the earths rotation will cause blurring too). Exposure was 57 seconds / f9.5. Focal length 82mm, ISO 200 (to reduce noise in the picture). The exposure was very much trial and error, however, with this kind of photo you don't need to be quite so spot on. The camera was attached directly to my laptop via a cable and controlled from inside (nice and warm!).