My very first astrophotos (untracked)!
Here are 2 photos taken using a stationary camera (without any tracking mechanism). They are truly my very first astrophotos.
Constellation: Ursa Major (Great Bear, Big Dipper, Northern Dipper)
Date/Time: Many years ago
Camera: Yashica FX-3 Super (2nd-hand Manual SLR)
Cable Release: Mechanical cable release
Lens: Yashica 50mm 1:1.9
Film: Fujifilm negative film. Can't remember the ISO. should be ISO100.
Drive: None. Stationary mount on a tripod.
Aperture: F1.9
Exposure Time: Can't remember. Guess its less than a minute.
Place of shot: My bedroom. Camera and tripod placed on my bed.
Post-Processing: None.
At one look, some of you living in the high north like those European countries might not immediately recognize it is Ursa Major, but if you turn
the photo upside down, you should make more sense out of it. It is inverted. The 3 stars in the centre and right are the "handle" of the dipper while the 2 bright stars to the left of the centre are 2 of the 4 stars (sigma and gamma) forming the trough (or whatever you call it). The other 2 stars (alpha and beta) are hidden by the building below at the left.
If you look carefully at the 2nd bright star from the right, which is Mizar, you will notice a smaller star just beside it. It is Alcor, a faint "companion" of Mizar. It looks like they make a perfect double star (2 stars orbiting around a common centre of gravity) but accordingly, they are not real double stars, they just happened to be near to each other in the line of sight. They are called "optical doubles".
From these photos, you can see how near neighbouring blocks are. Frankly speaking, I can't totally remember if I was using the barn door tracker for guided photography. But judging from the brightness of my neighbouring block, I believe I did not use any tracking and the exposure times should be less than a minute. If not, the block would be terribly overexposed. The fact that the stars in these 2 photos, as well as many of the rest of the photos in the same series, looked pinpointed with little trailing further confirms the fact that I did not use any tracking.
Anyway, that's the problem with not taking down notes as you work. You tend to forget things especially with film photography. With digital photography, the details such as aperture, shutter, date/time, etc are all saved in the EXIF automatically. That makes referencing much easier. Probably a sign that I should upgrade to digital cameras soon.
Another interesting point was that my bed happened to be placed on the side parallel to my window. So, it was in fact obstructing my astronomical work. So, I was forced to reduce the tripod to minimal size, place it (with my camera mounted on top of it) over my bed to take the shots. About a couple of years ago, I finally decided to perform a major re-location of all furniture in my bedroom. The bed was shifted to the left side, 90 degrees to the window and that make my future observations easier.
Constellation: Ursa Major (Great Bear, Big Dipper, Northern Dipper)
Date/Time: Many years ago
Camera: Yashica FX-3 Super (2nd-hand Manual SLR)
Cable Release: Mechanical cable release
Lens: Yashica 50mm 1:1.9
Film: Fujifilm negative film. Can't remember the ISO. should be ISO100.
Drive: None. Stationary mount on a tripod.
Aperture: F1.9
Exposure Time: Can't remember. Guess its less than a minute.
Place of shot: My bedroom. Camera and tripod placed on my bed.
Post-Processing: None.
At one look, some of you living in the high north like those European countries might not immediately recognize it is Ursa Major, but if you turn
the photo upside down, you should make more sense out of it. It is inverted. The 3 stars in the centre and right are the "handle" of the dipper while the 2 bright stars to the left of the centre are 2 of the 4 stars (sigma and gamma) forming the trough (or whatever you call it). The other 2 stars (alpha and beta) are hidden by the building below at the left.
If you look carefully at the 2nd bright star from the right, which is Mizar, you will notice a smaller star just beside it. It is Alcor, a faint "companion" of Mizar. It looks like they make a perfect double star (2 stars orbiting around a common centre of gravity) but accordingly, they are not real double stars, they just happened to be near to each other in the line of sight. They are called "optical doubles".
From these photos, you can see how near neighbouring blocks are. Frankly speaking, I can't totally remember if I was using the barn door tracker for guided photography. But judging from the brightness of my neighbouring block, I believe I did not use any tracking and the exposure times should be less than a minute. If not, the block would be terribly overexposed. The fact that the stars in these 2 photos, as well as many of the rest of the photos in the same series, looked pinpointed with little trailing further confirms the fact that I did not use any tracking.
Anyway, that's the problem with not taking down notes as you work. You tend to forget things especially with film photography. With digital photography, the details such as aperture, shutter, date/time, etc are all saved in the EXIF automatically. That makes referencing much easier. Probably a sign that I should upgrade to digital cameras soon.
Another interesting point was that my bed happened to be placed on the side parallel to my window. So, it was in fact obstructing my astronomical work. So, I was forced to reduce the tripod to minimal size, place it (with my camera mounted on top of it) over my bed to take the shots. About a couple of years ago, I finally decided to perform a major re-location of all furniture in my bedroom. The bed was shifted to the left side, 90 degrees to the window and that make my future observations easier.
posted by Starnamer @ 9:05 pm
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