Camera Labs

pictures token with canon 18-135mm

#1 star with plane trail
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/KV ... directlink

#2 just stars
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/t4 ... directlink

hope soon im gonna get bigger lens for the moon
let me know with you think c&c always welcome

greetz
morris

Off to a nice start, Morris
Plane trails always look neat on long exposures.

Looks like you got the right white-balance on the second one - took me a few tries to determine that the "tungsten" setting was right for my E510... everything else ended up either too red or too green.

Floyd.

I began 3/4 year ago just like you, and look what Im doing now with a tele lens on my dSLR: http://picasaweb.google.com/r.j.deroos/ ... 8062040290

If you really like this, a mount for tracking the stars isnt really that expensive, I bought mine (used) for €100 ($120) with motors.

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

Nice shots.

The second one looks like its suffering a bit from light pollution towards the bottom.

What you could try next, which will not involve any additional expenditure is to focus on a part of the sky (set lens to infinity is a good start); take lots of exposures (say about 30s a piece or as long as you can get away with without star trailing showing); download a free piece of software - Deep Sky Stacker (DSS); load in your images and let DSS stack them together and see what you get.

You dont need to worry about a tracking mount to start with if you just want to capture star field but you will be limited to short exposures without one.

As Ruben says you can get some mounts with motors relatively cheap which will start you off. Should you want to seriously get into this be warned it is an expensive hobby!

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery

It is sure an expensive hobby, I could let you see some pictures of the Milkyway I made with my compactcamera.
If you want it, Ill post them.

cheers

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

you can post them

2 edits of the Milkyway, taken few months ago: http://picasaweb.google.com/r.j.deroos/ ... 7838888754

http://picasaweb.google.com/r.j.deroos/ ... 7370248594

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

dat zijn veel ster man bij de eerste foto zie beweging aan de rechterkant maar in de midden niet hoe heb je dat gedaan

Something has gone wrong with smorris's keyboard...

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Aidan Hill. com
Nikon D7000 | Nikon 70-200MM f/2.8G VR II | Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX DC OS HSM | Tokina 11-16mm F2.8| iMac 27" | MacBook Pro 13" | Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Bag |

Not bad, Ruben, not bad at all
It's really amazing how far those "simple" cameras have progressed in just a few short years - even the newer camera-phones take better pics than my first point-and-shoot.

Floyd.

@aidan hill nothing is wrong with my keyboard it's dutch on the side of his picture are trails but the have no trails in the middel

offtopic
Is this lens doing me any good for astrophotografy for the moon it's cheap

http://www.cameranu.nl/artikel/134484/S ... _F6_3.html

they have also 500mm f./8 version little bit cheaper or 800mm F./8
sensor crop factor of 1.6 makes it from 500mm to a 800mm and 800mm to a 1280mm
vivatar sells them to

let me know

It is very long, yes.
I was looking 2 months ago to such a lens too, but about the quality, isnt really sharp. And for the Moon you want to have sharp pictures.
What the best is you can do is buying a telescope (they arent really that expensive!) or buy another less long lens that's sharper.
But with your camera you could make very nice Milkyway pictures, so first try to learn and do that;)

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

Mirror lenses could be worth a punt for the price but don't expect a great deal from them, as Ruben says they are not the sharpest lenses around.

They also produce some weird 'bokeh' due to the construction of them.

Check out this site:

http://www.fotop.net/alanchung/Mirror

Towards the end there is a shot of the moon.

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery

I've been looking at those lenses as well, smorris.
They tend to be somewhat cheaper on eBay.
My research on them pretty much agrees with what Digz and Ruben said, but they do seem to be an affordble option if one can't drop $1000+(US) on a super-telephoto lens.
As with a lot of things, though, you get what you pay for.

Floyd.

Look at this telescope: http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/pro ... 200mm.html

I dont know what your experiences are, but this gives you an 1200mm focal lenght x1,6, and has a big aperture too.
If you want to photograph the Moon for €200, then this telescope is maybe good for you: http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/pro ... ab-6J.html
Then you need 2 adapters which cost €50 total, and there you are:)
You can ask many thinks to us, there are several amature astronomers here.
Maybe it's helpful to sign in to astroforum.nl

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies