Astrophotography Hobby.

BeerNuts

BeerNuts

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Sep 4, 2008
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I have really been looking into getting into Astrophotography as a new hobby. Which is taking pictures of planets and deep space objects with a amateur setup and a DSLR. Its crazy that its even possible.. when I was a kid and I got my "telescope" from the department store for Christmas I recall it sucking pretty bad. It seems like the technology has gotten A LOT better.

HHflameHy3-80.jpg


This is a shot of the Horse Head Nebula taken with like a 2.5k telescope and special camera, though many just use dlsr's. You can see tons more shots at CelestronImages.com - astrophotography with optics from Celestron Telescopes. galaxies, planets, nebulae, all kinds of shit. Its bad ass that this is possible with like 3k of equipment.

Im going to visit the local club here next month and ask about viewing conditions, light pollution, etc to see if I can make good use of a telescope around here before I go out and buy one. I mean who doesn't want to take photos of galaxies over 50mil light years away in their backyards..
 


Yeah astronomy rocks.. not just taking pics but searching for deep sky objects and seeing them with a naked eye. I owned something like this but my mount wasn't good enough for serious photography.
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So obviously if you're doing this, getting a good mount is a must. Nowdays dslrs are pretty good, but you can have a ccd and get much better results.. depending on how deep your pockets are of course.

But if you buy a dslr you won't get nearly as good ccd for the same price AFAIK, so for beginners dslr is definitely a better choice.

So yeah, for me, this is definitely something I'll go back into once I'm not living in the middle of a city.
 
That's a really good shot, comparable to some of the earlier Hubble images:

hs-1999-20-a-web_print.jpg
 
Here's an interesting video to bump this thread,

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c64Aia4XE1Y"]YouTube - George Smoot: The design of the universe[/ame]

Earth without the universe would be my definition of hell.

It holds all the answers, and we curious minds have an infinity of questions for it.

Your computer, the lint in your belly button, the rocks stuck in the creases of your shoes, the blossoming flower and the flowing wind from central-air were all being 'cooked' inside a past star, whose death allowed for countless life and possibility. Perhaps our death is no different, the casket will rust, your flesh will feed, your death will pass - always time moves forward, there is no outcome, there just is, we are the universe.

I don't have a setup, but it's one of my joys in life, and I always find enough material on the internet or through books to abate my curiosity of the subject.
 
Funny you created this thread, because I was thinking about buying a telescope myself just for fucking around. Astronomy has always fascinated me (I know jack shit about it but love looking at that shit and can really see myself getting into it). How much does it cost to get started? I mean I don't think I need to go hardcore (as of yet) and spend $3K on a tele, but what would a decent starter tele cost?
 
Please share your pics when you get to taking some. It's something I'd like to do too but the light pollution really sucks here. I had a crappy 4.5" reflector a couple of years ago that was pretty cool to look through. I think the coolest thing I saw when I had it was Jupiter and it's moons. Got up at like 5 am in the middle of winter for that one, was worth it though :)

I'll def be picking up another one sooner or later, always had an interest in astronomy.
 
Spliffic said:
Funny you created this thread, because I was thinking about buying a telescope myself just for fucking around. Astronomy has always fascinated me (I know jack shit about it but love looking at that shit and can really see myself getting into it). How much does it cost to get started? I mean I don't think I need to go hardcore (as of yet) and spend $3K on a tele, but what would a decent starter tele cost?
Click to expand...

You can get a pretty huge dobsonian for less than $1000

Personally, I want my scopes on mounts, so if you want that you can get a bit smaller newtonian for the same price but it'll be much easier to observe with it and it looks cooler

And for me my absolute fav was watching m57 (looks a bit like this in the scope http://nightsky.at/Photo/PN/M57_ST7_MN86.jpg )... and saturn is fuckin cool too
 
HubbleSite - Picture Album: Entire Collection

enjoy. there are super hi-res jpg or TIFF files even, up to 10000x10000 pixels or more.

also not to be an asshole, but when you use a telescope of any kind, that doesn't count as "naked eye". naked eye is just staring up at the sky.

also if you want to ask any of the physics questions about the universe, go right ahead.
 
Heh, coincidental thread as I just ordered my first DSLR (Canon Rebel TX1/ EOS 500D) and did quite a bit of astrophysics at university.

Unfortunately living in London makes sky watching impossible, but will definitely be getting myself a telescope when I move out of the city.
 
Total noob Q here but do they make scopes you can like mount to your roof, and control from inside the house through your PC? Is that not practical or silly? I know the typical scope is outside in someone's backyard, but I was looking for a link right to the PC so I can go "Contact" and scan the skies at night while I'm sleeping and wake up and just view the slides next morning.
 
Roundabout said:
Total noob Q here but do they make scopes you can like mount to your roof, and control from inside the house through your PC? Is that not practical or silly? I know the typical scope is outside in someone's backyard, but I was looking for a link right to the PC so I can go "Contact" and scan the skies at night while I'm sleeping and wake up and just view the slides next morning.
Click to expand...

Well if you just want to view them on your computer....

HubbleSite - Picture Album
 
Uzzz said:
is the universe contracting or expanding
what's on the other side of a black hole
if i fly a ship continusly upwards will i eventually reach the southpole

oh and

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Off the top of my head,

Expanding, and the expansion is not limited to the speed of light. Also, the rate in which it's expanding is accelerating.

There's no other side to a black hole, there's only a point of infinite mass and infinite density. You can theorize all day that there might be another dimension on the other side but you'll never be able to prove it because if you sent a spaceship or a human in there he would be "spaghettified"(self explanatory term coined by Neil Degrasse Tyson, as all the particles in your body get reduced to their most basic structure)

No, you would just never reach the expansion and would continue on forever. We're also not sure if the universe has enough total mass to contract back in on itself (to possibly re-explode again), if the universe were to contract and you were going continually upwards, there are several theories presented,

1. You would go 'around' the universe once you reached the edge of the universe (ex. imagine yourself being in a bubble, you cannot go through the bubble, you are restricted to its contour)

2. You would end up on the other side of the universe, adjacent to where you went in. (kind of like the going off the map in Pacman)

3.Nothing, you would simply be unable to advance against the gravity/force of a collapsing universe. (kind of like having a canoe without a paddle in shit creek)

Hope that answers your questions.

P.S. The chick on the right looks materialistic, the chick in the middle looks like a bitch and finally the one on the left looks like a good person and I would love to show her a good time.
 
I am going to get into this shit next year I think. But for right now I have just order a Galileoscope to mess around with until I get a big gun. I have been telling everyone I know to grab one of these for themselves or if they have kids. When they first came out they were $15 but they have gone up to $20. The thing is that the optics in this scope are comparable to a 200-300 dollar scope. Its some huge non for profit trying to get people to get into astronomy mainly kids.

Most ppl seem to start off with this scope for basic hobby needs. NexStar 8SE Computerized Telescope (item #11069) / Celestron.com - Telescope | Computerized Telescopes | Microscopes | Binoculars | SkyScout $1200 since its autoguided, has 40,000 programed objects, etc. It can also see deep space objects. The problem is that you can't upgrade it at all.

For 2.5k I figure ill be getting this guy. CGEM 800 HD Computerized Telescope (item #11080) / Celestron.com - Telescope | Computerized Telescopes | Microscopes | Binoculars | SkyScout The mount alone for this is 1.5k so the scope its only 1k on top of it. The great thing about this scope is I can take off the tube and upgrade it with new ones or just other sizes. You would basically never outgrow the mount which seems better in the long run.
 
Uzzz said:
is the universe contracting or expanding
Click to expand...
It's expanding, and I believe scientists have been able to observe the beginnings of the universe through telescopes because the images (traveling at the speed of light) took so long to travel far enough to be visible.

It's like being given a window view to your birth. Very strange.

Those are amazing pictures. Were they color enhanced? I live in an area that's hopeless for star gazing, because it's far too bright at all hours to observe the stars (there's a street light across the street). Now the middle of Kansas would be amazing. I have never before seen such a black night.
 
I love that shit too. Always wanted a big ass telescope and I can see myself getting one in the next year or two. Before the snow hits, the fall skies are extra clear and dark so this time of year is the best around my area to see objects with the naked eye too.

Just the endless size of the universe alone and knowing that it's gazillions of years old is extremely fascinating.
 
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