Astronomy field trips 2018

www.theory.ch/astrophotography

Google “DSLR astrophotography”

Royce Bair

23 hours 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds

Ben Moore, Davos 09/2016 – Nikon d7100, 10mm f2, 60s

Wavelengths shorter than gamma rays take too much energy to produce

Very long wavelengths contain too little energy to be detected

Bayer filter used in DSLR camerasFilter wheel for astrophotography

CCD detector

Temperature of Sun surface 5780 KTemperature of Sun surface 5780 K

True colour image of the Sun

Emission lines from stars

Alan Friedman 3.5in, ND8192 + narrow band

filter, webcam

Camera settings:

ISO

Exposure

Lens – field of view

Aperture

White balance

RAW/Jpeg

Focussing

Camera settings:

ISO ~ high

Exposure ~ long i.e. 30x1 minute

Lens ~ see next slide

Aperture ~ widest

White balance ~ can modify afterwards if RAW, otherwise use ‘daylight’.

RAW/Jpeg ~ RAW preferred

Focussing ~ bright distant object/live view

Camera settings:

Camera: ideally a DSLR, Nikon/Canon etc. But must have manual settings and ability to take 30+s exposures, manual focus etc.

Lens:

Fisheye for entire Milky Way galaxyWide field, 10-20mm for Milky Way galaxy~50mm for Milky Way centre/mosaic of centre~100mm for Milky Way or large angle view of Orion and Horsehead nebulae>100mm for Andromeda, Pleiades, any object from the Messier catalogue

(The Messier catalogue contains the brightest deep sky objects, such as distant galaxies, star clusters, nebulae etc)

Software:

Stellarium / Cartes du Ciel

Polar finder scope app

Deepskystacker

IRIS

Gimp

Pixinsight (pay)

Lightroom/photoshop (pay)

Ian Norman, Los Angeles 2013, Canon EOS 6D, 14mm, f/2.8, 30s

Ian Norman, Los Angeles 2013, Canon EOS 6D, 14mm, f/2.8, 30s

Ben Moore, Davos 11/2017, Nikon D7100, 300mm, f2.8, 180s

Josh Borup, Orion 80ed, Canon t3i unmodified, 25x600s

Scott Rosen, modified Canon 6D, Nikon 600mm, 44x600s

Wei-Hao Wang: A two-image mosaic taken with a Mamiya 645 45mm f/2.8 lens at f/4.0 and

Canon 5D Mark II. Each individual mosaic frame contains 16 4-minute exposures at ISO 1600.

Ben Moore, Zurich 08/2016 – 1/60th , ISO100, Nikon D7100

1000mm lens (500mm + 2x), 1/50s at f9, ISO 400

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 180mm f2.8 at f4. 36 minutes (27 x 80 seconds) at iso 1600.

Orion and Horsehead nebula. 3 x 3 minute exposures with 3 dark frames with an iOptron SkyTracker, Canon 600D with a Canon EFS 18-135mm on target set at 135mm. 540 seconds in total, f/5.6 at ISO-3200.

The pinwheel galaxy, M101: Nikkor 180mm f2.8 ED Ai-s, Nikon D7000, 30x1 minutes

Flaming star nebula: Nikkor 180mm f2.8 ED Ai-s, Nikon D7000, 50x1minutes

Logistics:

• We will travel ~30mins from Zurich to a place we can set up the skytrackers.• Work in teams of two, share equipment but not data.• Take care of the equipment. • 20 max – some first half of semester, some second half.• The first groups can take the equipment now to practise, charge up skytracker...• Weather dependent, ~3 days notice for when we will all go as a class.• Aim to write a short report detailing what you have observed, the equipment

details, camera settings/exposure times, software you used, how you made your final image etc. max 10 pages. Include technical details as well as an overview of what you have observed, what the images shows, what the colours represent etc.

• Submit report by last week of the semester.

Questions?