Something Totally Different… Astrophotography

Something Totally Different… Astrophotography

I’ve been interested Space since I was about 6 or 7 years old. I’ve loved reading about the planets and all the probes NASA were sending in the 70’s. I watched the first Space Shuttle launch on TV (and the last on an iPad). I have encyclopaedia’s on Space, the Planets, a map book of Mars. Books on Rockets and Spacecraft and Star charts. But one thing I do not have is a telescope. Not even a small one.

I’ve had to wait 40 years, but I have finally got one! I got it as a joint Christmas present with my Son.

Now, the problem I had and have, is I’m totally new to this. I know nothing! The scope came with a lot of extras, which was good and i made sure it had a GoTo tracking function on it. This of course made knowing how to align it for tracking important (and I still not 100% convinced, or have fully tried it). The main reason was this…

A Lunar Eclipse

My priority was to learn how to connect my camera and take a photo of the moon. Easier said than done. However with a little help from a friend I learnt a bit about the Polar Alignment and how to get the camera setup on it. All I needed now was to practice.

With only a couple of weeks to the Eclipse, clear night were essential. In the end, I had about 3 before eclipse night!

My first moon photo was taken at 4 in the afternoon.

Not quite as sharp as I would have liked, but there was still some hazy cloud around.

My next attempt, or the next clear night, was just the day before the eclipse. This time the moon made its appearance at nearly 5pm. So i got a darker sky to photograph against.

I was really pleased with these and felt a bit more ready for the next night.

I’ll write about my Eclipse experience in my next post

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