A quick time-lapse

[bloodhound31]

Hi all.

I thought I would try my hand at a little animation of the stars moving about in the south.

I took several pics with the DSLR on a fixed tripod of 30 seconds, taking one every 5 minutes or so.

The effect is simple, but effective. I am inspired now to go all the way and image the rotation over a whole night. One to the South, one to the east or west and one to the north.

I thought it may serve best on my Drift alignment page as a bit of a visual aid to new astronomers.

So here it is. http://www.asignobservatory.com/driftalignment.aspx

Have a look about a third of the way down the page for the movie.

Like I said, improvements are only a matter of a few clear nights away!

Baz.

[Buldric]

*sigh* You use the same camera as me, but I cant take pictures that look anything near what ANY of your pictures look like, I have no clue how you do it =/

I don't have a wedge yet, still using az mode. However depending on my alignment, it can be as good as keeping M27 in the eyepiece under ~170x for a number of hours, to not even holding it in the eyepiece for 30 seconds. However, right now, no matter what my alignment is, it always seems to do a great job of tracking M31, so I'm spending my time photographing it for the past few nights. I guess ill learn eventually what I'm doing wrong.

I have a question though, with this camera, how long of an exposure do i have to do at 1600ISO to make it see M27? (I know 1600 is no good for a finished photograph, but right now i just want to make the camera see it)

Or is their some sort of filter, or trick i have to use? Because at "good as it gets" focus, and perfect tracking, it didn't see it in a 30 sec exposure. I would think that in 30 seconds it would see a LOT more than what my human eye can see the second I would look into the eyepiece.

I have read your astrophotography page, which was extremely helpful for the setup of my camera, but I was just wondering if you have any tips in specific for this camera?


You have some very nice, very helpful guides on your site. When I get a wedge, that drift alignment should work for us up here north too right? It seems like it should in theory, but wouldn't be the first time I assumed incorrectly =p

Keep up the awsome photos!

-Eric

[bloodhound31]

Hello Eric, I would love to help. I have sent you a PM.

Baz.

[Dragon Star]

Very cool bro.