Questions tagged [photography]
Questions about photography of celestial objects by amateur or professional astronomers. Questions about photography of other objects are off-topic but might be asked on our sister site Photography Stack Exchange.
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What components (parts) are needed to connect telescope to DSLR?
I have several years of experience with DSLR photography and some astro photography (milkyway) with DSLR. Recently, my wife gifted me an explore scientific ED80 APO telescope. I have an old Nikon ...
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What are the twinkling stars in the New Horizons Arrokoth approach?
I've circled them in this edit:
Source: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Horizons_Approach_to_Arrokoth.ogv
Note, this has generated frames, see the source....
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How did asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1 get its "face"? Is it reconstructed from optical or radar imaging, or something else?
(Image sources linked below)
NPR's March 10, 2023 Newly found asteroid has a 'very small chance' of hitting Earth, NASA says includes an image of what looks like a computer reconstructed 3D surface of ...
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Angular extent of this composite Chandra / JWST image of the Tarantula Nebula?
I thought I’d ask this question here, as I couldn’t readily find the answer looking through online resources.
What is the angular extent of the composite Chandra / JWST image of the Tarantula Nebula ...
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Small bright constellation on the photo
I did a photo of the night sky and wanted to find a constellation on it. I've suggestion that it is Delphinus constellation. Could you please help me figure it out. Also, I'm curios about good way to ...
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Why does one object (star?) in this JWST image have two sets of six+plus+two diffraction spikes but another, similar object nearby have only one?
CNN's February 24, 2023 Astrophysicist says 'there is nothing wrong with not knowing' is basically an opportunity for Neil deGrasse Tyson to give us a pep talk and reminder about the exciting process ...
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Are the 2 planets in this image Venus and Saturn? And is this a fireball shooting star in top right of picture?
I took this picture with my iPhone on January 23, 2023 @6:01pm CST. I am in West Central Alabama very close to the Tenn-Tom Waterway a few miles from the MS state line. I was facing west-southwest.
I ...
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What would be a good telescope to buy for amateur practice? [ Specifications in description ]
I'm a beginner in Astronomy in general and would like to have something like this with which I could do amateur photography and generally practice.
What would be a good telescope to buy with the ...
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Does the 500 rule apply to astrophotography with a telescope?
On clear nights, I mount my Samsung Galaxy S10 to my 130mm aperture telescope and take pictures of certain deep-sky objects. Recently, I took pictures of the Orion Nebula. In order to get the optimal ...
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How to know aperture when mounting smartphone on telescope?
I have a telescope with a 130mm aperture and a Samsung Galaxy S10, which I mount to my telescope and use to take pictures. When considering the total aperture, how would I calculate the combination ...
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Can we simply multiply a positive value to each pixel in order to enhance contrast and to discard Time Delay Integration technique?
As shown in the figure below, the Time Delay Integration (TDI, the right side of the figure) is aimed at accumulating multiple exposures of the same (moving) object, effectively increasing the ...
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Can a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ2000 be attached to a Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ
We recently bought a Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ for our children and we like to take some pictures of what we are seeing through the telescope. We know that's a beginner telescope and not ...
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What do negative values on bright sources in TIRSPEC mean?
I opened a FITs image data from TIRSPEC (NIR imaging) (an HgCdTe infrared imaging sensor) on DS9 and I saw that some of the bright stars have black patches at the center (negative values).
Can you ...
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Strange bump in solar spectrum taken with home-made spectrograph
I am an astronomy teacher, and made some kind of spectrograph with a difraction grating, a 3D printed slit, water pipes and a reflex camera. With a group of students we got this picture of the solar ...
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Why can four-eight "rays" be seen around all stars in astronomy photographs from the Hubble Space telescope? [duplicate]
In famous astronomy photographs from the Hubble Space telescope such as the Pillars of Creation, each star has four rectilinear "rays" projecting out in the intercardinal directions, and ...
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What is the equation for the radius of a star trail?
I have been studying star paths, and have successfully used the following equations to map star paths in a multiple exposure photograph onto circles of a radius determined by the star's declination ...
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Where does FireCapture save FITS photos during recording?
I made a lot of FITS photos yesterday and accidentally the laptop battery was discharged and it was turned off before I pressed the stop button. Now, I don't see that last session in folder with other ...
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Optimal exposure time for photography with unmotorized telescope
Since celestial objects move along the sky, taking long exposure shots with an unmotorized telescope will show a straight or slightly curved line of light instead of the still object (star trail).
...
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What parameters can we obtain from imagery of planets?
Looking at images for the planets of the solar system in all different wavelengths, I was wondering whether we can deduce any information about the planet itself without using anything other than an ...
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What is this cluster of light trails captured on long exposure images?
I was taking photos of the Perseids meteor shower on 13/08/2022 in Peak District in the UK. The camera was fixed stably on a tripod, set on manual mode, taking 8-second exposures continuously.
When I ...
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iOptron ZEQ25GT mount advice needed
I am interested in purchasing a used iOptron ZEQ25GT mount which is a being sold at $500 by an experienced owner. It is in good condition. Can someone share their experience on using this mount, or ...
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Astrometry and Geometric Distortions
CCD's are widely used for astrometry. Since a spherical surface (the celestial sphere) is projected onto a rectangular surface, the plate scale or pixel scale (approximated with 1/focal length etc) is ...
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Curved milky way image [duplicate]
In today's microsoft bing https://www.bing.com/ background image the milky way is seen as curved. How is this possible?
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In this image taken by Voyager 1, which is closer: the earth or the moon?
NASA reports this photo was taken 19 Sep 1977 by Voyager 1:
It doesn't strike me as obvious how to determine which celestial body is closer to Voyager 1 as the photo was taken. My (not very ...
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How to calculate shooting distance for an astronomical object
With a 50mm full frame lens and a 35mm sensor (or film), how far should I be to shoot Earth with earth’s edge just inside top and bottom edge of the resulting image? I don't want any cropping.
Earth ...
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Is there a website or app that can add declination and RA grid to an existing photo?
For a few years now, I've been shooting photos of the night sky with just a tripod and my Nikon DSLR. After extensive post-processing to mitigate light pollution, I usually submit the final results ...
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Finding Scorpius in the Milky Way panorama
I'm searching for the constellation of Scorpius in this image.
Unfortunately this is a task too hard for a newbie like me, so I would like to have an hand about that.
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How far above the galactic plane would a telescope array need to be in order to image the whole galaxy?
I hope this isn't a stupid question, but Google searches are turning up nothing relevant. I was just thinking about how it's difficult for us to determine the true shape and composition of the Milky ...
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What settings should I use for my telescope-mounted smartphone to take night sky pictures?
Last night, I managed to take my first successful picture of a nebula--the Orion Nebula (see picture below). I'm incredibly ecstatic, as before I had been limited to taking images of the moon.
I used ...
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Camera settings for Astrophotography
I own an Orion 10015 StarBlast 4.5 Astro Reflector Telescope and I recently bought a Lumix G7 camera then I bought the adapter needed to attach the camera to the telescope.
I tested it today at ...
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How to determine the scale on astronomical images?
I've always been amazed at the many beautiful images of objects in the night sky. The Andromeda galaxy is a superb example. But it was only a few years ago that I discovered that Andromeda in those ...
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Why does the alignment evaluation image from JWST look like this?
NASA has just released a telescope alignment evaluation image from JWST for the star HD 84406 2MASS J17554042+6551277. It looks like this:
Higher resolution at Wikipedia
To my untrained eye, the star ...
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What is Canopus in this picture?
Picture is taken from 34.2N 126.6E Bogil-do, South Korea. I suppose the dot at up-right side is Rigel and the bright white dot is Sirius, and bright reddish dot at the bottom is light from some ...
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What have I encountered here?
Consider:
I tried Google Lens to tell the answer, but it is not giving a true answer.
I am using the Android app Stellarium.
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Camera adaptor won't focus [duplicate]
I'm trying to use my DSLR camera (Canon EOS-40D) with my kids' Celestron First Scope.
I bought a 3x Celestron 1.25" barlow, Celestron 1.25" T-adaptor, and the Canon ring. These things all ...
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What is the actual center of galaxy in this image
NASA picture of the day February 2 2022.
What is actually the center of the galaxy here? Is it the bright star or something nearby it?
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Avoiding noise while stacking multiple night sky photographs
I have always been fascinated by astrophotography and have been trying my hands at the skill. I have tried photographing the milky way with limited resources (smartphone with a tripod). I usually ...
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What are some astrophotography editing options and strategies for taking photos of galaxies with a telescope and a cell phone?
We purchased a phone adapter for my sons telescope and got some amazing pictures, BUT we believe that they can be clearer.
What is the best, or a really good, image editing program for amateur ...
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Hoping to do some viewing and astrophotography with a large-ish Dobsonian and a DLSR, is this scheme workable?
I haven't put a camera behind a telescope since the lunar eclipse of 1975 except for a few experiments with a cell phone held behind a pair of binoculars.
I want the occasional thrill of using a ...
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How to compute a Flux through a filter using SYNPHOT in Python
I am in the process of building an exposure time calculator to help nail down the exposure times I need for different targets in my observatory.
In amateur astronomy imaging, we use a filter called ...
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Did astronomers ever use photographic plate rotation along with alt-az mounts?
The video Earth's Rotation Visualized in a Timelapse of the Milky Way Galaxy - 4K (linked below) and discussion below this answer to Why does a timelapse video of a stationary Milky Way make the ...
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What are the technological advancements that made it possible for modern large telescopes to work with alt-az mounts instead of equatorial mounts?
The video Earth's Rotation Visualized in a Timelapse of the Milky Way Galaxy - 4K (linked below) and discussion below this answer to Why does a timelapse video of a stationary Milky Way make the ...
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Are all space documentaries CGI?
Consider the following video by BBC about the Pillars of Creation:
According to a quick google search, the POC are 7000 light years away.
If we just had a picture of ...
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Do observational astronomers make use of the Fredholm equation? Perhaps in solving for/removing instrumental effects in imaging?
The Fredholm equation of the first kind (Wolfram Mathworld and Wikipedia) written as (Wolfram's):
$$f(x) = \int_a^b K(x, t) \ \phi(t) \ dt$$
where $K(x, t)$ is the kernel and $\phi(t)$ is an unknown ...
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How did Parker Solar Probe take what looks like 2D cross-sections of the solar wind in photographs; high contrast streaks in focus from volume effect?
The new NASA Goddard video NASA's Parker Solar Probe Touches The Sun For The First Time shows what looks like they might be photographs of the solar wind.
I'm having a hard time understanding how such ...
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New to Astrophotography
I just had a quick question on my telescope I recently purchased.
I have a Canon Rebel XTi and I paired that with the William Optics Guide Star 61 Guidescope.
The Specs on the Scope are:
Guide Scope ...
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What exactly causes very bright sources, such as supernovae, to appear as large circles in photographs?
Consider images such as those in https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2021/news-2021-007, which show bright supernovae embedded in their host galaxies. No matter which telescope and which ...
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How is resolution defined?
So I'm looking at a 1 meter square object in my digital camera. What size of pixel is considered fine enough that the object is considered to be resolved? Obviously a pixel size of one meter squared ...
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How was the recently publicized Hubble image of a distant galaxy showing clearly resolved lensed in an Einstein ring produced? When was it produced?
The 24-Sep-2021 NASA Goddard video Einstein Ring Spotted by Hubble and it's Goddard Media Studio's page Einstein Ring Spotted By Hubble discuss the image, but don't really give credit to how it was ...
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What is the easiest way to photograph stars during daylight hours?
This is probably going to be a bit of a weird one but here it goes.
I was looking to see what the easiest method would be to photograph the heavens during the day time in such a way that the stars are ...
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