Some photos

Gaspode

In France recently I got the best view of the starry sky I've ever had, and tried to get some photos. (Using a Nikon D5000 with kit lens (18-55mm) Not easy to focus sharply, esp with some exposures up to 30s. Hard to describe how brilliant the view was, cant ever imagine getting anything like this in Ireland!

More photos on pix.ie. managed to get some meteorite trails in some as well as jet lights.


Just wondering though how to get better focus, any tips?

Popoutman

Nice pics.

The majority of the blur is not focus related, but vibration related it seems, witha smaller component of actual defocus.
Suggestions for better focus:
A beefier tripod.
Click the shutter button with a sheet of card in front of the lens (not touching) and take it away 2-3 sec after the 30 sec exposure has started.
Drop one or two f/stops, so you may get sharper images than at full aperture. (check dpreview.com for the kit lens, they usually have a test where the resolution for different f/stops is found).
Try the active or live view for manual focusing - this may be useful if you can see a star on the LCD. Otherwise you may have to take a pic, slightly focus closer, examine pic, change focus again until you have the smallest brightest star images. It's a pain in the ass, but at least you will know for future reference if your infininity focus is actually at infinity

If you want to try it, there a very powerful but slightly hard to use program that can de-blur the picture if you have the RAW for accuracy.
http://astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm with reference to the deblurring tools

I used that program (richardson-lucy deconvolution) to deblur the original of this pic to this pic. Small improvement, but an improvement nonetheless. Took me ~45 min. I might have a go at deblurring yours over the next week or so, if I get time with work and college.

Gaspode

Cheers. Didn't actually have a tripod with me so the camera was sitting on a chair!
Will have a look see if I have the raw versions, but I suspect not.

Ardent

Were you in the south of France by any chance?

I was there in July, in a lovely coastal village called Bormes-Les-Mimosa. The sky at night there was literally jaw-dropping, very much like what you captured in your photos. It was the first time I had ever seen the Milky Way with own eyes (had always believed it wasn't possible to see with the naked eye)! I could also make out stars and features above me that normally I would only be able to see with a telescope back home. I was totally blown away - I hadn't felt that sense of wonder about the sky above me since I was a little kid. The wife was less impressed and kept having to drag me back to the hotel!

A tip for anyone going to the south of France for their hols: bring your scope!!

Gaspode

It was northern France in Cotes d'Armor in September, at the end of a rainy cloudy week.
Still amazed by it, the clear sky tonight in Dublin is like looking through mud in comparison.

tricky D

Popoutman wrote: »

Click the shutter button with a sheet of card in front of the lens (not touching) and take it away 2-3 sec after the 30 sec exposure has started.

The self-timer delay function is good for this too. Click, step away from tripod before exposure starts.