Happy 129th anniversary to deep-sky astrophotography

Dan — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:08:10 +0000

Henry Draper

Henry Draper took the first successful photograph of the Great Orion Nebula on September 30, 1880 using his 11 inch Clark Brothers photographic refractor he took a 50 minute exposure. Draper was one of the pioneers of astrophotography and he took the first stellar spectrum in 1872 that showed absorption lines.

First Notes

Dan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:32:18 +0000

It’s been hot and hazy for the past week and the skies are murky at best. After a long hiatuses, I’m anxious to get back out under the stars. Since the skies are a bit hazy, I stroll outside around 10:00pm local time and behold, the skies are a little better than I thought.

Since photography is another passion of mine, I always wanted to try shooting the night sky. I don’t know why I haven’t tried it before, just busy I guess. So, I grab my DSLR and tripod and make my first attempt at astrophotography.

Not knowing what to expect, I setup my camera in manual mode, a Pentax*ist DS (a 6.1 megapixel camera) with an smc Pentax-DA 18 – 55mm lens set at 24 mm; f/4.0; ISO 3200; tungsten white balance.

First test - image 1

And this is what I got. It’s just a random shot of the night sky here in Harleysville PA where I live. The exposure for this shot is 8.9 seconds at f/4.0, 24mm, ISO 3200.

You can view this and four additional images in the First Attempt gallery.

90 MilliMeters » Astrophotography

Happy 129th anniversary to deep-sky astrophotography

First Notes