1. Colours of the Night Sky
The Amateur Digital Astrophotography
Piotr Fita
Warsaw University, Faculty of Physics, The Optics Lab
The Astronomical Club ALMUCANTARAT
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein
translated by Robert M. Sadowski
Logo designed by Armella Leung,

2. What Do We Make Photos of the Night Sky for?
To see more
To see in colours
To record the rare events
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3. What Can We Make the Photos of the Sky with?
With anything we have at hand!
The digital compact photocamera
The SLR photocamera (either digital or standard) •The webcamera
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4. Digital Compact Photocamera
Specifications
The simplest model
The best model
Maximal exposure time
½ s
10 min
Maximal sensitivity (film speed)
ISO 100
ISO 400
Maximal aperture size 4
1,5
Focal length (equivalent to the 36mm picture format)
35 mm mm mm
PRICE
~ € 125
~ € 500
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5. Digital Compact Photocamera
Applications
Photography of the constellations
Olympus C-5060 WZ
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Phot. Piotr Fita
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

6. Digital Compact Photocamera
Applications
Photography of the Moon and planets
Canon Powershot A20 with telescope of F = 900 mm
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Phot. Piotr Fita
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

7. Digital Compact Photocamera
Applications
Photography of the rare events
Venus in transit across the solar disc, June 8, 2004 r
Canon Powershot A20 with telescope of author’s own design
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Phot. Piotr Fita
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

8. Digital Compact Photocamera
Applications
Photography of the big star clusters
The open star cluster Praesepe
Olympus C-5060 WZ
And many other…
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Phot. Piotr Fita
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

9. The SLR Photocamera (either digital or standard)
Maximal exposure time
Anyone
Maximal sensitivity (film speed)
1600 ASA
It may have attached lens of any type
or be directly attached to the telescope
PRICES:
Standard SLR camera : € 12-50
film 1600 ASA: € 10
Digital SLR camera: > € 600 ,
But this is the best tool for astrophotography!
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10. The SLR Photocamera (either digital or standard)
Applicable to photography of all objects, even the nebulae
The nebulae in Orion
Standard SLR camera EXA Ib
The „North America” nebulosity
Digital SLR camera Canon EOS 300D
The Zenit 135 mm telephoto lens
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Phot. Piotr Fita, Andrzej Rzepecki
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

11. The Webcamera
In connection with a telescope or photo lens allows to take pictures of the Sun, the Moon, and the planets
Phot. M. Marszałek, E. Chludziński, A. Dwornik, R. Konieczny, G. Mikołajczyk,
A. Rzepecki, M. Tokarski, A. Urbańska, W. Warkocki, R. Zięba,
The Astronomical Club ALMUCANTARAT
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12. The Webcamera
After modification allowing for the long exposures it is also suitable to take pictures of the nebular objects
Phot. M. Marszałek, P. Fita, N. Domińczak A. Majcher,
M. Nowakowski, W. Rutkowski, A. Urbańska, R. Zięba
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat
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13. The Webcamera http://ccd.astronet.pl the laptop is recommended!
Total cost:
Camera: ~ € 25
Modification: ~ € 12 (the Philips cameras only)
Adapters: € 10 PLN
Lens: up from € 9
Very economical method!
but
the laptop is recommended!
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14. How to Make a Photo of the Sky? Method 1 – the simplest
In the main focus of the fixed camera
Or „just so…”
Advantages:
Simplicity
Saving time
Minimal efforts and expenses
Shortcomings:
The blurred star-tracks at the long exposures
Weak objects may remain unrecorded
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15. How to Make a Photo of the Sky? Method 1 – the simplest
Let’s go:
Mount the camera on a tripod
Set up manually distance scale to infinity (in the simple digital cameras use the „landscape” mode)
Set up the lowest aperture number, the exposure time for a few or even for some tens of seconds, and high sensitivity (film speed) of ISO
In order to avoid vibrations release the shutter by a remote control cablean electronic pilot, or by a mean of a self-shutter
The results?
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16. How to Make a Photo of the Sky? Method 1– the simplest
Disappointed?
The stars are too small?
No colours?
Let’s make the stars blurred!
Olympus C-5060 WZ, focused for the wide range (f = 28 mm) exposure 15 s
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Phot. Piotr Fita
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

17. How to make a Photo of the Sky? Method 1 – the simplest
Cygnus
Lyra
Sagitta
Delphinus
Aquila
Olympus C-5060 WZ, focused for the wide range, f = 28 mm, ekspozycja 15 s
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fot. Piotr Fita
Klub Astronomiczny Almukantarat

18. How to Make a Photo of the Sky? Method 1 – the simplest
How to choose the focal length?
To make pictures of the constellations f = mm is sufficient
While
To obtain photos of the Moon, the Sun
(with filter only!),
and planets
The focal length above is required 500 mm
Hence the reflex (SLR) camera is indispensable!
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19. How to Make a Photo of the Sky? Method 2- more difficult
Win the so-called afocal projection,
i.e. with camera directly touching the eye-piece lens
(of a telescope, psy-glass, binocular…)
Advantages:
Big magnification with compact camera
Low expenses
Shortcomings:
Worse picture quality than in the main focal plane
Method more complicated than photography in the main focus
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20. How to Make a Photo of the Sky? Method 2 - more difficult
Let’ go:
Set up manually distance scale to infinity (in the simple digital cameras use the „landscape” mode);
Aim the telescope (a spy-glass or binocular on tripod) at the chosen object;
Apply (attach) a camera to telescope’s eye-piece;
Focus the image carefully with the telescope’s eye-piece control screw while observing it at the camera display (or in the viewfinder of the SLR camera);
Release the shutter;
The focal length, aperture size, and exposure time have to be found experimentally.
Results?
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21. How to make a Photo of the Sky? Method 2 – more difficult
Partial Solar eclipse, May 31, 2003
Canon Powershot A20 + spy-glass with magnification 12x
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Phot. Piotr Fita
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

22. How to Make a Photo of the Sky? Method 2 – more difficult
Canon Powershot A20 + telescope of 27 cm diametre and focal length 4.5 m
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Phot. Piotr Fita, Agata Karska
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

23. How to Make a Photo of the Sky? Method 2 – more difficult
Helpful advices:
To attach a camera to any telescope it is useful to buy (to do it yourself) the special sleeve (F-adapter);
In compact cameras with zoom lens the longest focal lengths (tele) should be set up;
The camera’s lens has to touch the eye-piece of a telescope.
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24. With, or Without Tracking?
Exposure time 13 min
Exposure time 15 s
Taking pictures of the weak objects
requires tracking the camera along the diurnal movement of the sky
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fot. Piotr Fita
Klub Astronomiczny Almukantarat

25. With or Without Tracking?
With tracking
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26. With or Without Tracking?
The mount with tracking can be:
Done by yourself
Vademecum of the Amateur Astronomer,
Internet – the „barn door” type mount
Purchased
Meade, Celestron, Orion, Uniwersał
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27. With or Without Tracking?
For the astrophotography purposes the mount has to be equatorial (paralactic),
and not azimuthal!
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28. The Computer Picture Processing
The computer picture processing makes up to 70% of the digital astrophotography!
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29. The Computer Picture Processing
Golden rule of the digital astrophotography:
Take as many as possible identical photos and add them all together
20 photos by 15 secs each =
one photo exposed by 5 minuts!
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30. The Computer Picture Processing
Golden rule of the digital astrophotography:
Take as many as possible identical photos and add them all together
Advantages:
Noise reduction
Increasing sensitivity
Pictures with long effective exposure time with no tracking!
IRIS
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31. × 23 Superposing Adding Visualization Festiwal Nauki 2005
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Phot. Piotr Fita, Andrzej Rzepecki
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

32. Visualization Blurring the star images Removing the background
Lowering the contrast
Sharpening the pictures of the Moon and planets
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33. Removing the dark frame
Correction
Removing the dark frame -
single exposure
dark frame =
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Phot. Piotr Fita
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

34. Removing the dark frame
Correction
Removing the dark frame
Galaxies M81 and M82
Webcamera with F = 50 mm lens
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Phot. Piotr Fita
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

35. Correction The blurred pictures Richardson – Lucy’s algorithm
The Little Dipper (Ursa Minor)
The standard SLR camera with F = 135 mm lens
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Phot. Piotr Fita
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

36. Removing the regular structures
Correction
Removing the regular structures
Filtering with help of the Fourier transform
M31 Galaxy
The webcamera with F = 135 mm lens, photo made in the B band
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Phot. Piotr Fita
The Astronomical Club Almucantarat

37. and many other options…
How To Do It?
Superposing
Adding
Visualization
Correction
and many other options…
The IRIS program
IRIS is freeware!
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38. Other programs Astrostack http://www.astrostack.com/ TeleAuto
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39. Knowledge A webpage dedicated for the digital astrophotography:
„The CCD Observatory at School”
(incl. A practical manual of IRIS program)
Homepage of the EU-HOU Project
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40. Shopping Delta Optical http://www.deltaoptical.com.pl Astrokrak
Uniwersał
Website i-sales Allegro
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41. You can take nice photos of the sky almost with any camera!
Good Luck!
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