The frustrations of astrophotography

Conn Buckley · Post by **Conn Buckley** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 11:04 pm

Two passes of the ISS were available this evening. Armed with good advice from Frank and Dave about focussing I awaited with camera sur la tripod for darkness and clear skies.
Alas , I only got one out of two of my wishes when the first pass arrived at 18:24. Next pass was only going to be 82 " long and due at 19:59.
At 19:45 the cloud started to break in the direction of Sirius -- set the focus as best I could and took a 30" exposure. Hells bells -- not alone did I get Sirius out of focus but an aircraft flying through -- adjusted the focus and started again -- then the phone rang -- one of those calls that are difficult to terminate -- I now have a 7.5 minute useless exposure.
What time is the ISS due?? I wrote the time due, direction and elevation on a piece of paper in 'big writing' so I would not be fiddling with different glasses trying to read in the dark!
Hells bells again -- 2 minutes to go !! Will I try for another refocus?? No, better to spend time trying to be sure of pointing the camera in the best expected direction. More hells bells -- my neighbour has just turned on his security light at the back of the house --- damn! -- he rarely does that.
Anyway, here's a 35" out of focus shot of the 0.0 magnitude 82" pass of the ISS tonight. There's work to be done.
What exactly should an in focus star look like -- can anybody show me one please?
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2206/224 ... 45c822.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2153/224 ... d2425f.jpg

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 12:21 am

Conn,
An infocus star should look like a point.
Is that first one of a plane, it looks like its got blinking lights.
If focusing the camera by eye and you wear glasses, then you must use the glasses while focusing, why not bring in the camera to the meeting tomorrow and we can show you what we know, even make it part of the talk.