As usual I made it to bed around 1am last night, and since it was after mightnight I thought I'd take a couple of night shots from my bedroom experimenting with very slow shutter speeds. I sat my camera on a box on my windowsill and set it going for the maximum of 30 second, waiting with baited breathe, and got a lovely orange glow over the houses. Knowing I had a passable daily shot I left my camera at home today... then typically saw loads of cool things at lunchtime - raindrops, oil slicks etc. - but no matter, I can save those for future blank days. Back at home I noticed the sky was a little clearer and there were some stars showing, so before uploading the previous shots I was back at my window staring right at the Plough constellation! I put the camera on manual giving me access to bulb mode and sat there with my finger on the button for 1 1/4 minutes. And got this! (And a good thing too I took more too as last night's shots look a bit bland on the big screen). Oh I love my camera, I've wanted to be able to take photos of the stars for as long as I can remember! Expect more of these, including ones without the smudge on the screen - that's a reflection from the glass, I had to leave the window closed as it doesn't open wide enough. I needs to get me a tripod.
18mm, 75s, f/9.0, ISO 400 (auto)
Nice photo. I was pretty amazed at how good the stars looked though my camera too. On Star Gazing, the bloke took a photo of the stars and was able to zoom in on the viewing screen to show galaxies and everything! I reckon clear skies, a steady tripod, 2 second timer with preview switched on (to stop shutter moving the camera) and we could get some awesome photos!
ReplyDeleteHappy snapping!
Jon D
Is a 2 second timer all you used for yours? That's ace, I wouldn't have thought thay would be long enough, I used 75 seconds (on bulb mode)! I like that you got Orion, my favourite. I could only see one portion of sky out of my window but was lucky enough that it contained the Plough. I look forward to seeing your future star snaps. I haven't watched Stargazing yet but have a bit of time to catch it on iplayer tonight. I'm off to a local lake at lunchtime for today's photo, the clouds are clearing so I'm hoping to get some better light than we've had of late!
ReplyDeleteThat's a cool picture - I do like these sort of long exposure shots. 75 seconds is quite long and certainly beyond my compact. Oh well one of these days I'll have a job again and be able to afford a DSLR.
ReplyDelete