Astrophotography

[DHviidR]

Ahoy!

I'm a current (and long-time) E-1 user, soon upgrading to the E-5... I was wondering if it was possible to use the E-5, or any of Olympus's equipment for astrophotography.. I've tried googling the subject but all the photos I seem to find are taken with Canon/Nikon equipment...
Can anyone help with any advice on what I would need (lenses, filters, whatever) to make it possible (if it is) to take good/detailed photos of the stars/planets/galaxies/etc.

Regards, Danny.

 

[SIN WAVE]

you will need a tripod of course, a spot meter, and some patients!

try some moon shots first since the object is big and easy to capture.

use the spot meter-modify it via the zone ssytem, and try to use a fast long lens so you can use a higher shutter speed.

exteriment - its fun

I took some great shots a few years ago with a Hassy on a tripod -moon shots were great!

Have used digital camera to do same. Just recall the sky moves so how you want the shots to come out will be shutter speed dependant.

good luck

larry

 

[edwin willis]

If you google olympus dslr astrophotography you will find all the info you need.Good Luck

 

[TrapperJohn]

I've used my E3 and EM5 for astro shots, using an old Nikkor 400 3.5 lens, and using my Celestron C8 telescope.

On a tripod, you will have limited exposure times at longer focal lengths, because everything in the sky is moving. Actually, the earth is moving... but you get the idea. With the Nikkor 400+2x TC mounted, the moon takes up about half the viewfinder, and transits across the VF in around two minutes.

For telescope use, you need a 4/3 to T mount adapter, not too hard to find. With that, you can mount the camera on the scope where the eyepiece goes. Most of the better scopes have a motor drive to counteract the earth's rotation and essentially freezes the subject in the scope, so you can get very long exposure times... if you have the scope aligned correctly. You can pick up older 8" SCT scopes like the C8 fairly cheap these days, in the $300 range I believe.

You can get an eyepiece projection adapter, too, where you put an eyepiece in the adapter for greater magnification and adjustable magnification, but my experience with one of those was... weak IQ, distorted images.

 

[northcoastohio]

As a recovering AP addict, I know there is a dedicated Yahoo Group - Olympus Digital SLR Astrophotography (AP) that is supportive. I will warn you that AP can get very addictive and expensive... given the combination of mounts, cameras and telescopes, etc.

There are different types of AP. What are you interested in shooting?

If you get even semi-serious about specific types of images you'll want to look into a tracking mount for longer exposures.

Best regards!

 

[Mark9473]

I will probably get shot down for this, but quite honestly if I was serious about astrophotography - beyond snapshots of the Moon - I would definitely not pick any Olympus camera. Luckily I'm not serious about that part of my hobby.


--
Mark
my gallery: http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/5120988127/albums

 

[OM 6Ti Plus]

Not even an OM1 ??

regards,

Mike

 

[Terry Newlin]

I use my E520 and E3 on my 8" SCT often. Great lunar shots but you can't get the entire moon in the frame. I don't recall this as a problem when I was using 35mm SLR on the same telescope. Can and have done some eye-piece projection but not a fan of it. Best images happen when using the camera mounted straight to the scope.

 

[DHviidR]

Thanks for the reply!

This is the type I wanna start off with (being able to take shots of the sky with the milky way and billions of stars visible:

http://astrophoto.com/Sugarpine.jpg

Thereafter I wanna be able to zoom in on the sky and be able to capture galaxies, like this:

http://www.weatherandsky.com/Astronomy/October2007/m31.jpg

I know I would be using a lot of money on a telescope that I would have to mount on to, but my current interests say it would be totally worth it

 

[Emir Martinez C]

DHviidR wrote:

Thanks for the reply!

This is the type I wanna start off with (being able to take shots of the sky with the milky way and billions of stars visible:

http://astrophoto.com/Sugarpine.jpg

Thereafter I wanna be able to zoom in on the sky and be able to capture galaxies, like this:

http://www.weatherandsky.com/Astronomy/October2007/m31.jpg

I know I would be using a lot of money on a telescope that I would have to mount on to, but my current interests say it would be totally worth it

Wow, the first picture is what I am really after. Can I achieve this with an Oly EPL1 ? and how can I?

 

[northcoastohio]

There can be a significant learning curve for AP. It can be a simple as having a tripod, good camera, clear sky and the right subject. With the right lens and camera settings you're in business. The camera really doesn't matter when starting out.

There are a number of good websites and forums:

http://astronomyonline.org/Astrophotography/Introduction.asp?Cate=Astrophotography&SubCate=AP01

http://www.cloudynights.com/

http://skymaps.com/


In the end, the subject will determine the lens/scope and camera combination. It will also determine the process of taking the images (number of frames, exposure, etc.) and what post processing will happen (stacking, dark/light frame subtraction, curve functions, etc.).

I started with an E-500 (for deep sky objects) and an inexpensive web camera for planets (stacking images). Then came the never-ending upgrades. Following the natural progression of AP, the mount will be the single largest investment, next is the glass and last is the camera with all the other stuff that makes it work together...

 

[Mark9473]

DHviidR wrote:

Thanks for the reply!

This is the type I wanna start off with (being able to take shots of the sky with the milky way and billions of stars visible:

http://astrophoto.com/Sugarpine.jpg

Yes that's what we all aim to achieve.

Now if you don't mind spending several thousand $ on a telescope mount (and for those galaxy shots, a telescope) then I'm sure you won't mind picking up another camera body along the way.

But just in case you really want to stick to an Olympus E DSLR, do a test to find out if the camera is allowing you to do what you want. Put it on a tripod ans shoot a wide angle star field. Check the noise. If you get star streaking, know you can solve that later by getting a tracking mount.



I attach an example from my E-520. This is a 30 sec exposure at ISO 800 using an f/2 lens. If you look at it closely, it's actually pretty horrible.









--
Mark
my gallery: http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/5120988127/albums

 

[cynolebias_88]

I have been using an E-620 in combination with a MTO-1000mm cat for moon and planets and for wide field an OM 50/1.8

Bought on Fleebay an wired shutter timer and use Iris astonomical (free) software for processing
The 620 does a nice wide fielld job when dark field substraction is used put the timer at 25 sec interval and 10 sec exposure. Stack the images afterward and remove sky background with Iris. The resultsare not bad for a sealevel populated area.

The link to the Iris site: http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm

Good star hunting