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The sky at night (meteors, Iridium flares, the moon)


Colin
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Human eye is not bad at picking up green ones, but red ones are far enough along the spectrum that, even when only faintly visible with the eye when present, can appear astonishingly saturated on a camera. Point most often missed with aurora is that the pale green arc that is more often present is just a hint toward the brief spectacular displays. They may not come, but when they do they are incredible. Five minutes later, faint green glow...

 

Photographers use long exposures to capture even the faint ones. Brighter displays are, logically, shorter exposures. Some increase saturation after loading them into the computer, and this is another one of the things that can cause a false expectation from folk about what the aurora will look like, or did look like.

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Maybe some more practice...

 

STRONG SOLAR ACTIVITY: Big sunspot AR1429, which emerged over the weekend, is crackling with strong flares. This morning the active region produced an X1-class eruption and a bright coronal mass ejection (CME). The CME appears set to deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field in the days ahead, possibly sparking geomagnetic storms.

 

Good luck

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Best get dysell a camera !

 

I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-W50 6mp. I've never used it on anything other than automic programmed settings.

 

Just been fiddling, it has ISO 1000, is that low light? I can see anything to keep shutten open and in any case I don't have a tripod.

 

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/DSC-W50

 

You do not need to go up to iso 1000 DK, ( picture will be grainy ) try something like ISO 400 with timer set for about 15 secs. Rest your camera on a post or dyke then when you look at the results you will convince yourself that, well yes, you really do need a tripod!

Here is one at ISO 400 on automatic timer at 7pm tonight.

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb479/beenister/stars.jpg

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Should have looked behind you, Mars is very bright in eastern sky after sunset :)

 

As for the camera, the timer is just for the time you need to put it down? (I have Off, 2 sec and 10 sec.) Nothing to do with the shutter being open and stuff? Is that automatically longer?

 

I also have auto settings low light/twilight, one that says high ISO, or I can put it in program mode and select an ISO figure (amongst other things). Which is best for night sky?

 

Thanks :)

 

And now it's raining :(

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^ I did look behind me, would this be Mars then ?

 

Looks like you best get on ebay DK and look for a good second hand digital SLR camera with a standard lens ! In the meantime, yes try your high ISO 1000 setting which will give you a faster shutter speed and less need for that tripod.

http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb479/beenister/shd1.jpg

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See now you have confused me. I thought for night shots you needs a slower shutter speed to let more light in. I think maybe I need to read up somewhere... :? Going off topic I feel.

 

And yes that looked like the right position for mars :)

 

[Dizzy going into bad weather stress mode]

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