I used my Canon Rebel tonight to do some simple astrophotography. It was connected to my Nexstar mount for tracking and running BackyardEOS on the laptop to control it. After spending quite some time manually focusing and trying different ISOs and exposures I settled on ISO 1600 and 30 seconds. It was supposed to be clear but there were thin clouds all over. The bright “star” on the left is Mars and if you look closely in the lower left quadrant you’ll see the teapot of Sagitarrius. I was also hoping to capture the nova currently in Sagitarrius just above the spout and if I zoom in I can see a star right where the nova is but it’s none too impressive.
Three Day Old Moon with Jupiter, August 5, 2016
Here is a young moon, just three days old with the planet Jupiter which is rapidly heading away from us and toward the far side of the Sun. Canon EOS Rebel 5, 300mm lens, 1/60 second, ISO – automatic, hand-held leaning on car.
Two Day Old Moon August 4, 2016
I’m starting a Moon Observing program with the Astronomical League. Today is the first day, yesterday could have been the first day except I couldn’t find the Moon in the haze. I found it tonight though. Here it is zooming in.
