First off, I know that a 55 mm camera or CCD camera would be the obvious solution to taking picture of the night sky. But I have this Olympus c-750 digital camera with 10x optical zoom, a wide angle lense, a circular polarizing filter, and a skylight filter, and wanted to know how I could make it useful at night. How can I make the camera more sensitive to light? I wish there was a way to somehow open the shutter as you would for a normal camera and let it take long exposed shots, but I -don't think- this is possible. How could I atleast then slow the shutter speed? Is there anything else that I should know about, any other variables that would effect my shots? Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks!
2006-07-21 05:25:22 · 4 answers · asked by nachtmerrie 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
That camera will do exposures as long as 16 seconds, which is not long by the standards of astrophotography, but pretty long by any other standards. You probably need to use manual mode to access that shutter speed. See page 24 of your manual.
2006-07-21 05:56:21 · answer #1 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A few compact digital cameras have a "bulb" setting that allow for longer than regular exposures. Unfortunately yours does not have this. You will be limited to 16 second exposures at 400 iso at best. This might allow you to image the brighter stars, but not much else. If you want to image the moon and planets with a telescope it is possible but some kind of remote release would be necessary to keep from shaking the camera when the shutter release is activated (this assumes you are using some kind of coupling adapter to connect it to the telescope, which is the usual way to go, or a second tripod to mount the camera). Many digital cameras have a 2 or 3 second self-timer that can also mitigate shake, but all the Olympuses only have a 12 second self-timer, a major minus imo. Good luck.
2006-07-21 12:45:16 · answer #2 · answered by Search first before you ask it 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It all depends on what you want to do. As your camera has a fixed lens rather than an SLR detachable lens I recommend that you get a good sturdy tripod and a piece of software called imagestacker (http://www.tawbaware.com/imgstack.htm ) which allows you to synthesise long exposures from lots of shorter ones without overexposing the photo.
I tried it and got some lovely startrail shots of orion from 7 16 second exposures (sythesised 1 minute 58 second exposure).
2006-07-25 10:42:54 · answer #3 · answered by northern_seth 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One time I borrowed one of my friend's telescopes and directed it to the moon! Then I dialed it in. I took the digital camera and placed it up to the eye piece of the telescope and held it real still once I got the picture to line up. I took several awesome shots of the moon that way, just like the one that is offered in the desktop photos background pictures that come with Windows XP! That is the only experience I have had with shooting the skies at night time up close! Sorry if that doesn't help you out, but try it if you can get the chance! GL
2006-07-21 12:34:27 · answer #4 · answered by laurameetsworld 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋