IS it possible to take good pictures of the stars with a digital camera?

Question

I have thought about just taking a picture with my digital camera of easily visible star constellations on the nights that are clear.
Does anybody know if this will work?

Answer 1

yes, it depends on your camera as to how it works, but, assuming youve got a camera with menus, as opposed to a cheapo point and shoot...

first select auto and night shown by a cresent moon and stars in teh menu... put it on a tripod and press the button. the camera should stay open for around a minute or so.

if yu havent got menus, itll be harder, but not impossible. again use a tripod, or anything you do get will be all blurry. and just point and shoot.

i have an olympus E500, i can focus manually (which is going to be your biggest problem, Dcams dont like low light) and i can set my asa down to 50... and on auto i can get 8 minutes.. which will record a black cat in teh coal cellar at midnight with his eyes shut!

try it on a full moon night, i sent my stuents out last week.. they use fuji 5600's ... some of their stuff is errily scary...

the technique is one ive used for years, set teh highest F stop, and teh slowest film speed... if your worried about camera shake when you press the shutter, knock it off and cover teh lens with a piece of card... it takes a bit of practice, but when it works its well worth the effort.

Answer 2

Yes, you'll need a camera capable of time exposures of at least several seconds, and a tripod. Since pressing the shutter button can cause the camera to shake, use a remote or time delay release if possible.

You will probably be surprised at how fast the sky appears to move. In a 5MP camera at "normal" zoom (50mm equivalent) star images will move about 15 pixels per minute. Without a tracking mount, any exposure long enough to bring out the fainter stars will show them all as short streaks. One way around this is to take multiple short exposures and stack them up using Photoshop or other software.

Answer 3

It's worth a try.

Expose for no more than 15 seconds (On a 50mm lens) with the aperture wide open and try and get the ISO setting as low as possible. If you're using a wider angle lens you could go up to 20 seconds.

Get well away from any light polution - something that's difficult in the UK and just keep trying. Play with the setting until you get it right.

Basically - there's no reason that you can't. You might have an interesting time gettingthe camera to focus.

Answer 4

You need high ISO, like 400 or more, and the aperture opened wide open, lowest f/number. Try for as many seconds as you can before the stars start to blur. And make sure it's stable and doesn't get blown by the wind or you touching it. Or place a very black card infront of the lens, press the shutter and then flip the card out. Flip the card back the same way it came from and then stop the exposure.

Answer 5

Almost every DSLR offers this, you may need to get a remote control or cable release though. I recommend a Nikon D40.

Answer 6

This is better than using your digi camera. It`s updated also.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html

And you can also look here http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html there is a new picture every day of the week :-)

Answer 7

Probably not - go on the web to NASA website and find link to HUBBLE telescope - loads of pics and updated regularly

Answer 8

yes.
get the best camera you can.

Answer 9

Try it and find out!

Answer 10

no really.. if it is just the ordinary digi cam.... not really....the light here on earth affects it....