What are is the best exposure and filmspeed settings for my 35mm manual camera for basic Astrophotography?

Question

I am a beginner astronomer/astrophotographer and want to know what are some good settings so i can get some good photos out of my Meade Etx 80at telescope.I have a 35mm manual camera and dont know what exposure and filmspeed settings to use. I plan on starting out at a basic level so please let me know the best settings for Astrophotography for stars, planets, nebulas and galaxies.

Answer 1

Nebulae, galaxies and planets(*) are astrophotography targets best left for larger, more capable telescopes in the hands of experienced astrophotographers. As has been said, the only through-telescope target that is easily within reach of the beginning astrophotographer is the Moon. You will need a fairly fast film . . . at least ISO 400 (though ISO 800 or faster would be the best. Sure you could use slow, fine-grained films for astrophotography, but the exposure times will increase dramatically as a result. The beginner in the hobby is advised to stick with fast films.) Though the Moon is sufficiently bright that you can use finer-grained films to good effect. Exposure times for the Moon are generally under a quarter of a second, as the Moon is extremely large and bright. To shoot the Moon, you'll need an appropriate camera adaptor for attaching your camera to the eyepiece end of your telescope.

The next (and easiest) target for the amateur astrophotographer are wide-field views of the sky. The most basic wide-field pictures can be had on a plain tripod with exposure times of fifteen to sixty seconds. After that, the motion of the Earth will really start to generate unacceptable smearing of the stars. To get a better view, you'll need your wide-field lens and something called a piggyback camera mount. The mount attaches to your telescope, and the camera is affixed to the mount. Provided your telescope is properly aligned and set up, the auto-tracking functionality(should your telescope be so-blessed) should keep the telescope and camera pointed properly at the sky for long exposure times of between one to five minutes, or more minutes. Simply select a reasonably bright guide-star from the computer's catalogue in the area of sky you wish to photograph. Throughout the exposure time, keep an eye on the guide star through the telescope eyepiece and if it drifts too far off-center, adjust the telescope aim to keep it in center. If you lack computer control, then you'll have to continuously be keeping the guide star centered in the eyepiece. This will give you rich deep-field views of large portions of the night sky . . . entire constellations, star clusters (with longer-focus lenses,) and the largest nebulae (with nice, dark skies.)

Beyond this requires larger telescopes (with decent-size scopes as guide-scopes,) getting into talk of eyepiece filters, and extremely long, precisely guided exposure times lasting tens of minutes. That is generaly beyond the purview of the amateur astrophotographer.

(* - With small telescopes, planets sometimes make better video or webcam targets than they do traditional photography targets.)

Answer 2

The most basic pictures are of the Moon. The Moon is bright enough that regular snapshot settings can be used. You may even be able to use automatic mode. For your first try, just point the camera's lens into the telescope eyepiece and snap away. For more advanced imaging, remove the telescope eyepiece, remove the camera lens and replace it with a telescope adapter. They are commercially available from places like the sources below. Then plug the camera into the eyepiece holder of the telescope so that the telescope acts like a big lens for the camera. You will need to do LOTS of trial and error, trying different films and exposures. The Moon will still be easy. The planets will be WAY TO SMALL to give you a good image unless you use a Barlow lens to boost the effective focal length of the telescope, fine grained film and lots of enlargement in the darkroom. The planet will be a tiny spot on the negative. Star clusters will require longer exposure times, like many seconds or minutes, but you won't use the Barlow lens for those because they are large objects. To photograph a galaxy or nebula is very difficult, requiring very long time exposures of minutes or even hours. Any exposure longer than a fraction of a second will require the telescope to track the (apparent) motion of the sky as the Earth rotates. That is the single most challenging part of astrophotography. Your telescope may not be up to the task. Most successful astrophotographers spend many thousands of dollars for a precision mounting to hold their telescope.

Answer 3

you will need to use a slow film speed like ISO200 or even lower. Because your subject is not moving you don't need a fast speed plus you will get more detail. As for exposure that something you will need to experiment with spend an evening photographing the same thing a recording the time you spend exposing the film. You should get a better idea of your exposure times.

Answer 4

You'll probably want to experiment to see what works best for you. You might want to start with the basics, like star trails (just put the camera on a tripod and aim it at the sky - at the north star works well) and leave the shutter open for an hour. Try different f-stops and see what kind of a difference it makes.