Posts in category 'astronomy'

  • Moon Shots

    Well, I decided to try and do a little astrophotography with my el cheapo Casio digital camera and my binoculars (the moon being the selected target). I was inspired after an article in Sky and Telescope which discusses the astrophotography possibilities with regular, consumer-grade digital cameras, and so I figured I’d give it a whirl. The result was this:

    This was done with my 7x50 binos, and the camera set for a 640x480 frame at nearly full digital zoom (I was quite surprised by the suggestion, in the article, of using the digital zoom feature of the camera… I had assumed this would result in poorer image quality. It appears I was wrong!) ‘course, I was going to attempt a higher-resolution image at the maximum zoom level (hoping to capture more crater detail), but, as you’d expect, clouds moved in and interrupted my view.

    About the only problem I have with the image is the brightness. I tried to set the camera to the highest ISO setting (which also has the nice effect of reducing noise, due to the higher shutter speed), but apparently that wasn’t enough. I’ll have to toy around some other night and see if I can get better results.