First stacked astrofoto

Orion belt and nebula

First stacked astrofoto
On saturday morning I woke up pretty early and when boiling water for tea, I saw quite a lot of stars from our south facing kitchen window. I took the chance to take some pictures of Orion, which was still high enough. At that morning I was not able to take too many picture, there was a plane crossing on two images and then clouds came up, that’s why I have more darks than lights. [Read More]
Sky  Astro  Orion  Foto 

DIY Focus mask

Spending 20€ versus self-made

DIY Focus mask
Getting the stars in focus is not that easy. Sometime you find the statement “turn the focus to infinity”. However, at least for my telescope and my camera lenses “infinity” is even behind the focus. For that, there exist so called focus masks with the Bahtinov mask being the number one found in the internet. However, instead of buying one, it is pretty easy to make a simpler focus mask on your own. [Read More]

Astronomical targets

When to look at which interesting deep sky objects

Astronomical targets
Now that I have a telescope, I need to find something to look at in the sky. Saturn and Jupiter were pretty easy to find since they are so bright. Nevertheless, the first photos taken look ugly. I compiled a list of potentially interesting targets. Let’s see, if I can find and recognize them. Some remarks to the following text All terrestrial position related times in here are given for Mainz, Germany (50°N/8°E) if not mentioned otherwise. [Read More]

Telescope

Finding my way through all parameters

Telescope

Which child, in some point of its life, did not want to take a closer look at the planets, stars, galaxies, … in the sky?! At least I did and finally, after taking some pictures of the full moon lately with a telephoto lens I remembered those wishes and bought myself a telescope. Nevertheless, I do not only want to look at the sky but also take beautiful photos, now. So I started my search for a beginner-telescope with the ability to attach my digital mirror less camera (DSLM). Although a telescope is defined by its construction and two numbers and the two numbers of the eyepiece, it took a while to understand all the relevant parameters that could be calculated from those four numbers. So here I write about my way, how I found one.

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Focus stack of a linden tree seed

by using multiple images

Focus stack of a linden tree seed

My Panasonic/Lumix DMC-GX80 contains a build-in function “Post-Focus”, where the camera takes several pictures with varying focus (Example image). Lately I was a bit disappointed by the results and I looked up the internet for alternatives. On Focus Stacking Macro Photos by Pat David I found a pretty easy and description. You need your pictures with varying focus (here shown 3 out of 30 I took). Ideally take them with a tripod and remote control.

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