Very boring and quite thick of me i know, but until tonight i had never thought about it.

I took THIS (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v502/Vidster/closeup2.jpg) photo last night of the moon and noticed a star as well. I looked out tonight and there are no stars anywhere near the moon.

I think i need to get a life :rolleyes:

Thats an impressive closeup vidster :shocked: - is it with that new camera you bought in the summer?

It is indeed Draggletail :) Not bad perched on the fence in my back garden at freezing point :hihi:

Ohh dear... I'm sounding even sadder now :wink:


*goes to count stars..........

Nice photo Vidstar
Try taking a photo of the north star on a time delay and you'll find all the other stars circle, i have a nice photo of lightning but i don't know how to post it.

Hi vidster

You may well find if you run it past an astronomer (and I'm divorcing mine, so he's not into answering questions right now) that you haven't got a star in your photo. It could well be another planet- some are very visible, big and bright, at some times, depending on time of night, moonphase and rotation of the other planets in relation to the earth.

Of course, it could be a star, but every time I commented 'ooh- look at that lovely bright star!' I was told that it was (usually) Venus.

Originally posted by coyleys
Nice photo Vidstar
Try taking a photo of the north star on a time delay and you'll find all the other stars circle, i have a nice photo of lightning but i don't know how to post it.

I have tried taking a photo of the north star (well, the brightest star in the sky) a few times but without a tripod i have no chance (hint, hint kblade). I'm not sure if this camera has a time delay as well :blush:

Originally posted by medusa666
Hi vidster

You may well find if you run it past an astronomer (and I'm divorcing mine, so he's not into answering questions right now) that you haven't got a star in your photo. It could well be another planet- some are very visible, big and bright, at some times, depending on time of night, moonphase and rotation of the other planets in relation to the earth.

Of course, it could be a star, but every time I commented 'ooh- look at that lovely bright star!' I was told that it was (usually) Venus.

I always thought that all stars were planets :? Now i'm really sounding dumb.

Thanks for the info guys :)

Although it may seem that the moon moves across the sky much quicker than the stars, that is simply a matter of perspective. The moon is actually hardly moving at all in relation to our Earth, whereas the stars are all moving away from us at phenomenal speeds.

Because they are so far away, the stars seem fixed, and because it is so close, the moon seems to wander. Yet it is about as fixed as a planetary object could get to our own planet.

Originally posted by vidster
Very boring and quite thick of me i know, but until tonight i had never thought about it.

I took THIS (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v502/Vidster/closeup2.jpg) photo last night of the moon and noticed a star as well. I looked out tonight and there are no stars anywhere near the moon.

I think i need to get a life :rolleyes:

Not at all boring, I find astrology a very interesting subject, by the way nice photo.:thumbsup:

Originally posted by wayne72
Not at all boring, I find astrology a very interesting subject, by the way nice photo.:thumbsup:

LOL I mean "Astronomy" :loopy:

At the moment the very bright, orangey start in the sky is the planet Mars.

You can usually tell a star from a planet 'cos the stars 'twinkle' more.

The relative movement of the real stars in teh heavens that we see on a nightly basis is due to the rotation of the Earth. The difference in teh position of the stars due to their REAL movement is too small for us to see without instruments on a timescale of less than a few thousand years or so.

The Moon and the planets, just to complicate matters, move in their OWN orbits as well....so.....we have Earth moving around the Sun. Moon orbiting the Earth. Other planets orbiting the Sun. Rotation of the Earth during a day causing apparent motion of the stars.

Gets pretty complicated up there. :)

There's at least one member of Sheffield Astronomical Society on here, apart from me, and they run occasional star nights out at Mayfield.

Hope this helps!

Joe

And very nice shot, Vidster!

What type of camera is it?

Joe

the next "SpaceFest" Observing night at Mayfield is this Saturday 19th November, starts at 5pm untill 10pm

http://www.sheffieldastro.org.uk/sas-home.htm

Wrap up warm though :thumbsup:

"Redrobbo" was talking about organising a star-gazing night too, I wonder if he still wants to do that?

It's really interesting I think. Vidster that photo is beautiful!

What kind of starwatching kit could I ask for for Christmas? Is it all really expensive? Or can you do that without any kit?

Its a lovely pic. vid. May I steal it for my wallpaper?

Originally posted by coyleys
Nice photo Vidstar
Try taking a photo of the north star on a time delay and you'll find all the other stars circle, i have a nice photo of lightning but i don't know how to post it.

Here's one I did a few years ago where you can see the effect quite clearly: http://www.nickcrossland.co.uk/stuff/stars.jpg - it was about a 25 min exposure. It would look nicer if I filtered out the orange street light colour, and had user a lower film speed so it was less noisy!

Originally posted by kathythebean
It's really interesting I think. Vidster that photo is beautiful!

What kind of starwatching kit could I ask for for Christmas? Is it all really expensive? Or can you do that without any kit?

Taking pics is mainly a matter of a good-ish tripod and long exposure times using the bulb setting and a cable release, but I'm hazy on the specifics of film speed, exposure, aperture etc.

I'd say the pic above is a perfect example.

You could ask for a beginners reflector telescope for Christmas, I don't think they are stratospherically expensive, and give good light collection and magnification.

The disappointing thing about stars, if I can use the word disappointing, is that telescopes only make them brighter (and hence more numerous), but not any bigger.

Seeing Saturn's rings, Mars or Jupiter with your own eyes, however, is a real thrill.

Originally posted by ncrossland
Here's one I did a few years ago where you can see the effect quite clearly: http://www.nickcrossland.co.uk/stuff/stars.jpg - it was about a 25 min exposure. It would look nicer if I filtered out the orange street light colour, and had user a lower film speed so it was less noisy!
Nice one Ncrossland
I did a similar one must be about 20 years ago with my Praktika MTL5, you still carnt beat the old SLR's

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments :thumbsup:

Originally posted by JoeP
And very nice shot, Vidster!

What type of camera is it?

Joe

It's a fuji finepix s5500 (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms5100/) Joe. I got it from Jessops for just under £200 8)

Originally posted by fox20thc
Its a lovely pic. vid. May I steal it for my wallpaper?

Of course you can use it for your wallpaper fox20thc :D

Originally posted by ncrossland
Here's one I did a few years ago where you can see the effect quite clearly: http://www.nickcrossland.co.uk/stuff/stars.jpg - it was about a 25 min exposure. It would look nicer if I filtered out the orange street light colour, and had user a lower film speed so it was less noisy!

That really is impressive ncrossland! I'm going to get my instruction book out and see if i can do that. Once i get a tripod that is :rolleyes:

Thanks again to everyone :)

great pic, vidster!

Thanks Vidster, that's really useful!

I'm starting to look at getting a digital camera and that looks rather nice. :)

Thanks,

Joe

Originally posted by ncrossland
Here's one I did a few years ago where you can see the effect quite clearly: http://www.nickcrossland.co.uk/stuff/stars.jpg - it was about a 25 min exposure. It would look nicer if I filtered out the orange street light colour, and had user a lower film speed so it was less noisy!

How did you mange to take that pic?

Originally posted by notrecoach87
How did you mange to take that pic?

If you have an SLR camera, you need the Bulb (or B) exposure seeting, which keeps the shutter open as long as you hold down the trigger - you can use a remote release with a lock to leave it as long as you like.

For this one, I think I didn't have a remote release, so I did it in 30 second exposures, and combined them digitally.

Originally posted by ncrossland
Here's one I did a few years ago where you can see the effect quite clearly: http://www.nickcrossland.co.uk/stuff/stars.jpg - it was about a 25 min exposure. It would look nicer if I filtered out the orange street light colour, and had user a lower film speed so it was less noisy!
Here you go, a 30 second fix for noise and colour :)
http://www.picturefix.co.uk/stars2.jpg