DSLR Shots and Discussions

Titan1080

That's actually not bad, we can't see Scorpius very well up here since it sits so low to the horizon and you've managed to catch a decent amount of the galaxy's core. What I think when I see your picture is that you're still fairly close to a big metropolitan area and that there was some stagnant atmospheric conditions at the time. Pollution in the air builds up in stagnant air and light from big towns and cities actually reflects off of it, even if you're miles and miles away from the light source. In my experience, put at least 10-20 miles between you and any nearby towns and cities depending on how big they are, particularly when the air is stagnant. The best times are the first clear evening after a weather system passes by, especially one with rain since that will typically clear up the air and make for a darker sky. The easiest way (the only way really) to clear it all up is to get way out in the country, 50 miles or more away from the nearest big city.

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2009 370Z w/ Sport

Huck

Thanks for the compliments, I appreciate it. Tapatalk compresses the pics, so you don't get to see the full detail of the pic. It actually looks slightly better here.

You're completely right though, I live in the city and this was an unusually clear night for where I live. One of these nights I'm going to go out on old 46, it's a highway between my city and Orlando that takes you out in the middle of nowhere. There's a couple spots where people go airboating and stuff, I wanna stop out there and take some pictures and try to not get eaten by a gator lol.

I just have to figure out why my damned camera doesn't want to focus or take the picture. If it's in auto focus then it won't take the pic. If it's in manual it's fine. Don't know what the problem is...

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RiCharlie

Are you asking why your camera will not focus on stars at night?

10MPlayer

To focus, the camera does a computer analysis of the light coming into it. When the image is out of focus the camera doesn't see much difference from one part of the image to the next. As it focuses it "sees" a sharper division between the bright areas and the dark areas and tries to maximize that effect.

When you look at a dark night sky there's not enough light. The camera can't find any contrasting objects to focus on. You need to turn autofocus off and wait 10 minutes or so for your eyes to adjust. Then you manually focus the camera. Of course you use a tripod and a remote release and don't bother if it's windy out.

Here's an easy to read article on autofocus... HowStuffWorks "How Autofocus Cameras Work"