Just Point & Shoot - There's more than 3 stars?

[gkarris]

So, I've decided to start somewhere by trying.

All I did was take my dSLR outside, set it to 30", infinity focus, wide open, laid it down on the ground, turned off the Christmas and porchlight ;) , and hit the shutter (on timer).

Now, I'm right outside of Chicago and the neighbood his full of homes with lights (and now Christmas lights), not to mention the major street with stores and lights a couple of blocks away and the city not too far.

Looking at the sky portion I decided to photograph, I can only see about 3 stars.

I took the shot, and got this:

Olympus E-500, Vivitar (Komine) 28mm, f2.8, 30", ISO100

http://api.photoshop.com/home_5f4ea34e90b84283b45b42a04f8da681/adobe-px-assets/c4e31999c9cd40518dae8804c11f6294

WOW, "IT'S FULL OF STARS!!!" :D

I was surprised at all the stars I captured. I did some PP in iPhoto to get rid of the orange tinge of the city light pollution...

Anyone know the constellation?

Looks like I'll finally get some use out of my Meade that's been in the closet... :)

[Adrena1in]

You'll be surprised...I think at f/2.8 you'll only need maybe 5 to 10 seconds to capture more stars than you can see with the naked eye. I've not tried to count the stars from my relatively dark site, but I've taken shots at wide-ish angles and a computer programme to stack images, (you'll learn about that - it's called Deep Sky Stacker), has counted something like 30,000 stars in a single shot. Probably not really that many...probably some are noise...but still a lot.

Right, what constellation...well, I had to download your image and brighten it to see all the "hidden" stars, and straight away realised that's Perseus, right in the centre and including the brighter stars up near the top, with the bright star in the middle being called Mirphak. The brightest star in the bottom right is Capella, in the constellation Auriga. It's the sixth brightest star in the sky.

Go and download Stellarium. It's a free piece of software which shows you the night sky from any place and at any time, and is a really useful piece of software. It's what I used to identify your image.

And welcome...you'll get hooked on astrophotography if you're not careful, and looking forward to seeing what you can do with your Meade. What scope is it?

[le_R]

Is that more or less than the number of stars you can see with naked eye ? Maybe there were some fog ?
Maybe do a try at 1600ISO, But as said Adrena1in, at f/2.8 a 10 second capture should show you many and many stars, not 3 only.
I have Nothing to say more than Adrena1in ;)

[gkarris]

^^^ Oh, no, the 3 brightest and maybe 1 or 2 more faint ones is all you can see around here...

The huge Sears department store, small strip mall, drug store, and gas station 2 blocks away at the major intersection lighting up the night sky don't really help any... ;)

[gkarris]

Go and download Stellarium. It's a free piece of software which shows you the night sky from any place and at any time, and is a really useful piece of software. It's what I used to identify your image.

And welcome...you'll get hooked on astrophotography if you're not careful, and looking forward to seeing what you can do with your Meade. What scope is it?

Thanks - will download Stellarium. I have Starry Night but it's a way old version and it's so hard to keep up with them and keep paying for upgrades.

It's a Meade ETX-70AT