First attempt at celestial photos

I was shooting with my Canon PowerShot SX20 IS at 800 ISO, 15 second shutter (max for the camera) exposure and F/2.8, I believe. These are just raw photos...no manipulation or stacking. I haven't gotten that far yet. Still learning.

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Well done. Stick at it.
Have a look through the Astro forums on here about stacking multiple exposures using Deep Sky Stacker.
You've got traces of the milky way there in a single shot, so you should be able to get some good pictures with a few more frames and your 15 second limit isn't a bad thing if you don't have a tracking mount.

Steve.

Thanks, Steve. I thought that was the Milky Way in the background. Yes, I am definitely going to get more into Astro. Space has always fascinated me.

Dave

OK. I did some more photography last night when the skies finally cleared. Again, this is a Canon PowerShot SX20 IS...15 second shutter speed, 2.8 Aperture and 800 ISO.

This image is the first in a series of 14 I took in succession...

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I envy the way you northern hemisphere folks get Andromeda so easily.
Are you familiar with the CHDK project ?
It will let you get longer exposures and most importantly, let you save RAW files. It's a bit of fluffing around, but you'll get more out of your camera for these types of shots.

Steve.

Pretty good photos. It do look like the andromeda galaxy in the last photo bottom right.

I was going to ask that and forgot to. I thought it was Andromeda, but wasn't sure. The funny thing is that I just picked a portion of the sky where I could see traces of the MW with my eyes. It was just by dumb luck that I picked that area. I'm no astronomer, that's for sure. That may change though. I'm looking into a telescope as my next toy.

Dave

SteveInNZ wrote in post #10891218
I envy the way you northern hemisphere folks get Andromeda so easily.
Are you familiar with the CHDK project ?
It will let you get longer exposures and most importantly, let you save RAW files. It's a bit of fluffing around, but you'll get more out of your camera for these types of shots.

Steve.

No, I'm not Steve. I read into it a bit and would be hesitant of adding anything aftermarket to my camera. I've only been in this hobby for around a year. If I need more features or power from my camera, I'll buy a second one. I've got a disabled wife and can't afford the possibility of having it mess up my camera and, I'm sure, voiding the warranty.