A few test pictures using the “Starry Sky” setting on my Panasonic Lumix TZ5.  The pictures were done using a tripod at the three timer settings  that are inbuilt for that setting; 15s, 30s & 60s.    The sky was quite brightly lit due to some thin mist acting as a reflector for the urban lighting.

• One thing is clear – the camera can spot stellar colours very easily and..
• Okay.  Two things are clear; the camera can spot stellar colours very easily and a tripod is necessary and..
• Okay.  Three things are clear; the camera can spot stellar colours very easily, a tripod is necessary and because of the Earth’s rotation and the longish exposure settings, no zoom is needed unless you’ve also got a clock-driven tracker drive and it’s…
• Okay.  Amongst my points to make are such diverse things as;
  • One: the camera can spot stellar colours very easily
  • Two: a tripod is necessary because of the long exposures
  • Three: because of the Earth’s rotation and the longish exposure settings, no zoom is needed unless you’ve also got a clock-driven tracker drive
  • Four: it’s necessary to use the timer to set the exposure away so as not to disturb the camera.  I used 2s.

Next time I’ll try some manual settings with less exposure time and more ISO to go with a bit of zoom.  The pictures are (see if you can recognise anything); Orion, Orion’s Belt, The Pleiades, The Hyades with Aldebaran centred.

I found that it’s almost impossible to frame the Pleiades at maximum zoom because they’re so dim in the LCD monitor.  It was trial and error.

One fact that’s not publicised about the camera on this “Starry Sky” setting is that a 60s exposure takes a further 60s to process and save!!

Despite all this, it’s still amazing that I can get Orion’s Belt on a pocket camera!

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Author: Strangely

The last remaining founder member of the band that would go on to publish as Crawling Chaos. SGI buddhist. Programmer and software development.