Astrophotography failure with Canon PowerShot SX50 HS

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So, I decided to take a stab at photographing the stars with my Canon PowerShot SX50 HS camera.  Short version: DON'T! It will NOT take photos of the stars.

That was the short version.  If you're interested in reading the details, please continue.

I've tried on numerous times before, all unsuccessful.  I've tried different ISO settings, different exposures, different zoom, focal length, etc...  But the only celestial bodies I've been able to successfully photograph are the sun and the moon.

So after some research, I discovered something called "stacking" which involves taking multiple shots of the same scene and then using software to merge all of these together to make a much more detailed picture.

The software I found, that seems to be the favorite in the community, is called DeepSkyStacker.  You can find it here: http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html

To begin with, I'll point out a couple of obvious facts that I missed.

1) On my first attempt, I captured all of my pictures in JPG format.  You should be shooting all these pictures in RAW mode.  DeepSkyStacker scolded me for not using RAW.

2) On my second attempt, my exposure time was only 1 second per shot, so there was not enough light captured on each image.  DeepSkyStacker informed me that it was only going to stack a single frame from the 15 or 20 I had shot.  Bummer!

Before going out for your first photo shoot, you can begin by taking some reference shots.  These are what DeepSkyStacker will ask you to provide

1) Bias or Offset frames: These are basically pictures you take with the lens cap on your camera.  They remove any bias or offset from reading the camera's sensor.  You usually only need to take these once.  You should have your camera set to the ISO speed you will use for your real photographs and the exposure to the shortest possible your camera will allow.  Take at least 15 of these shots, but more is better.

2) Flat frames:  These provide a reference to remove vignetting and other optical artifacts of your camera.  You usually only need to take these once.  Your camera should be setup the way it will be used to take your real photographs (ie: same ISO, etc...)  Then, cover the lens with a paper towel and point your camera at a bright light source, like the daytime sky. Take at least 15 of these shots, but more is better.

Then, when you go out for your night time photo shoot, you'll capture the following:

3) Dark frames: These provide a reference to remove the dark signal from the light frames (ie: your photos).  It's best to take these when you're done shooting your photos since temperature is important. With the camera still set up the same way (ISO, exposure, etc...) just put the lens cap on and shoot at least 15 frames.  As always, more is better.

4) Light frames: These are the actual photographs of the stars. Again, take as many shots of the same scene as you can.

Last night was reasonably clear, so I tried for the third time.  Same non-results.

The basic problem seems to be that the camera's Manual mode is not really manual.  It prevents you from using certain combinations of settings.  In particular, it won't let you set a high ISO value if you have an exposure longer than 1".

I read several blog posts about this from other people.  One person even contacted Canon customer support.  They agreed that it was a limitation in the firmware and they have no plans to change it.

So, in conclusion, if you plan to take photographs of the stars, do NOT buy a Canon PowerShot SX50 HS.

Disappointing....

Check out my YouTube channel:  
 www.youtube.com/KedarWarriner