To get a really decent photo of Jupiter showing the bands of the planet requires some specialist equipment including a decent telescope. However you can take a recognizable photo of Jupiter and its four main moons with much more modest equipment. With a basic SLR camera and a telephoto consumer zoom lens (e.g a 100-300mm zoom from Tamron or Sigma or your favorite camera manufacturer will do). I had a crack at it with a Samsung Schneider SA 50-200mm zoom lens (this is the same lens as the Pentax DA 50-200mm).

In the subtropics of Australia we get quite a few thunderstorms each summer. The awesome power of nature is quite a spectacle, especially at night when the lightning illuminates the sky. Getting a great photograph of lightning requires some planning and a bit of luck. Getting a fairly ordinary photograph of lightning is not that hard, though. The photo shown below is in the latter category unfortunately, but it was still quite satisfying to capture the electric steaks. I was away on holiday when this photographic opportunity arose one evening.

Photographing stars with basic equipment can be fun. Ideally you should shoot at a dark site a long way from city lights, but even in the city suburbs you can get interesting shots. Of course one of the beauties of digital photography is that trial and error is easy - you can experiment with different exposures and get instant feedback. If you haven’t tried before, you can use the settings below to  get you in the right ballpark -  then just experiment from there.