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Photographing the Milky Way with the T


Jkulin

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Thanks Aseancat, I must going round the bend asking the aperture and fstop as they are the same thing.

 

So at 15secs and F3.5 and ISO 1500 you were probably at the max before you got any star trails, so an excellent result.

 

 

thank you for the compliment jkulin, could have been better if, either 11-23 is 2-stops faster or the T sensor's at ISO3200 is less grainy or the T having "bulb mode" setting or had I had the stamina to lug a tripod up the climb.  :lol:

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This is a great topic!

I've recently acquired a T and I think as soon as I find myself out in a dark enough place, I'm going to experiment with shooting starry nights.

I'm attaching a photo I took with my D-Lux 6 back in 2014. I was in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the nights were incredible. As I never travel with a tripod, I put the camera on a chair and set the self-timer.

I had to postprocess in Lightroom to get the details.

According to Lightroom, the settings were 24mm, f1.4 and an exposure of 30 seconds. ISO was 80.

As this was my first time taking photos of the starry night, should I have used a higher ISO?

I took a bunch of pics, as I wanted to test out the capabilities of the D-Lux 6. I probably won't win awards, but I was pleased with the results. I'll bet with the T the details will be better.

—Santiago

 

That looks perfect to me..

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Amazon, what else.

www.amazon.com/Orion-9055-Tabletop-Equatorial-Telescope/dp/B0000XMX8O

Jan

 

Here you can find the user manual of the min-EQ.

http://www.telescope.com/Product-Support/Mounts-Tripods/Equatorial-Mounts-Tripods/Orion-Min-EQ-Tabletop-Equatorial-Telescope-Mount/pc/191/c/242/sc/263/p/99404.uts

But there is a Orion EQ1 too, this seems to be a min-EQ together with a tripod.

 

Deliveries from China are pending one company announced.

Jan

Edited by jankap
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Super!

Jan

 

 

Dunk -That is amazing - and very clever! 

 

 

 

It's actually a slightly more sophisticated version of the well known 'Haig (Scotch) Equatorial Camera Mount' as illustrated / described in the original 1988 edition of well known astronomer / astrophotographer, the late H.J.P. Arnold's book, NIGHT SKY PHOTOGRAPHY … which has since been superseded by a further edition covering digital astrophotography as distinct from film.  Google Haig Equatorial Mount and several links with additional information come up. Used copies of H. J. P. Arnold's astrophotography books can usually be bought for a few pennies online from various s/h book dealers who list via Amazon. 

 

dunk

Edited by dkCambridgeshire
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I finally opted to go for a small mount like this Bundle

 

sapackage.jpg

 

It comes with everything and more for pure mobile/travel wide field Astro photography, I managed to get the complete bundle for £255GBP

 

I'm going to take this which will fit very nicely into my peak design bag and I have a Manfotto Carbon Tripod that will splay open very low to the ground and is rock solid when low. I'm not taking the counter weight as there will be no need as I am not using a scope.

 

Although the T won't do longer than 30 second exposures, it should allow me to grab more details images, so hopefully will be able to reduce the graininess and shoot at ISO 800, wide open at F3.5 on the 11/23 at 30 secs. I'm going to polar align using the QHY Polemaster as I will have my laptop with me and hopefully by combining and stacking the images I should be able to grab some good images. There is a waning crescent moon due next week, so should hopefully manage to shoot before this.

 

During the day I am told the Almond blossom is developing so hopefully will grab some images of that as well.

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Wow, well done, you'll be like a pig in the P**. Enjoy.

 

I'll dig out a couple of astro T shots I did when I had one. NO, they are not as good as some done with a couple of minutes exposure, but nevertheless, shoot a swag of 30 second shots and stack them, you'll be surprised.

 

Definitely, definitely, try it all out BEFORE you go.

Gary

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John,

Depends on where you are, bigger cities have plenty of pollution, sure. But there are other places, Tekapo for example, where they are striving to keep the light pollution as bare as they can. The middle of the Australian outback would be a good place to go for dark, but then other issues arise.

 

I dug out this single shot, taken when I had a T. From the file name it would seem it is a single 30 second shot, at ISO3200, and I used the 10" f5 newt, a home-made scope.

 

Try some wide-field shots with whatever manual focus lenses you can acquire. I have a couple of old Pentax 6x7 lenses, and they adapt quite well, plus you're using the sweet spot at the center of the lens.

Gary

 

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That's lovely Gary, especially since it isn't stacked and your focusing is spot on. I imagine you used a motorised mount to keep everything sharp?

 

I'm not taking a scope with me as it will be too bulky, it will all be wide field manual focus, I'm not going to do any deep.

 

I do fancy doing fancy taking my Contax G2 and shoot some E6 as that does have a bulb setting and the Zeiss lenses are really lovely, problem is what fast E6 film is about nowadays.

 

How did you mount your T on to your scope? I'm figuring the only way I could is with a Leica Nikon Adapter and the use the T adapter that I have already and just be careful of any vignetting.

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John,

T is long gone, although I do occasionally (especially when I see some of Louis' shots posted) get a pang or two of regret.

Focus is simpler for me with longer focal lengths, the focal length of the shot above is 1250mm. I use a Bhatinov Mask, makes it a breeze. End yes, guided with an auto-guider.

My comment with "other" lenses was aimed more at the simple manual focus lenses that about, and can be adapted to the T (and most/any mirrorless camera). I used my M lenses, but equally you could use a nice 50mm Nikkor or similar, just need the appropriate adapter. And the bigger Pentax 6x7 work well too, plus they are cos effective.

In the scope case, I already had an EOS to T adapter, and most of my astro fittings are EOS at the business end. The adapter fitted then onto the coma corrector and then fitted straight into the 2" drawtube.

Gary

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Well I finally opted to go for a small mount 

It comes with everything and more for pure mobile/travel wide field Astro photography, I managed to get the complete bundle for £255GBP

 

I'm going to polar align using the QHY Polemaster as I will have my laptop with me and hopefully by combining and stacking the images I should be able to grab some good images. There is a waning crescent moon due next week, so should hopefully manage to shoot before this.

 

I am thinking of a Orion still.

But about polar alignment.

If you have a smartphone with the app SkyView you even can have alignment during the day. No Polaris needed.

One must mount the smartphone to the mount somehow.

Jan

Edited by jankap
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Hi Jan,

 

Polar alignment for wide field photography is not so critical compared to deep space Astro photography as generally you are not leaving the shutter open as long (So I am advised as I am still new to this), if you download any of the many apps, some don't even ask for your co-ordinates as it will take it from your GPS signal, then it will show you where Polaris should be, align your tripod to where it shows on the reticular screen so that they are both displayed in the same place and then fire away.

 

I purchased a QHY Polemaster for my other larger mount and all I had to buy was an adapter so that I could use it on Star Adventurer, it is so small and as I will have my Surface Pro 3 with me which is tiny, it makes sense to use that for really accurate alignment and is probably an overkill for this mount.

 

The Star Adventurer is really quite small and will fit into my camera bag, I'm not taking the counter weight as I don't have anything other than the T to counter against and it saves weight in my baggage allowance.

 

There are a number of Apps for the iPhone such as Polar Scope Align, Polar Align, Scopetool and NCP

 

Hope that helps?

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