X2 and star photos—revisited

[bcorton]

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Hi all,

 

A few months ago, I started a thread inquiring how well suited the X2 was for taking star-scape photographs. I'd like to contribute to the answer to my own question with a few examples of images I made last weekend in Colorado at the Rocky Mountain Star Stare (a star party held at about 7600 ft. elevation). Under nice dark skies, the little X2 can really perform.

 

The first two photographs were made at f2.8 and 15 seconds at 3200 ISO. At 15 sec. stars are beginning to trail due to the rotation of the earth. The third photo (same subject as the first) was made at 8 sec. Trailing is not an issue at this shutter speed. There is a higher noise to image ratio at 8 sec., but it is easily controllable, and the final result is no less realistic. (For those who don't mind stars that look like short sausages, 30 sec. can be pretty amazing.) I desaturated the second and third image somewhat for better verisimilitude—although, really, the eye cannot see even that much color in the Milky Way, but a little color looks nice, I think.

 

All photos were processed (quickly and dirtily) in Lightroom and exported for email. I hope they work well with your monitors.

 

All in all, I'm very happy with the performance of the little Leica for making star-scape images.

 

Brent

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[traphagen]

Brent -- those are fantastic. I'm glad to know the X2 is capable of such. Thank you for posting them.

[Peter L]

Very nice images, well done.

Did you use a stacking program ?, What was your workflow in LR ?

 

Thanks

 

Peter

[bcorton]

Peter,

 

These are not stacked images. No need. Each image is a single capture.

 

My workflow in Lightroom was also quite simple. Starting with the raw file, I increased exposure; increased contrast; dropped the shadows; upped the clarity just a little; there was a lot of magenta fringing (probably not the right word) in the trees, so I dropped the magenta until that disappeared (alternatively, the defringing function removed much of it); I left the sharpening at default; reduced the luminance noise, but not so much as to loose the grainy feeling in the stars (viewed at 100%); and I gave the curve a slight s-shape to further heighten contrast.

 

I realize that sounds like a lot of manipulation, but it really was rather quick and dirty. I probably could have done much of it with curves, but chose instead to work my way down the menu. And I really didn't make any drastic corrections. Even the jpegs look quite good right out of camera.

 

I hope that gives you a pretty good idea. I can't say enough how good the files were, and how easy to work with. Of course the high desert skies played a significant role in what the X2 was able to do, but I'm most impressed with its capabilities. I wanted to be able to make photos like these digitally, but couldn't afford a digital M to use with my faster lenses. I bought this camera as an alternative, knowing that its high ISO performance held promise, but a little concerned that its 2.8 lens might not be sufficient. After last weekend, I have no regrets. The X2 has exceeded my expectations. Buying a digital M has just dropped a few notches on my photographic priorities list.

 

Brent

[pharyngula]

Those are very nice shots. I've often wondered how an M8 would do with its increased IR sensitivity.

 

I've dabbled a bit using a Ricoh GXR A12 M-mount module with Leica glass for astrophotography with an Astrotrac and more recently a Polarie. It is a bit of a learning curve but a lot of fun - your X2 shots inspire me to do more. The Polarie would be a great compact complement to your X2.

[bcorton]

Thanks. I actually went to the star party with the equipment I needed to piggyback the X2 on an equatorially mounted, tracking telescope. In the end, I never used it; I was having too much fun with the camera just on a tripod, imaging trees and stars together. But I agree, to track the Milky Way for 30 sec. (the X2's max exposure time) would be stunning. I wish the camera could do 1 minute or even 2 minute exposure times. One could then stop down and remove the vignetting and residual coma (however slight at 2.8) at the field edge. It wouldn't help with shots from a tripod; there one needs 2.8. But for tracking the stars . . . .

 

I do realize that noise would become a beastly problem at 1 or 2 minutes, however. So I have no complaints.

 

Brent

[bcorton]

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Here's a virgin jpeg, only resized in PS for posting. 'Just for reference.

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[dkCambridgeshire]

Thanks for those photos Brent - and for starting this thread.

 

I've just ordered an iOptron SkyTracker to use with my Leica cameras and lenses ... including my X1.

 

http://www.ioptron.com/pdf_articles/ST_SkyTracker_review.pdf

 

I joined Peterborough Astronomical Society last year and observe using binoculars; I'm not keen on using a cheap telescope and cannot justify a high end 'scope.

 

However, I figure that Leica optics may well resolve stars and other celestial objects with aplomb hence the decision to buy the SkyTracker and experiment with the wider angle view of camera lenses using long exposures. The SkyTracker takes a load of three kilos so it might be possible to mount two cameras at the same time using two different focal length lenses.

 

Unfortunately I cannot observe from my back garden or anywhere else in my neighbourhood because of severe light pollution. Next October Peterborough Astronomical Society resumes observing trips to a 'dark' location (it's used by campers in the summer which prevents us observing there in the summer months) so it's unlikely that the tracker will be used before the autumn.

 

To quote the late doyen of astrophotography, H. J. P. Arnold, " ... astrophotography presents what is arguably the most severe test possible for a lens." I'm going to enjoy discovering what Leica lenses can achieve with a little help from the SkyTracker, long exposures ... and hopefully some decent clear skies.

 

There's more to astrophotography than just using the equipment but the SkyTracker will enable the apparent heavens' movement to be 'frozen' ... and at reasonable £cost.

 

Best wishes

 

dunk

[bcorton]

Yes, I've read good things about the iOptron tracker. You should be able to get some wonderful images with that. I need to load up my M6 and attach it to a clock drive. Leica lenses can do wonderful things. Here's an image I made several years ago with the camera piggy backed on a telescope which was only on an alt-azimuth mount. However, it did allow me to hand track, which I did for two minutes in this case with now-defunct Kodak P1600 color positive film. (With alt-az tracking, as you know, field curvature quickly becomes apparent.)

 

Still, I was pleased with this capture of the central region of Orion. The Horsehead nebula is distinctly visible, as is a large portion of Barnard's Loop (large faint red semicircle to the left). I was happily stunned when I recognized it on the slide. This was with a 90mm Summicron (pre-ASPH) wide open. I can only imagine what the newer lenses are capable of.

 

Clear Skies, and Dark,

 

Brent

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