Astro Photography and the SL3

[eab]

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On 7/26/2024 at 6:26 PM, Eclectic Man said:

I agree with hoolyproductions above, setting the MF to linear from the standard setting is essential for fine-tuning the focus.  The auto setting is hopeless unless you have something very bright like Venus or Jupiter in the sky and can use autofocus.

My technique (with SL2) is to use the highlighting of in focus points as red to get the optimum focus - the more red the better.  Turn the ISO up really high so that you can see stars in the viewfinder, focus manually, then set the exposure you actually want.  

A steady tripod is essential, as is a stock of fully charged batteries - long exposure times, manual focusing at high ISO with the eyepiece or rear screen and, if selected, long exposure correction does drain the batteries.

Good luck.

Thank you again for the all the suggestions. Hopefully over the next couple of days I can give these a try.  I do not have any M lenses with me.  I am not sure they would be better than the sigma.  

 

[Photoworks]

Many people are enjoying the Sigma 14mm for astrophotography at 1.4

I would suggest trying using MF focus and when rotating look at the top screen while holding the shutter down half-pressed, and look until you hit infinity.

I don't think that M lenses can do that as the M-L adapter goes past infinity. Most lenses are not as good for Astro because of Vignetting and coma.

 

People enjoy using Live View Enhanced to frame in the dark. It won't give you an exposure preview, but you can take a test picture.

[JTLeica]

Expose the sky as bright as you can without blowing any highlights, at at high iso this will dramatically improve the perceived noise when you then darken the image. 

Don’t go above 20 seconds with 20mm. Ideally a little less with the SL3 as its high resolution, this is to reduce any star movement. At 14mm you may get away with 25 seconds max, maybe less. I would recommend going up to 10000 ideally and not more, maybe 125000 at a push.

Go somewhere with no light pollution.

Ideally shoot in any season but summer, still works fine though you just get tired waiting for it to get dark 😉

Wait for moon to set.

When editing. Use a mask like a luminosity mast making just ‘dark‘ bits visible and use denoise. Saving any light and bright stars from being muted or losing definition.

 

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Edited July 31, 2024 by JTLeica

[FlashGordonPhotography]

On 7/28/2024 at 1:59 AM, BillCB said:

All my M lenses focus to but not beyond infinity - I've tested each of them.

It's the adaptor, not the lens. Most are shimmed to allow just beyond infinity focusing. It can be hard to find a perfect adaptor. Even the Leica one is a touch long.

I don't know why they do this but it's a thing.

Gordon

[frame-it]

12 minutes ago, FlashGordonPhotography said:

It's the adaptor, not the lens. Most are shimmed to allow just beyond infinity focusing. It can be hard to find a perfect adaptor. Even the Leica one is a touch long.

I don't know why they do this but it's a thing.

Gordon

 

 

 

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[eab]

On 7/31/2024 at 5:37 PM, JTLeica said:

Expose the sky as bright as you can without blowing any highlights, at at high iso this will dramatically improve the perceived noise when you then darken the image. 

Don’t go above 20 seconds with 20mm. Ideally a little less with the SL3 as its high resolution, this is to reduce any star movement. At 14mm you may get away with 25 seconds max, maybe less. I would recommend going up to 10000 ideally and not more, maybe 125000 at a push.

Go somewhere with no light pollution.

Ideally shoot in any season but summer, still works fine though you just get tired waiting for it to get dark 😉

Wait for moon to set.

When editing. Use a mask like a luminosity mast making just ‘dark‘ bits visible and use denoise. Saving any light and bright stars from being muted or losing definition.

 

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Thank you for the tips…. This may be a stupid question, but what caused the elliptical trace in the above picture?

Thanks 

Eric

[hoolyproductions]

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Some shots from late March in southern Finland. SL3, ISO 1600, 6 seconds, SL APO 21mm

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[hoolyproductions]

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[hoolyproductions]

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