Camera Labs

The night was clear, so I couldn't resist having another go. Did an alignment on the scope, and it worked. Still get slight trailing but at least what I point my little scope at would stay there for tens of minutes unlike normal.


No sooner had I stepped outside with the scope did the neighbours opposite activate their zigawatt beam. It did prove fun watching it light up my breath, and the defocused Orion in the background shows up the star colours nicely. I'm a little surprised the camera found focus on anything.


With that off again, here's a bigger picture to set the scene. Still lots of light pollution.


Here's a go at the nebula, single shot shown. So many problems getting this far... I couldn't get the stars pin point sharp in focus. At best, they formed a little "v" shape. That was moot anyway, since the tracking wasn't perfect and I had short trails even on exposures as short as several seconds. Then when I had it "good enough", I locked the remote release and went inside. Went back out, it sat there doing nothing. I forgot to put continuous mode on. Doh! With that set, I tried again. It took a single shot and stopped. This was confusing me. I fiddled about with silent shoot, and switching between live view and normal shooting, as well as some other settings I still don't understand after RTFM. Long story short, shortening from 10 sec exposures to 5 secs seems to make it work for a bit, then going back to 10 still worked.

Reviewing the captured images, the shift seemed irregular. Could there be a slight wind catching the setup? Or something else?

I've got Iris chewing on some images now so hopefully that'll help clean up the noise a bit. Rather stupidly I didn't try putting on the light pollution filter when using the scope.

Maybe I'll try again tomorrow, weather allowing.

I have a very long way to go to anything like this...

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

This is certainly giving my editing skills a workout.


28 shots of 10s f/13 1325mm ISO6400

Stack of 28 images like the single shot earlier. Lots of messing about more with levels/brightness/contrast.


As above, but manual level tweak on red channel to reduce the light pollution glow.

Hard choice ahead: I can get more of the faint detail visible by keeping the red glow, but the overall contrast is lower. What to do...

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Very nice! Is this your first nebula? Which scope did you use for it?

EDIT: Looking at the timestamp and your location, I thought I'd do some stargazing myself. Got greeted by very thick fog.

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--Zoeff
Panasonic GH2 user
My photos can be found on flickr.

I had an attempt at it last year but it sucked even more!

I use the Celestron Nexstar 4 SE. I'd like something bigger without actually being bigger if you know what I mean.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Heh, I sort of assumed you managed to get the 130mm reflector to work with your camera. To get that kind of an image with your 4SE I'm guessing you used the wedge option and possibly a focal reducer?

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--Zoeff
Panasonic GH2 user
My photos can be found on flickr.

No wedge, no focal reducer.

I think thanks to the long inherent focal length, the effects of rotation were not significant. I have now ordered some focal reducers though.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

That's quite a surprise actually. From visualizing field rotation in my head the focal length shouldn't matter I think. Yes, it is less in the center however you are zoomed in more canceling out the reduced rotation.

Looking at your post again, the 10 seconds exposure might be the reason - I tried this myself with my 8SE but the motors weren't consistent enough and created random movement. There was no field rotation though.

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--Zoeff
Panasonic GH2 user
My photos can be found on flickr.

Good point. I was thinking back to stationary camera shooting. I found wide angle shots showed curving in their movements, whereas in longer focal length shots it appears quite linear.

When I remember to put the light pollution filter in place obviously I'll have to see how long I can go.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Really nice Popo !

Now you need to composite several shots together . The following picture was taken with a DSC-F707 using an afocal system , ten 30 secondes exposures stacked , ISO 400 , on the C14 ( notice the heavy vignetting ).



I didn't tried with the 50D yet since my Gemini GOTO is having some troubles , but I hope to get it fixed soon.

PS: yeah I know , that picture need to be flipped

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Canon 5DmkII + Some Lenses
Flickr

The above was a stack. 28x10 seconds. It was 30 shots but Iris rejected two of them for some reason. I'll have another serious go when I get the focal reducers. A bit more FoV and relative brightness would help, plus perhaps I can remember to fit the light pollution filter.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Ooops , I missed the multi images stack procedure I think you can try to take longer shots , even without a wedge on a alt-az mount.

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Canon 5DmkII + Some Lenses
Flickr

hi all
I got a question: why do you take more than one shot of Orion?
What's the benefit by doing that?
I always take one pic, no more.
Thanks;)

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

Since noise in a single photograph is random, it'll be different in the next one. Average the two out and you get a less noisy image. You can also use this technique to get more resolution (dithering) and to overcome seeing effects at high magnification.

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--Zoeff
Panasonic GH2 user
My photos can be found on flickr.

So, with taking more images you can take them as one, with less noise and (possible) a higher resolution?
intrestin'

Edit:
which software is used for things like those?

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

Have you done some dark frame and divided some flats to your stack ?

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Canon T2i (550D)- Tamron 17-50 F2.8 Non-VC, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM, Canon EF-S 55-250mm F4.5-F5.6
http://www.astronomyphotography.com