Calling all Astrophotographers, all skill levels. Post your work.

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Great shot.... I was looking for Pacman and Dumbbell a few weeks ago. I couldn't quite bring them in on my camera, though it was bit cloudy.

One more time with Andromeda at 100mm, stacked 300 more shots.

It seems I caught more stars, and not much more detail of the galaxy. Then again, it's a very small image... The lens is not too sharp, but a lil colorful, I may have over saturated the images. Plus moon light etc...

6400 f/4.5 set at 100mm.
450 shots at 3.2 sec. 24 minutes total.

3rd version


2nd version 450 stacked 3.2 sec


1st version 150 stacked 3.2 sec.

a reply to: imitator

Looking rather good imo, you captured some nice colors indeed. Also got some different colors in the stars, so i believe your lens has a good color rendition, always a good thing.
Might try Andromeda one of these days
Pacman isn't too hard to find if you know Cassiopeia, but it's difficult to spot in single images, very faint and comes out after multiple stacks. Just aim your lens in the middle of Cassiopeia and you should capture it, from there on you can adjust.

I've been aiming the camera at The California Nebula, also easy to locate but difficult to capture. I believe it's also has to do with the lens. Not to happy with the astro results of this lens(nikkor 80-200/2.8) Lot of vignetting even with the flats added, corners are looking pretty bad and awful blue halos around bright stars.
Looking for other options, maybe the Samyang 135mm, I've seen some good results with it.

Camera is now aimed at the Cygnus northern cross. Gonna check out the results and maybe do some more editing if all went well.
I just finished yesterdays edit of the California nebula.
Took one at 145mm and another with 50mm lens
145mm
iso1000
62min exposure


and the wider field of the nebula with the Pleiades
iso1000
45min exposure



Personally I prefer the first version/third picture

a reply to: intergalactic fire

I think your nikkor lens did a pretty good job on California Nebula, very nice reds, and it looks pretty sharp. The vignetting gives it a field of depth; ) That would probably take my canon lens 2 hours of exposure time, if not more...Your blue halo's look way better than Canon's blue halo's. Both awesome shots, plus Pleiades!

I've been looking at 135mm lenses, except they are the old canon FD type. I'm thinking about buying a FD to EOS body mount, just so I can get the low f-stop lenses. Those appear to be in my price range.

Results from the other day at Cygnus

I was hoping for a bit more detail from over 1 hour of exposure, next time we'll go for 2 hours
North America Nebula and Pelican nebula in constellation Cygnus with brightest star Deneb.
145mm @ f4
iso1000
Total exposure time 64min

Wider field of Cygnus with the Sadr region / IC 1318


Had some problems with the flats that gave a weird hue on the image, so have to retake them and process the image again.

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Your nebula images look great; the Pelican nebula doesn't even show up very well in Stellarium, I'm guessing it's a faint neb too. The Deneb star looks very sharp and clear...that reminds me to make a Bahtinov' Mask.

Nothing but Moon here...

Nikon COOLPIX P900
1/100 sec. f/6.5 357mm

Sunday, October 29, 2017

a reply to: imitator
I made one last year, believe I posted it somewhere in this thread back then.

Looking good!
I see you got yourself the P900! You dirt little spy
I bet you're having fun with it, how is it to operate, does it have an optical or digital viewfinder?

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Awesome... I will look through this tread for it.

Oh yeah...I take the P900 everywhere I go.... the things I have seen haha. I even caught a few satellites while capturing the Moon last-night. They're not too clear, definitely not bugs or birds, I can barely make out the solar panels on one of them. Maybe I'll upload those later.

The P900 has both an optical and digital viewfinder.

Last night the Moon cast the right amount of shadows on Langrenus, Vendelinus, Petavius and Furnerius.

P900 at full zoom..... Sunday, November 05, 2017



Also just bought a cheap toy.... $45 dollars!
Tamron 80-210mm f3.8 to f4.0 with an Adaptall FD to EOS body mount. I've done a few test runs (with the Moon out), it looks very promising. I will be spending some time with this one. : )

a reply to: imitator

Great! Interested to see how the lens performs. Love to see some result from it, let us know. Always interested in these old lenses.
I've seen some good daylight shots from it, looks promising.
You have an account on flickr or such photo sharing website?

a reply to: intergalactic fire

The Moon finally chills out...and then the rain, and now it's the clouds turn.
It looks like it going to be cloudy weather here for the next 7 days. Change in temps and all that...

At least it will be a lot cooler when it does clear up.


MEANWHILE.... I taped up a flashlight and poked a pin size hole to simulate a star, and placed it across the living room. I did a few test runs on the Tamron lens. I'm liking it's aperture, though I'll probably have it wide open till I get a tracker.

Tamron testing...


I have no photo sharing page for astrophotography.... I might look into that.

Last night finally some good night weather for astrophotography. No clouds, no moon and cold temperatures.

Had some problems with the alignment at first, but then I noticed I was aligning on the wrong star, I guess that happens sometimes
Wanted to try M31 Andromeda but had some troubles finding it with the 200mm lens so decided to put my chances on M45 Pleiades.
Turned out quite nice but might be doing some more pp in the future on the image.
I was quite surprised to also capture some of the very faint dust around (well that's what I believe it is or maybe it's just some lensfog )

details of the image:
200mm/f4/iso1000
10 x 60sec
20 x 90sec
24 x 120sec
total 54 frames/88min

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Very nice...looking good! You definitely captured Pleiades nebulae.

I might give Pleiades a try with the 200mm when it clears up, our forecast is showing clear skies for at least a day or two this coming weekend...cross fingers.

Oh yeah... I was going to ask you if had a photo sharing page? I have been thinking about joining astrobin, it seems like a good place for posting astro images.

a reply to: imitator

Yep same here
After 2 weeks of rain finally some clear skies, gotta take every opportunity because there are so few.
Everything is already charged and set for tonight so let's all cross fingers
I've sent you a pm in cased you might've missed that.

a reply to: intergalactic fire

I just sent you a reply...

Good stuff bro...

Found Andromeda at last

Lost around 30min of exposure due to some clouds but managed to get a total exposure of over 3 hours.
Here are the results, hope you like it
Nikon d610
200mm /f4/ iso1000
30 x 60sec
43 x 90sec
45 x 120sec
total 119 frames/185min

a reply to: intergalactic fire

Looks great, very crisp and can see it's dark dust lanes. Deep with stars and galaxies... mind-blowing image!

Awesome work!

Man... the weather teased me tonight, the clouds cleared out and I'm seeing stars... I go get my gear, walk back outside, and a heavy fog sets in........

Pleiades

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8
300 images stacked
3200 and 6400 iso
5 sec. exposures.

Last night started off with a light fog, then it started clearing out.
I didn't intend to use 50mm for Pleiades... : P

It's been over two weeks of cloudy weather....

I finally used the Tamron 200mm tonight, though not perfect weather, but clear enough to see Pleiades. I also used a barn door tracker that added about 2 more seconds on the shutter. It wasn't easy to use, I had to delete a lot of shaky images....

Canon Rebel with an Adaptall FD 200mm Tamron
f/4 iso 6400
Barn door tracker
4 sec. 130 images

I may have over exposed the image : P



I also saw an incredible fireball streak across the Texas sky, but my camera was pointed above it at Pleiades. Maybe someone viewed or captured it? Lit up the eastern part of the sky.

Bad weather has entered the skies here so had some time to process some images.
Galaxy M33
200mm /f4/ iso800
123 x 120sec


Rosette Nebula
200mm/f4/iso800
192min


When the weather improves I will try to get more of these 2 to add to the original and hoping to get more and better detail.

Also did a try out on the nebula in constellation Auriga but turned out quite bad, too faint for my gear I guess.
This was over 5 hours of exposure. Also had some trouble with the tracker as you can clearly see.

Posted in another thread too, but I just got a Celestron 127 EQ for a pretty good price (think there are still some for a bit more than I got mine, $80 shipped on Amazon).

Any tips on some neat, inexpensive mods? This wouldn't have been the one I chose, but couldn't pass up the price