K-5 For Astrophotography

geo444 · 12-06-2011, 04:18 PM

Originally posted by sebberry

Were you using the Pentax GPS Astrotracer for that or an equatorial mount ?

an old SkyWatcher HEQ5 black mount with a 2 years old Goto Kit...

with the Pentax GPS Astrotracer, you can not achieve such long exposures !

Pentax-Full-Frame-Soon

**Ex Finn.** · 12-06-2011, 04:25 PM

Your results are fantastic! Thank you for sharing.

telfish · 12-07-2011, 08:30 AM - **2 Likes**

Over the last year I have been trying to build a setup to do deep sky imaging. This is the first quick and dirty image from my K5.

It shows the Andromeda galaxy M31. This is the largest apparent galaxy and is about 5 full moon widths wide. it's just about naked eye visible from a dark site. Distance from earth 2,5000,000 light years and contains over a trillion stars. It was taken using my Celestron C11 scope with a hyperstar attachment taken at F2 and around 560 mm focal length.

This is just one 30 second exposure and is not stacked. I just did my best in photoshop and lightroom to bring out the details. This image shows the inner brighter part of the galaxy, you can just make out the faint outer areas and the dark dust lanes, a multiple stacked image will bring out those fainter areas. There was a bright moon washing out this part of the sky and I have some light pollution where I live, so I can do much better than this. Will post another better try when I get a decent night.

klkitchens · 12-07-2011, 12:16 PM

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Ex Finn.** · 12-07-2011, 03:18 PM

Sweet shot telfish.

telfish · 12-07-2011, 03:48 PM

Thanks guys,

There is an great deal more lurking there that I was unable to bring out of a single shot, Some of it is lost in the sky glow caused by a bright moon only a little way away from the Galaxy. Next time I will do more shots and lower the iso to 100. This shot was at 800 so there is some noise.

**sfmoore** · 12-18-2011, 10:28 PM

Telfish --

How did you attach the K-5 to the Hyperstar? I'm looking at the Celestron CPC Deluxe HD 1100 and I'm hoping to be able to use my K-5 for imaging. But I haven't seen that there is a k-mount adaptor for the Hyperstar. Any help would be *Greatly* appreciated!

thanks,
-- Steve.

GWARmachine · 03-13-2012, 08:02 AM - **2 Likes**

Orion!
Pentax K-5, Sigma(apo hsm2)70-200mm@200mm, f/3.5 ISO 800, 83 second single exposure. Tracked with AstroTrac.

tempelorg · 03-20-2012, 03:28 PM

GWARmachine, that nebula shot's great. Looks even clearer than the one by geo444. Is that the complete frame or did you crop it?

GWARmachine · 03-22-2012, 06:24 AM

Originally posted by tempelorg

GWARmachine, that nebula shot's great. Looks even clearer than the one by geo444. Is that the complete frame or did you crop it?

Thank you very much! I cropped the sides a little so it would show up well here on the forum. Thanks again! Just received my new hardware (geared head & heavy tri-pod) so more pics coming soon! Just gotta wait for clear skies now.

rfortson · 03-22-2012, 09:56 AM

New moon, clear weather means I'm going to try this tonight with my K5 and GPS attachment. Not sure how well it will turn out with the Houston light pollution, but I'll find out soon.

tempelorg · 03-22-2012, 01:44 PM

GWARmachine, I just had my first go at the sky with my DA* 200mm f/2.8 and the Orion nebula comes out rather small in it (see below, it's a 100% crop). Did you really take the above img at 200mm? Weren't you perhaps missing a zero, i.e. you used a 2000mm telescope, rather?

GWARmachine · 03-22-2012, 04:15 PM

Originally posted by tempelorg

GWARmachine, I just had my first go at the sky with my DA* 200mm f/2.8 and the Orion nebula comes out rather small in it (see below, it's a 100% crop). Did you really take the above img at 200mm? Weren't you perhaps missing a zero, i.e. you used a 2000mm telescope, rather?

LOL! Nope, no zeros missed. The Sigma 70-200 APO is my only quality lens for astro-pics. I don't know if this matters or not...(because I'm still trying to learn about it myself)...but the original file was in RAW format, then I went to Photoshop and did the work as a TIFF file. Then once I was finished with the editing, I saved it both as a TIFF and one for JPEG for here and other websites. I uploaded the original shot below with no editing or cropping, this is what I started with. Unfortunately winter went by so fast and now I won't have a chance to try and stack any photos of Orion like smigol did in his post here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/113178-astrophotography-17.html
Keep the photos coming!

**jbinpg** · 03-22-2012, 11:54 PM

Definitely not as flashy as the Orion Nebula, little comet C/2009 P1 Garradd is currently winging its way southeast through the northeast section of Ursa Major. This is a stack of 7 x 7 second images at f5.6 and ISO3200 taken on March 21, 2012 with the K-5 and the O-GPS1 unit, then processed via Deep Sky Stacker. Image was monochromed and inverted (as in the FITS format). The fuzzy blob upper right center is the comet which is shining at about 6.8 apparent magnitude.

Jack

GWARmachine · 03-23-2012, 12:33 AM

Wish I had some clear skies here to get a shot of the comet. It's supposed to rain here all weekend. What lens did you use for this shot? I'm still interested in getting the O-GPS1, just wondering what the maximum exposure time would be with a 200mm lens.

12-06-2011, 04:18 PM	#61
geo444 Senior Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Marseille Provence Photos: Albums Posts: 150	... Pentax K-5 iso 80 AstroPhotography ! Originally posted by sebberry Were you using the Pentax GPS Astrotracer for that or an equatorial mount ? an old SkyWatcher HEQ5 black mount with a 2 years old Goto Kit... with the Pentax GPS Astrotracer, you can not achieve such long exposures ! Pentax-Full-Frame-Soon

12-07-2011, 08:30 AM - 2 Likes	#63
telfish Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: NY Posts: 407	My first try at astro Over the last year I have been trying to build a setup to do deep sky imaging. This is the first quick and dirty image from my K5. It shows the Andromeda galaxy M31. This is the largest apparent galaxy and is about 5 full moon widths wide. it's just about naked eye visible from a dark site. Distance from earth 2,5000,000 light years and contains over a trillion stars. It was taken using my Celestron C11 scope with a hyperstar attachment taken at F2 and around 560 mm focal length. This is just one 30 second exposure and is not stacked. I just did my best in photoshop and lightroom to bring out the details. This image shows the inner brighter part of the galaxy, you can just make out the faint outer areas and the dark dust lanes, a multiple stacked image will bring out those fainter areas. There was a bright moon washing out this part of the sky and I have some light pollution where I live, so I can do much better than this. Will post another better try when I get a decent night. Attached Images Last edited by telfish; 12-07-2011 at 11:26 AM.

03-20-2012, 03:28 PM	#69
tempelorg Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Munich Photos: Gallery Posts: 203	GWARmachine, that nebula shot's great. Looks even clearer than the one by geo444. Is that the complete frame or did you crop it? Last edited by tempelorg; 03-20-2012 at 04:00 PM.

03-22-2012, 04:15 PM	#73
GWARmachine Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: New Bern, NC Photos: Albums Posts: 138	200mike-mike for sure. : ) Originally posted by tempelorg GWARmachine, I just had my first go at the sky with my DA* 200mm f/2.8 and the Orion nebula comes out rather small in it (see below, it's a 100% crop). Did you really take the above img at 200mm? Weren't you perhaps missing a zero, i.e. you used a 2000mm telescope, rather? LOL! Nope, no zeros missed. The Sigma 70-200 APO is my only quality lens for astro-pics. I don't know if this matters or not...(because I'm still trying to learn about it myself)...but the original file was in RAW format, then I went to Photoshop and did the work as a TIFF file. Then once I was finished with the editing, I saved it both as a TIFF and one for JPEG for here and other websites. I uploaded the original shot below with no editing or cropping, this is what I started with. Unfortunately winter went by so fast and now I won't have a chance to try and stack any photos of Orion like smigol did in his post here: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/113178-astrophotography-17.html Keep the photos coming!

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12-06-2011, 04:25 PM	#62
Ex Finn. Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Southern Maryland. Espoo. Kouvola. Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 7,975	Your results are fantastic! Thank you for sharing.

12-07-2011, 12:16 PM	#64
klkitchens Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Allanta, GA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 480	WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

12-07-2011, 03:18 PM	#65
Ex Finn. Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Southern Maryland. Espoo. Kouvola. Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 7,975	Sweet shot telfish.

12-07-2011, 03:48 PM	#66
telfish Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: NY Posts: 407	Thanks guys, There is an great deal more lurking there that I was unable to bring out of a single shot, Some of it is lost in the sky glow caused by a bright moon only a little way away from the Galaxy. Next time I will do more shots and lower the iso to 100. This shot was at 800 so there is some noise.

12-18-2011, 10:28 PM	#67
sfmoore Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Kalispell, MT Posts: 2	Telfish -- How did you attach the K-5 to the Hyperstar? I'm looking at the Celestron CPC Deluxe HD 1100 and I'm hoping to be able to use my K-5 for imaging. But I haven't seen that there is a k-mount adaptor for the Hyperstar. Any help would be Greatly appreciated! thanks, -- Steve.

03-13-2012, 08:02 AM - 2 Likes	#68
GWARmachine Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: New Bern, NC Photos: Albums Posts: 138	Orion! Pentax K-5, Sigma(apo hsm2)70-200mm@200mm, f/3.5 ISO 800, 83 second single exposure. Tracked with AstroTrac.

03-22-2012, 06:24 AM	#70
GWARmachine Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: New Bern, NC Photos: Albums Posts: 138	Originally posted by tempelorg GWARmachine, that nebula shot's great. Looks even clearer than the one by geo444. Is that the complete frame or did you crop it? Thank you very much! I cropped the sides a little so it would show up well here on the forum. Thanks again! Just received my new hardware (geared head & heavy tri-pod) so more pics coming soon! Just gotta wait for clear skies now.

03-22-2012, 09:56 AM	#71
rfortson Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Houston TX Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,129	New moon, clear weather means I'm going to try this tonight with my K5 and GPS attachment. Not sure how well it will turn out with the Houston light pollution, but I'll find out soon.

03-22-2012, 11:54 PM	#74
jbinpg Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Prince George, BC Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,546	Definitely not as flashy as the Orion Nebula, little comet C/2009 P1 Garradd is currently winging its way southeast through the northeast section of Ursa Major. This is a stack of 7 x 7 second images at f5.6 and ISO3200 taken on March 21, 2012 with the K-5 and the O-GPS1 unit, then processed via Deep Sky Stacker. Image was monochromed and inverted (as in the FITS format). The fuzzy blob upper right center is the comet which is shining at about 6.8 apparent magnitude. Jack

03-23-2012, 12:33 AM	#75
GWARmachine Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: New Bern, NC Photos: Albums Posts: 138	Wish I had some clear skies here to get a shot of the comet. It's supposed to rain here all weekend. What lens did you use for this shot? I'm still interested in getting the O-GPS1, just wondering what the maximum exposure time would be with a 200mm lens.