[gs2c]

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Selfmade newtonian 180
Imaging cameras: Pentax K5（Mod）
Mounts: NEQ6 PRO
Guiding telescopes or lenses: GS2C DIY 60 300
Guiding cameras: ASI120mm
Focal reducers: TeleVue ParacorrII
Filters: p2


Resolution: 2000x1284
Dates: Jan. 18, 2013
Frames: 34x260"
Integration: 2.5 hours

[TopherTheME]

Very nice. What do you mean by "mod" for your K-5.

[mattb123]

One from tonight. Surely someone here did better!
K-5, A*300mm on a Vivitar P/K-A R-P/K 2x TC
2 shot composite

[VisualDarkness]

I did way worse, I had a forest in the way when the weather cleared up.

[GWARmachine]

Imaging telescopes or lenses: Selfmade newtonian 180
Imaging cameras: Pentax K5（Mod）
Mounts: NEQ6 PRO
Guiding telescopes or lenses: GS2C DIY 60 300
Guiding cameras: ASI120mm
Focal reducers: TeleVue ParacorrII
Filters: p2


Resolution: 2000x1284
Dates: Jan. 18, 2013
Frames: 34x260"
Integration: 2.5 hours

Did you mod your k5 yourself? I have a kx that I want to remove the filter from. I'm too scared to do it with my k5.

[gs2c]

Did you mod your k5 yourself? I have a kx that I want to remove the filter from. I'm too scared to do it with my k5.

Yes, I did it by myself.You can look here
k5

Remove the filter in K5 don`t affect the Focus system.You just tighten the three screws.But kx do not know
Good Luck!

[gs2c]

If you want to modified K5,Must disconnect all lines on the picture
http://forum.xitek.com/pics/201211/10730/1073020/1073020_1353543443.jpg

[GWARmachine]

Amazing gs2c! I really want to try this on my kx!

[DayleT]

There has been no astrophotography thread for K-5 yet, so with your permission I'll start one. In forums without a specific forum for this kind of subject, I've seen a thread like this remain active for years. Let's see your K-5 sky photos, all kinds, including stars, planets, deep sky telescope objects, spacecraft, satellites, and atmospheric phenomena. Also advice, data, and ideas.

To start with, I want to post the data I took for the camera's built-in interval timer. It's a cool feature that the K-5 has the interval timer in the camera, so you can do without attaching an external one. In the menu, you can set the interval timer with a shutter interval, a total number of activations, and a time to begin the activations. The firmware acts like a finger pushing the shutter - that is, the interval you choose is the time between shutter activations, not the time from when the shutter last closed. That means, if the camera needs 1 second to process each shot, and you have the shutter open for 30s, you must set the interval to 31 seconds or more. That's because the camera must be ready for the next shot when the timer fires, or that shot will be skipped.

The issue is complicated by the Dark Frame Subtraction feature, DFS, which in the menu is called "Slow Shutter Speed NR". If DFS is on, after each shot the camera takes a reference frame with the shutter closed which is then processed with the image to remove hot pixels and other problems, at the cost of almost doubling the time per shot.

Using my K-5, I determined the minimum interval time for each of the long shutter times. Enter this value, or higher, into the interval time menu. Using too short a time will cause shutter activations to be skipped; using too long a time will unnecessarily waste time, and we don't want to do that if we are taking sky pictures. As you would expect, the values for DFS on are much higher than those with DFS off. You decide which you want to use.

Values in Bold are more efficient in time used, and have proportionally less dead time, than their neighbors. Use them if you can. For instance, 20s is a good choice for an exposure time - set the interval to 21s if you have DFS off, or 35s if you have DFS on.

Exp NoDFS DFSon
0.25 1. 1
0.30 1. 1
0.40 1. 1
0.50 1. 2
0.60 1. 2
0.80 2. 2
1.00 2. 3
1.30 2. 3
1.60 2. 4
2.00 3. 4
2.50 3. 5
3.00 4. 6
4.00 5. 9
5.00 6. 10
6.00 7. 12
8.00 9. 14
10.0 11 18
13.0 14 21
15.0 16 27
20.0 21 35
25.0 26 42
30.0 32 54


Some interval times are convenient divisors of an hour.
An interval of 6s gives 600 shots per hour.
An interval of 10s gives 360 shots per hour.
An interval of 12s gives 300 shots per hour.
An interval of 18s gives 200 shots per hour.
An interval of 36s gives 100 shots per hour.

I have just downloaded Deep Sky Stacker, can I turn off the DFS and shoot separate dark frames? I mean directly after shooting the light frames? I have watched a few videos on this on utoobe but they never mentioned that the NR is a seperate dark frame taken at the same time. This seems that you can take a lot of frames(light frames) one after the other, then once you've got your shot put the lens cap on and take dark frames to stack? Is this correct?

[jbinpg]

Yes. The ideal dark frame would be taken with the same shutter exposure time and the same ambient temperature as your light frames. K-5 users do not need to worry about dark frames as much since the sensor dark noise is so low.

Jack.

[KansasHorizons.com]

I think it does excellent even in single captures like on the Zodiacal light.



F/4, ISO 3200, 65 seconds.

Coming in an article in the March 2013 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine.

[TopherTheME]

Coming in an article in the March 2013 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine.

Very NICE!

[baro-nite]

Coming in an article in the March 2013 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine.

Wow, congratulations! Pity they cropped it so much; that's editors for you.

[DayleT]

I have just downloaded Deep Sky Stacker, can I turn off the DFS and shoot separate dark frames? I mean directly after shooting the light frames? I have watched a few videos on this on utoobe but they never mentioned that the NR is a seperate dark frame taken at the same time. This seems that you can take a lot of frames(light frames) one after the other, then once you've got your shot put the lens cap on and take dark frames to stack? Is this correct?

Thanks very much, I hope to have some pics up here soon... When we have some clear skies in Manchester..

[GWARmachine]

Great shots everybody! Here is on of my latest.
K-5, Orion ED80mmCF, Atrotrac, 139 second single exposure, pp w/CS5