[ivoire]

One from tonites attempt with the new rig

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Last edited by ivoire; 03-18-2014 at 10:15 AM.

[VisualDarkness]

Pretty incredible imagery from the Hubble:

Hubble Ultra Deep Field 3D

I think i finally have my astro rig complete and will be testing it out in the next few days (weather permitting) There's a Canon 1.6x front TC under the lens hood

Hubble provides a humbling experience indeed, breathtaking.
Nice rig there! So it's way better for astro like this than a regular ball head? I also want to capture a planet and would the DA300/4 and a 1.5x TC suffice?

[ivoire]

Hubble provides a humbling experience indeed, breathtaking.
Nice rig there! So it's way better for astro like this than a regular ball head? I also want to capture a planet and would the DA300/4 and a 1.5x TC suffice?

LaurenOE posted this and i bought one:

Amazon.com: Orion Min-EQ Tabletop Equatorial Telescope Mount: Camera & Photo

It is much more stable and soooo much easier to adjust and track moving planets. Once you get the planet on the lcd you simply turn one knob to adjust vertical and one to adjust horizontal alignment with very fine control. You should be able to get the same or better results with the DA300 and 1.5xtc. The 400mm tokina i have has a bit more reach but won't match the DA400 in IQ. I have to shoot at f5.6, 1/10sec, iso800. you should be able to do lower iso and faster shutter speed. The hardest task is to get the planet on the lcd.

[steve1307]

LaurenOE posted this and i bought one:

Amazon.com: Orion Min-EQ Tabletop Equatorial Telescope Mount: Camera & Photo

It is much more stable and soooo much easier to adjust and track moving planets. Once you get the planet on the lcd you simply turn one knob to adjust vertical and one to adjust horizontal alignment with very fine control. You should be able to get the same or better results with the DA300 and 1.5xtc. The 400mm tokina i have has a bit more reach but won't match the DA400 in IQ. I have to shoot at f5.6, 1/10sec, iso800. you should be able to do lower iso and faster shutter speed. The hardest task is to get the planet on the lcd.

@ivoire That mount looks good for finer adjusting not too expensive either. I absolutely struggled every time I had to adjust the inclination on my cheap SLIK 3-way head and tripod rated to 2kg.
That shot is great, still iso800 though? Imagine if you had perfectly clear sky and it was higher off the horizon (less atmosphere).



@VisDarkness With a DA*300/4 and a 1.5x TC and the Q, Saturn or Jupiter will still be a tiny spot on the LCD screen. I think it took a only 1-2minutes to traverse the the height of the LCD when I was trying last night in Sydney,AUS with similar setup. (the 4x magnification focus was useless as it was, blown out to white, gone in 10seconds and the lightest touch would knock it out of view anyway).

You can't see the shape of Saturn on the Liveview LCD as it is a bright dot. (the LCD brightens and blows out Saturn because of all the black around it).
With the Iso and shutter right, the exposure will be a brown distinctive shape as Ivoire shows.

I was at ISO125 and 1/40s with a DA*300 1.7x TC so it seems it was much brighter in the sky for me in Sydney probably as it was higher in the sky & maybe clearer weather.

The "orbit" path in Sweden it would be pretty low above the horizon, and would it be dark enough sky to clearly see?

.
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Gonna try Jupiter next.

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Last edited by steve1307; 04-26-2013 at 12:02 AM.

[ivoire]

@ivoire That mount looks good for finer adjusting not too expensive either. I absolutely struggled every time I had to adjust the inclination on my cheap SLIK 3-way head and tripod rated to 2kg.
That shot is great, still iso800 though? Imagine if you had perfectly clear sky and it was higher off the horizon (less atmosphere).


Gonna try Jupiter next.

Saturn is at 25degrees on the horizon and I'm shooting across a parking lot over the top of street lights. That may be part of the problem. I previously photographed Jupiter at 45degrees from a different location and was at iso125. I should try that again with the new rig.

[steve1307]

I had a go at Jupiter this evening. It was chasing the setting sun in the west and was quite low in the sky. I had some terrain issues at my house as I don't live in a flat field. I had to set up in soft grass pointing directly just over the people across the roads house (probably while they were having dinner). I hope they didn't see me aiming towards them. ( the Police didnt come so its OK I guess).


This was a bit more challenging. I didnt think I did as good as Saturn last night. i expected it might be easier since bigger and 560 million km closer.
I took about 12 shots at various exposures. These are the best 2.




ISO200 1/60s. I can only just make out the stripes in this one. (diagonal bottom left - to - top right). This is opposite to what you see in Nthn Hemisphere.
I think stacking is needed to get more definition. I don't know how to do that yet.
This is cropped 800x600 from the 4000x300 so is displayed as 100% crop at 800x600.



At ISO1600 1/5s Jupiter is way overexposed but you can clearly see moons Io, Calisto and Ganymede chasing it as it went down.
I used the "Stellarium" to Identify these, and I should add these were visible in the Liveview too, so this exposure looks just like the LCD screen gives.
Also cropped to 800x600 (100% crop)

IN LR4 I had to fix a bit of purple fringing in these and pulled the blacks down in the second one. Slight adjustment to Clarity (+19) in the first one.

[LaurenOE]

LaurenOE posted this and i bought one:

Amazon.com: Orion Min-EQ Tabletop Equatorial Telescope Mount: Camera & Photo

It is much more stable and soooo much easier to adjust and track moving planets. Once you get the planet on the lcd you simply turn one knob to adjust vertical and one to adjust horizontal alignment with very fine control. You should be able to get the same or better results with the DA300 and 1.5xtc. The 400mm tokina i have has a bit more reach but won't match the DA400 in IQ. I have to shoot at f5.6, 1/10sec, iso800. you should be able to do lower iso and faster shutter speed. The hardest task is to get the planet on the lcd.

Don't forget to align it correctly!

Simple Polar Alignment for Beginners

[ivoire]

Don't forget to align it correctly!

Simple Polar Alignment for Beginners

Thanks for the reminder but thats a project for warmer weather. It's still in the 30's here at nite

Steve1307.... now you're making me competitive! I like the shot where you got the moons, hadn't thought of trying that

[VisualDarkness]

Thanks for all the answers guys and gals, you are a wonderful bunch of people!

My best shot of the moon with the Pentax Q + Kenko 1.5x PZAF + Pentax DA* 300mm F4 setup. It was actually shot through a thin cloud so I'm more than surprised!

[steve1307]

Thanks for all the answers guys and gals, you are a wonderful bunch of people!

My best shot of the moon with the Pentax Q + Kenko 1.5x PZAF + Pentax DA* 300mm F4 setup. It was actually shot through a thin cloud so I'm more than surprised!

Hej ! that's great detail, look at how sharp the shadows are in the craters.


Here's a video from the news yesterday explaining why we're getting great views of Saturn.
What I figured before when I posted in the " Reach of the Q" thread
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-q/173602-reach-q-images-51.html#post2364589

You Tube

You Tube

[VisualDarkness]

Hej ! that's great detail, look at how sharp the shadows are in the craters.


Here's a video from the news yesterday explaining why we're getting great views of Saturn.
What I figured before when I posted in the " Reach of the Q" thread
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-q/173602-reach-q-images-51.html#post2364589


Helicopter gets view of Saturn's rings - YouTube

Thanks! I may have been able to drop down to ISO200 at least but I'm more than surprised anyway. I think all the actual color makes it look better despite not being perfect when it comes to sharpness.

Aha! So that was why you all talked about the horizon now with Saturn. I have to book a flight ticket or something.

[ivoire]

Thanks! I may have been able to drop down to ISO200 at least but I'm more than surprised anyway. I think all the actual color makes it look better despite not being perfect when it comes to sharpness.

Aha! So that was why you all talked about the horizon now with Saturn. I have to book a flight ticket or something.

Great moon shot! The only problem viewing saturn from my location has been the weather. Very cloudy this time of year

[Travis Butler]

I had a go at Jupiter this evening. It was chasing the setting sun in the west and was quite low in the sky. I had some terrain issues at my house as I don't live in a flat field. I had to set up in soft grass pointing directly just over the people across the roads house (probably while they were having dinner). I hope they didn't see me aiming towards them. ( the Police didnt come so its OK I guess).

I'm lucky, I guess... have a second-floor deck on my place with a relatively uncluttered West vantage, so I was able to find Jupiter pretty well!

Unfortunately, this was about the best result I was able to get out of it; moons clearly visible, but certainly no banding on the disc, no matter how much I played around with the focus and exposure.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i35nvcjb9tg6jmp/2013-04-28%20Jupiter%20Moons.jpg

I'm starting to wonder if I'm hitting the limits on the lens; it's a Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 400mm that's got some dust issues, and it focuses (a bit stiffly) past infinity on my M42 adapter so I'm never quite sure if I've got the best focus on it. About the best I could manage for focusing is to try and get the planetary disc as small as possible, and avoid things like https://www.dropbox.com/s/0zl86ievwixb6oa/2013-04-28%20Jupiter%20Bloom.jpeg .

For another example, this is the best moon shot I've been able to manage so far:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f2u4p67id3a6aco/2013-04-21%20Moon.jpg

...which isn't terrible as an casual shot, but I haven't been able to get it sharper yet no matter what I've tried. I've gotten better results when I've stopped down to around f/8, which surprised me after what I've read about diffraction setting in past f/5.6.

Wouldn't be surprised at all if I'm doing something stupidly wrong, I'm just not sure what.

But if the lens is the issue, are there any suggestions folks can make for better inexpensive lenses in the 400mm+ range? It'd be pretty much exclusively for astro shots, and that's a limited enough hobby for me that I couldn't justify putting more than $100-125 into it. I'd kinda also prefer M42 mount, since I've already got adapters for Q, M4/3 and K-01.

[VisualDarkness]

I'm lucky, I guess... have a second-floor deck on my place with a relatively uncluttered West vantage, so I was able to find Jupiter pretty well!

Unfortunately, this was about the best result I was able to get out of it; moons clearly visible, but certainly no banding on the disc, no matter how much I played around with the focus and exposure.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i35nvcjb9tg6jmp/2013-04-28%20Jupiter%20Moons.jpg

I'm starting to wonder if I'm hitting the limits on the lens; it's a Meyer-Optik Gorlitz 400mm that's got some dust issues, and it focuses (a bit stiffly) past infinity on my M42 adapter so I'm never quite sure if I've got the best focus on it. About the best I could manage for focusing is to try and get the planetary disc as small as possible, and avoid things like https://www.dropbox.com/s/0zl86ievwixb6oa/2013-04-28%20Jupiter%20Bloom.jpeg .

For another example, this is the best moon shot I've been able to manage so far:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f2u4p67id3a6aco/2013-04-21%20Moon.jpg

...which isn't terrible as an casual shot, but I haven't been able to get it sharper yet no matter what I've tried. I've gotten better results when I've stopped down to around f/8, which surprised me after what I've read about diffraction setting in past f/5.6.

If almost looks like fog in the air but maybe it's the lens.

Look what I finally found between thin clouds tonight! Sadly blooming due to the weather killed any actual sharpness. Focusing was not that extremely hard due to me being able to see the shape of the rings when zoomed in.
Pentax Q + Kenko 1.5x PZAF + Pentax DA* 300mm F4

[steve1307]

Look what I finally found between thin clouds tonight! Sadly blooming due to the weather killed any actual sharpness. Focusing was not that extremely hard due to me being able to see the shape of the rings when zoomed in

I think that's the best one so far !