[jbinpg]

@Lucky IL - That is the best Witch Head I have yet seen. Congrats!

[Aaron28]

first time using the FA31 for 'astro' work with the K-1....paint rock alabama...reckon I should stuck around for it rise more as it was not visible to my eye

[NotMyFatDog]

It's so cool that you can actually see the moons of Jupiter with only a DA300 and 1.4x on a KP

Holy cow that's amazing! I need to get myself a 1.4x teleconverter and try this

[SunValley]

first time using the FA31 for 'astro' work with the K-1

Wow FA31 with K-1! That must be like the ultimate Pentax starscape kit! Your picture shows already great details in the MW. Imagine when it will be up and out of the light pollution!

[Aaron28]

Wow FA31 with K-1! That must be like the ultimate Pentax starscape kit! Your picture shows already great details in the MW. Imagine when it will be up and out of the light pollution!

it's purdy nice...some trailing shows in the upper right.....I do like results with the FA35 as well...I would hafta look but I think that trailing occurs as well but not quite as noticeable

certainly need darker skies!!! and would have helped if I waited for it to rise more in the sky

[Praktica*ist]

Hello. There are a nice mix of humble, yet pleasing pictures, and very impressive pictures here.

So I would like to try astrophotography, and I'm planning to get an astrotracer O-GPS1 module.
Then, to get better deep red sensitivity, I would like to get a dedicated camera for the task, which would have its anti-IR filter removed and replaced by a more transparent one.
This modification would make the camera unsuitable for regular daylight use. So I would not inflict the treatment to my limited edition Pentax K5.


As the modification, which would be made by a professional, costs quite a bit of money, I'm considering one of those entry-level Pentax'es that have an aperture control block failure, those can be get for cheap second hand.
These partly faulty camera can only be used on manual mode with a lens having an aperture ring, but for an astrophotography use, this is not a problem.

Does this seems a pertinent idea to you ?
Which camera should I aim preferably ?

A 16 Mpixels K-30 / K-50 ? Or a slightly more modern K-S1 with 20 Mpixels ?
The K-30 / K-50 can function with AA / HR6 nickel-hydride batteries, a nice feature that K-S1 does not have.

[DrawsACircle]

Holy cow that's amazing! I need to get myself a 1.4x teleconverter and try this

The teleconverter is not needed, shot with a K-70/da*300

[mikeSF]

'tis the season!
new stuff:

Martian Castle Magic (Explore #29)
645Z & 35mm

Knight's Ferry Bridge
645Z & 25mm

Comet NEOWISE (Explore #21)
645Z & 600mmx1.4

Timeless
645Z & 25mm


no astrotracer on the 645Z, but these are all multi-frames stacked and fed into Sequator.

[SunValley]

A 16 Mpixels K-30 / K-50 ? Or a slightly more modern K-S1 with 20 Mpixels ?

I shoot the stars with K-70 and K-5 and I don't personnally find the extra megapixels of the K-70 all that useful. With the astrotracer there is always a tiny bit of motion blur (center frame stars are rarely perfectly round) So a K-30/K-50 makes more sense unless you can find a K-S1 for the same price.

[Praktica*ist]

Thank you for the advice.
There is also the fact that K-S1 / K-S2 / K-70 do not have anti-moiré filter, which makes the image theoretically a little bit sharper.
But it may not be significant, i don't know.


Is the lack of weather sealing a noticeable drawback at night (water condensation, mist) ?

---------- Post added 08-05-20 at 03:26 PM ----------

'tis the season!
new stuff:

Martian Castle Magic (Explore #29)
645Z & 35mm

Knight's Ferry Bridge
645Z & 25mm

Comet NEOWISE (Explore #21)
645Z & 600mmx1.4

no astrotracer on the 645Z, but these are all multi-frames stacked and fed into Sequator.

Timeless
645Z & 25mm

Dude, these photographs displaying the Milky Way with an interesting foreground are stunning. I like your last one with an old tree very much !

[SunValley]

here is also the fact that K-S1 / K-S2 / K-70 do not have anti-moiré filter, which makes the image theoretically a little bit sharper.

Indeed but because of the slight motion blur, this advantage (and the extra megapixels)

is lost on stars. thinking about it now the K-S1/K-S2 and K-70 have 14 bit ADC while the K-30/K-50 have 12. This maybe an issue if you want to do intense histogram stretching as is normally done in deep sky post processing, the more information, the better.

'tis the season!
new stuff:

Thanks for sharing this, your work is so inspiring! That "Timeless" picture is one of of my favorite nightscape ever.

[Aaron28]

4 frames (3 astrotracer).....messed up as it was not dark enough for the foreground shot so got a nice band of blue in there.......fa31.....K-1

[lister6520]

K1-II with Astrotracer, Sigma 50mm 1:1.4 EX DG HSM

F2.0 60 Sec ISO 800

Single shot with some contrast boost and correction for distortion, vignetting and CA in Lightroom:

Dropbox - IMGP4511.jpg


Stack of 7 images with DSS:

Dropbox - IMGP4511-DSS.jpg



At first I was getting some trails but then I realized I may have set up the camera too close to the car affecting the compass. I moved the car a few meters away, recalibrated and the Astrotracer was then spot on. The lens shows a bit of coma near the edges. It gets worse if I use it full open.



I need to learn more about stacking as I don't seem to get much improvement over the single images and colours get worse, even when shooting many more than the seven images in this example.

[kypfer]

I need to learn more about stacking as I don't seem to get much improvement over the single images and colours get worse, even when shooting many more than the seven images in this example.

This could simply be because Pentax cameras are so good at astro-photography in the first place that they don't need the "benefits" of image stacking … especially with such a fast lens

[Green&White]

The Pleiades. K1 ii & FA 2.8 135mm, ISO 1600, 37 x 30sec., ƒ4 plus darks and flats. Stacked with SiriL, PP with Affinity Photo