Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
09-07-2016, 07:02 AM
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Woot woot! My kx needs a friend!
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
01-02-2015, 05:47 PM
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This my last shot of 2014. It was taken while imaging Bode's Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy with my new scope.
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
10-19-2013, 09:06 AM
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I went to a local land trust to witness the partial lunar eclipse of the Hunter's Moon. While there, I noticed a couple of fields of sunflowers and decided to shoot this one with the constellation of Cassiopeia in the background. This was a single 30 second exposure with my vintage super takumar 50mm lens set to 5.6 (IIRC). Minor adjustments to remove dust in Photoshop.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
10-03-2013, 10:15 PM
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This past summer, I picked up a couple of vintage Takumar lenses for use in astrophotography. Here is my first go at the 200mm F/4. The subs for this were acquired while my main scope was imaging the western veil, and I was hoping to get the whole veil complex in my sights, but my aim was a little off. This was taken with my stock Pentax KX. |
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-07-2013, 06:54 PM
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This summer, I picked up a couple of older m42 mount takumar lenses (1:3.4/135 mm and a 200 mm) and thought I would attach the 135 to my kx and have them run piggyback on my atlas mount while imaged with my modded Canon/203mm newtonian. I trained my gear on the Veil complex and over the course of 2 nights, I was able to amass 78 usable 4 and 5 min exposures. I did a quick stack in dss and this is what came up.
I am pretty happy with this, but I think I will take a stab at this same target with the 200mm attached to the Canon to try to pull out more detail.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
06-02-2013, 08:31 PM
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Hey everyone
I went for a hike at a nearby trail system with my Kx and an old manual 50mm. I went with the intent to focus on DOF and composition. It was a good time and I think I got some real winners. Comments and critiques welcome. |
Forum: Post Your Photos!
06-02-2013, 08:19 PM
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I just dug up my old photobucket - it seems as if this is my easiest option. Thank you for the suggestion.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
06-02-2013, 07:40 PM
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Sorry if this is in the wrong place, so modmin, please move it if it is in violation. I was looking to link some photos that I took last week and went to my picasa site (admittedly, I have not been there in a while) only to find that it is now under the Google+ umbrella. For the life of me, I cannot find a way to link to my pictures from there. In the past with picasa, I could just copy and paste a link that the provided based on the attributes I chose, but now, it just creates an email like form which contains a link to my album. I am looking to have my pictures be embedded within my post. I have spent the better part of my afternoon trying to figure this out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Mike
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
03-25-2013, 05:59 AM
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Here is a stratrail shot from the other night. This was taken from my back deck with my Kx and my Rokinon 8mm fish eye. |
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-17-2012, 10:26 PM
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Hey KRP - Thanks for the kind words! My friend is indeed Jeff Berkes - How did you know?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-14-2012, 04:48 PM
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Hey everyone,
A friend of mine is a pro landscape photographer and he invited me to one of his workshops on night photography. We headed up to French State park in an effort to capture some of the Geminids. Here are the 2 shots in which I was able to get one. |
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
12-01-2012, 05:10 PM
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Hey everyone,
Here is a composite of a number of shots with my kx through my 8" f/4.9 Newtonian. I did a pretty poor job on the moon, but my only purpose was to capture the moon alongside Jupiter. After playing around in PS, I was amazed that I would get cloud bands on Jupiter, as well as the 4 Galilean moons in the shot. |
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-22-2012, 10:49 PM
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Dr. Who - which lens/scope did you use to take that shot. I have tried this target through my rig, but my FOV is just too small. Nice shot!
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
10-21-2012, 06:39 PM
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Very nice shot. I am glad I could be an inspiration ;) This shot is going to make me want to try longer focal lengths.
Mike
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-20-2012, 06:22 PM
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The mount I great, but really opens up with eqmod (check YouTube). I control everything from my netbook and use pktether to control the camera. Someone on here posted a link to both that, and a way to turn dark frame subtraction off so I can shoot for longer that 30 seconds without the camera being out of commission for the following 30+ seconds. With eqmod, I just polar align (with eqmod's help), then open up a planetarium program and control the mount from that. As I slew to more targets, the mounts accuracy improves and usually after 4 or 5 stars, my targets end up right In my crosshairs.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-20-2012, 02:23 PM
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The kit is pretty heavy (about 100lbs or so - never parted it out) and when I first got it, I would set it up own each it down each night. After a little research, I leaned that it was okay to leave it in the garage (people have dedicated observatories that are not climate controlled) so I would leave it set up the garage. Bear hugging that thing every time I wanted to take it out would take its toll on my back, so I built a dolly out of some scrap plywood and 2x4s and some casters. Every couple of times in and out, I check collimation because of the threshold at my garage door.
Mike
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-20-2012, 11:43 AM
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
10-20-2012, 06:43 AM
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thanks for the kind words. The vastness of space is really is incredible. As far as the telescope, I did not shoot this image through the telescope, rather my camera and lens were "along for the ride" while the scope was imaging something else (I use a canon for shooting through the telescope).
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
10-19-2012, 09:52 PM
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Here is a resent stack of 21 shots of 90 seconds each taken by my Kx through a Tamron 90mm f/2.8. I think I had the lens stopped down a little (maybe 4.5?). Anyway, this is the cygnus region and shows a couple of nebulae (North America, Pelican). The resulting stack was tweaked in Photoshop (levels and curves, followed by some of Neil Carboni's "Astro-Actions" to get rid of purple fringing and to add diffraction spikes. I hope you like!
Mike |
Forum: Post Your Photos!
10-19-2012, 09:45 PM
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Here is a stack of 21x90second shots of the cygnus region of the Milkyway. |
Forum: Post Your Photos!
09-20-2012, 03:35 PM
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Here are the settings for each of the shots. For the 50mm shots, I had to guess at the aperture because it was an m42 mount lens so the aperture is not recorded in the exif data.
Picture 1
iso: 3200
aperture: 3.5
focal length: 18mm
shutter: 25s
Picture 2
iso: 12800
aperture: 4.5
focal length: 18mm
shutter: 25s
Picture 3
iso: 3200
aperture: 3.5
focal length: 18mm
shutter: 25s
Picture 4
iso: 12800
aperture: 4.0
focal length: 18mm
shutter: 30.0s
Picture 5
iso: 3200
aperture: 3.5
focal length: 18mm
shutter: 25s
Picture 6
iso: 3200
aperture: 1.8
focal length: 50mm
shutter: 20.0s
Picture 7
iso: 3200
aperture: 3.5
focal length: 18mm
shutter: 25s
Picture 8
iso: 3200
aperture: 1.8
focal length: 50mm
shutter: 20s
Picture 9
iso: 12800
aperture: 4.0
focal length: 18mm
shutter: 30s
Thanks for the kind words
...paint your palette blue and gray
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
09-18-2012, 05:38 PM
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Here are some shots over the weekend at Assateague Island National Seashore. |
Forum: Post Your Photos!
07-13-2012, 12:20 PM
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These are some shots from my recent trip to the Outer Banks. I hope you enjoy.
Mike
Some fishing boats at Oregon Inlet
My first attempt at a color splash
More boats
An ocean to sound panorama along Highway 12 in the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge
Cape Hatteras Light House resting in its new location
Ocean to light panorama
Abstract of the rigging to boats use
Some seaoats at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge |
Forum: Post Your Photos!
07-04-2012, 06:06 AM
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This was taken off of the porch of our summer home last night. It is from the kit lens at 18mm (if I recall correctly) and for 30 seconds. It was cleaned up with Picasa on my net book. Enjoy! |
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-03-2012, 06:12 AM
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hey everyone - thanks for the kind words - I did not do anything special to stabilize the camera - just set it up on my tripod that had one leg on the passenger seat and the other two on the floor of the passenger side. I learned early in the trip that if I too a turn too quick or if I hit the brakes too hard, the camera would take a spill - so during those types of maneuvers, a free hand placed on the leg closest to me did wonders.
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