NikonGear'23
Images => Themes, Portfolio Series, PaW, or PaM => Topic started by: armando_m on November 11, 2015, 22:48:32
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Night shots, just not as long as the star trails
Last night the sky was - finally - clear, a friend an I drove a few kms away from the city
(https://armando-m.smugmug.com/photos/i-xqCrdZd/0/O/i-xqCrdZd.jpg)
(https://armando-m.smugmug.com/photos/i-62gPtwq/0/XL/i-62gPtwq-XL.jpg)
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Lovely scenes Armando.
What equipment & settings did you use?
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Yes Armando, I want to hear everything to the tiniest detail.
What, where, when, why, how...
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This were taken near the town of Amatitan, 50km north of Guadalajara Mexico , 10km south of Tequila
The mountain to the west is called volcan de tequila
25seconds f2.8 iso3200 D800 Sigma15mm fisheye
you can see it has lots of coma
pp in lr and ps, while the milky way was visible high in the sky, near the horizon it needed lots of contrast, clarity and curves adjustment
thanks for commenting
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Armando, I just envy you being able to see such a beautiful starry sky in such a vicinity of the city you live!
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Armando, I just envy you being able to see such a beautiful starry sky in such a vicinity of the city you live!
Akira,
Thanks for commenting
I sent you a message on flickr about a photographer in Japan that does a lot of night shooting, obviously not done in big cities, but shows it is possible and he often includes location info on his shots.
Cheers
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Armando, thanks for the message and info. I'm following him now. But, as you say, he seems to have to drive away from the cities.
Actually, the "live composite" function in my new Olympus E-M5 may enable me to shoot at least the star trails here in Tokyo without blowing out the sky. I will try when the clouds go away.
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a 50% jpg drawn from D800 NEF at 15mm f/2.8 30s ISO 2000 +0.8corr, no BF subtracted, minor PP.
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Bernard, I really like the orange glow in the trees!
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a 50% jpg drawn from D800 NEF at 15mm f/2.8 30s ISO 2000 +0.8corr, no BF subtracted, minor PP.
Very nice Bernard, a fairly dark location ?
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Thanks for the kudos!
Scuol is only 5km off Switzerlands darkest sky location, but is three notches up, about a factor of three in sky background. The trees are illuminated by the town lights of Scuol. I took 'shelter' in a dark bend of the old valley road. The AFS 14-24 f/2.8 tends to produce flares when an uncovered street light hits the glass even when 100 m away when going for night sky.
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Thunderstorm in the distance
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Night Sky. SA version with Fisheye-Nikkor 8 mm f/2.8.
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very nice, there is plenty to see in your shot Peter
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Bjørn ,
what is the red dancing phantom?
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Bjørn, you dug it out! You put a smile on my face :)
This was my first star trail experience in my life!
Erik's 8mm fish-eye that inspired me so much and got me hooked to a lot of things...
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Thanks Armando
Bjorn that is excellent!
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What a difference it makes when the shot is taken in a truly dark location
5 vertical frames pano, moon rise
20mm, 20 sec iso 1600 f1.8
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This is breathtaking, Armando...
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This is breathtaking, Armando...
Thanks Akira
It took some effort to get up really early three days in a row, this sequence was captured on the third try
1. travel
2. to much moon
3. success!
The image has minimal processing, converted to TIF and stitched, no added contrast, light curves, saturation, dehaze or any other post processing trickery
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I like the picture but I really feel this deserves "post processing trickery". At least a little bit.
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I like the picture but I really feel this deserves "post processing trickery". At least a little bit.
Yes, agree completely, I was just thrilled with the quality of the SOOC conversions
I'll like to make the sky darker , without it looking over done, always a difficult balance for me
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If you use PS you can always "overcook" the different layers and then reduce the opacity to fit your taste. The milkyway deserves some contrast and clarity to really stand out. Since you have very little light pollution you wont get those ugly color cast that would otherwise occur. The foreground also need to be a little darker, IMO :)
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Impressive shot, Armando. Gives a beautiful spacial effect.
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Atmosphere over Denmark. D700, 17-35/2.8 @ 17 mm, f/2.8, t=20,0 sec, ISO 1600
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Spectacular Armando and Thomas!
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Very nice Thomas!
Here is a rework of the image from reply #17
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Armando, the second version looks nice, but I think the first one looks more realistic to me.
By the way, you say you stitched the image. I wonder if the stars are also properly aligned?
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Lots of nice images in this thread!
I recently got busy with a new toy for night sky photography. :D (If it is inappropriate with equipment in this thread, please move this post to where it best fits, the first image results in the next posts).
The device is a tracker that compensates for earth rotation so that longer shots/longer focal lengths can be captured without star trails. Using it goes as follows:
1. I mount the iOptron Skytracker directly to the tripod in the zero position of the altitude adjustment with the front facing towards the far tripod leg, I place the tripod with that leg pointing north, fine adjust direction with the rotating base using a hand compass (taking deviation of magnetic north into consideration, +18° in Fairbanks!) and level it (with a the level I added by adjusting and taping it to the top).
2. The altitude adjustment it set proper to the latitude.
3. Now the polar scope is mounted, the motor/LED for the polar scope turned on, and the polar star will usually be visible or just out of the frame. Proper adjustment is made placing the polar star in the reticle at a position found with a polar alignment application.
3. Tripod head/camera is mounted to the rotating platform, pointed at subject of interest in the sky and carefully focused (I prefer to use the tiniest stars visible for this).
4. Polar star adjustment is checked/adjusted again to compensate for any flex in the system.
5. Take test exposure to check framing, exposure and tracking, possibly repeat the adjustments.
6. Start intervallometer to take a long series of exposures with live view and 3 second delay activated. Go away from tripod and take a cup of tea or capture images of the setup during the long wait, trying to stay warm... :D
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v4/p1728756278.jpg)
Because of neck strain I very soon added a DR-4 right angle finder from ebay at $25 shipped and adapted it to the polar scope, integrating part of a DK-22 to provide the proper threads in the adapter.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v6/p1729394044.jpg)
Compared to the alternatives, the Skytracker is very economical at $300, which includes the polar scope packed in a neat little bag, and can be used without adding a geared head for mounting and polar adjustment (typically >$250 for the Manfrotto junior, and at an additional weight of > 1 kg) as the alt/azimuth adjustment is integrated in the device. I also like that the polar scope can be used without removing camera/tripod head and while everything is in the final position, which is crucial when using a lighter tripod.
An extremely useful planning tool is the open source 3D planetarium application Stellarium http://www.stellarium.org/ (http://www.stellarium.org/). Any position and time on earth can be dialed in, exact sunset/rise, moon rise/moon set, and search for any sky object, and lots of switches for foreground grids, atmopshere etc. etc. and a staggering large database of stars. Nebulas are shown as one would photograph them, and one can specify the angle of the zoomed view to simulate the shot almost exactly. So it is a very nice preparation tool or just to do some armchair exploration.
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First tries with the Skytracker - Orion Nebula and the Pleiades.
Tracking devices like the Skytracker is designed for wide area imaging (typically from very wide up to 100mm, stretching it to 200mm). With 135mm 5 minute exposures seemed feasible. I quickly found that I wanted to test the limits, mounting the lightweight 300mm f/4 E PF and my D7100. This works well up to a minute, and in some cases I have stretched it to 2-3 minutes (then throwing away the worst frames where periodic tracking error, PE, kicks in). This has worked so well that most of the imaging I have done with the Skytracker so far has been with the 300mm. It has been limited by pretty strong light pollution in a red zone, and imaging closer to the horizon can be a bit shaky due to unstable air and inversion layers. The light pollution was subtracted partially in Deep Sky Stacker and finally in CNX2 in a levels step. White balance was not used to compensate.
The Pleiades:
Pleiades, M 45, Stack of 10 images at 50 sec, 300mm at f/4.5, ISO 1600. Crop to ca. 1/2 of the frame.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v142/p1829782448.jpg)
The fist captures of the Orion nebula, M42 I only got in 4 frames before trees got in the way because of the low position on the horizon of the Orion constellation.
45 sec, 300mm at f/4.5 ISO 1250, crop to less than half the frame.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v28/p1763201163.jpg)
Next time I found a location with a free view, but more light pollution and disturbance in the air
causing poorer resolution and likely some distortion of star shapes. Stack of 44 frames, 300mm at 60 sec, f/4, ISO 640.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v141/p1683543805.jpg)
The whole frame with a slightly different edit/stacking parameters.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v32/p1819478977.jpg)
In the upper left of the frame above one is supposed to have the Horsehead Nebula. These kind of nebulas emit a lot of their light at the hydrogen alpha line of 656 nm, and modified cameras are often used and then give very red images. I wondered if it would be possible to detect at all through all that light pollution. With some extreme processing and noise reduction, this is what I came up with. The horsehead is in the upper left. ;D I believe the more purple color is caused by more contributions from lines of other elements. I have seen wonderful images from this region even from non-modified DSLRs, so I am looking forward to try this at a really dark site.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s5/v123/p1797960835-4.jpg)
Then finally a 13 image stack of some starry sky (M103 star heap to the middle right), 60 sec, 300mm f/4.5 ISO 1600. The lack of purple fringing in highlights (that otherwise could cause discoloration of small stars) with this lens is really a treat.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v90/p1733990402.jpg)
On location:
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v96/p1803453129.jpg)
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Then on to a couple of galaxies.
The closest neighbor to the Milky Way system, the Andromeda Galaxy is large and easy to find. Here is a stack of 36 frames at 60 sec with the 300mm PF at f/4.5, ISO 1600, slightly cropped. I tried some different stacking methods, however the examples are not comparable as colors and curves were adjusted independently for each image, so they just shows variation of results with different processing. Which one do you prefer?
In the first one I let Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) digest the raw files,used a median stacking parameter, and supplied some flat frames to compensate for vignetting.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s5/v116/p1800045467.jpg)
This next one I believe also is based on raw files in DSS.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v66/p1796135645.jpg)
For this one I converted files to TIFF in CNX2 before stacking. Noise levels might be a bit better, but compensation for vignetting is not as accurate in CNX2 so I ended up combining that with supplying flat frames to DSS treated the same way.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v31/p1665645674.jpg)
A different processing of the Tiff based stack, showing the core of the galaxy (which consist of a star heap hidden within the "fog")
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v58/p1830151002.jpg)
On location. Light pollution was also subtracted in this shot, so it was a lot less dark than it looks.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s5/v118/p1812136388.jpg)
I also had a go at the smaller Whirlpool Galaxy from the more light polluted location of my cabin. Clouds were drifting in and out of view so I had to dispose of a number of frames, stack of the remaining 28 frames, 30 sec with 300mm PF at f/4, ISO 1600. First the whole frame with the tiny galaxy to the right. I used the outermost star of the Panhandle (Carl's Wagon/Big Dipper/Ursa Major) as reference thus location of the galaxy at the periphery.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v26/p1661884701-6.jpg)\
Then the heavy crop. The stars have a distorted shape which is likely due to coma of the wide open lens, also possibly in combination with non-optimal focus/atmoshere. I think I will stick to f/4.5 for future exposures.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v174/p1870992607-6.jpg)
I also had to try this in IR. Light pollution is much suppressed in IR, but how much IR radiation would reach us from this far away galaxy though our atmosphere? Here is a heavy crop of a 7 image stack at approximately 3 minutes for each exposure (released with IR control), D40x IR 720 and 300mm PF at f/4 and ISO 1600. I used both dark exposures and flats when stacking these shots.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v155/p1863678151-6.jpg)
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Very impressive! I've tried the same thing several times, but it seems like I am doing something wrong with DSS. I also had some problems with aligning the shots. More reasearch needed. Wind is also a problem where I live. Clear sky is very often associated with irregular gusts of wind and of course low temperatures. All these problems are possible to circumvent, but unfortunately I have not been able yet. Your results tells me that its certainly worth another try :)
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Øivind, I am left speechless!
The whirlpool galaxy... amazing!
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Øivind, this is truly breathtaking series! I feel the universe much closer than I've always felt. Especially beautiful are the whirlpool (or crashing or going-by) galaxies.
Of course, I've seen NASA images of these galaxies in much higher resolution and quality, but the fact that you captured them using some "common" camera and lens makes me so excited.
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When looking up into the night sky, it hard to believe that there is not some kind of intelligent life out there. Since it´s not down here I mean...
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Sprinkles? 8)
Great idea, Børge!
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Very impressive! I've tried the same thing several times, but it seems like I am doing something wrong with DSS. I also had some problems with aligning the shots. More reasearch needed. Wind is also a problem where I live. Clear sky is very often associated with irregular gusts of wind and of course low temperatures. All these problems are possible to circumvent, but unfortunately I have not been able yet. Your results tells me that its certainly worth another try :)
Thanks for the comment Børge. It takes some time to wrap ones head around DSS as there are so many settings (I am still working on it), and it is not always clear what they are doing. There are some tutorials out there; search for "deep sky stacker tutorial" and the first one is a video going though the basic settings. The starting point with accurate alignment of the tracker using a polar scope and correct exposure with histogram between 1/4 and 1/3 is also crucial. It is best to keep ISO in the 800-3200 range (typically 1600) depending on the body, as post sensor electronics noise dominates above sensor read noise at too low ISO and if too high, dynamic range is reduced. (Some Nikon sensors may tolerate lower ISO well though).
Wind may or may not be a problem - the Andromeda Galaxy image was captured on a pretty windy day (relative to Fairbanks...). For the shots above I went though the images manually before stacking and discarded the ones that had trails either because of wind (less of a problem) or periodic error of the worm drive. DSS is able to automate sorting but I have not tested it yet.
There are lots of general information and really nice images at Roger Clark's pages starting at the top at http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/nightscapes/ (http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/nightscapes/). He expresses some interesting views on format of image sensor vs. noise, and he is a proponent of processing images for natural colors by subtracting light pollution (as that is an addition to light) rather than changing white balance (gains) to compensate, which will screw up the colors of stars.
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Thanks for the kind comment Jakov.
Øivind, this is truly breathtaking series! I feel the universe much closer than I've always felt. Especially beautiful are the whirlpool (or crashing or going-by) galaxies.
Of course, I've seen NASA images of these galaxies in much higher resolution and quality, but the fact that you captured them using some "common" camera and lens makes me so excited.
Thanks Akira, yes when getting into this it was pretty clear to me that there are always someone out there with much better equipment that have already created much nicer images, and not to mention the Hubble space telescope images. So it is in many ways a personal journey and experience than being able to top the best out there. However the images one are able to get today with a DSLR from the last few years and standard lenses might actually be as good as results gotten in pre-digital or early digital age with large diameter telesopes. Just look at the link to Roger Clark's page above and some of the links he provides. It is also interesting how much variation there can be in expressions just because of processing.
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First sucess on Pinwheel galaxy - M101
Finally I got in >2 hours of imaging time (red zone) on another galaxy, M 101, the Pinwheel Galaxy, resulting in 110 exposure totaling ca 1 hour 50 minutes of usable frames (60s exposures at ISO 1600, D7100/AFS 300mm f/4 E PF @ f/4.5 on Skytracker) before aurora took over. Stacked in DSS using 2x drizzle - the image is a little less than half the width of the original frame.
I wonder what the "cloud" in the lower left of the frame is, could it be another galaxy/nebula or is it some kind of flare/ghost artifact? I could not find anything like it at that location in Stellarium (best viewed large).
[Edit: A quick reponse from Russ (RustierOne) at DPreview identified it as "spiral galaxy NGC 5474, magnitude 10.8, 4.7' x 4.7', 22 million lightyears distant." He also mentioned that I caught "another galaxy at about the 10 o'clock position from M101 - its NGC 5477, magnitude 14.0, 1,6 ' x 1.3' ".]
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v68/p1940846142.jpg)
M 101 with AFS 300mm f/4 E PF @ f/4.5 on Skytracker, 60s exposures, 110 used.
My first attempt at M101 a week before was not successful, but I sort of like the result :) . Strangely, none of the single frames that were stacked have such a pronounced auroral pattern before stacking.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v142/p2124326971.jpg)
M 101 buried in aurora with AFS 300mm f/4 E PF @ f/4.5 on Skytracker, ca. 40 30s exposures used, most of the frame.
I also got another go one the Whirlpool Galaxy (M 51) the night before, but got only 30 usable 60 sec frames before aurora took over (2x drizzle in DSS).
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v71/p1886332365.jpg)
M 51 with AFS 300mm f/4 E PF @ f/4.5 on Skytracker, 60 sec exposures @ ISO 1600, ca 30 usable.
Aurora burying the target.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v1/p2126832966.jpg)
Another elusive targets are nebulas radiating in the hydrogen alpha range. Typically, converted cameras are used for these, but it is still possible to get to it with a standard body if the sky is dark enough... As a physiologist I had to make an attempt at the Heart Nebula - in the light polluted red zone..., targeting got a bit off so I only got the atrium and the very top of the ventricles in bottom half of the frame; aurora lingers at the very bottom of the frame. I believe the "aorta" is the red spot to bottom right. I kept it mostly because of the stars.
As a side note, while capturing exposures for this over 80 minutes I heard telltale sounds of a moose browsing out in the dark and moving at regular intervals. Soon I could see a dark shadow 40 meters away, and I envisioned the moose trampling down the tripod with Skytracker and my dear 300PF. So I for much of the time I kept close to it in case of need for an emergency evacuation, which may have disturbed the tripod and caused less successful tracking than normal (I usually keep a good distance to the tripod).
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s5/v123/p2001079144.jpg)
AFS 300mm f/4 E PF @ f/4.5 on Skytracker, 60s exposures, ca. 25 used.
Again Aurora took over...
I have started to experiment with treating aurora images the same way as the star images: Rather than changing white balance I subtract light pollution, and in this case some overly green cast, with a levels step (adjusting each channel separately) in CNX2. This seems to preserve more natural background star colors.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v104/p2109479479.jpg)
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Øivind, thants for posting this information and images, wow - Fantastic resoults with an affordable pricetag!
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Thanks for the kind words Erik.
BTW, here is the current status of my rig after I added a red dot sight and another right angle finder.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v170/p1920909177.jpg)
(The essential intervallometer not connected here for less clutter).
The red dot sight allows accurate aiming without aligning the eye and allows a wide view around the point of interest (no magnification), essential when one only can see the brightest stars to navigate by. The center of the cameras viewfinder was aimed at the top of tree looking though the 300PF+TC-14E.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v60/p2143176693.jpg)
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Øivind
Thanks for sharing all this information, the shots are literally out of this world !
the skytracker sound like a great little gadget and not at all expensive compared to other alternatives
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Thanks for the kind comment Amando.
Yes I am having a lot of fun with the tracker and have been trying to use every opportunity lately as once the moon takes over this month there will be no really dark skies before autumn.
Last night I made another attempt at the Whirlpool Galaxy (M 51), which I managed to get perfectly centered this time using the red dot sight to navigate relative to the two outer stars of the "Panhandle". I originally got 194 captures, each 60 sec @ ISO 1600 before the first signs of dawn, however once I downloaded the files I discovered that light clouds had periodically gotten in the way causing light pollution to kick in strongly on those frames. After culling that included satellites that mysteriously tended to pass almost right in front of the galaxy and clear mis-tracking, 86 remained. I asked DSS to stack 95% of those = 82 minutes total exposure. With more frames collecting light, it seems that both noise and detail has improved since last attempt; this is my fourth try on M 51.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v155/p1926559427.jpg)
Whirlpool Galaxy M51 with AFS 300mm f/4 E PF at f/4.5, 82 x 60 sec, ISO 1600, 2 x drizzle in DSS.
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Øivind
, the shots are literally out of this world !
Couldn't have said it better.
Armando, I loved both versions of your Milky Way moonrise, though in the second one the reflection of the moon on the water starts to gain more prominence than suits the rest of the image.
As for Ovind's images, I can't believe these were taken with a 300mm and a DX camera! I've only previously seen images of galaxies taken with telescopes. I've used Zerene to stack macros, but have no experience of DSS - is that & the stacking getting you this level of magnification/resolution?
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As for Ovind's images, I can't believe these were taken with a 300mm and a DX camera! I've only previously seen images of galaxies taken with telescopes. I've used Zerene to stack macros, but have no experience of DSS - is that & the stacking getting you this level of magnification/resolution?
Thanks for commenting Colin. The main purpose of stacking in DSS is to reduce noise by several different choices of averaging/stacking methods. This will allow to pull up fainter subjects that otherwise would be buried in noise. In the image above I also used 2x drizzle which will take advantage of small imperfections of alignment and tracking to create an image with 2x as many pixels in each direction (but due to memory restrictions it can in practice only be applied to initial crops to half of the frame which is selected in DSS). I guess this is a little like the pixel shift in later Pentax bodies to create higher resolution, but it requires a large number of frames to be effective. Compare the image of the full frame in the first of my posts in this thread, and also the last one to the one before which also used 2x drizzle, but with fewer captures. Yes, it is quite amazing what standard equipment, inexpensive accessories and free software can get us these days, results that required larger telescopes and heavy equipment decades ago. That is what makes it fun, and one can keep improving on imaging the same subjects.
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Øivind, I'm glad that this fascinating series is kept going!
How do you think about the accuracy of the hot shoe as the mount for the red dot sight? Was it easy to align the optical axes of the sight and the lens?
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Øivind, I'm glad that this fascinating series is kept going!
How do you think about the accuracy of the hot shoe as the mount for the red dot sight? Was it easy to align the optical axes of the sight and the lens?
Thanks for your comment, Akira. The hot shoe that I sourced from a flash does not fit very precisely although it does have a screw to fix it better in place. There is some wiggle possible left/right - to that comes that my drilling of screw holes for the hot shoe in the plastic plate that the dovetail claw of the sight grabs was not too precise, it was a quick job before an imaging session. Vertically it is OK, and no adjustment seems necessary. So every time I start a session I center the cameras viewfinder on a star, and then I nudge the sight to the right (typically almost as far as it goes due to my imprecise drilling ) until the star is centered relative to the red dot. After that I am careful to not bump it too much...
I have considered machining a new hot shoe + dovetail adapter out of aluminum with better precision, but then I would loose the screw collar that fixes the hot shoe in place and prevents vertical play, and I am not sure if I would be able to make something that does not have the slightest wiggle; I need to do some experimenting there, and would also have to check for body to body variation of the hot shoe. If it could made to fit precisely, then the red dot sight has the needed adjustment horizontally and vertically for one time fine tuning. So far I have not played with those. It would be very nice to not need to calibrate it for every use, but usually it is necessary to aim at a star for manual focus at the start anyway so the horizontal calibration does not add much to the procedure - it is just the worry of bumping it that bothers me.
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Øivind, thanks for the details.
As I was reading your answer, it occurred to me that the vertical part of your L-bracket might serve you as a better base for the red dot sight, both in terms of stability and accuracy. If your L-bracket has the markers of the optical axis, the alignment would be easier. You can fix your red dot sight onto an Arca-Swiss clamp which should be fairly precisely manufactured.
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Øivind, thanks for the details.
As I was reading your answer, it occurred to me that the vertical part of your L-bracket might serve you as a better base for the red dot sight, both in terms of stability and accuracy. If your L-bracket has the markers of the optical axis, the alignment would be easier. You can fix your red dot sight onto an Arca-Swiss clamp which should be fairly precisely manufactured.
Thanks for the suggestion. I agree that it would be rock solid, however it would be a rather expensive solution though to a small problem, and could conflict the cable release, and the tracker when aiming vertically. Also keep in mind that parallax problems are non-existent with stars, so on-axis mounting is irrelevant. Unfortunately I do not have the vertical component of the bracket for my D5100 which I am likely to use when I do not need quite as high pixel density.
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Øivind, this is fascinating again!
It is well worth the effort you put into creating such an image!
I cannot but say that I wish you could get closer so that we could see more detail in the whirlpool galaxy. I am sure you will manage ;D
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Thanks for the suggestion. I agree that it would be rock solid, however it would be a rather expensive solution though to a small problem, and could conflict the cable release, and the tracker when aiming vertically. Also keep in mind that parallax problems are non-existent with stars, so on-axis mounting is irrelevant. Unfortunately I do not have the vertical component of the bracket for my D5100 which I am likely to use when I do not need quite as high pixel density.
Okay, that makes sense. Hope you would find a better solution using the hot shoe.
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More images please :)
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More images please :)
As commanded ;D
This time I made an attempt during fairly bright moon light :o on Bode's Nebulae and Cigar Galaxy (M 81 and M82) . It was really a test during my construction of a Bahtinov Mask (http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/make-bahtinov-mask.html (http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/make-bahtinov-mask.html)) to aid focusing on stars, but came out better than my previous attempt on these DSOs as I got in more imaging time from a slightly less light polluted site. Focus came out fine too. Initial capture was 120 frames, but a number had to be discarded because of aurora bursts and beginning twilight towards the end.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v155/p2113663482.jpg)
61 image stack in DSS drizzle 2x, D7100 with 300mm PF @ f/4.5 ISO 1600, each frame 60 sec, 38 flats @ ISO 100, crop to < 1/3 of the frame.
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Impressive results !
What are the 38 flats ?
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Another nice take, Øivind!
The diffused small spot in the top-left area appears to be another galaxy...
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Thanks for the kind comments both of you.
Amando, the flats are for compensating vignetting of the lens. As I used a portion of an overcast sky that might not have been completely homogenous, I let DSS average out a number of them taken at different angles and locations. Some swear by doing the flats at the end of an imaging session by using a diffuser or light panel on the lens/scope. That would also compensate for dustbunnies etc.
Akira, yes the spot is a galaxy, NGC 3077. A wider view from the same captures also reveals a couple of other galaxies low in the frame, NGC 2959 and NGC 2976:
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v31/p2078361277.jpg)
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Øivind, thanks for the image of the wider view. It is fascinating to realize how such plain diffused dots can stimulate lots of imaginations.
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Thanks for showing these great pics. I'm watching with increasing interest,
Fascinated by what can be revealed with 'affordable' gear. Please continue your thread effort.
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Øivind Tøien is Mr Spaceman!!!
I am truly enjoying the images!
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Thanks for further enthusiastic comments, Akira, Thomas and Jakov.
Per demand ;) here is my effort from last week to capture comet Comet C/2014 S2 (Panstarrs). It sort of closes the circle as my want for a tracker started with my attempt to capture comet Catalina earlier this year. The cool thing about comet C/2014 S2 is that it at the time passed between two very nice deep space objects, the Owl Nebula (M 97) and the M 108 Galaxy. The Owl Nebula is what is called a "planetary" nebula and is the remains after a red giant star lost most of it hydrogen fuel and there is only a white dwarf star remaining in the center while gases are being slung out at high speed. The Nebula is only 8000 years old, which of course is almost no time on the astronomical scale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl_Nebula (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl_Nebula).
Comet C/2014 S2 passed earth at only 2.10 lunar distances at the closest and thus moves very fast. I was lucky to be able to image the comet over four consecutive nights in spite of the bright moonlight with my 300mm PF on D7100 at f/4.5. Exposure time of each sub was 60 sec. totaling about 2 hours the first night while I went down to 30 sec. exposures the following nights because of the moonlight and only got 25 minutes to 1 hour total exposure due to aurora, drifting clouds and beginning dawn. I am still trying to learn how to successfully stack so that both stars and comet get sharp; the following early processing is only aligned on the stars with the comet smeared.
Owl nebula left, M108 right and comet C/2014 S2 in the middle (in front of a star); there is a trace of the typical blue-green comet color in the smeared core.
#1
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v95/p2041919346.jpg)
#2
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v60/p1973683739.jpg)
#3
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v10/p1933044602.jpg)
#4
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v3/p2095662454.jpg)
In #3-4 the comet mostly looks yellowish (also seen on images posted by others elsewhere), not sure if that is because most of the core has been evaporated by the sun.
I reserve the right to possibly re-post better version(s) once I have figured everything out, preferably with all 5 frames combined, but that might take a while as other tasks are waiting. Dark is anyway gone for the summer up here north now so there is plenty of time until I will be able to do more captures.
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Øivind, you never stop amazing me!
The comet looks nice, but I'm more attracted to the beautiful blue dot (the Owl Nebula?)!
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Thanks, Akira, yes I agree - the Owl Nebula is really cool. It can be found near one of the corners of Big Dipper, but is likely too faint to be seen by eye unless a powerful telescope is used.
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Øivind, truly amazing!
I am really enjoying these space images of yours!
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Øivind these just get better and better, ;)
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Thanks Erik,
The dark season has started again, so I hope to get back into this soon.
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A nice and clear night, first astrophoto session of the season lasted for > 3 hours of which 2.5 hours were exposures, however the aurora showed up less than half way trough, and something was slipping slightly on the setup (it takes time to get back to the good routine) so that I ended up with only 17 good frames, each a one minute exposure. So why not include the aurora to make it more interesting? The Andromeda Galaxy was high in the sky and an easy object to image with less artificial light pollution:
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v55/p514786661.jpg)
300mm PF at f/4.5, stack of 17+1 one minute exposures @ ISO 1600.
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Øivind these are superb images with the 300mm PF. I have this lens but never thought about using it for night skies.
Your pictures are very inspiring for this genre of photography.
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Brilliant Øyvind! I really enjoy your astro telephoto shots :)
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This is yet another exquisite and romantic image. I don't see any aurora effect, though, but I think I'm seeing very faint purple and green flare over the entire image. Does that comes from the aurora you are talking about?
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Very nice Aurora Andromeda capture - Truly amazing
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Fantastic results
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Thanks for the kind comments all of you.
Akira, when getting the aurora into view with a telephoto lens it is enlarged enough to make a curtain of pretty homogeneous color, mostly green. Also, the one minute exposure will tend to blur it out. The final image resulted from an additive stack of a single frame that contained the aurora and another image that was the result of a 17 image stack that did not contain the aurora. The single aurora frame was heavily processed to suppress aurora and stars in the right hand part where the aurora was weaker, and strong color noise reduction was applied to this frame to avoid noise in the green part. Normally a single 1 min exposure would not have that sharp distinction between the aurora and the background. Here is the 17-image stack without the aurora:
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s12/v173/p727184454.jpg)
300mm PF at f/4.5, stack of 17 one minute exposures @ ISO 1600.
This is what the aurora looked like in a single wide angle frame a bit later, Andromeda is located behind the aurora curtain below the two downward pointing branches at the golden intersection from the right and 1/3 from the bottom, looks lie a blurry star (sorry for the non-interesting foreground, image just meant for documentation):
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v162/p314638140.jpg)
Somewhat cropped frame at @ 12 mm f/4, 20s, ISO 1600
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Øivind, simply jaw dropping!
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Øivind, thank you for taking time for the details. When I looked at the image in question for the first time, my room was a bit too bright due to the daylight from outside. When I looked at it at night, I could see the transparent green hue clearly. I appreciate your decision.
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This is amazing!
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Again this thread renamed itself Labestia2,
someone is hacked here,
Paco?
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I may be "the beast" but this is beyond my hacking skills. I have no idea why this is happening. Sorry. Moderators?
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Again this thread renamed itself Labestia2,
someone is hacked here,
Paco?
At least the main title is still listed as it should be so it seems to only be Paco's replies that are renamed. Anyone can edit the title of a reply.
Let us go on with the original subject.
Thanks Jakov, Akira and Paco for further comments on Andromeda.
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My comments were directed to the thread as a whole. Fascinating view of our "surroundings".
Edit: my posts keep changing the name of the thread to "Labestia" ( the beast in Spanish :-[ ) the conspiracy plot thickens...
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Strange. Everything looks just normal on my screen every time I visit here. I don't see any bestial problem.
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(Somehow it feels I already posted these but they are not to be found anywhere: )
This is how it it can go after nearly an hour getting to the site and have everything set up and tracker perfectly aligned in a night that looked to be dark and clear (from last spring):
Anyone up there?
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v157/p118403962.jpg)
Trying to make the best out of it:
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v33/p245668175.jpg)
But it just got stronger:
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v142/p532942198.jpg)
Blasted by the aurora...
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v67/p385015666.jpg)
(D5100 and 12-24mm or 10.5mm, no tripod, just supported on the ground.)
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Øivind, these are also great for the "Photographer in Action" section. :D
What a beautiful and overwhelming aurora with the starry sky! How was the temperature when you shot these?
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I may be "the beast" but this is beyond my hacking skills. I have no idea why this is happening. Sorry. Moderators?
The title on each post can be edited or changed. This can be easily done unawares on a cell phone's touch screen. I added three dots after the title on this post.
I'm thoroughly enjoying this theme. Thank you to all who are posting photographs.
Dave Hartman
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Øivind, these are also great for the "Photographer in Action" section. :D
What a beautiful and overwhelming aurora with the starry sky! How was the temperature when you shot these?
Thanks Akira, it was not too cold, only about -10°C. One learns to put on a lot of warm clothes during those sessions even if it not at the coldest.
Sure the images could go both in "Photographer in Action" and Selfie section 8) , but it may not be good to double or triple post...
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Øivind, thanks! Given the beauty of sky, this section is the best place for the images for sure!
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Very beautiful.
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you get to the location on your bike ! at night ? nice !
Fantastic shots , really like the blasting aurora
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Fantastic shots, Øivind!!!
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Incredible spectacular, Øivind. !! Too good to be a 'selfie' ;)
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Thanks for the enthusiastic comments all of you!
I did not think I would regard aurora as an annoyance before I started with the deep sky imaging... Of course when it turns "bad" enough it consoling with the magnificent display. ;D
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Unique night selfies!
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For sure you know how to handle cold weather... In the astronomy world there is a say that goes like "always dress as if the temperature was 10 degrees below actual temperature". You will stay outside and move very little...
I am enjoying this thread very much, thank you very much.
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Now, that´s a selfie proper. Spectacular views. Sorry the sky had too much light for your intended purpose? :)
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Can't wait to try the new toy ...
Local weather had a different opinion it will be cloudy over the weekend, and then I'm traveling .. will have to wait at least a week
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Congratulations, Amando - have fun with your new toy! Waiting for a clear sky is certainly part of the game.
You might want to check the tightness of the base. My copy was initially wobbly, I opened it up (screw inside the bottom mounting threads) and removed one of two steel washers - problem fixed (needed some care in how tight I made the screw again).
Thanks so much for the selfie and clothing comments Erik, Oliver and Golunvolo.
Edit: I should add that even without a clear sky, a lot of practice is possible in setting the Skytracker up in daylight (much easier in the dark once the routine is there), get the polar scope properly focused, and download the polar scope application for PC or smartphone. You do not need to use the recommended one for iPhone, on Andriod I am using a free one called Polarisview (and Polarfinder on the PC). I think I described my setup routine in the beginning of the thread. The first steps, having tripod and tracker facing true north using a good compass (not the included one which is useless, remember adjusting for possible compass deviation) leveling the tripod with the tracker at 0°, and then turning the altitude knob to you latitude can all be done in daylight, and is the procedure be used when tracking the sun (with a solar filter on the lens!). While no dedicated tracking rate for the sun or moon is available, it tracks both pretty well for quite a while and makes it a lot easier to follow.
The tracker does not come with a level; if mounting one on the top, be aware that the box of the tracker is slanting slightly so that the level needs some adjustment to be 90° to the back/front plate.
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....
You might want to check the tightness of the base. My copy was initially wobbly, I opened it up (screw inside the bottom mounting threads) and removed one of two steel washers - problem fixed (needed some care in how tight I made the screw again)
.....
Edit: I should add that even without a clear sky, a lot of practice is possible in setting the Skytracker up in daylight (much easier in the dark once the routine is there), get the polar scope properly focused, and download the polar scope application for PC or smartphone. You do not need to use the recommended one for iPhone, on Andriod I am using a free one called Polarisview (and Polarfinder on the PC). I think I described my setup routine in the beginning of the thread. The first steps, having tripod and tracker facing true north using a good compass (not the included one which is useless, remember adjusting for possible compass deviation) leveling the tripod with the tracker at 0°, and then turning the altitude knob to you latitude can all be done in daylight, and is the procedure be used when tracking the sun (with a solar filter on the lens!). While no dedicated tracking rate for the sun or moon is available, it tracks both pretty well for quite a while and makes it a lot easier to follow.
The tracker does not come with a level; if mounting one on the top, be aware that the box of the tracker is slanting slightly so that the level needs some adjustment to be 90° to the back/front plate.
Thanks !!
My copy also had a wobbly base, while trying it last night I was surprised how bad it felt, this morning I did remove a washer from the base and now feels solid.
Good tip about making the tripod level
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I am glad I could be of help.
Another small modification: The indicator (little arrow) for the altitude setting is not easy to see in the dark as it is just cast in the metal; I painted it white.
I did also one more modification that could be considered, however I would wait with that one until you have a good feeling for the need for it and also are confident that the tracker works well and does not need exchange etc: It looks like the screw that locks the altitude adjustment is clamping the fork of the base together from both sides, however that is not the case; it is only clamping the center to the right side. This can cause a shift in horizontal position when it is tightened. To alleviate this I took the fork apart, buffed away the paint on the surfaces and inserted a very thin tight fitting plastic washer/shim in the space between fork and center piece on the left side. It was very hard to fit it in. It is so tight that the altitude worm gear struggles, so I have to help it by pushing with my hand. I do not necessarily recommend this modification, however it is something to consider. It took away the problem with the shifting. It is possible that taking away more material to make space for a thicker but tight fitting teflon/polyethylene washer would be better and provide smoother action of the worm gear.
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My humble contribution is a snapshot of Aurora Borealis ('Northern lights') at Reine, Lofoten Islands, arctic Norway. Done in IR for good measure. D200 (IR) 30 sec. with Nikkor 18/4.
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Result from a session with the skytracker ...
Oivind, I can understand why yo got the 90 degree viewfinder , I ended up with a pain in my neck
It was quite a challenge to find Andromeda, even with the very dark sky it is faint, and my sight is not good to see it without significant aid
I was 7 hrs from home and forgot to bring the app to tell me where to place the north star, forgot my level, but I wasn't alone and got help from a few guys,
one with a laser pointer, another with an iphone level app, another with amazingly good sight, another with an 80-200f2.8 lens, another a microfiber to keep the lens without dew, and other few to keep me committed, in the end it payed up
The sky tracker was aligned and worked wonderfully, 30 seconds exposures at 200mm showed no significant start trails
Fed some images -15 - to deepskystacker , then some levels in PS + nik colorefex to get this image
Edit: replaced the image with a new one with less saturation
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This kind of images amaze me.
Thanks Armando!
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Congrats, Armando! This is a fascinating result! Thanks for sharing!
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My humble contribution is a snapshot of Aurora Borealis ('Northern lights') at Reine, Lofoten Islands, arctic Norway. Done in IR for good measure. D200 (IR) 30 sec. with Nikkor 18/4.
Bjørn, which color was this IR-captured aurora to the naked eyes?
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Bjørn, which color was this IR-captured aurora to the naked eyes?
Green or yellowish green, as far as I can recall.
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Green or yellowish green, as far as I can recall.
Thanks for the confirmation!
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Armando, stunning!
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Thanks for the comments, really appreciate them , here is the second shot I was able to do, much easier to point the camera when some portions are visible to the naked eye
stacking really works :)
I was aiming to get m42 and get a few more interesting objects
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Another fascinating image! The radial diffraction from brighter stars gives a nice touch to the image. Also, the red color (H-alpha spectrum?) is well rendered, even though your D800 doesn't appear to be modified.
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Breathtaking photos, Armando.
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Congratulations with success at the first attempt, Amando! You must have a nice dark sky to get that good result with only 7.5 min accumulated exposure. I notice a few red "worms" in the frame that must be due to wandering hot pixels. That could be alleviated by inclusion of dark frames during processing.
For the neck pain look for a DR-3 or DR-4 on ebay, they can be had for as little as $25 shipped with some patience. Actually one of the ones I got was sold by Roberts. 1" fairly thin walled PVC tubing fits right over the polar scope and is a good starting point for an adapter.
I also troubled with finding Andromeda first time I tried - I had forgot how to find it from long time ago and completely missed it. What I do is to follow the right hand part of the W in Cassiopeia down to the first really bright star (Almaak), then go at right angle to the right to the next bright star (Mirach), then at right angle up to the next somewhat bright star and then about the same distance up to Andromeda.
Night to yesterday I had my second chance this year with clear sky and not too much aurora, but -18°C outside. I was sloppy, relied on only having used the tracker for only one night before on the same battery charge - it usually lasts for 3 nights each with a 2-4 hour session. I thought I got in 106 one min exposures, but when I came back last time to check I realized it was no longer pointing at the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101), and had stopped abruptly tracking after only 36 min. Oh well.
After throwing out mis-tracking only 19 frames each remained and is pretty noisy, using 2x drizzle. This is a very heavy crop.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v11/p2191463238.jpg)
Now these frames could be combined with those from last spring totaling about 2 hours total exposure.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s1/v20/p2191463239.jpg)
Still more noise than I like and a gradient had to be corrected that was not present in the original stacks. Keep in mind this is in a red zone with respect to light pollution, so relatively more exposure is needed.
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Amando, your capture of the Orion region is really pretty. I like the diffraction rays around the stars. You can even see the Horsehead Nebula in the left part of the frame, well done.
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Armando those are just excellent captures! Wow ;)
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Armando!
Beautiful and amazing work.
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Armando and Øivind, I can hardly wait to see more. I admire this type of photography!
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Some truly amazing tracked images here!
A more humble effort:
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Very very nice especially the trucked images
The difficult part is to find a quiet place with no light pollution
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Nice shots Peter
All good and i particularly llike the fire under the stars
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Thank you Armando.
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+1 for fire under the stars.
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Thanks Oivind (sorry,I don't know how to make the special norse characters).
Not nearly as impressive as yours though!
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Peter, these looks great. D750 rocks!
(As for the Norse characteristics, you can simply copy&paste their names. ;))
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Thanks Oivind (sorry,I don't know how to make the special norse characters).
(As for the Norse characteristics, you can simply copy&paste their names. ;))
If you're on a Macbook you can hold down the key and a list of alternative letters you can use will pop up.
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Learning how to process this images seems to never stop
I thought Deepsky would produce the best results, but for andromeda I was not quite happy with the initial results
here is an attempt stacking the images in PS, with a median filter, then adjusting luminosity and colors in separate layers
I saw this method in videos by Ian Norman (Lonelyspeck) in you tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rltg47Q64W0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rltg47Q64W0)
This is a stack of 12 frames , 30 seconds each
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Not a 3D camera? :)
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Not a 3D camera? :)
it is my android phone with the 70-300mm AFS zoom held with a rubber band, which also holds the aperture lever open :)
D800 with 80-200 f2.8 zoom mounted on the iOptron sky tracker
F/4 ISO 1600 30 secs
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Sure looks 3D to me. :)
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Looks great Armando :)
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Superb, and thanks for posting a link to the processing video.
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Amando, great rendering of the dusty stuff in Andromeda! Amazing what you got out of this with so few exposures.
Now on to an old acquaintance of several members here from a very different occasion. It has been shining so bright in the south-western sky lately, it has even seemed brighter than the moon, so I had to have another meeting with it tonight although atmospheric conditions were not the best as can be seen from the variability in these frames:
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v150/p2215308174.jpg)
NIKON 1 AW1, f/8 @ 420 mm, 1/500, ISO 160
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v66/p2215308172.jpg)
NIKON 1 AW1, f/8 @ 420 mm, 1/640, ISO 160
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v152/p2215308176.jpg)
NIKON 1 AW1, f/8 @ 420 mm, 1/640, ISO 160 (all 3 frames scaled up 2x)
Focusing was very easy with my Bahtinov mask on the lens, showing marked diffraction spikes. The EXIF confirms that this object is brighter than the moon. Only the last exposure did not show any blown channels before adjustment. The surprising thing is that the near maximum brightness as seen here does not occur when light is reflected from the full surface as with our moon, but at a glancing angle.
Perhaps someone here with an even longer lens and a more quiet sky can get a better view of Venus?
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Øivind
Wow, it is wonderful to see the planet being shaded by earth
A couple of nights ago I was out shooting orion again, while the images were taken, a friend and I were wondering what would it take to shoot venus as it was the brightest object on the night sky, we figured a very long lens, and your images just confirm this , even 420mm on the Aw1 at 2x scale is not enough
I did try creating my own bathinov mask and did not get great results , I ended up focusing in live view
Thanks for sharing your images
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Amazing celestial pageant, Øivind!
About 30 min later from this typing, NASA will make an important announcement about the planet outside the solar system. I'm excited!
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Thanks Amando and Akira for the the kind comments.
Wow, it is wonderful to see the planet being shaded by earth
Actually earth cannot cast a shade on Venus if that is what you mean as it is always closer to the sun. 8) The shape is rather caused by some degree of backlighting, just as with crescent moon. On Venus that seems to be reflected more than when light is reflected back at a 90° angle, opposed what is the case with the moon. I was surprised reading about this recently.
A couple of nights ago I was out shooting orion again, while the images were taken, a friend and I were wondering what would it take to shoot venus as it was the brightest object on the night sky, we figured a very long lens, and your images just confirm this , even 420mm on the Aw1 at 2x scale is not enough
Yes this is mostly done for own satisfaction. Planetary imaging is a specialty by itself. A more professional approach would be to use a high magnification refractor on a small sensor, and use video to capture as many frames as possible. Then one would use a program like Registax to automatically select the best frames and perform resolution stacking.
I did try creating my own bathinov mask and did not get great results , I ended up focusing in live view
I almost always use live view/image review at 100% view to focus with the Bahtinov mask. However except on the very brightest stars and planets, it is necessary to take an exposure (typically 10 sec) and evaluate the result. So it functions more like a focus confirmation tool most of the time than one used dynamically. What I can see is the stars becoming narrower in 100% view near correct focus when moving the focus ring. But sometimes it is just as easy without the mask attached to use the faintest visible stars in live view as focus targets, and then confirm focus with a Bahtinov mask exposure. If possible I also use it at the end of a series to see if focused changed. It might happen if I do not let the lens equilibrate long enough to outside temperatures.
My homemade Bahtinov mask:
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s5/v116/p2216517264-3.jpg)
Near perfect focus (heavy crop):
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v114/p2216517273.jpg)
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I have never seen a Bahtinov mask before, fascinatingly simple focus aid!
Seems to be spelled: Bahtinov
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Oops, sometimes ones fingers are thinking out of order. Corrected where needed, at least I got it right once. :D
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Never heard of Bahtinov mask. Thanks for the education, Øivind!
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Diffraction simulation with Bahtinov mask:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Simulation_of_a_bahtinov_mask_diffraction_pattern_when_focusing.gif#/media/File:Simulation_of_a_bahtinov_mask_diffraction_pattern_when_focusing.gif
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I am glad if this can be of use to someone.
MFloyd, that is a very nice animation showing how the mask works in the link you posted.
Let me add to that, how to make the mask: http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/make-bahtinov-mask.html (http://www.deepskywatch.com/Articles/make-bahtinov-mask.html)
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Christian and Øivind, thanks for the additional info!
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Thanks Amando and Akira for the the kind comments.
Actually earth cannot cast a shade on Venus if that is what you mean as it is always closer to the sun. 8) The shape is rather caused by some degree of backlighting, just as with crescent moon. On Venus that seems to be reflected more than when light is reflected back at a 90° angle, opposed what is the case with the moon. I was surprised reading about this recently.
Yes this is mostly done for own satisfaction. Planetary imaging is a specialty by itself. A more professional approach would be to use a high magnification refractor on a small sensor, and use video to capture as many frames as possible. Then one would use a program like Registax to automatically select the best frames and perform resolution stacking.
oops! An incorrect comment from the beginning :)
Backlight indeed, I guess from out point of view we are seeing the divide from night and day on the planet
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Nice illustration of the geometry.
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Yesterday night was likely optimal for a conjunction between comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, the Owl Nebua (M97) and the Cigar Nebula (M108), which also is close to Merak, one of the corner stars in the Big Dipper/Carl's Wagon. It looked really good here in Fairbanks to begin with, nice and clear, the conjunction close to perfect, although with some suspicious lingering purple sky glow. I got in a little over 1/2 hour before a solar storm kicked in and prevented further efficient captures. (I should have started earlier, but setup took quite some time at -25°C and deep snow near my cabin.)
Here is the result of stacking 98% of the frames in Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) on the stars after removing the frames with aurora manually. Tracking was excellent on my Skytracker with my Nikon 300mm f/4 PF wide open and going down to only 30 sec exposure per frame for a total exposure of 30.5 min. The comet is the diffuse blue-green object; no tail visible at this time. The elongated shape of the core is due to its movement relative to the stars during the time of the exposures. Thus it would need separate registering from the stars :
#1
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v107/p2251109326.jpg)
Nikon D7100 with 300mm f/4 PF on Skytracker at f/4, ISO 1600, ca. 61 frames at 30 sec.
(It is interesting that I captured another comet, C/2014 S2, at almost the same position last spring - page 4 in this thread with my browser.)
....
Then the aurora showed up...
#2
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s2/v71/p2251109332.jpg)
(All of these Nikon D5100 with 12-24 mm at f/4.5 25 sec ISO 800, daylight WB.)
No chance for comet captures even in the target area that was straight above:
#3
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s6/v146/p2251109340.jpg)
Blasted by the aurora again...
#4
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v93/p2251109347.jpg)
#5
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s7/v155/p2251109336.jpg)
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Good captures Øyvind! Keep them coming and be sure to explain the procedure the way you do now. Then I could use this thread as reference, if I against all odds should take my skytracker out of the cupboard :)
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Thanks Børge for the kind words. I wrote an explanation of the procedure on the second page in this thread. I do not think too much has changed since then except for addition of a red dot sight for finding my target and the Bahtinov mask. I have still much to learn with respect to the processing - alternative methods for stacking and stretching the tones; there are some new free tools out that I have not got around to fully test yet. The Astro forum at DPreview is pretty good for learning and with much lower noise levels than some other forums there.
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Thanks for the tip Øyvind!
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There was a rift in time and space last night, or at least in earth's magnetic field:
#1
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s5/v123/p2257245660.jpg)
NIKON D7100, f/3.2 @ 10.5 mm - it was pretty intense, only 4s exposure at ISO 1600.
This was supposed to be yet another comet attempt... Two nights before I managed to capture comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak again and do a separate registering on the stars and the comet. This comet is going to get brighter in the coming weeks, and it will be interesting to see what happens to it as it approaches the sun. Currently it does not have a tail. I thought I had gotten in a total 3 hours of exposure with very calm aurora free sky just to find that the last 1.5 hours was with the Bahtinov mask attached :o after my midway focus check. :-[
#2
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v97/p2257246611.jpg)
Nikon D7100 with 300mm f/4 PF on Skytracker at f/4, ISO 1600, ca. 80 frames at 60 sec, two separate sigma clipped stacks combined, one on stars and one on the bright core of the comet.
In the remaining time before daylight started showing up I made a new attempt at tracking with the 300 mm f/4 PF + TC-14E, using the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) as a target, and got reasonably good tracking - out of 50 60 sec. exposures I got about 33 (70%) usable frames. Results were not any better than than previous attempt without TC, but the time was too short and background light pollution about 1 EV higher. Considering that this tracker is not designed for use with lenses longer than about 100mm this is not bad at all:
#3
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v35/p2257246616.jpg)
Nikon D7100 with 300mm f/4 PF and TC-14E (420mm) on Skytracker at f/6.3, ISO 1600, ca. 33 frames at 60 sec, stacked in DSS with 2x drizzle.
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To me, the beautiful turquoise/emerald green color of the comet has the stronger magnetism than that inducing aurora!
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I tend to agree, now if we could just get a nice bluish-white tail attached to it!
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Wonderful images Oivind
I have missed your latest update, I'm planning to go shooting tonight, and will try m51, will see how it goes
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Extraordinary skills, Øivind! I admire your images!
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Spectacular shots Eivind! I took a liking to the emerald comet too. I also notice that spring has arrived 8) I see now that it was an older posting :o
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Last night I tried M101 , obviously beyond my current abilities, at least I was able to locate it
Disappointing that I got 6 good frames out of 64 ::)
2nd image
85mm f2.5 30 frames 30" each ISO 1600
Saturn, lagoon nebula among the most noticeable objects in this immensity of stellar objects
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The moon and Jupiter dip into Hallingskarvet national park. Photographed from my bedroom window.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4189/33692271364_d58b4808d9_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/TkgGsq)
Månen og Jupiter over Hallingskarvet (https://flic.kr/p/TkgGsq) by Asle Feten (https://www.flickr.com/photos/afoton/), on Flickr
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The moon and Jupiter dip into Hallingskarvet national park. Photographed from my bedroom window.
Beautiful !
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Mercury seen from my home.
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4193/33888611343_61a5b81eda_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/TCBZut)
Merkur over Hallingskarvet (https://flic.kr/p/TCBZut) by Asle Feten (https://www.flickr.com/photos/afoton/), on Flickr
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:) nice shot of Mercury, this coincides with information I saw in blog today indicating it is possible to get Mercury and Venus before sunrise, I'll like to try this on the weekend, but looking in stellarium how far apart the planets are, it may require something around 50mm to get both planets in the frame, this will likely be not very attractive
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My picture of Mercury is from february 2013, after sunset.
Here up north, the sun is to high when Mercury rise now.
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Communal Weaver's nest in a Camel-thorn tree.
South-Eastern Namibia
D750 + Tamron 15-30mm f2.8 @15mm, 30seconds @f2.8 and ISO400. Lit by shining an LED headlamp into the palm of my hand, positioned to reflect onto the tree.
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Peter, in your last shot the trees seems to become one with the stars
Here is one image of the pleiades
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Here is one image of the pleiades
Lovely Armando
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Colin, thanks for the comment
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Armando, nice shot of the jewels in the night sky. :)
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Agree with the special connextion trees-stars.
Love the jewels Armando. Thise shots showing our “other” surroundings aleays feels me qith a senae of awe.
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Thanks Armando That shot of yours is stunning!
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Peter, did you just get a 1500mm lens ? Impressive moon close up !
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Peter, did you just get a 1500mm lens ? Impressive moon close up !
I have the same question, the details are fantastic, very nice picture
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Oh yes, Peter, this is an amazing closeup of the last supermoon for 2017!
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Thanks Armando, Bent and Akira
No, I got a crop-frame...
Nikon D500 + 500mm f4 + TC1.4eII
1/250th, f7.1, ISO1000
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30 min exposure
D800
ioptron skytracker
lens 70-300 VR f3.5 - 5.6 @250mm
90 Exposures 20 sec f8 iso 1600
layers combined in PS mean stacks
still work in progress , but so far very happy with what was captured
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This sky shots are fascinating. I've tried with no success at all making yours all the more enjoyable.
Thanks for sharing Armando!
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Armando, this is an amazing capture! Your shooting skill of the night sky has made a quantum leap!
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Thanks Paco and Akira
Akira,
The theory is the same I've been using for 2 years or so, I just have accumulated a bit more experience doing this sort of shooting, over the weekend I went to an island in the pacific (the same location I've been going for 5 yrs or so), this time I took more exposures than before, thankfully the sky cleared at night as it was mostly cloudy during the day, I was there for two nights and I have another couple of sessions to develop
Paco it takes a bit of stubbornness to accomplish some worth while results, I was there with a friend doing the same thing, so it helps to have some support as it can get frustrating to get the proper alignment and focus, the first night it took me a good 90 mins to get everything to my liking before letting the camera shooting the multiple images, second night the preparation was a quick 10 minutes.
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Amando, well done preserving details in the hotter part of the Orion nebula! Star colors (white balance) seem a bit on the purple side? (often it is best to use daylight WB for most accurate star colors). Around here Orion is low on the horizon and typically in the direction of the light pollution so a tricky object. I can relate to the time for preparations, sometimes it is a struggle to get focus, aiming and final alignment right, other times it goes very easily (typically after getting some routine).
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Øivind, thanks for commenting
yes the colors are off, I got a new computer and I have not been able to calibrate my screen, it started with good colors and it became to magenta/ red, I'll retry again , my usual pp is also not working as expected, I hope to figure it out soon
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here is another version
stacked in DSS, PP in PS
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Armando, that is stunning!
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+1, what a view
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Thanks Anthony and Paco
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here is another version
stacked in DSS, PP in PS
This is exquisite! Should be great as wallpaper for smartphones.
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Magnificent and beautiful!
Never mind smartphones, that would be a great mural!
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Amando, that is a lot better both color wise and with details. You are doing an amazing job with that lens!
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This is exquisite! Should be great as wallpaper for smartphones.
That depends on the phones operative system - guess which deep space object is on my Android based one :) (shown early in this thread. Actually Amando's Orion nebula would have looked very nice too).
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Impressive results Armando. Like it.
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It's been a while since I checked this thread, but just wanted to add my admiration and praise for your most recent results Armando
You are doing an amazing job with that lens!
Ditto.
As someone once said, it's not just what you've got - it's what you do with it that really counts
:)
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That depends on the phones operative system - guess which deep space object is on my Android based one :) (shown early in this thread. Actually Amando's Orion nebula would have looked very nice too).
Mine is iPhone SE, so the vertical version should fit. 8)
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+1
Armando, nice work indeed.
(BTW Colin, I believe that your quote was the one once made by an actress to a bishop.................... ;D)
It's been a while since I checked this thread, but just wanted to add my admiration and praise for your most recent results Armando
Ditto.
As someone once said, it's not just what you've got - it's what you do with it that really counts
:)
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Agreed, but then so to is your moon shot Peter - one of the nicest that I have seen for a while.
Thanks Armando That shot of yours is stunning!
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Very nice images Armando!
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Agreed, but then so to is your moon shot Peter - one of the nicest that I have seen for a while.
Thanks Hugh, I appreciate your kind comment.
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Thanks Akira, Peter, Øivind, John , Colin, Hugh, Aguinaldo
I'm surprised also on the amount of detail on the Orion nebula captured with the 70-300 zoom, I guess a lot has to with the darkness of the location, clear skies, and how bright that particular nebula is
Here are two more images, not as spectacular as the object look flat instead of 3d
1. Orion wide filed, taken with the 85mm f1.8AFS, at F/4, 30 secs exposures, ISO 800, 69 exposures, 34.5 mins total exposure, 20 darks, 20 offset frames
2. Flame and horese head, 70-300VR AFS, @250mm F/8, ISO 1600, 20 sec exposures, ISO 1600, 90 exposures, 30 min total exposure, 20 darks, 20 offset
Edit adding a map of the location
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Armando, you continue to load this thread with amazing images!
One question: are these images cropped from the full FX frame to any extent?
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Armando, you continue to load this thread with amazing images!
One question: are these images cropped from the full FX frame to any extent?
yes they are cropped, the last image of the Orion nebula is 1200 x 1800 pixels, horsehead 2900x2100, wide field 3500x2800
the Orion nebula will still make a nice 6x12 print
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Armando, thank you for the details. The frame size of the wide field image seems to (very) roughly correspond to that of m4/3 format.
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I'm trying to solve the reduced amount of time the tracker is able to handle my front heavy 70-300+D800
At the moment the camera is mounted on the original tripod mount (via an Lbracket)
The objective will be to mount the camera with the center of gravity on the turning axle and therefore reducing the load on the tracker motor, which I would think will improve the precision and allow longer exposures
I borrowed an image from Øivind and added arrows to show the movement I would need to be able to do with my camera
I found a nodal rail that seems to meet my needs but I'll probably reach to a local fabricator , instead of buying it from b&h , and importing it
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Could you not add a counter balance arm as is used with some telescope mounts to compensate for the heavy tubes? Moving the assembly back may not actually improve the balance completely because of the leverage caused by the mass being mounted away from the actuator motor. An arm is low tech and much even improve stability too?
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Robert, thanks for your comment.
ioptron actually sells the counterweight, so I did some experimenting with a counterweight, here is an image of a crude implementation.
When I put this on an axle that allows it to turn freely (large screw driver), after a few degrees it will tend to turn so all the weight above the line between the ball head and weight will rotate to stay upside down (red triangle), the torque is higher than just mounting the ballhead camera directly on the tracker, being counter productive to what I'm trying to achieve
My next attempt was moving the ball head away from the line formed by the weight and center of rotation (sorry no images), with the center of gravity of the camera aligned with this line, that was stable on the free axle regardless of the turning position, but stability was lost with different positions of the camera/lens, once again becoming unstable.
so, I'll do some trials mounting the camera with the center of gravity on the turning point of the tracker, you have much more mechanical experience than I and you are probably right, but I want to feel if the balancing the camera lens on the turning point actually helps or not
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I have no experience of this but seems to me you need to find the centre of balanced of the lens and body, both lengthwise and height, that should revolve around the output shaft of the motor, I would have thought. That way it would (should?) spin with no bias in any direction, no 'uphill' struggle or 'downhill' runaway. Something like a Wimberly head bracket?
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I'm trying to solve the reduced amount of time the tracker is able to handle my front heavy 70-300+D800
At the moment the camera is mounted on the original tripod mount (via an Lbracket)
The objective will be to mount the camera with the center of gravity on the turning axle and therefore reducing the load on the tracker motor, which I would think will improve the precision and allow longer exposures
I borrowed an image from Øivind and added arrows to show the movement I would need to be able to do with my camera
I found a nodal rail that seems to meet my needs but I'll probably reach to a local fabricator , instead of buying it from b&h , and importing it
(http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1992.0;attach=31742)
A quick comment to my own setup: While I find it OK to use the tripod collar of the lens at low altitude angles (the larger than standard clamp on my BH-40 then helps a little with adjusting balance), most of the time, aiming high I have found it better to attach the clamp directly to the camera plate with no collar on the lens. The issue is that the balance of the rig changes depending on the altitude angle.
Another note is that it is important to have the worm drive of the tracker work in "uphill" mode the whole time. This I try to effect by how the ball head is tilted. (That can sometimes be tricky while not also blocking the polar scope). If it is right around the balance point between uphill and downhill mode, slight sloppiness/tolerances in the gears can cause problems. I also pay attention to the cable of my remote and how it drags. (Lately I have attached the remote with Velcro to a tripod leg). I have never really seen evidence that the Skytracker is loaded too much, but then tracking success varies from time to time, so who knows.
When I see images of those counterbalanced rigs (more common in use with some other trackers than the Skytracker), I always wonder about sensitivity to wind and vibrations - it seems like a nice way of creating an oscillating system.
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with my modification to the mounting I was able to do 2' exposures at 300mm
here is the rosette nebula
10 images of 117 secs each (3 seconds used to delay the shutter)
not as spectacular as Orion but it was an interesting challenge
This monitor is a POS , I'm looking at the image on my mobile to see if it looks overcooked
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Armando:
I am in total awe of your capabilities and the stunning images of the night sky which you have created.
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Armando:
I am in total awe of your capabilities and the stunning images of the night sky which you have created.
Ann,
Thanks so much for your kind comment
Another target I had that night was the witch head nebula, but I was unsuccessful trying to capture it
For the second half of the night I waited for the milky way to show up, I set the camera with the 20mm lens and left it capturing the sky every 5 mins, here is a time lapse from 3:15 to 5:30
https://youtu.be/C5iHv7DnY0Q (https://youtu.be/C5iHv7DnY0Q)
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Great Rosette nebula, Amando and well done tracking for almost 2 minutes!
I was randomly clicking into a 2016 folder after copying to and checking out a new drive when this image showed up. I was fascinated by how the auroral corona and its associated veil covers the southern sky completely, while the northern sky with the big dipper is crystal clear. It was one of those event where one just grabs the camera, runs outside and sets up blindly to get any shots. I was able to fire off three 10 sec exposures, and then it was all gone.
(http://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p2795540079.jpg)
Nikon D7100, 12-24mm @ 12mm and f/4, 10s, ISO 3200
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Beautiful!
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Beautiful!
Gorgeous image !
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Fantastic... :)
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Impressive !
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Awesome!
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Impressive, science fiction-like.
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Thanks all of you for the enthusiastic comments. We actually had some pretty intense aurora last night, but the best was gone before I could get my rig up.
Impressive, science fiction-like.
Some observed some stuff that really sounds like science fiction like over Anchorage yesterday and was reported at Spaceweather.com. It is a recently discovered phenomenon called STEVE, 'Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement' and occurs particularly in conjunction with aurora but more at the 60° latitude, so not where it is most intense. It is like a strong light beam across the sky. Here is a citation on the site:
' "As the satellite flew straight though 'Steve,' the temperature jumped by 3000°C and the data revealed a 25 km-wide ribbon of gas flowing westwards at about 6 km/s (13,000 mph)," reports Eric Donovan from the University of Calgary.' (emphasis by me) Sounds pretty crazy, I wonder why the satellite did not melt.
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Impressive gigapan of the milky way obtained by the astrophysics institute of the canary islands, the article mentions the pano was created using sony dslrs and canon lenses.
Link to the article http://www.iac.es/divulgacion.php?op1=16&id=1371&lang=en (http://www.iac.es/divulgacion.php?op1=16&id=1371&lang=en)
Link to the gigapan http://gigapan.com/gigapans/207272 (http://gigapan.com/gigapans/207272)
I had posted a screen capture of the orion region but the quality is ugly, it is better to click on the gigapan link
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20x1min exposures to capture the great Orion nebula
I'm delighted I was able to capture this after driving only 1 hr away from home, 70+ kms, at an altitude of 2200m.
For capturing the image I use the iOptron sky tracker, this is an equatorial mount that counter acts the earth rotation and therefore long exposure can be taken avoiding star trailing, care should be taken to have the tripod level and then aligning the mount towards the north star.
It has been discussed here before but to obtain this kind of images i use a program called deepskystacker, freeware for windows, besides the light frames ( that is the actual photos of the object being captured) a number of other photos are used to reduce noise:
- dark frames, taken with the same exposure as the light frames, but with the lens cap on, it is important to shoot this right after the light frames, so the sensor is at the same temperature as the light frames, these are used to detect noise levels, and hot pixels
- offset frames. again with the lens cap on same ISO as light frames, shot at the highest shutter speed , 1/8000 for the D800
- flat frames, used to correct vignette, shot of a clear surface at the correct exposure, the sky works well if it is clear
deep sky will produce an image that often needs adjustments to get anything visible, I save this to a 32 bit TIF.
I'll continue post processing in PS, using ACR to convert the TIF to 16 bits, it works like an HDR image, with lots of flexibility, truly amazing
Since our eyes do not see the colors captured by the camera, post processing color is completely up to you.
This is my third time shooting Orion, last year in January, this year in February, both times in a very dark location, and just recently on Apr 14 in a location just 70kms from a large city with lots of light pollution, not ideal, but it worked well even with a fairly short exposure of 20 minutes
Also worth noting, and this is a heavy crop from the 36mp image I'm only using 910 x 910 pixels
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Stunning shot Armando!
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Armando, thanks again for the splendid image in Post #209 and for sharing the methods and techniques that lie behind its capture. Much appreciated.
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Øivind, thanks for the details.
As I was reading your answer, it occurred to me that the vertical part of your L-bracket might serve you as a better base for the red dot sight, both in terms of stability and accuracy. If your L-bracket has the markers of the optical axis, the alignment would be easier. You can fix your red dot sight onto an Arca-Swiss clamp which should be fairly precisely manufactured.
Quoting a post far back, just a note that I discovered that clamps could be had fairly cheaply, and while I did not mount my red dot sight on the L-bracket as suggested, I found the foot of the usually unused lens collar to be a nice mounting location, as described and tested in daylight here, http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,7555.0.html (http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,7555.0.html) . I am looking forward to try it on the night sky once it gets darker. I have high hopes that the on-site calibration step for the red dot sight can be omitted with this solution.
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Øivind and Armando, those are really nice! Wow ;)
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Thanks for your kind comment Erik. The captures/posts seem a long while ago here - a completely different world now with 24h daylight.
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Finally the dark season is back and I got a few dark clear nights without much moonlight and aurora so that I could try out my red dot sight clamped to the lens collar for night sky captures. In addition I introduced one other change to my setup: I have usually used my 300mm f/4 PF stopped down 1/3 stop to f/4.5 to improve coma/astigmatism performance in the corners. However the slightly non-round aperture and many aperture blades do not create particularly attractive diffraction spikes at this aperture. Instead I introduced a round front aperture to the lens to remove the spikes and get rounder stars by adding a 77-67mm step down ring which gives very close to f/4.5. Some daylight exposure tests confirmed this in practice.
The accuracy of the red dot sight without any on site adjustments was very inspiring. I can now with high precision seek out night sky objects with no fear to bump the sight out of position. And since it builds higher I can view a centered red dot without moving the right angle finder out of position.
I have made one more adjustment to my routines: I try to let the tracker get some load in the opposite direction of its rotation to avoid that potential slack in the worm drive causes mis-tracking. (Symptoms of this is when stars now and then becomes two dots instead of one). As I mount the camera by the L-bracket it was easy to slide it left in the clamp (aiming south). This has given really good tracking results with the 300mm PF, and since I am imaging high in the sky the periodic error of the tracker also becomes less important while correct polar alignment is more critical. After deleting frames with satellites, I typically asked DeepSkyStacker to stack 95% of the frames in the following captures.
The autumn is a nice time with it clear air, no snow to reflect the light pollution and not too cold (last captures below was at -6°C) but enough to keep the sensor relatively cool. Since part of the milky way was at good position south of my cabin, that is where I aimed. All images are stacked 60 sec. exposures at f/4.5 and ISO 1600 except # 2 where I used 30 second exposures. Focus was mostly by using a barely visible star and confirmed with the Bahtinov mask on the lens.
First out is the Crescent Nebula (a mirrored C) to the lower right and the warm Cooling Tower star cluster at the 1/3 upper left. This is about 74 minutes integration time.
#1
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3113911410.jpg)
This inspired me to try something wider, the 50mm f/1.8. However preliminary tests indicated problems with "gull wings" (coma/astigmatism) in the corners and had to be stopped down to f/3.5 for acceptable performance. Here are the regions near the center of the Cygus constellation, about 45 minutes total integration time. The image above was just below the bright Sadr star near the middle of this view. I had to crop on the right as a tree got in the way towards the end. Also I was troubled by some gradients from lower left corner that I had to correct (likely from light pollution) and there is some remaining purple fringing that affects star color.
#2
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3113911411.jpg)
It is always good to start the season with a well known object. When the lower part of the Milky Way moved out of range, it was good to aim the 300mm PF towards M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. I used 95% of a total integration time of 102 minutes.
#3
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3113911413.jpg)
In the wider image of the Cygnus region (#2), one can barely make out a rounded shape to the lower left. That is the Veil Nebula. I had a little time one evening that started out clear and had to try. However it was too low in the sky from my position before the roof of the neighbor cabin came into the field with the 300mm PF. Thus I only got about 15 min integration time without obscured view.
#4
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3113919645.jpg)
If cropped at the bottom I could use about 30 minutes of integration time. I am not sure which one is best; colors are of course best in this one, but composition might suffer from being cropped. This will certainly be a target in my mind if I get a new change soon. Currently we got into the dark cloudy rainy mode so it might be a while.
#5
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3113911414.jpg)
So I looked for something higher in the sky to image, and wondered what could be in the region to the left of the very bright Deneb star. However this time I started to get blasted by aurora after only 15 minutes. Nevertheless I stacked everything except the most intense period, and was surprised by the image I got from about 28 minutes integration time without troublesome gradients. A surprising amount of red hydrogen alpha emission was picked up by my non-modified D7100.
#6
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3113911412.jpg)
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superb images!
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Really amazing!
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Excellent work here Øivind. Thanks for sharing these images and the methodology used to capture them.
Is the zoological world about to lose one of its scientists to astronomy and astrophysics? ;D
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OH excellent work with a lot of detail and very good technical explanation for newbies like me to work with!
I post me first attempt on night sky shots this summer in a village 50km from Athens on 600m height
Nikon 7200, 35/1.8 DX, 4sec 1600 iso, PP on Lightroom CC
Thank you!
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Thanks for the enthusiastic comments, Armando, Jacov, Hugh and Nasos.
Nasos, that is a great first attempt, keep them coming! You could possibly go a little longer on the exposure, perhaps 6 seconds without getting trailed stars at 35mm focal length.
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Fascinating :)
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Øivind, as always, thank you for the mysteriously beautiful images!
#5 is breathtaking to me, even though you are not satisfied with the composition. What is the blue serpentine thingie at the right bottom corner? It also looks mysteriously beautiful...
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OH excellent work with a lot of detail and very good technical explanation for newbies like me to work with!
I post me first attempt on night sky shots this summer in a village 50km from Athens on 600m height
Nikon 7200, 35/1.8 DX, 4sec 1600 iso, PP on Lightroom CC
Thank you!
Nasos, this is a promising start!
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Thanks of the comments Erik and Akira. The blue at the lower right is part of the Eastern Veil, similar origin as the Western Veil. The blue is emitted by oxygen while the red is hydrogen emission. I really like the hue of the blue color in combination with the red/purple one. These are remnants of a supernova explosion according the the wiki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_Nebula (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_Nebula). Considering the size of this object, almost filling a 300mm frame, it must have been a rather violent event!
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This is fascinating indeed. Thanks you guys.
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Thanks for the kind comment, Paco.
The end of last weekend was supposed to be cloudy but I had a clear enough period in the evening for another try the at Veil Nebula with my 300mm f/4 PF on the Skytracker. I deleted frames with satellites and 2 or 3 where things apparently slipped. I then asked DSS to stack 90% of the remaining raw files in intersection mode, and it had apparently no problems with including a few frames from last session above, although it lost me some area at the bottom of the frame. A total of 50 subs, each 1 minute were used with 5 of those subs coming from the last session. I also cropped somewhat at the top, so likely 70% of the recorded frame is included. I used the darks from both days (total about 50) as temperature did not differ much, and used biases only from last day + flats. Initial saturation and RGB level adjustment was performed in DSS and final RGB level adjustment and stretching in CNX2. I had to try compensate some apparent gradients this time.
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3126190566.jpg)
Veil Nebula (NGC 6992) with Nikon D7100 and 300mm f/4 PF @ f/4.5 front aperture, stack of 50 subs each 1 min, ca. 50 darks, + bias frames and flats, cropped to ca. 70% of the initial frame.
While focus was right on at the start I was not 100% satisfied with the focus towards the end; a check with the Bahtinow mask indicated it was slightly off in spite of a refocus in the middle of the session (but I did not use the last hazy part after it cleared a tree top that got in the way). May be the image could benefit from some star shrinkage to better show the faint structures in the middle, however I have not learned how to do that yet.
This is recorded from a red zone with respect to light pollution, but with still no snow on the ground it gets a little darker.
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I got another dark night with no snow appearing yet. One of my targets was the Heart Nebula, but before it came into unobscured range at the setup in front of my cabin and the moon set, I had some time for another attempt at the Veil Nebula, this time being very picky with focusing, and providing somewhat better framing. The images below were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker, and further stretched and RGB level adjusted in CNX2 (best viewed large opened in a new tab).
#1
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3137071696.jpg)
Veil Nebula with Nikon 300mm f/4 PF at f/4.5 front aperture, Stack with 134 minutes integration time, one minute subs at ISO 1600, 140 darks, 25 bias and 35 flat frames.
Heart Nebula with "escaping" Soul Nebula at the top. Although I use a stock D7100, it is possible to pick up a considerable amount of red hydrogen emission. I just learnt that it appears red when partly obscured by dust, while the un-obscured emission has natural color that is leaning towards purple due to other spectral lines than hydrogen alpha (for instance blue hydrogen beta emission). This can be observed in some of the brighter areas.
#2
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3132775455.jpg)
Heart Nebula (IC1805) and partial Soul Nebula with Nikon 300mm f/4 PF at f/4.5 front aperture, Stack with 122 minutes integration time, one minute subs at ISO 1600, 140 darks, 25 bias and 35 flat frames.
When finished, the Pleiades was in a good position, so even if it was late, I wanted to use this unexpected clear night fully.
#3
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3132775456.jpg)
Pleiades (M45) with Nikon 300mm f/4 PF at f/4.5 front aperture, Stack with 35 minutes integration time, 30sec. subs at ISO 1600, 160 darks, 25 bias and 35 flat frames.
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Apparently you have mastered the technique, Øivind ... I am partial to the last one in particular. Is the soft (and pretty) glare around the stars a result of the optics (300PF) only?
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Apparently you have mastered the technique, Øivind ... I am partial to the last one in particular. Is the soft (and pretty) glare around the stars a result of the optics (300PF) only?
Thanks for the kind comment, Birna.
The glare around the stars is mostly due to nebulosity. I reduced the exposure of each sub-frame to 30 seconds in order to minimize flare. There is a minimal amount of flare (not typical PF flare) that can be seen around the central portion, but otherwise we are seeing the effect of interstellar dust. One can see some patterns to it, particularly around the bottom star. These are very hot and young stars, formed only 100 million years ago according to the wiki.
A side note is that I think that the the nebulosity around the Pleiades explains why even a 10.5 mm fisheye with very tiny physical aperture can pick up this small constellation. Stars are single point light sources where the physical aperture opening not the f/stop number determines the light gathering, while nebulosity distributed over an area should obey regular photographic rules and be sensitive to the aperture value just like in regular photography.
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Here is a link to a fantastic image capture showing how dust is distributed around the Pleiades region and more:
https://astrob.in/full/368480/0/ (https://astrob.in/full/368480/0/)
I found the link here: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/634578-from-pleiades-to-california-%E2%80%93-a-dusty-mosaic/ (https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/634578-from-pleiades-to-california-%E2%80%93-a-dusty-mosaic/)
And another link with a more detailed view of the dust down the page - lots of fantastic images:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2018/oct/24/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year-2018-the-winning-images (https://www.theguardian.com/science/gallery/2018/oct/24/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year-2018-the-winning-images)
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A deep sky imaging session was suddenly interrupted by a full blast of aurora a few days ago.
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3172651392.jpg)
(Recommend opening it in a new tab with dark background.)
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Nice interruption.
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Wonderful alternative!
I was all set to go shoot the night sky, nature had other plans and the sky was covered in clouds
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Wow, a very impressive sight!
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Thanks for the comments, Bent, Armando and Tim. Sorry it did not work out for you Armando.
In spite of the aurora, I actually got in some time on the North America and Pelican Nebulas, this time using my D5100 with good framing before the abrupt onset of the green veil - up to that point it was nice and clean. However I discovered how weak the EN-EL14 battery is with respect to cold at -16°C. I lost a lot of time as I am used to 2-2.5 hours at even lower temperatures with the D7100 and did not foresee when to get out and change the battery. A test I performed with a warm, freshly charged battery when exposing the dark frames afterwards only lasted for 35 minutes with the D5100. It is not so much charge capacity as the voltage drop with lower temperature in combination with the threshold cutoff voltage of the body - after warm up the battery showed all the bars on the display.
I have been pondering whether to get a refurbished D5300 to save my neck and better noise performance during these sessions. However this night's experience with the weak D5100 battery performance might make me lean towards a D7500 or D500 although the D5300 is known for lower dark current while read noise is lower in D7500 : https://stargazerslounge.com/blogs/entry/2004-d7500-has-high-thermal-pattern-noise/ (https://stargazerslounge.com/blogs/entry/2004-d7500-has-high-thermal-pattern-noise/)
Anyway here are the two nebulas with the 300mm f/4 PF (with f/4.5 front aperture) on D5100, stack of 36 one minute frames at ISO 1600 on the SkyTracker. As usual best viewed when opened in new tab:
#1
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3174768124.jpg)
It looks like there was some haze judged by the brightest stars.
An attempt on the North America and Pelican Nebulas a few nights before did not have as nice framing but better atmospheric transparency together with twice as much integration time, 77 one minute frames total of which 95% were stacked = 73 minute total integration time at ISO 1600, 96 darks and 20 bias frames. This deep sky target is quite beautiful and quite easy to frame once familiar with it, so I will keep trying for even better results once I get the chance.
#2
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3174768128.jpg)
The same night when the above target went out of range I made an attempt on the Triangulum Galaxy. I got in 90 one minute frames of which 95% were stacked = ca. 85 minutes total integration time at ISO 1600.
#3
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3174768126.jpg)
Finally a few nights before, also a first for me, I imaged the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, a hydrogen emission nebula, stack of 76 one minute frames.
#4
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3174803290.jpg)
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Last night I was able to collect more data on the North America and Pelican nebulas again in spite of weak moonlight and more light pollution. I used Microsoft Image Composite editor for the stitching with the last image of the North America and Pelican nebulas above, only using the new data to expand the bottom part. I am surprised how effortlessly and well the stitching worked on these kind of images considering the differences in qualities. All were captured with my 300mm PF and non-modified D7100 on the Skytracker. (Open image in new tab for large version).
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-3/p3184298911.jpg)
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The latest image looks more gorgeous, although I may miss the nice blue glow of the two large stars in #1 from the November 13th post.
You used Microsoft ICE for the stitching. Do you use it on the latest Window 10? I downloaded the latest version of ICE but am hesitating, because the latest version was released more than two years ago. When I tried ICE some time ago, it was clearly inferior to Photomerge. But Tony Northrup says it performs better than Photomerge, so I wanted to try it again.
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The latest image looks more gorgeous, although I may miss the nice blue glow of the two large stars in #1 from the November 13th post.
You used Microsoft ICE for the stitching. Do you use it on the latest Window 10? I downloaded the latest version of ICE but am hesitating, because the latest version was released more than two years ago. When I tried ICE some time ago, it was clearly inferior to Photomerge. But Tony Northrup says it performs better than Photomerge, so I wanted to try it again.
Thanks for the comment Akira. I am sort of with you about the blue glow around the stars being sort of pretty although it might be an artifact (image a bit oversaturated). I still wonder if that flare comes from the atmosphere or if there is some interaction between the PF elements and the low pass filter of the D5100 - might need to set up some tests. Unfortunately that image is pretty noisy and also shows some wandering noise patterns.
I am still running Windows 7 on my computer, and my version of ICE is pretty old, from 2015 and seems to be the most recent one, as there is no message about available update on start. It is so quick to use, just drop the images on to it, no sorting or reference points needed. It can even fill in missing pieces, like part of the sky. I have hardly any trouble with landscapes if properly captured - I have even used it with my 10.5 mm fisheye.
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Thank you, Øivind, for the details.
You seem to be using the latest version (2.0.3) which was, according to the download page, published more than three years ago:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=52459
But it seems to work on Windows 10.
I haven't been aware that PF elements could interfere with the low-pass filter.
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I haven't been aware that PF elements could interfere with the low-pass filter.
They might not, it is just an untested hypothesis. (I imaged another night that seemed just as hazy of the same area with D7100 and there seemed to be less flare.) Could well have been differences in haze in the sky, but need some more controlled testing.
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I would have to dub you as Master of the Night, Oivind!
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Carl, thanks for the kind remark - I have a very long way to go before I deserve the master title. I have only scratched the surface of all the processing tricks that are being used out there, and I am not imaging from a very dark site. However it is fun to try get the best out of what one have. The late imaging from the comfort near my cabin lowers the threshold to go out and set up (might take an hour before focus and framing is OK) as I can then do other things while the tracker is working and just do periodic checks.
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Øivind, Øivind, Øivind!
Freezingly cool images!
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Thanks Jakov for the enthusiastic comment.
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Last night the local astronomy group went to a dark location, weather was forecast to be cloudy so I stayed home, then when it got dark the sky cleared .... decide to try my luck shooting from home, the roof above the kitchen is somewhat protected from the street lights
Locating Andromeda in the middle of the city was challenging as I can see only the brighter stars, locating polaris to align the tracker is challenging started shooting at 70mm in the general direction, at my latitude the camera is nearly point upwards, so it is impossible to look through the viewfinder at the height of my setup
Tried using my 90 degree visor but that area of the sky does not have to many bright stars and it didn't help
Started reviewing images an moving the camera to have andromeda in the middle of the frame increasing the zoom until I was at 300mm
and then the focus wasn't quite there
ok ... removed the camera from the tripod and used live view to focus on a brighter start somewhere else
mounted the camera again
hmm it is not quite in the center , accidentally bumped the focus , repeat ...
took me about 1 hr to get the camera pointed in the right direction with good enough focus
left the camera shooting hoping for the best, and came down to eat dinner 8)
this is sooc image (3000*2000pixels resized to 1200) and then the processed version
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Armando, I don't even see any hint of this beautiful result (the second image) in the first one. Is Andromeda really the diffused light spot in the center? Did you rotate the image after you had cropped it?
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Armando, that procedure of trial and error in focusing and aiming and spending an hour before one can start acquiring images for the stack sounds very familiar :D . Great result considering the conditions. It is often fascinating how images with hardly visible object turn to something useful once they are stacked and stretched. The rewards do not happen before that stage.
Finding Andromeda is not that difficult though if one starts with Cassiopeia, follow the right leg down to the really bright star way below, go one really bright star to the right, then up to the fainter star above it and then keep going an equal distance up to Andromeda. A red dot sight where one can aim accurately while having a wider view helps a lot here. But it gets tricky if there is need to refocus when imaging in a region without any bright stars visible in live view.
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Armando, I don't even see any hint of this beautiful result (the second image) in the first one. Is Andromeda really the diffused light spot in the center? Did you rotate the image after you had cropped it?
Akira, yes the image is rotated in the processed image , deep sky stacker oriented it differently and I did not consider rotating it the same way,
and yes andromeda it the diffused light in the center of the sooc image
Armando, that procedure of trial and error in focusing and aiming and spending an hour before one can start acquiring images for the stack sounds very familiar :D . Great result considering the conditions. It is often fascinating how images with hardly visible object turn to something useful once they are stacked and stretched. The rewards do not happen before that stage.
Finding Andromeda is not that difficult though if one starts with Cassiopeia, follow the right leg down to the really bright star way below, go one really bright star to the right, then up to the fainter star above it and then keep going an equal distance up to Andromeda. A red dot sight where one can aim accurately while having a wider view helps a lot here. But it gets tricky if there is need to refocus when imaging in a region without any bright stars visible in live view.
Thanks Øivind, indeed without the stack it would be impossible to get anywhere close to the final result
I did use Casiopea to orient my self with a lightly different procedure
- using the big triangle as an arrow point to toward Mirach
- the width of Casiopea is close enough to the distance from the tip of the arrow to Andromeda
I'll look into getting a red dot sight
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Today I built a simple bard door tracker.
The sky was ok to night so I vent out for testing.
I dis obvious some error, apart from the unstable setup.
I raised the camera plate during the exposure, maybe it should have been lowered, as the star trail is longer when the barn door is used :o
Live outside Copenhagen, Norther hemisphere.
Any suggestion is welcome.
I should maybe excuse for the poor quality of the images ???
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Today I built a simple bard door tracker.
The sky was ok to night so I vent out for testing.
I dis obvious some error, apart from the unstable setup.
I raised the camera plate during the exposure, maybe it should have been lowered, as the star trail is longer when the barn door is used :o
Live outside Copenhagen, Norther hemisphere.
Any suggestion is welcome.
I should maybe excuse for the poor quality of the images ???
Great Job. Yes, in the northern hemisphere, if you view the tracker from above, it should rotate clockwise, so it calls for some modification.
Your "southern hemisphere image" (upside down) in the March thread would have provided the correct direction of rotation. ;D
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Thank you Øivind
Will have to some days as the weather is not for star photography for a while.
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Good luck Bent , wish you some clear nights
Do your turn the screw by hand ?
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Yes I did turn by hand, may have to find a way to get more stability during the exposure.
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I love these, Armando, and I wish I could do night shots as good as these.
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Bent, I'm afraid I don't really understand how the wooden parts work, but I do wish you a good luck and am looking forward to seeing any improvements!
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Akira, this is what it looks like, and how it works
https://barn-door-tracker.co.uk
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A night out with the x-t3
47 light exposures, 20 darks, 20 offset
1 min iso 1600 f/5.6
70-300 nikon zoom @70mm
Deepsky stacker with a touch of curves in ps
Ambient temp about 2°C at 6am
Center of the milky way, Jupiter is brightest object, lagoon nebula in pink to the left of the frame, and slightly above in blue/pink the trifid nebula
I'm sure many more objects can be named among the staggering amount of stars visible in this region of the sky
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Well done getting that much of the dust and hydrogen alpha in the nebulae showing up with that exposure, Armando. It must have been a pretty dark site? That part of the Milky Way is below the horizon here now.
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Øivind
hmm, fairly dark, it is certainly at a higher altitude, about 2200m above sea level, but there is small town about 5km down the road, the electric lights are visibile from this site, then the light pollution from Gdl is very evident towards the north, so, it is darker than near Gdl, and only about 1 hr away.
I was interested to try the fuji sensor, I read it is more sensitive to the h-alpha channel, and it certainly seems to be, easily more than D800
here is the lagoon nebula at 300mm
20x 1 min exposures, iso 1600, f5.6
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Time to revive this thread - nice capture of the Lagoon Nebua Armando!
Now for something different: the colors of Sirius helped by atmospheric disturbance. It is the brightest star in the sky and is actually a binary star. Handheld defocused captures in continuous mode with D500 and my 300mm /f4 PF wide open, VR on, 1/6 second ISO 1600:
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-10/p4129515711.jpg)
Last time I tried this, I mistook an aircraft for Sirius. ;D
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here is the lagoon nebula at 300mm
20x 1 min exposures, iso 1600, f5.6
Beautiful Armando.
I've only just seen this - thank you for sharing
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Armando and Oivid very nice inspiring photos :)
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Thanks for the kind words, Nasos.
Mars and the Pleiades made a pretty conjunction this week - luckily it cleared up on March 4, however it was mostly hiding behind trees at my location, so I only got in a stack of 11 one minute exposures at ISO 400. Several of the stacked exposures contained branches, but I managed to mostly hide the resulting artifacts by bringing down the background.
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-10/p2185168021.jpg)
D500 with 300mm f/4 PF @ f/4.5 front aperture ISO 400, 11 x 63 second.
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Thanks for the kind words, Nasos.
Mars and the Pleiades made a pretty conjunction this week - luckily it cleared up on March 4, however it was mostly hiding behind trees at my location, so I only got in a stack of 11 one minute exposures at ISO 400. Several of the stacked exposures contained branches, but I managed to mostly hide the resulting artifacts by bringing down the background.
D500 with 300mm f/4 PF @ f/4.5 front aperture ISO 400, 11 x 63 second.
Beautiful image, as always. Thank you for sharing!
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Thanks for the kind words, Akira.
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Armando, Armando, Armando!
Øivind, Øivind, Øivind!
i wish i were able to make such images!
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Awesome colorful images of sirius
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Armando, Armando, Armando!
Øivind, Øivind, Øivind!
i wish i were able to make such images!
The simplest way to start is with a wide angle, all you need is a tripod and point it to the night sky for a few seconds
Cheers!
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I was lucky to catch a couple of Persid meteors in mid August at a dark location in the Norwegian high mountains. All captured with 10.5mm fisheye on D500, ISO 1600.
Meteor cut of in mid flight by the 12sec exposure of the shutter.
#1
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-10/p3542869122.jpg)
A near horizontal satellite almost crossed the path of a meteor.
#2
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-10/p3542869119.jpg)
Jupiter and Saturn (also see https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=1867.msg177425#msg177425 (https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=1867.msg177425#msg177425)) at the lower edge made a nice addition to the Milky Way. This one is a stack of about 75 frames.
#3
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-10/p3542868993.jpg)
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Great pictures, Armando and Øivind.
I see exposures of 1 minutes in the stacks you shared earlier in the thread. What tracker do you use for that? I'm considering buing one in anticipation of comet Leonard in a few weeks.
Thanks.
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Thanks for the comment Bruno, and for the tip on comet Leonard. The hope of catching the tail of a comet was what originally inspired me to buy my tracker. I have had lots of fun with it and also captured a number of comets, but none of them had any tails to speak of.
The tracker I have is the iOptron SkyTracker Classic ver. 2 (https://www.ioptron.com/product-p/3302b.htm (https://www.ioptron.com/product-p/3302b.htm)), which is not produced any longer but might be available on the used market. (The aftercomer, Skytracker Pro probably have about the same accuracy and perhaps a better base, and there is also the more expensive SkyGuider Pro). It seems to be a bit of a hit and miss how long users can expose with these, as they were probably originally designed for shorter focal lengths than 300mm that I usually use, and there is some variation in tolerances of the parts and how well they are adjusted. It does take some experience to work around imprecisions in the altitude adjustment of the classic version. I also removed an excessive washer from the base to eliminate wobble. Look back in the thread for more information.
What I find important with this tracker is that it allows polar alignment to take place with the camera in position, so it allows small adjustments to polar alignment under ways. It also has a good LED for the polar scope. I highly recommend to adapt a right angle viewfinder for the polar scope if you are at high latitudes like me (hardly use the one I got for the camera's viewfinder any longer after I started using my D500), there are used Nikon versions that can be had on eBay for reasonable amounts. Also, some other trackers come without the base, which can add quite a bit weight if you add a geared head to the package. Here is an image of my setup, probably repeated from earlier in this thread.
(https://otoien.zenfolio.com/img/s/v-10/p3890809068.jpg)
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Beautiful meteor image, Øivind! I love the way the transitional colors of the trails of the meteors are rendered.
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Thanks a lot for the detailed info, Øivind. It is very helpful. I would use the 500/5.6 PF which is 700gr heavier than the 300 PF. Do you think it would work with the extra 700gr?
Thanks
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A while ago, I bumped into this Kickstarter project by Benro. A tripod head with the built-in GPS, compass and astromatps:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/benropolaris/polaris-smart-electric-tripod-head?ref=6tba32
One of the problem I found in the astrophotography is that you had to place your tripod where you can see the Polaris to align the rotation of the tracker. But here in Tokyo, you are not guaranteed to see the Polaris from the place you want to shoot, because of the bristling buildings.
A tripod head like this one by Benro can solve the problem.
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Thanks for the comment Akira. Yes the colors of meteors with their transitions can be beautiful, and that is one of the things that makes it easy to distinguish them from satellite tracks beyond that the latter typically appear in more than one frame. Too bad the second meteor was cut off by the end of the exposure, but I think that one would mostly have displayed just the same warm color as the visible section.
Thanks a lot for the detailed info, Øivind. It is very helpful. I would use the 500/5.6 PF which is 700gr heavier than the 300 PF. Do you think it would work with the extra 700gr?
Thanks
I have successfully used my Skytracker with the old AF 300mm f/4 ED, which is about the same weight as the 500/5.6 PF, so I do not think the weight is a problem if you are not at too low latitudes so that the polar alignment is more horizontal. It is important to balance the camera so that the weight is working slightly against the rotation. If it balancing at the tipping point slack in the gears can cause bad tracking. However although I have been able to successfully track with TC-14E added to the 300 PF, I feel that the 420mm focal length is stretching it and can be more of a hit and miss. (There is also the issue of bad seeing around here which often limits resolution.) If you could get hold of a very cheap used Skytracker classic, it would not hurt to try it out though.
I have seen a number of very nice results from the 500/5.6 PF, but then usually on a sturdier more expensive tracker with a very low periodic error, the Fornax LightTrack II https://fornaxmounts.com/products/lightrack-ii-mount/ (https://fornaxmounts.com/products/lightrack-ii-mount/). It is not quite as compact as the smaller trackers, but still quite portable. It will have the disadvantage that it has to be reset during a session once the range of the arm has been fully utilized. Note that a base or extra tripod head is needed in addition to what is seen in the link.
It is also possible that the more expensive iOptron model above or the StarAdventurer could do, but then with guiding (requiring a computer setup) which will reduce the much larger periodic errors of these trackers.
I believe the tracker listed by Akira would be more oriented toward wide angle use and time lapse panning. For high accuracy one really need a polar aligned tracker, not an alt-azimuth oriented one. Also there is the risk of crowdsourcing. I have seen a number of nice results from the built in Pentax Astrotracer that is also based on GPS orientation, but then based on (limited) sensor shifts instead of moving the whole rig.
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Thanks for the comment Akira. Yes the colors of meteors with their transitions can be beautiful, and that is one of the things that makes it easy to distinguish them from satellite tracks beyond that the latter typically appear in more than one frame. Too bad the second meteor was cut off by the end of the exposure, but I think that one would mostly have displayed just the same warm color as the visible section.
I believe the tracker listed by Akira would be more oriented toward wide angle use and time lapse panning. For high accuracy one really need a polar aligned tracker, not an alt-azimuth oriented one. Also there is the risk of crowdsourcing. I have seen a number of nice results from the built in Pentax Astrotracer that is also based on GPS orientation, but then based on (limited) sensor shifts instead of moving the whole rig.
Thank you for the details of the meteors. And your assessment for the tracker/tripod head makes sense.
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Time to get the night sky thread going again: Finally the weather provided a short opening for a deep sky capture, and I used it to capture my first supernova ! I used my 300PF on the ASI678MC astro camera, which gives a quite narrow angle of view. I stacked about one hour total of tracked 30 sec exposures. There was some troublesome auroral activity going on both capture occasions below so I troubled with the colors, which are not optimal.
Supernova explosions are some of the most violent occurrences in the universe. (Earlier in this thread the Veil Nebula is a result of such an explosion.) The star that went supernova May 19, SN 2023ixf is in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101). The top exposure below was captured 1 month before the event. In the bottom exposure from tonight, the supernova is much less bright than at the peak https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/bright-supernova-blazes-in-m101-the-pinwheel-galaxy/ (https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/bright-supernova-blazes-in-m101-the-pinwheel-galaxy/) , but as a compensation it has now taken on a nice red hue that stands out near the center of the bottom frame. It blows me away to be able to witness such a celestial event using this simple equipment.
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Your images keep fascinating me, Øivind!
Hope you would allow me to crop the bottom image to make sure what you are talking about: is this red one slightly below the center of my crop?
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Have any of you in Europe been able to catch any of the Aurora Borealis in the last few days?
I've seen some pretty dramatic shots from Southern UK which until recently has never had many
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Some parts of Norway, in particular the western districts, have had clear skies and people could enjoy stnning displays. I live in the southeastern part and we have grey clouds blanketing everything. Little or no hopes of a reduction in cloud cover unfortunately.
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Your images keep fascinating me, Øivind!
Hope you would allow me to crop the bottom image to make sure what you are talking about: is this red one slightly below the center of my crop?
Thanks Akira, you got the supernova correctly identified. In the upper capture (which is slightly rotated) there is only just a hint of a star at that location.
All clouded over during that last auroral event that was in the news, and those reds usually appear at lower latitudes and are overwhelmed by the green here. However there were a couple of exceptions this fall that I will have to come back to.
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Have any of you in Europe been able to catch any of the Aurora Borealis in the last few days?
I've seen some pretty dramatic shots from Southern UK which until recently has never had many
Colin, a famous session drummer Ash Soan posted some amazing red aurora images seen from his studio outside London. I was surprised that aurora was observed in such a low latitude. You may want to search him on Facebok.
Thanks Akira, you got the supernova correctly identified. In the upper capture (which is slightly rotated) there is only just a hint of a star at that location.
Øivind, thank you for the confirmation!
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Check out the space weather aurora gallery for the last few days, https://spaceweathergallery2.com/index.php?title=aurora (https://spaceweathergallery2.com/index.php?title=aurora), lots of those captures. Interestingly a lot of what was seen is not regular aurora, but a variant called SAR that has a different origin.
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The European Space Agency introduces the first images captured by the Euclid space telescope whose main mission is to look for the evidence of the existence of the dark matter and the dark energy, and whose field of view is 100 times wider than that of the James Webb space telescope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHWbe82zM8o
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See here for a selection of Aurora pictures from Southern UK,
including over Stonehenge
https://www.facebook.com/stonehengedronescapes/
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Coming home tonight, I saw the moon had a companion.
Often it seems to be Venus.
One website told me that tonight it might be Jupiter.
Can anyone advise?
(note, the planet was originally around 19:30 in relation to the moon, but my framing changed this)
D500 plus 300mm PF and TC14, handheld
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Nice clear shot, Jupiter was easily confirmed in Stellarium.