Andromeda on a Near Full Moon Night

AlanLichty

AlanLichty

Moderator
I continue to be impressed with the results you are getting with just a 300mm lens. This looks more like something that came from a dedicated astrophotography rig. Very nice work.
 
JimFox

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
This is really cool Andrew! I would say it turned out really nice.

Are you looking to get a longer lens at some point so you don't have to crop so much? If so, which lens are you looking at?
 
Colorado CJ

Colorado CJ

Well-Known Member
Thanks every one, yeah the K-1 continues to impress me. I never thought I would get this out of it using the "Astrotracer" feature. It is also only 12 minutes of total exposure. Most astrophotographers photograph a single object for 1-3 HOURS. I am going to keep the subs and keep stacking them as I keep shooting. I am hoping to get at least an hour worth of images to work with.

Jim, you've read my mind! I've been looking at some APO refractors yesterday. I will have to save up, but I think my next purchase is going to be an 80mm APO doublet or triplet of some type, probably the Orion ED80T carbon. An added bonus is, I will have an excellent long lens to use for wildlife as well.

I've done some reading and astrophotographers who are also photographers use their smaller scopes for wildlife as you can't beat the clarity, color, sharpness or contrast of a true APO scope. They say nothing camera lens manufacturers make is comparable.
 
JimFox

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Colorado CJ said:
Thanks every one, yeah the K-1 continues to impress me. I never thought I would get this out of it using the "Astrotracer" feature. It is also only 12 minutes of total exposure. Most astrophotographers photograph a single object for 1-3 HOURS. I am going to keep the subs and keep stacking them as I keep shooting. I am hoping to get at least an hour worth of images to work with.

Jim, you've read my mind! I've been looking at some APO refractors yesterday. I will have to save up, but I think my next purchase is going to be an 80mm APO doublet or triplet of some type, probably the Orion ED80T carbon. An added bonus is, I will have an excellent long lens to use for wildlife as well.

I've done some reading and astrophotographers who are also photographers use their smaller scopes for wildlife as you can't beat the clarity, color, sharpness or contrast of a true APO scope. They say nothing camera lens manufacturers make is comparable.
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That's interesting. I have long wondered about those APO scopes, it will be interesting if you get one to let us know just how good it is.
 
Mike Lewis

Mike Lewis

Staff Member
CJ,

Your results continue to improve before our eyes! Great result on this, starting to get some good detail in the disk, and the colors are very nice in the core especially.

I would recommend a triplet and not a doublet for astrophotography, as the potential color issues are usually less. I can recommend a couple of possibilities I have seen very good results with that are not too far off of the price point of a typical 80mm 3 element APO or so, but in some cases that have some nice features for astroimaging. There are also some very nice references out there on CD for the best way to ramp up your expenditures in the hobby so as to make the most out of what you spend. Drop me a private message if you want to discuss.

Great job, keep up the good work!

ML
 
Colorado CJ

Colorado CJ

Well-Known Member
Thanks everyone.



Well I ended up buying a new scope last night, an Explore Scientific ED80 triplet and its associated flattener.

I haven't bought an equatorial mount yet, my wallet has to recover . I think I should be able to get at least 30 second exposures with the built in Astrotracer feature on the K-1 though. That will have to do for now.



As a bonus, I plan on using the scope as a telephoto lens for wildlife. I've been meaning to get some longer glass, and this is the cheapest ~500mm f6 lens there is, with arguably better glass than any camera lens out there. I know it will be somewhat of a pain to focus, but I am used to manually focused lenses. The Tair 3 I used for this image is one of my prime wildlife lenses (even though I have more modern glass) since it is just SO good.
 
JimFox

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Colorado CJ said:
Thanks everyone.



Well I ended up buying a new scope last night, an Explore Scientific ED80 triplet and its associated flattener.

I haven't bought an equatorial mount yet, my wallet has to recover . I think I should be able to get at least 30 second exposures with the built in Astrotracer feature on the K-1 though. That will have to do for now.



As a bonus, I plan on using the scope as a telephoto lens for wildlife. I've been meaning to get some longer glass, and this is the cheapest ~500mm f6 lens there is, with arguably better glass than any camera lens out there. I know it will be somewhat of a pain to focus, but I am used to manually focused lenses. The Tair 3 I used for this image is one of my prime wildlife lenses (even though I have more modern glass) since it is just SO good.
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That sounds super cool Andrew! I look forward to your report on it. So as a scope this might be a dumb question, but it's going to be a fixed aperture too?
 
Colorado CJ

Colorado CJ

Well-Known Member
JimFox said:
That sounds super cool Andrew! I look forward to your report on it. So as a scope this might be a dumb question, but it's going to be a fixed aperture too?
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Yes, it is a fixed F6 aperture scope. You can change the aperture if you need to by getting a focal reducer which is usually a .8 reducer which would bring the scope down to an F4.8. You can also use masks which are basically a cardstock, plastic or metal ring you put over the end of the scope to make the objective smaller.

Really though, the only thing you use when doing astrophotography is the focal reducer. APO scopes have a pretty good field curvature so you need to use a field flattener anyway and many of them also reduce the focal length, and the f ratio. The one I bought is just a pure field flattener though since I want as much reach as possible. It is a 80mm objective with a 480mm focal length.
 
Colorado CJ

Colorado CJ

Well-Known Member
Mike Lewis said:
CJ,

Lots of great astro images being made by that scope - I am sure you will be happy with it! Congrats!

ML
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Thanks Mike! I'm real excited to see what it can do with the Astrotracer. I do plan on getting an equatorial mount in the future though, because I'd like to one day shoot longer subs.
 
Mike Lewis

Mike Lewis

Staff Member
CJ,

If you can invest ~$40, I would refer you to some of the excellent references on the website of Jerry Lodriguss:

http://astropix.com/

Jerry's CD guides are very informative. You can judge for yourself which of the 2 astrophotography titles you would find most beneficial, or could even drop Jerry an email and get his input. He is a very knowledgeable and experienced astroimager who has done extensive imaging with DSLRs. I expect he also might be directly interested in how you are getting along with the Astrotracer function on your Pentax.

One of the biggest advantages these guides had for me was that they helped me zero in on what gear I should be buying (and maybe even more importantly, what gear I should NOT be buying) and helped me make my money spent in the hobby go farther than it probably would have if left to my own buying choices. A lot of astroimaging gear is still notoriously over-hyped IMHO, making it pretty easy to buy gear that promises a level of performance that it cannot realistically deliver. You have done well on your OTA choice, but once you get into tracking mounts (to get longer exposures and image 'deeper') the price tags go up quickly and the penalty for making a mistake on something is more economically painful.

ML
 
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