The Photography thread!

[TheLinguist]

Shot these tonight from light-polluted skies, in addition to the moon being at nearly first quarter: M27 and M57, the Dumbell and Ring nebulas. Once again, I neglected to shoot in RAW.... argh!! One of these days (nights) I'll get it together. If I was at a dark-sky site with no moon, the contrast would be MUCH improved. Seeing was also poor.

Equipment:
Camera - Canon T2i
Lens - Orion 8" F/5 Newtonian (1.83" Celestron secondary) with PC cooling fan. Moderate flocking attempt to blacken the tube and maximize contrast.
Filter - Astronomik CLS
Mount - Celestron AS-GT; unguided with a somewhat accurate polar alignment.

Dumbell Nebula: 2 x 30 seconds at ISO 1600, added together using Paint.NET, and adjusting curves, levels, WB. You can see little speckles of red and blue; these are hot pixels. This is post processed to get the black point down and bring out the detail without overdoing it. The Astronomik filter works by suppressing wavelengths common in mercury and sodium vapor street lights, but its presence screws up the white balance. The images are very heavy in the cyan, and deep red. I had neglected to make a custom WB.
View attachment 655961

Ring Nebula: 1x30 seconds at ISO 1600. Similar processing techniques as the above. Although smaller and dimmer, this object actually has a higher surface brightness than the above. Hot pixels are a bit more obvious in this one. These are mitigated by taking darks, but I wasn't up to doing it just yet.
View attachment 655963

Those are amazing, aside from the old camera on a tripod for astro I'm very interested in the type you're doing.

 

[astrozician]

Those are amazing, aside from the old camera on a tripod for astro I'm very interested in the type you're doing.

Be prepared to spend around 2,000, but the good news is that you can do it in chunks. Are you a science buff? That will come in handy: telescope designs, the night sky, physics etc..

You want a German Equatorial Mount that will track, and autoguide (if desired) from a reputable manufacturer: Orion, Celestron, Meade, Losmandy. Get familiar with how it works (rather than a traditional up-down/ left-right), and definitely don't skimp on getting an accurate polar alignment. Don't forget a battery; I use a Schumacher.
Choice of telescope is going to vary wildly. Just pay attention to design, F-ratio, quality control, weight, aperture. Again, stick with a reputable manufacturer. Aperture is king and quality optics is queen but too heavy and bulky are prohibitive. My back and knees aren't what they used to be. You don't need a ton of focal length to start with unless you want to shoot planets, and you can always get a barlow lens.

Here are some useful websites, full of information:
www.saratogaskies.com
www.cloudynights.com
www.scopereviews.com

I could probably go on and on. Any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

To me, the hardest thing is nailing the focus; that I cannot answer.

 

[TheLinguist]

Be prepared to spend around 2,000, but the good news is that you can do it in chunks. Are you a science buff? That will come in handy: telescope designs, the night sky, physics etc..

You want a German Equatorial Mount that will track, and autoguide (if desired) from a reputable manufacturer: Orion, Celestron, Meade, Losmandy. Get familiar with how it works (rather than a traditional up-down/ left-right), and definitely don't skimp on getting an accurate polar alignment. Don't forget a battery; I use a Schumacher.
Choice of telescope is going to vary wildly. Just pay attention to design, F-ratio, quality control, weight, aperture. Again, stick with a reputable manufacturer. Aperture is king and quality optics is queen but too heavy and bulky are prohibitive. My back and knees aren't what they used to be. You don't need a ton of focal length to start with unless you want to shoot planets, and you can always get a barlow lens.

Here are some useful websites, full of information:
www.saratogaskies.com
www.cloudynights.com
www.scopereviews.com

I could probably go on and on. Any questions, I'd be happy to answer.

To me, the hardest thing is nailing the focus; that I cannot answer.

Thank you, given time I’ll look into it more in depth!

 

[rj144]

 

[90 50]

Those are amazing, aside from the old camera on a tripod for astro I'm very interested in the type you're doing.

I’ve taken stuff with old school shutter locks on film all the way up to involometer shots with my cameras on a tripod.


I’ve looked into real astro stuff a ton over and over again from time to time but never pulled the trigger on a telescope and an adapter.

One of these days.

 

[rj144]

I’ve taken stuff with old school shutter locks on film all the way up to involometer shots with my cameras on a tripod.


I’ve looked into real astro stuff a ton over and over again from time to time but never pulled the trigger on a telescope and an adapter.

One of these days.

I want to do it too, but there is way too much light pollution around me.

 

[90 50]

I want to do it too, but there is way too much light pollution around me.

Yeah that’s another big problem.

 

[Kardashians]

Oh hey, we finally have a photography thread going!

I recently got a "new" camera. I'm pretty excited about it.

Found it at my friend's yardsale. Immediately fell in love. It's a Kodak Vollenda 620, from the 30s. I just recently received the film for it in the mail. Just gotta put it in and get started with taking some rad photos!

 

[Kardashians]

@moreorless87 what's your av from?

 

[Deleted member 110072]

@moreorless87 what's your av from?

Marketa Lazarova, Czech medieval film from 1967.



Whole film is on YouTube(with English subtitles) if you want to watch it.

If you don't have experience with a camera like that previously Kardashians the main thing you'll need is a light meter to judge exposure settings, could buy one or perhaps theres a phone app? do you know whether the camera actually works? a lot of them of such age don't or the shutter times are slow/fast.

 

[aerius]

Couple photos from my first digital camera, way back in the day.

 

[TheLinguist]

I’ve taken stuff with old school shutter locks on film all the way up to involometer shots with my cameras on a tripod.


I’ve looked into real astro stuff a ton over and over again from time to time but never pulled the trigger on a telescope and an adapter.

One of these days.

You and me both lol

 

[TheLinguist]

Oh hey, we finally have a photography thread going!

I recently got a "new" camera. I'm pretty excited about it.

Found it at my friend's yardsale. Immediately fell in love. It's a Kodak Vollenda 620, from the 30s. I just recently received the film for it in the mail. Just gotta put it in and get started with taking some rad photos!

Wow that’s an excellent find! Looking forward to see what you can pull outta of that beaut!

 

[TheLinguist]

Couple photos from my first digital camera, way back in the day.

The second photo is very nice, wicked framing

 

[ssBaldy]

Yeah that’s another big problem.

Agreed. Same stuff here, you simply cant make astro in Moscow, and even our country house is so light polluted one would never get decent results. I would need to travel every time I want to take a photo, so no telescopes for me.

 

[ssBaldy]

Some from my trip to Serbia last New year holidays

 

[90 50]

Marketa Lazarova, Czech medieval film from 1967.



Whole film is on YouTube(with English subtitles) if you want to watch it.

If you don't have experience with a camera like that previously Kardashians the main thing you'll need is a light meter to judge exposure settings, could buy one or perhaps theres a phone app? do you know whether the camera actually works? a lot of them of such age don't or the shutter times are slow/fast.

Sunny 16 rule is a good place to start also on judging exposure time.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

Does depend a lot on the film your using as well, B&W negative film is pretty forgiving in terms of under/over exposure but slide film far less so.

 

[90 50]

Agreed. Same stuff here, you simply cant make astro in Moscow, and even our country house is so light polluted one would never get decent results. I would need to travel every time I want to take a photo, so no telescopes for me.

For sure, I don’t have many photos from Moscow.

I have some decent ones From Krasnoyarsk and bogachoeny(I always fuck the spelling up on that one) novy Urengoy and the arctic circle up there.

I need to find them and post them.

 

[ssBaldy]

For sure, I don’t have many photos from Moscow.

I have some decent ones From Krasnoyarsk and bogachoeny(I always fuck the spelling up on that one) novy Urengoy and the arctic circle up there.

I need to find them and post them.

I bet you can get killer shots from that far North. Lots of solitary places, and clean air too if you keep clear of big factories.