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macholtz and pleiades



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 10th 05, 12:29 AM
starburst
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Default macholtz and pleiades

Skies finally cooperated on Friday night. Here's my very first attempt
at astrophotography with the canon digital rebel. It's amazing how easy
this thing is to use.

https://webspace.utexas.edu/hillcp1/...%2003 30z.jpg

This is a combination of 4 30 second exposures at ISO400, through a
vintage pentax smc takumar screwmount 200mm telephoto lens @ f/4,
piggybacked on a c8. The image has been washed and tweaked a bit with
photoshop. Not too shaby for a first try. Can't quite get the magenta
skyglow out yet, but I'm working on it.

I'm not recording much tail at all. Here's a reverse grayscale of the
comet itself before processing (ie only the 4 tiffs combined and then
saved as a jpeg after cropping):

https://webspace.utexas.edu/hillcp1/...0greyscale.jpg

Chris
  #2  
Old January 10th 05, 01:36 AM
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Chris,

Fantastic image, especially if it's your first try with the Rebel!

Did you let the Rebel do the dark frame subtraction or did you do it
yourself in Photoshop?

I'm trying similar with my Minolta 7Hi but the skies here in Maryland
have been overcast almost non-stop. I tried a piggy back session last
night in between clouds with not so good results.

Andy

  #4  
Old January 10th 05, 03:57 PM
starburst
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Gotta try the stacking. But first gotta improve my drift alignment
technique. My stars look like little dumbells.


Right after I shot the set of macholtz pictures, I tried for a set of
Orion's belt and the nebula, and these were not as good, some with
dumbell shaped blobs instead of stars. I'm thinking that mirror shake
may be a problem, so I'll try a black hat next time (if it ever clears
again). I think I'll eventually try the firmware hack to get mirror
lock-up, but don't want to void the warranty on this camera yet when
it's only a week out of the box (smile).


'luck - Chris


Thanks for sharing.
Nice work.
Uncle Bob

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  #5  
Old January 10th 05, 05:34 PM
MrNightguy
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"starburst" wrote in message
...
Skies finally cooperated on Friday night. Here's my very first attempt
at astrophotography with the canon digital rebel. It's amazing how easy
this thing is to use.


https://webspace.utexas.edu/hillcp1/...%2003 30z.jpg

This is a combination of 4 30 second exposures at ISO400, through a
vintage pentax smc takumar screwmount 200mm telephoto lens @ f/4,
piggybacked on a c8. The image has been washed and tweaked a bit with
photoshop. Not too shaby for a first try. Can't quite get the magenta
skyglow out yet, but I'm working on it.


Is that a film or digital camera?


  #6  
Old January 10th 05, 06:15 PM
starburst
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MrNightguy wrote:
"starburst" wrote in message
...

Skies finally cooperated on Friday night. Here's my very first attempt
at astrophotography with the canon digital rebel. It's amazing how easy
this thing is to use.



https://webspace.utexas.edu/hillcp1/...%2003 30z.jpg

This is a combination of 4 30 second exposures at ISO400, through a
vintage pentax smc takumar screwmount 200mm telephoto lens @ f/4,
piggybacked on a c8. The image has been washed and tweaked a bit with
photoshop. Not too shaby for a first try. Can't quite get the magenta
skyglow out yet, but I'm working on it.



Is that a film or digital camera?


Canon eos digital d300
  #7  
Old January 10th 05, 11:51 PM
RichA
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On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 17:29:48 -0600, starburst
wrote:

Skies finally cooperated on Friday night. Here's my very first attempt
at astrophotography with the canon digital rebel. It's amazing how easy
this thing is to use.

https://webspace.utexas.edu/hillcp1/...%2003 30z.jpg


Nice photo and good colours!
-Rich
 




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