Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

[davenn]

the vertical lines on each star are caused by the vibration each time the mirror flips up in the dslr

If your camera has live view, use it and it stops that flip vibration

A trick I learned some years ago

 

[Devin-M]

I did another test last night and was able to get rid of the mirror flip vibration. I was only able to get 5x frames of the Phantom Galaxy before the clouds rolled in so the image has a huge amount of noise...

no tracking, 5x focal 500mm, f/5, 5sec, 25600iso, nikon d800 full frame body, bortle 5, cropped

I used the “exposure delay mode” to flip up the mirror for a couple seconds before releasing the shutter, and the built in intervalometer to shoot multiple exposures without touching the camera. This eliminated the shake, now just waiting for the equatorial mount to eliminate the star trails...

The stars look a lot better than the previous test...

 

[chemisttree]

I think you could also use a bracket that mounted to both the lens and body. Your way is simpler and cheaper. The shake is perhaps a flex happening between the lens and the body?

Love the color on the M42. Really good for 2.5 s subs!

 

[Devin-M]

I think you could also use a bracket that mounted to both the lens and body. Your way is simpler and cheaper. The shake is perhaps a flex happening between the lens and the body?

Love the color on the M42. Really good for 2.5 s subs!

I eliminated the shake by adding an exposure delay after the mirror flips... now it’s just Earth rotation...

 

[chemisttree]

Yes, at that magnification trailing is noticeable. Is that the full field of your Phantom Galaxy or a crop?

 

[Devin-M]

It’s cropped... no tracking, 5x focal 500mm, f/5, 5sec, 25600iso, nikon d800 full frame body, bortle 5, cropped + 40 darks + 40 flats.

I should be receiving a 2x teleconverter + equatorial mount in a few days.

 

[chemisttree]

Definitely going to be cloudy on that fine day!

 

[Devin-M]

I went crazy and ordered a bahtinov mask, light pollution filter, intervalometer and picked up a heavier duty tripod (in addition to the equatorial mount and 2x teleconverters already on the way.)

 

[chemisttree]

So the 500mm doesn’t have a hard stop at infinite focus like the 200 mm does? Which LP filter did you choose?

 

[Devin-M]

The Nikkor-reflex focal 500mm f/5 actually requires a 39mm filter be inserted in the rear of the lens at all times while shooting. It comes with a set of 5– UV, Neutral Density, Red, Orange, and Yellow. I didn’t believe it actually needed one, but I wasn’t able to reach focus without it so I currently have the UV inserted. With the filter inserted it goes slightly past infinity. I ended up getting a Rollei Astroklar Light Pollution Round Filter, entirely because it’s the only one I could find in 39mm and I’d rather not have the UV filter in there since it’s not needed except to achieve focus.

https://www.rollei.com/collections/...oducts/astroklar-nachtlicht-filter-rundfilter

https://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/telephotos/50cmf5/index.htm

 

[DennisN]

I just watched a video on the Sixty Symbols channel, where "Professional astronomer Michael Merrifield tries his hand at some backyard astronomy during the 2020 lockdown."
It was pretty fun and had some nice pictures:

The (Professional) Backyard Astronomer - Sixty Symbols
In the description below the video I also saw a link to another astronomy channel which looks interesting:
DeepSkyVideos.

Edit 1: I also found the telescope he was using in the first video, it's called Unistellar eVscope.
Here's a review of it.
Edit 2: Darn, it is pretty expensive: £2,599.

 

[Andy Resnick]

So the 500mm doesn’t have a hard stop at infinite focus like the 200 mm does? Which LP filter did you choose?

In many cases, a hard stop at inifinity focus is not a good idea- it's not always possible to compensate for thermal shifts of the focal plane, for example. All the lenses I use (400/2.8, 105/1.4, 15/2.8) can focus past inifinity.

 

[davenn]

+ equatorial mount in a few days.

Ohhh has your Star Adventurer 2i PRO not arrived yet ? ... I thought you already had it

Tried my one out last saturday nite, works well. It handles the Canon 6D and 70-200mm F2.8 lens with ease
Just have to figure out polar alignment VERY difficult for us ones in the southern hemisphere with no pole star

 

[Devin-M]

I read someone suggested shining a green laser through the polar scope to get relatively close to sigma octantis (not while looking through it).

 

[Devin-M]

I received the 2x teleconverter and did a test single exposure of the moon at 100iso, 1/20th sec, 500mm f/5 + 2x teleconverter for 1000mm f/10 on a Nikon D800 full frame dslr body after 10sec timer and 2 sec exposure delay after mirror flip up, raw to jpg converted through adobe lightroom with some custom image settings.

Full Frame:

Cropped:

Cropped:

Camera:

I'm not sure when or if my equatorial mount will arrive, the mail is delayed.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Darn, it is pretty expensive: £2,599.

From an Astronomy Now review :

It’s evident from online chatter in the telescope and imaging forums that the eVscope has polarised opinion. Its detractors sneer that it’s possible to obtain the functionality of the instrument at a fraction of the cost using off-the-shelf components (if you are very proficient with computers and don’t mind a rat’s nest of wires), while its defenders sing the praises of its compact, cable-free, easy to use and powerful on-the-fly imaging capabilities.

Edit: Taking the eVscope idea to the logical conclusion, I could buy 100 hours of time on Skygems and I wouldn't need to get out of my chair and go out in the cold.

 

[DennisN]

Ultracompact, quick astrophotography session:

I was out buying groceries tonight and I saw a beautiful Moon, so I decided to test my small 22x telephoto lens for mobile phones. I put the lens in my backpocket, grabbed the tripod and went out in the bitingly cold night for about 30 minutes. It was also quite windy, which made the tripod shake, which made it annoyingly difficult to focus.

Gear used: K&F Concept tripod, Crenova 22x telephoto lens, LG G4 phone, CamKix remote control.
Camera settings: ISO 50, 1/100 s exposure.
Software used: PIPP, Autostakkert, Photoshop

Crenova 22x telephoto lens (lens kit bought http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZK812FR/?tag=pfamazon01-20)

The Moon, ISO 50, 1/100 s exposure, 35 photos stacked
(some stacking artifacts, I will see if I can do it with some better settings)

 

[Devin-M]

The Moon, ISO 50, 1/100 s exposure, 35 photos stacked

cropped?

 

[DennisN]

cropped?

Yes. I used PIPP - Planetary Imaging PreProcessor first to prepare (incl. automatic cropping) the photos first, as this greatly decreases the stacking time (I stacked using AutoStakkert). After that I also did some minor adjustments (brightness/contrast) in Photoshop, and also did a final crop there.

 

[Devin-M]

I did some test shots last night of the Flame Nebula with the Reflex-Nikkor 500mm f/5 + 2x TC-201 Nikon Teleconverter on a Nikon D800 full frame dslr (tripod w/ no tracking).

I used a sequence of 11x 1000mm focal, f/10, 5 sec, 25600iso + 40 darks + 40 flats, bortle 5-6 (back yard no light pollution filter). With this setup, my number of shots is limited by how quickly the stars are zooming past the view finder, and also my stacking software's ability to align the sequential images, so consequently, since it's only 55 seconds of cumulative exposure time, the image is still very noisy. The sequence was shot with the built in intervalometer to minimize shake and a "2 second exposure delay after mirror flip-up" setting to eliminate the shake from the mirror flip.

Prior to shooting I applied a Bahtinov mask in front of the lens to achieve focus. It creates a diffraction pattern and when the central spike is centered on the cross spikes, then you know it's in focus. Then you remove the mask before shooting.

 

[Devin-M]

The focus ring will turn all the way to the middle of the infinity marker, but according to the Bahtinov mask, focus at infinity is achieved at this position:

 

[davenn]

All the lenses I use (400/2.8, 105/1.4, 15/2.8) can focus past inifinity.

Yes, likewise with my Canon lenses

 

[DennisN]

Ultracompact, quick astrophotography session:

I realized that the "stacking artifacts" I mentioned before were not due to stacking as such, it was due to chromatic aberration from the lens.

One of the original frames (cropped):

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50862227756_430c009fe5_z.jpg

A better stacked version of the Moon, this time in color and with manually selected "best frames", and I also tried using the drizzle option, and I removed some of the chromatic aberration in Photoshop:

 

[DennisN]

A very nice and humbling video:

Ultra Deep Field: Looking Out into Space, Looking Back into Time (Hubble Space Telescope)
This six-minute visual exploration of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field showcases the characteristics and contents of this landmark observation, as well as its three-dimensional nature across both space and time. In particular, galaxies are seen to more than 12 billion light-years away / 12 billion years ago, allowing astronomers to trace the development of galaxies across cosmic time. [...]



A page about it https://hubblesite.org/video/1310/category/4-galaxies (HubbleSite.org).
An article about it here (SciTechDaily).

 

[DennisN]

Prior to shooting I applied a Bahtinov mask in front of the lens to achieve focus. It creates a diffraction pattern and when the central spike is centered on the cross spikes, then you know it's in focus. Then you remove the mask before shooting.

Great info, I did not know about that!
I've checked it out on wikipedia, and I will get such a mask.
Or build one, perhaps.

 

[Devin-M]

Using the bahtinov mask, one knows they have achieved focus when the central diffraction spike is centered between the other 2 “x” shaped diffraction spikes...

 

[chemisttree]

Great info, I did not know about that!
I've checked it out on wikipedia, and I will get such a mask.
Or build one, perhaps.

When I built mine, I found that I could focus just as accurately without it. I found that the diffraction spikes were too fat to be of use.
Instructions here.

 

[Devin-M]

1000mm f/10 (500mm f/5 w/ 2x teleconverter), video shot on Nikon D800, sped up 80x, converted to animated gif, full frame:

Normal Speed, 1080p:

 

[DennisN]

When I built mine, I found that I could focus just as accurately without it. I found that the diffraction spikes were too fat to be of use.
Instructions here.

Excellent page, thanks! I will do a mask and try it out, at least.

 

[bruha]

Hi, this is just small mob. experiment .. moon yesterday

 

[Devin-M]

Messier 109 (NGC 3992) - 83.5 million light years
40x focal 300mm f/4.5 5sec 1600iso + 40 lights + 40 darks (cropped) - nikon d800 dslr, bortle 5, no tracking

 

[DennisN]

Hi, this is just small mob. experiment .. moon yesterday

Are you using the app Open Camera?
The settings I use for the Moon are (manual settings):

1) Setting the ISO to a minimum (it's 50 on my phone) - lower ISO means less noise in the image
2) Using an exposure time somewhere between 1/100 s and 1/20 s.

At least that is what I have found usually produces the best images of the Moon for my phone.

EDIT:

Hmm, maybe my settings aren't the best, haha!
I googled for "exposure time for moon photography" and found this page:
14 Tips for Shooting the Moon

Next time, I think I will try with slightly higher ISO (between 100 and 400) and even shorter exposure times (than 1/100 s) too see if there is an improvement!
(what I mean is that shorter exposure times is better due to movement of the Moon)

 

[chemisttree]

I used 1/503 sec and the ISO that made that work on the moon.

 

[DennisN]

I used 1/503 sec and the ISO that made that work on the moon.

I will definitely try with various settings the next time.

 

[bruha]

Hi, thanks... I have to install Open Camera (new phone) ..