With good conditions in Victoria last Friday, it was time to test out this Sigma 50-200mm apo lens I got off Gumtree for $80. The lens was made in about 1985 but looked in reasonable condition and back then they claimed it had almost zero CA with several ED glass elements. Well we all know how demanding astrophotography is on lens performance. Almost zero CA for daylight terrestrial photography maybe but for night time star shots, well, I'd rate it OK but CA was still evident.
Here's a few quickies I did Friday night from near Woodend, Victoria, where Melbourne's urban skyglow is still quite noticeable. IC 2118 was probably a bit ambitious from here and only 32 x 90 sec subs could be managed because this dam wind blew up from no where so I decided to pack up. Before I put everything away back in the car, I shot 6 x 90 secs subs of M45 and 4 x 90 secs subs of the belt and sword of Orion. All shots taken with the modded Canon 550d at 1600 iso F 5.6 on a HEQ5pro mount unguided.
PS. And yes, I did use StarTools to assist in processing these images but finished off in Photoshop.
