The HN special ends at the end of this month and the $50 cashback from Nikon at the end of March. Thanks again Luka for the tip. I should pay you a finder's fee really.
Glad I could help. Regarding the finder's fee, post some photos in the deep sky section once you get things working
I received the new Nikon D3300 and got the latest VR2 18-55mm kit lens for another $70 from a gumtree seller yesterday. Haven't done a lot with it yet but I'm very happy with this camera. I was not expecting to get anything this capable brand new for <$300. (I also bought a second hand Tamron 135mm f/2.8 prime lens off ebay for <$100. Love how current Nikon cameras are compatible with old lenses.)
Here is a single shot of the sky from my place ~10km north of Melbourne CBD (ISO3200, 10s, f/3.5, kit lens at its widest FL=18mm). The camera is aimed south, directly towards Melbourne city, so the prominent feature of the image is a lot of light pollution. I'll try aiming it north instead on the next clear night. (Second image is 100% crop of the unaltered 12MPix JPEG off the camera.)
Moonshot with 135mm Tamron lens (2x actual size with some sharpening; second image shows the full DX frame with this lens). Thanks again everyone for the good advice. Very happy with the Nikon D3300. Gotta hook this puppy up to a scope.
Well done Steve on your first shots, it's all down hill from now on with upgrades etc
I just live up the road from you so feel free to contact me if you want to experiment with a scope at some stage.
Cheers
Bo
Yeah, I know what you mean fellas. Here is a quick Moon shot from this morning using the Intes 6" Mak (photo size reduced 6-fold, green channel only). The camera sure shakes the tripod when the shutter opens. I'd better study the manual some more and see if there is anything for it. (I assume mirror lock would be redundant when already using live view...)
Yeah, I know what you mean fellas. Here is a quick Moon shot from this morning using the Intes 6" Mak (photo size reduced 6-fold, green channel only). The camera sure shakes the tripod when the shutter opens. I'd better study the manual some more and see if there is anything for it. (I assume mirror lock would be redundant when already using live view...)
if not using it or an intervalometer already - the count timer down feature helps avoid vibrations can help a lot that in conjunction with 10 or so shots helps.
When doing still Lunar work,[ as opposed to video] I use ISO1600,
and a shutter speed of 1/2500 to 1/4000th depending upon the phase of the moon. This way, the exposure is over before the vibrations really get
under way. I can understand mirror vibes being felt through the tripod,
but am a bit surprised that the shutter ones can be felt. I'm guessing
that it is a light duty tripod.
raymo
Yes, I do use the countdown timer. I have not tried multiple shots in this instance. I suspect even when in live-view the mirror is lowered and raised again for the shot. Like raymo says the shutter should not shake things that much.
@raymo The tripod/mount is not that bad but after having moved house I still have not found the counterweights, so I shot with the EQ set up in AZ (celestial pole at horizon) but still very off balance.
I looked at the shutter and the mirror stays locked in live-view and only the shutter is closed and reopened, but there are other mechanicals going clunk-clunk and you can feel the camera body shake a bit if you hold it in your hand.
Three more photos from the same Moon shot: #1. 100% crop of photo which shows chromatic aberration of the Intes MK-65; #2. unprocessed (only contrast stretched and reduced) full frame; #3. same again with moderate sharpening. I went overboard with processing before (unsharp mask and curves) --- I suspect that's a beginner's disease.
My mirror doesn't stay locked, so obviously not all cameras are the same
in that respect. Being as Maks don't suffer from chromatic aberration,
I have to assume that you used eyepiece projection for that shot.
raymo
Nah, no eyepiece, just a straight-through camera adapter + helical focusser. The CA is from the Mak. Maks use a front correcting plate and that does have some CA. It's basically a big lens after all.
The Mak design was a long time in gestation, and all CA was eliminated in the process.The corrector does cause CA, but the meniscus diverges the
light by the exact amount required to cancel it out. It doesn't matter much what glass is used for the corrector,[ as far as CA is concerned] as the divergence of the meniscus is adjusted to suit whatever glass is used, although admittedly the less CA the corrector exhibits, the easier it is to cancel it out. No self respecting Mak will exhibit any CA at all, even "budget" level models such as the SW 150 and 180 Maks are CA free.
Even a Mak experimented with many years ago with a meniscus not
designed to cancel out the CA showed only very slight CA, owing to its
focal ratio of f/15.
I have owned two Maks [6 and 8] and used a number of others,[for imaging] and have never seen a trace of CA. I have seen a little occasionally [ visual] caused by el cheapo eyepieces.
raymo
Well, this is an f/10 Mak, an early model, and not the most sophisticated of the Intes Maks (MK-65, sold in 1994, perhaps made earlier, according to the documentation I got with it). Maybe it's not ideally set up and maybe the collimation is not as good as I thought - though visually it seems to check out alright. Modern SW Maks are better than this scope for sure. Even the central obstruction is quite large on this scope for a Mak (something around 35% from memory).
I am still surprised, because the Mak design was perfected and marketed
back in the 1940s, and with the surfaces being spherical, was fairly easy
to mass produce in smaller sizes [up to 10" or so.]. Maybe it's been
stripped, and the corrector incorrectly reinstalled.
raymo
I very much doubt that. As far as I know I'm the second owner and the scope has never been mistreated.
But this is the Moon, at not far off the widest FOV the scope was designed for, and my focus was only so-so. The Moon was also very low in the sky. And it's a 24MPix DX sensor.
Visually I never had issues with CA. The scope could handle planets no probs at up to 300x (though in practice 240x or less is always sharper). It's just that for this particular photo, for whatever reason, using only the green channel made sense.
if the moon was lowish in the sky it could be some atmospheric dispersion rather than the scope. if you put the photo into RegiStax and choose RGB align (from memory) it can often offer some improvement.