Birding with Orion ST80/Baader Zoom

[Marios]

Thought give some of the Astro Gear a go at the local sanctuary.
All done through eyepiece projection birds varied form 100 meters to 200 meters..

[Regulus]

Some nice photos there Marios. The patterns in the tree barks are a nice addition too.
These little 80mm scopes are very good as a prime lens. A friend took some bird shots with his SW80ED and they were excellent results. And not to heavy to set up and use either.

[Marios]

I do find the ST80 a very convenient size, I do enjoy tinkering to make something average special.

I'm looking forward to experimenting more with he scope haven't tried a prime focus as yet. I am getting a fair bit of coma through the eyepiece had to trim the edges on all the shots. I am finding the images a little soft and fuzzy probably due to camera being modified and little achromatic distortion.

All and all a nice day in nature..:)

[04Stefan07]

Nice setup and some great shots too :).

[omegacrux]

A good start Marios
I think you will get better images if you attach the camera straight to the scope via a t-ring .
The images won't be as big , but you can crop them better
Not shure what affect the mod to the filter will have though .

David

[Marios]

Hi David

I definitely will give prime focus a go, I do like the versatility that a zoom provides. I might still be able to make the EP work for me. I’m curious to see what will happen if I put a Coma corrector in the optical path.. :lol:

If this Land based stuff does catch on I will invest in a WB balance clip in filter from Astronomics to return the camera to daytime state..

[Marios]

Hi mate yes it is Afocal, a power mate sounds like an idea. :thanx:

[Marios]

Thanks Stefan..:thumbsup:

[Regulus]

I'm curious too see too. But do try prime focus with a t-mount, the results should be quite sharp with good colour.

This is a link to David's (Omegacrux) result with the SK80ED and they are pretty nice. These birds were about 40 metres away with a crop factor of 2x (micro 4/3 camera and about equivalent to a 1200mm f7 prime) and I was impressed with the full res image that the cornea of the bird's eye was well resolved.

Trev
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...d.php?t=122320 (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=122320)

[Marios]

In Davids case he is using an ED80 APO, Im not hopeful with the $200 ST80 optics. We could be pleasently suprised.

[Marios]

All taken at Prime focus, unfortunately the birds were a little shy today most shots are at long distance. I took a shot of the tree were most of my shots from the other day had originated. Just to compare the sharpness of the prime focus vs the EP which is considerable in most of the FOV. I still found that most shots suffered from chromatic aberration, with violet colored borders around objects. I am considering trying the Baader semi APO filter to correct this problem.

[Marios]

Almost forgot this handsome couple..

[Regulus]

That's a satisfying collection of photos Marios.
I don't see any over-powering CA problems in these photos either so that's nice.
Trev

[Marios]

The close up of the bird perched high on the tree has a violet outline.
It is more noticeable with objects against a sky background. The Baader semi APO seems the logical choice see below link and image..

http://www.myastroshop.com.au/guides/semi-apo.htm