Away from the city

[Mickoid]

Just returned home from a few days away at Bright in NE Victoria. The weather was great both day and night but local burning off created some smoke haze which settled in the valleys in the evening.

Due to the short trip I only took with me my Nano Tracker and tripod. So armed with the modded Canon 550d and UV/IR cut clip in filter I managed to go out most nights. I had to be quick though, because I only had a couple of hours between sunset and moonrise to take my shots. What a difference a dark sky makes!

All accept one were taken with a canon EF 50mm lens which I got for about $50 a few years back. The close up of ngc 2070 was taken with a Tamron 500mm mirror lens. Exposures were:

LMC 17 x 1 min 50mm lens @ 1600 iso f 2.8
Milky Way 9 x 1 min 50mm lens @ 1600 iso f 2.8
Crux/Carina 1 x 1 min 50mm lens @ 1600 iso f 2.8
NGC 2070 6 x 30 secs 500mm lens @ 3200 iso f 8

Despite stopping the 50mm lens 2 stops down to f 2.8, spherical and chromatic aberrations were still an issue. What do you expect for $50?? :confuse3:

[PKay]

Good one Michael

They are all great shots, lots of colour and enough detail to keep you looking.

I used to visit Bright often hangliding from Mt. Buffalo and Mt. Emu.

Nice area.

[Atmos]

The Canon and Nikon “Nifty Fifty” I imagine are likely very similar. I found mine cleared up a lot by F/4 in all respects save some coma. All in all the 50mm F/1.8D is a very sharp lens once stopped past F/2.8. I imagine the Canon is the same.

You’ve got some nice shots with a very budget setup :)

[h0ughy]

Great shots, excellent work must have been good skies

[xelasnave]

Well done.
Thanks for sharing.
Alex

[CJ]

Very nice. Much better alignment than I've ever managed with my eq2!

[m11]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for sharing. Great shots.

Appreciate you taking the time to share :)

[gaseous]

Some beautiful shots there, love the subtle colours.

[RickS]

Nice images, Michael :thumbsup:

[Mickoid]

Thanks Rick, glad you liked them.

Thanks Patrick, over saturating shots taken with this 50mm lens just increases the chromatic aberrations!! Thanks Mel, it's good to share info on exposure and camera techniques and is always fun to experiment.

Maybe Chris but we're only talking 50mm focal length with most of these shots, the EQ2 would have no problem with that.


Anytime Alex, you certainly share plenty of yours and I know you really appreciate it. That's what this forum is all about.
Thanks David, yes, the skies were quite spectacular once you drove out of town away from the street lights - maybe 500 metres or so! :lol:

Thanks Colin, I know you love doing widefields and I've seen plenty of yours which are a step above the rest of us, so I appreciate the compliment. I've just purchased a Samyang 14mm f2.8 so we'll see how that goes for CA and sharpness.

Thanks Peter, happy you liked them and brought back the memories for you of this lovely part of the world. Weather was good for hang gliding, calm and plenty of warmth for convection during the sunny days. They look great soaring around the deep blue skies.