my first widefield - Yay!

[multiweb]

Here's 50x1min subs calibrated on the milkyway from my backyard last night between 8:00pm & 10:00pm. QHY8 Piggy back with a Pentax 18-35mm lens. I jammed the lens to keep it open with a little piece of rubber at the back so this time I actually took a picture of something :lol:
Bit out of my confort zone... :whistle: I think I screwed the lend toward the 18mm so it was zoomed out the most. Maybe I should have got closer to the 35mm side - less coma this way? :shrug: . I found it a bit difficult to focus as well, so I eyeballed it. Wasn't too easy to process either. Terrible gradients from some passing clouds, moon and my bloody neighbour lights. But hey, I can see the milkyway now, half of it anyway - sort of... :)

[danielsun]

That is a fantastic first widefield Marc, well done.:thumbsup:

Cheers Daniel.

[jjjnettie]

Fantastic!!
Congratulations Marc.:thumbsup:
And you took this with that big bright moon up there too. You're very keen.
Good practice though.
Bet you can't wait till you get to a dark site at new moon and do it all over again.:D

[jjjnettie]

If you raise your curves a bit to Input 98 Output 150, you'll bring out more of the wispy dusty parts. Raising the saturation to around about 20 will bring out the brown hues.

[multiweb]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. You are waaay too kind :lol:

JJJ how do you focus yours?

Also how do you control the mechanical aperture of the lens? I mean I opened it right up. Maybe that was wrong? It doesn't look square in the picture too. Left is elongated compared to right.

Finally my lens had 18,25 and 32mm at the base I used 18 for this picture. You reckon 25 or 32mm would give me better results on the edges?

Sorry for the tidal wave of questions, I'm back in noobsland right now. :thumbsup:

I hear you about the processing and the blues. Mate, you should see the original. I had plenty of blues alright in the lower right of the field. (my neighbour flood lights on). When he finally went to bed the moon came up. :P So I had to process gradients out aggressively and the picture probably suffered my battering. :whistle:

[jjjnettie]

Marc, I focus by trial and error.
Checking focus by zooming in on the camera's lcd screen.
You could make a little Hartman Mask for your lens to assist.
But you've got great focus anyway in this image.

[multiweb]

Mini hartman mask? That's an idea. Here's a project for this rainy week-end. Thanks :thumbsup:

[TrevorW]

Nice one Marc

[atalas]

Ah yeah!congrats on you first wide field Marc....something very special with these milky way shots,very nice.

[Tom Davis]

Right on!! excellent shot!

Tom

[CoolhandJo]

Nice to give the wide field a go! Great work looks good. Hey, isnt today a rainy weekend? I suppose you are busy making your mask? (although you got the focus pretty right anyway)

[strongmanmike]

Cool Marc :thumbsup: Nice to try something different.

How long you had that camera now? What do you think of it?

I can't use 35mm size camera lenses with my FLI, they won't reach focus, however the larger Pentax range of lenses for the 6X7 camera work, so I would love to have one of those.

Mike

[tlgerdes]

Focus

1) Infinity
2) Minus a smidge (real technical term)
3) Test shot
4) Download
5) Zoom and inspect on PC screen
6) Repeat steps 2-5 until just right.

Good work Marc, everyone needs one of these in their library.

[multiweb]

Thanks Trev. Will try again once I get used to the lens.


Thanks Mike. I had the QHY8 since April last year. The Lens I used is from a Pentax *istD that I used to image with before right after my Nikon Coolpix. I had a special bayonet adapter made too for the lens to reach focus. It's approx 20mm thick. Love the QHY8. Excellent all rounder. Easy to use. No headaches.


Thanks Paul. Yeah, Thursday night was a quick one. I knew the weather wasn't too keen for the long week-end.


Thanks Tom. Glad you liked it. I'm looking forward to do much better than that under dark skies.


Thanks Louie. I like Milkyway shots too. GOing to shoot a lot more of these now. I wanna do the barnard loop in Ha with the 35mm see what comes up. :)


Thanks for looking Trev.

[Hagar]

The image has come up OK Marc considering you trials and tribulations.

Neighbours, buy a gun and lights off. easy.

[Lumen Miner]

Ohhhhhhhh! That's how I do it... Now I get it... :thumbsup:

[telecasterguru]

On the road to find out. Great first image.

Frank

[multiweb]

Thanks guys. :thumbsup: Wish it was that easy Doug. The bloke's a real piece of work. Sprayed my rig with c**p one night. :screwy:

[Lumen Miner]

What's his address?? :rofl: Only joking... :)

[DavidU]

Gawd all mighty !!!

[jase]

For a first, its not bad Marc. I do know you could do better. Whilst its a lovely vista, its lacking contrast. Looking forward to seeing more of your wide field adventures.

[multiweb]

Thanks mate. Just testing the waters. I expect much more than that as well. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Nice start Marc.

Did you stop down the lens a bit? Most camera lenses work best when
stopped down a few stops as they are not as accurate as telescope lenses and zooms are less accurate than fixed focal length camera lenses as well. The zoom mechanisms enters an optical compromise.

You'll get less coma as well if you stop the lens down.

But at the end of the day nothing beats a nice dark site so this is a good result from taking it from your light polluted backyard.

Greg.

[multiweb]

Thanks Greg - No I think I had the lens opened to the max. I'll have to try to stop it down maybe 75%. I noticed that zooming the lens made it easier to focus too. I have to play a lot more with it when weather allows. Got a lot to learn on this one still.