Well I said I'd show you what I obtained with my setup for widefield film photography with some attempt at tracking, described here:-
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=19703
I originally expected hopeless tracking so didn't bother with anything better than Fuji 400ASA colour print film that has been in the fridge for a few years. (and KMart film processing)
I did better than expected.
General details:-
Pentax KX SLR. All shots taken with mirror locked up and remote shutter release cable. I used three lenses. Pentax 28mm/2.8, Pentax 55mm/1.8 and Pentax 135mm/3.5. Following advice I've read on the forum, I closed each lens down a couple of stops.
I've scanned the negatives at 2400dpi and, after trying for a while, I gave up trying to get all dust and fine hairs off the negatives
. I'm going to have to leave that to the experts when I get a couple of these enlarged to see if they will come up OK.
Then, of course, I've had to compress the jpgs to less than 150kByte. No other processing. If anyone would really like to see any of these full size, let me know and I'll try to place them somewhere for download.
B06 - Centaurus/Crux. 55mm @ f2.8 and 2 min exposure. Coalsack and Omega Centauri have come up well. I was thrilled to see NGC5128 (Centaurus A) quite visible as well.
B10 - Crux. 135mm @f5.6 and 5 min exposure. I initially thought satellite!!, but the track is green and has a companion regular red flash. A boring plane instead
B14 - Large Magellanic Cloud. 135mm @ f5.6 and 10 min exposure. This was much better than I had hoped and no significant tracking problem that I can see?
B18 - Scorpius and Jupiter. 55mm @ f2.8 and 2 min exposure. Quite low down to the East. Also Ballarat was only some 15 km in that direction so lots of skyglow. Still some interesting things to see. M4 stands out well. Tracking still not bad - I can see the 2 min movement of the trees (no wind that evening).
B22 - "Emu". 28mm @ f4 and 5 min exposure. This is what I really wanted and I waited until Crux was well overhead. I am thrilled with this photo. Bit hard to see on this compressed version, but NGC5128 is seen in this wideangle shot. However, the Emu itself is great. I can now take down the shot I printed from the internet and replace it with my personal attempt if it enlarges well. Great!
OK, fresh 400ASA slide film next time and I want to get Scorpius without the sky glow - much later at night. Must see if I can get the Leo triplet in a 135mm long exposure shot. Also SMC and 47Tuc are calling me...............
Thanks for looking.
Eric