Dorado Cloud (LMC) from 1986

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Thought this deserved it's own thread.

Jase recently did an image of the LMC that is out of this world, so I thought given I'm into comparisons of late it was worth comparing his effort with one I took in early 1986 to see just how far we have come in astrophotography.

Now remember in 1986 a Pentax 6X7 camera with a 300mm F4 lens was basically state of the art gear and B&W photography was still in favour...how far we have come is mind blowing really.

Congratulations once again Jase for a super image.

LMC in 1986

See Jases thread, with a similar title, to see the LMC in 2010

Mike

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I don't know how you did it back then Mike.
Beautiful1

[TheAstroGuy (Shane Ross)]

Mike & Jase,

That's truly wicked work, Right smack bang in the middle of the eighties, whilst people were Whamming and Culture Clubbing it up you were taking pictures like these, MEGA!!!


Kind regards

Shane

[RobF (Rob)]

Wow, that's still a stunning in its own right even this many years later Mike. I shudder to think how much trouble you must have gone to however to capture this back then.....

[troypiggo (Troy)]

1986 - odds are I was drunk down at "The Patch" nightclub at Coolangatta or "The Playroom" at Tallebudgera the night you took that.

Fantastic stuff.

[Stevec35 (Steve)]

Well I think that's pretty good Mike. Most of my efforts from that era look like cr*p.

Cheers

Steve

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Pretty good, 24 years ago.... You're getting old mate.

What was the mount you used ?

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Yeh it was a pretty good image for the mid 80's I guess, especcially for a teenager . This is a small image composed from a medium res scan of the original negative, the full res 6X7cm negative was truly amazing to us then with incredible resolution for the day that would have enabled pin point 16" X 20" + enlargements with ease... but the point of this thread was to demostrate just how far amateur imaging has come.

In the 80's when my friend and I got this gear (we won a grant for our school to buy it) I guess it would be easily the equivalent of getting an FSQ106ED and 16803 CCD today (I don't think the school ever really realised just what we did for them!).

The trouble we went to to get our images was indeed very similar to what I still do to this day ... except throw in manual guiding through an eyepiece and no instant feedback on what you had actually recorded until days later when you developed it ..and you get the picture.

Jases image would have been simply not believable back then, not even for David Malin probably, so I hope this B&W image, as kinda nice as it is, puts the spectacularly amazing nature of Jases image in some perspective

You can see my other gear from those days HERE

Mike