m8/m20 First Light for Zeiss 135mm F3.5 lens

[JohnH]

Another ebay acquisition - $80 worth on this occasion, pretty good result I think. I have had to crop and compress this image a lot to get to the 150 Kb limit which is a shame as it looks nicer full frame...

Shot at f5.6, 11*4mins iso 1600, darks and stacking in IP 2.75 and levels and curves in PS.

Second shot is at prime on the VC200L 12*4mins exposures at iso 1600 again to test autoguiding with the Starshoot....

[h0ughy (David)]

wow, some different colours in that lot, what lens is it exaclty John?

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Very very nice John.

There are lots of very old Red stars in the Trifid pic!!! I've never noticed that many in there before.

[astroron (Ron)]

Very nice images John
Ken there are more Red stars in the sky than all the other colours put together

[JohnH]

Hi Houghy it is this one:

http://m42.povlab.org/lens_detail.php?lid=49

Thanks to Itchy for the clue - there are some really good prime, screwmount Pentax and Zeiss (m42) lenses out there going for a song - well built and very sharp too, of course you do not get autofocus, autostopdown and there is not IS plus they are heavy compared to modern lenses but then that does not matter for astro work. You will need an adapter (costs about $15) and a bit of sticky tape to insulate it, I believe if you stick to 100mm approx or less and CA should not be too much of an issue...

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by astroron

Very nice images John
Ken there are more Red stars in the sky than all the other colours put together

More than likely, but I've never noticed so many around Trifid before. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough. I'm always too busy concetrating on the Neb itself

[EzyStyles (Eric)]

beautiful shots john. love the colours with the widefield shot.

[tornado33]

good shots there, good tracking over the 4 minute exposures too.
Scott

[Lester]

Hi John,

both very nice images, detail, tracking= well done.