Crux Colours

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by leon

Great stuff, i do remember seeing Davids rendition of that in his book, and yours are certainly at his level, well done.

Leon

Thanks, but that's a big call, Leon! I seem to remember David's step focus change were more consistent for a start, and he took them in one image on film as far as I know. Besides, he had the idea first, and you have to admire someone who can think "out of focus... that's the way to take a good astro photo!"

With a DSLR and photoshop, this sort of image is a good starter for beginners I reckon! Right up there with star trails.

Al.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Great images Al!

I thought about doing the same thing a week or so ago (while doing exposures of Mars and M44, and having the red colour of Mars mostly burnt out). I never got around to trying it, but I'll give it a go after seeing these images!

Cheers,
Stephen

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by StephenM

Great images Al!

I thought about doing the same thing a week or so ago (while doing exposures of Mars and M44, and having the red colour of Mars mostly burnt out). I never got around to trying it, but I'll give it a go after seeing these images!

Cheers,
Stephen

Go for it, Stephen. I intend to do some more constellations and asterisms this way. I have a fisheye lens on the way for the E-510 at the moment... not sure if that will be useful for this method, but the steps should appear closer together at least! I also have a pretty wide collection of wide OM lenses so might be able to get some larger constellations with those.

Al.

[Ric]

A fascinating image Al, the colours really come out wonderfully.

It looks like a great way to have some fun with imaging, I shall have to give this a go as well.

Cheers

[niko]

Great effect!

I'd love to see a "how-to" article on this Al.

As I still struggle with polar alignment but love photography I'm up for anything that can be done with minimum set-up.

niko

[MrB (Simon)]

Awesome. Particularly like the effect caused by stopping the lens down, gives it a more '3D' look than the wide-open version. Good stuff!
Now do the Jewel Box

[prichens (Peter)]

Cool Photos
Still trying to figure out how you did it but it's a nice afect.
I recently took a 20min exposure of Crux guided with PHD taken with a Canon 400D using a old film camera lens, unfortunatly there is a bit or wiggle in the camera as it shaked from side to side as the scope it was mounted on adjusted to track the star, plus I had a problem dew on the lens.

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by MrB

Awesome. Particularly like the effect caused by stopping the lens down, gives it a more '3D' look than the wide-open version. Good stuff!
Now do the Jewel Box

Thanks!

...but I've already done the Jewel Box!!!! It's there....

Actually, I think the way to do the Jewel Box would be to use a camera on a scope (or piggy backed with a long lens) and have the mount tracking at lunar rate rather than sidereal. To do it with a long lens and fixed tripod would mean the stars will probably move too far between images.

But you are right, the Jewel Box would be a prime target to develop the method on!

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by niko

Great effect!

I'd love to see a "how-to" article on this Al.

As I still struggle with polar alignment but love photography I'm up for anything that can be done with minimum set-up.

niko

No polar alignment in this, Niko!

Actually the only thing that I think is missing from my first post about how to do this is to start with an in focus image and then take each subsequent image progressively more out of focus.

Al.

[edwardsdj (Doug)]

Congratulations on image of the week Al

[sheeny (Al)]

Thanks Doug.

Al.