Could you kindly tell me your settings on getting such a great focussed shot ?
I had miserable time focussing on the eclipse shots.
Focus can be very tricky and frustrating. I was so glad when 'most' of mine cam out Ok. IN the past I have pics which I thought would be fabulous, only to get them home and find them blurred.
The liveview makes it a bit easier on the Canon, but still not foolproof.
I sometimes cant even find a bright star to zoom in to focus, rrrgh, and can take me ages.
Some do it on the laptop, but not sure how thats done.
Good luck though, and keep trying, youir images were good.
Here is a sample of my efforts from a rather cool morning by the Brisbane River, tagging along with Mike (Iceman), Troy (Troypiggo), a couple of new friends that Troy found, plus a plethora of itinerant photographers that turned up at regular intervals. Needless to say, we astronomers had already bagged the best spots!
I felt sorry for Mike and Troy as we bade farewell, as both have a full days work ahead of them, not to mention the return flight home for Mike.
Oh the joys of a 3-day week!
It was great meeting up with Mike, our first face-to-face encounter since I joined IIS several years ago. I was glad to be able to show him some Qld hospitality, acknowledging the time, energy and effort he has poured into creating such a vibrant on-line and real-world community that is today’s Ice In Space.
The only rather unsavoury event that marred an otherwise perfect morning was those rotten cockroaches winning Origin 2! I am so glad that Sir H0ughy wasn’t there in person to gloat!
To slow down the onset of the inevitable dew, I used the deep lens hoods of the telephoto lenses and the shallower lens hood of the wide-angle lens. In addition, I placed a thin, stiff foam mat over the top of the wide-angle lens to “shield” the lens from the sky above.
I used this device, Flare Buster, which fits in the camera hot shoe and provides you with a spring clip at the end of a flexible arm. Also, I used Live View x10 to manually focus the lens.
Thank you Dennis. The dew buster techniques certainly sounds attractive. The lens hood didn't even occur to me but yes, will be using it.
Could you explain more on lines of what you meant by x10 in Live View ?
Live view was introduced I think from 450D onwards and doesn't exist on 400D. So I'm stuck with shoot and learn.
Quote:
Originally Posted by firstlight
I was going to hook the camera to th elaptop and use Focus Assist or EOS Utility via Live View to focus... walked back to the car once already to get the laptop... forgot the cable!
I did what Dennis did, that is I used Live View at 10x to get focus on the spokes of the wheel... effective infinity. Modded Canon 450D, 70 to 300 mm lens @ 300 mm, ISO 800, f5.6, 0.6 sec.
Thanks Firstlight. Does Focus Assist work on non-modded Canon's ? Will hunt on this, so thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Liz
Good luck though, and keep trying, youir images were good.
Thank you for the encouragement Liz. I wish to capture the milky way too on my 400D, someday when I have time to just go to country side away from urban light pollution.
Saying that I was pretty surpised that with ISO 1600 and a 35 sec exposure, there was no star tracks. Did you photograph via a tracked telescope ?
I was just wondering if the moderators of this forum would agree on creating a database for metropolitans and surrounding areas (country side) to view the dark skies and also may be good lookouts.
Don't get me wrong it was very exciting to scout for a place to view today's eclipse but the database might just help amateurs and beginners to quickly get into the car even if they came to know, just 2 hours before an event was about to occur.
This thread itself has a lot of locations for viewing a west facing lunar eclipse in Brisbane.
One of the members also mentioned Witta, but where exactly. One can also attach a sample view from that spot.
Saying that I was pretty surpised that with ISO 1600 and a 35 sec exposure, there was no star tracks. Did you photograph via a tracked telescope ?[/QUOTE]
Ah, no, its amazing what you can get away with. Depends on what part of the sky it is, I must check this officially. I had some images over 1 min (answering phoe calls) which were waaay too long.
You know, when I left i nthe morning I was a bit concerned about dew and it was only when I was reading this thread that I realised the I had NO problem with dew. Of course I had a metre of concrete above my head in the form of the Riverside Expressway
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dennis
Thanks for the nice words.
To slow down the onset of the inevitable dew, I used the deep lens hoods of the telephoto lenses and the shallower lens hood of the wide-angle lens. In addition, I placed a thin, stiff foam mat over the top of the wide-angle lens to “shield” the lens from the sky above.
I used this device, Flare Buster, which fits in the camera hot shoe and provides you with a spring clip at the end of a flexible arm. Also, I used Live View x10 to manually focus the lens.
Photo details for #2 provided in the screen capture.
Love yours Dennis, but there's some real jpeg compression going on. Are you sure your images are under 200kb when you upload them? Even if they're a single byte over 200kb, the forum will squish them some more.
It was just great catching up with Dennis, who showed real hospitality picking me up, dropping me off, taking me on a tour to try and find the best spot to photograph the eclipse. I really appreciated it and it was so great to meet him after all these years.
It was also great to meet Troy and have our eclipse photography team on the edge of the river yesterday morning. Much better than being there on my own!
My shots will probably be very similar to Dennis', and like I said to him, my problem at the moment is finding time to PROCESS images! I get them off the camera quickly, but putting together montages etc, I just find it difficult to get the time.
Hopefully I can start posting some in the next few days.
But they will be similar to Troy's, and Dennis' and likely not as good
Good to catch up with you again, Dennis, and finally meet Mike! An honour.
re: the dressing gown. It was the only thing I could put my hands on as I walked out the door. You'll recall I didn't put it on until that other guy and his girlfriend turned up in their dressing gowns and pajamas!
We took a walk today, along the pedestrian walkway on the new Sir Leo Hielscher Bridge (2nd Gateway Bridge) and I grabbed a couple of shots from the top, looking back (West) towards the CBD. For astronomical event purposes, the views are severely obstructed by the tall railings, so not a good vantage point for astro-CBD related events.
One is a wide view, the other a telephoto view with the 3rd shot being a heavily distorted pano of the two bridges from their undersides.
The railings that lead up to the bridge are not obscured but as soon as you reach the bridge proper, it is impossible to look out as the railings tower some 2 metres over your head. At each of the 4 lookout bays along the bridge span, there is a token glass window where arguably, you “could” take a photo looking East towards the river mouth and airport.
Depends on what part of the sky it is, I must check this officially. I had some images over 1 min (answering phoe calls) which were waaay too long.
and 
to follow !!!
