Managed to dodge a few unexpected bands of clouds that played hide-and-seek with the Moon in the lead up to totality.
I used SNS HDR to blend a series of exposures ranging from 5 secs to 10 secs ISO400 to ISO800 and F8 to F11 to cover the brightness range and used the star field acquired 2 nights ago before the Moon muscled in on that region tonight.
Cheers
Dennis
Last edited by Dennis; 27-05-2021 at 07:10 AM.
Reason: Fixed typo
Superb composition Dennis. Great details in the disc. That's the money shot.
Thanks Marc, I appreciate your comments.
I was using the Canon EOS R5 -> Mount Adapter EF-EOS R -> Extender EF x2 Mk III -> Extender EF x2 Mk II -> Canon EF 300mm F2.8L Mk II to give me a focal length of 1200mm.
I only had EOS Utility to control the R5 and experienced a couple of unexpected limitations where in Manual Exposure Mode, the lowest shutter speed I could set was 0.5 secs and in Bulb Mode, the shortest exposure I could set was 5 secs, so I could not access any other shutter speeds in between .
In the end I managed to bracket exposures by changing the Aperture and ISO to get some HDR results. Next time I'll do a dry run, to test the system out rather than winging it on the night.
The early part was clouded out, first by trees then by clouds.
Look forward to seeing your results, I really enjoyed re-watching your 2014 Videos.
Always good to see your results Dennis.I had the Ra but used a 1.4III @ a 2x II on the 600mm.(1280mm)And it still auto focused most of the time.The mkIII extenders weren’t compatible with each other.These R models really are a step up.
Derek
Always good to see your results Dennis.I had the Ra but used a 1.4III @ a 2x II on the 600mm.(1280mm)And it still auto focused most of the time.The mkIII extenders weren’t compatible with each other.These R models really are a step up.
Derek
Thanks Derek, I appreciate your comments and likewise, always good to hear from you.
I took a series of 30 frames at 10 secs, ISO800 and F8 and then Exported the CR3s in LR as TIFs. I then used ImagesPlus (Mike Unsold – now free) to crop these to 4094x4096 around the centre of the Frame and saved these as TIFs.
I then dropped these TIFs into Austostakkert!3 to Align/Stack the 30 Frames and was surprised at how the EOS R5 was able to handle the dynamic range without the need for HDR processing.
Also, I found that if you use a Canon 12mm Tube between Extenders, you can get them to mate and this combination does focus on infinity – photo attached.
I was using the Canon EOS R5 -> Mount Adapter EF-EOS R -> Extender EF x2 Mk III -> Extender EF x2 Mk II -> Canon EF 300mm F2.8L Mk II to give me a focal length of 1200mm.
I only had EOS Utility to control the R5 and experienced a couple of unexpected limitations where in Manual Exposure Mode, the lowest shutter speed I could set was 0.5 secs and in Bulb Mode, the shortest exposure I could set was 5 secs, so I could not access any other shutter speeds in between .
In the end I managed to bracket exposures by changing the Aperture and ISO to get some HDR results. Next time I'll do a dry run, to test the system out rather than winging it on the night.
The early part was clouded out, first by trees then by clouds.
Look forward to seeing your results, I really enjoyed re-watching your 2014 Videos.
Cheers
Dennis
Actually had the same idea as you. Shooting the background separately. Finishing off tonight. I'm doing a 3 panel mosaic around the blue horse head in Ha/Oiii because of my LP conditions. So the background will be monochrome. The fov and image scale with the QHY9 are are very close to the SONY NEX-5. SO it will be ok to match.
Thank you for all the comments folks, I appreciate them.
We enjoyed 2 beautiful, clear days and nights before eclipse night, then on the night of the eclipse, the clouds rolled in and obscured the Moon until around 8:30pm at my location.
