I hope to get up North before the horse head disappears and take as long an exposure as possible on the Nikon 5500 thru the 80 mm or the eight inch...
My question is how much is enought just in case I get a good run.
Is there a point that with the dslr I would be wasting my time...
Alex
Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,272
Alex
Shoot some dark frames of varying exposure time at varying ISO settings. try to do this at the same sort of temp you'll shoot at outside at night. You'll soon see where the noise becomes too much to deal with.
Alex it all depends on how dark your sky is. The darker the sky, the lower ISO you want to use to utilise the dynamic range available.
In summer, you probably want to find a compromise, as the longer the exposure the worse the thermal noise will get.
As a stab in the dark, I would dial it up to ISO1600 for 2, maybe 3, minutes and see how you go. When the weather cools down a bit, and if you have a really dark sky, I’d try dialling it down a bit.
Just be aware that some sensors have their quirks - I think the sensor in the D5500 is the same as in my Fujifilm, and these Sony sensors have what’s called high conversion gain mode, which kicks in above ISO800...and reduces read noise, and thus the all-important signal to noise ratio.
Thank you gentlemen.
I will start small and take baby steps.
I like 400 and 800 iso a d only recently used 1600.
And as to total exposure I will just do what I can as it is probably more the case will I get just one cloud free night.
Thanks again.
Alex
The quality of your mount & guiding also plays a part. Short, noisy subs with round stars are usually preferable to long subs with eggy stars and smeared details.
The quality of your mount & guiding also plays a part. Short, noisy subs with round stars are usually preferable to long subs with eggy stars and smeared details.
Cheers,
Rick.
Yes indeed I have been impressed with just 30 seconds what I can get away with.
Alex