Photos taken during Miss Universe Contest

[xelasnave]

Well I set up casually to do some testing and the Miss Universe contest came on the TV so rather than sit outside in the cold tracking with the guide scope I let it run long and hard.. You can see tracking or alignment was not spot on ..but what can you do the dogs wanted to watch it because an Australian girl won it last year.
Cant get the focus any better seems that the camera wont focus in far enough..I could be wrong. Anyways I was happy with having a clear night.. and I don’t know why they call it Miss Universe there was nothing about astronomy but the dogs liked it..
alex

[xelasnave]

here is another

[xelasnave]

one more

[xelasnave]

there is still more but I will hold it at this one

[Starkler (Geoff)]

#3 is a nice one .
I recognise #2 as the neck and head of the great southern emu

[atalas]

Very nice Alexander!keep It coming mate.


Louie

[tornado33]

Lovely wide field shots there , I envy your nice dark skies

[xelasnave]

one more and thank you all for the encouragement

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Very nice Alex. Still think dark frames would improve them out of sight. what camera and lens are you using.

[xelasnave]

Just the standard 300d bolted on top of the 150ar on the lxd55 mount. Had the illuminated reticle in the 150 to totally elliminate trails but it was cold and I didnt sit at the scope... mmm TV warm inside..and I was going to take some darks as well but I missed there as well... I set out to make a ruff star map to plot targets on a printout.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Well Alex, with that thread title I was expecting heavenly bodies and I guess that's what I got...Nice work, can you remember the exposure details?

[iceman (Mike)]

Very nice, the 3rd and last ones are much better focus and tracking - perhaps the wider view is hiding the trails.

I just love widefield shots like this. I wish I had a long-exposure camera and a long-exposure capable mount

[xelasnave]

Here is the longest exposure that night 1006 secs. I have been playing with it in photoshop elements and found a neat way to minimise star trails.. trouble is I cant remeber what filter did it..anyways if I refine the system you will hear about it. (clue it was the filter to remove dust spots seemed useful)
alex

[xelasnave]

and Mike you could do this with a barn door mount and a 35mm or so they say
alex

[ving (David)]

nice ones alex

I am sure this has come up before but whats the red on the right edge of your pics?

[xelasnave]

The red is noise or so I believe a reason why ccd cameras are cooled I imagine.
Here is another (i have been going thru about 150 images but this one stood out.. hope there are more hiding)
I think taken at 800 iso but for some reason the focus seems sharper than the others so I will have to work out why..
alex

[xelasnave]

you can see the camera noise pattern in this one.. generally I take this into account and often crop off the sad bit.
alex

[xelasnave]

actually that sharp shot may have been manually guided as well... I just dont remember for sure... sorry
alex

[Rodstar (Rod)]

Lovely shots Alex. Where is Tabulum? I envy those dark skies, from the looks of your shots.

[xelasnave]

Thank you Rod and sorry for such a late reply, been bush..
Tabulam is West of Casino (50 klms+) I live 30 klms South of Tabulam basically in the Ewingah State forest on 200 acres of forrest..no electricity other than the stuff you make yourself, candles for light, closest neighbour (with 12 vlt lighting) over 4 klms away so on a clear night you can see for light years.
I must say I am very happy about my situation because although remote its great for star gazing
alex