Album Night Shots and Star Trails

SwimsWithTrout said:
And the one I forgot to post last night just using the little tracker and my camera and 135mm lens.

Comet Lovejoy and the Pleiades from last January.
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Very nice shot. What is your little tracker?
 
Artemus said:
Very nice shot. What is your little tracker?
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I use an iOptron SkyTracker. This is everything assembled and my 70-300mm lens.

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The biggest problem with the SkyTracker, was due to a couple of initial very overzealous reviews before it's release, that indicated it could perform well with a 200-300mm lens.

Once many people started using them, it became clear that they work best at the manufactures recommendation of 100mm or below for optimum results. You "can" shoot with them at 200mm+ but your exposures times need to be much, much shorter. At it's sweet spot using a 70-100mm fl lens, I have no problem shooting 3 minutes plus.
 
SwimsWithTrout said:
I use an iOptron SkyTracker. This is everything assembled and my 70-300mm lens.

13158330143_718f4c6065_c.jpg


The biggest problem with the SkyTracker, was due to a couple of initial very overzealous reviews before it's release, that indicated it could perform well with a 200-300mm lens.

Once many people started using them, it became clear that they work best at the manufactures recommendation of 100mm or below for optimum results. You "can" shoot with them at 200mm+ but your exposures times need to be much, much shorter. At it's sweet spot using a 70-100mm fl lens, I have no problem shooting 3 minutes plus.
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Cool. And it is almost portable - as compared to my 80# EQ6 Skyscan goTo mount.
 
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Artemus said:
Cool. And it is almost portable. As compared to my 80# EQ6 Skyscan goTo mount.
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I use the EQ6/ Atlas for my big scopes. It is a brute !! The SkyTracker is ~ 2 lbs and the size of a paperback book. I can set it on my photo-tripod, do my polar alignment and be shooting in 5 minutes. It's completely portable, runs off 4 AA batteries that will last 3-4 nights easily. I use a little generic intervalometer to set my exposure times/ sequence.
 
Artemus said:
Nice, SWT. Where is your backyard with such night skies?
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If you're familiar with the Bortle scale of light pollution, "Black" being the darkest and "White" being the absolute worst, my yard rates as "Pink". Brighter than a Red Zone but not quite full blown White. The Milky Way is never visible and my naked eye limiting magnitude is ~3.5 to 4.0 on a good night.
 
SwimsWithTrout said:
If you're familiar with the Bortle scale of light pollution, "Black" being the darkest and "White" being the absolute worst, my yard rates as "Pink". Brighter than a Red Zone but not quite full blown White. The Milky Way is never visible and my naked eye limiting magnitude is ~3.5 to 4.0 on a good night.
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Bummer. I take it you are in a city/suburb or at lower elevation subject to atmospheric haze and humidity. You sure compensate well in your work. I just came in from my nightly hot tub soak at 6,600 feet in the mountains above Salt Lake. I am constantly fighting new development here and working with the county to reduce the ever-increasing light pollution caused by the huge growth in my neighborhoods. That said, even though it is badly degraded from when I first moved here, I still have a nice view of the Milky Way most nights of the year.
 
@SwimsWithTrout AMAZING stuff!!!

The Pleiades shot is my favorite, as a biased opinion it being one of my favorite constellations.

Keep up the posts!!
 
Haven't done too much photography over the winter. But earlier in February I spent some time in Gallup, NM and had the opportunity to explore Casamero Pueblo, a Chaco Canyon outlier, and some of the surrounding mesas. I made it out one evening for a night shoot. Cool place, worth checking out if you're in the area.

I also managed to photograph Andromeda just to the lower left of the Milky Way.
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It's been forever since I've able to haul out my big OTA, and I really wanted to test my new collimation tools. This is what I was able to capture from my horridly light polluted back yard.




And I've finally figured out how to get Drizzle to run in DSS. Here' s a tighter crop of the center.

 
SwimsWithTrout said:
It's been forever since I've able to haul out my big OTA, and I really wanted to test my new collimation tools. This is what I was able to capture from my horridly light polluted back yard.




And I've finally figured out how to get Drizzle to run in DSS. Here' s a tighter crop of the center.

Click to expand...
Very Nice, Trout! Look at all those galaxies. Each one of them with maybe a 100 billion ! stars like our Milky Way. The majority of those stars probably with planets orbiting them if our newest planet surveys hold up.
 
Hammock time on Hansons Point. Red River Gorge, KY.

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