akrvbob said:
I'd love to be able to take those shots!
I have a full frame Canon 6d and Canon 400 5.6 L lens. What would I need to do what you are doing.
Bob
@akrvbob:
To be honest, anyone can, just takes deciding to do it, and a small investment in equipment.
You already have a good camera and lens. I use a similar setup, though my camera is older and 2/3 frame, and my 'lens' is a small telescope, 430mm fl f6. My camera loses some in resolution since it's 8mpx. Your lens will have a flatter field, my telescope is a 72mm ED doublet, correction is good for a 2 element lens, but not great. If you magnify the M31 image and look in the corners you'll see the stars aren't round, there's only so much you can do with 2 elements.
This is the mount I use:
iOptron CubePro It's an inexpensive AltAz mount, but has good accuracy and is well made. A Vixen dovetail bar can be modified to adapt the lens/camera to the mount. You'll need a computer with the capture/stacking software Nebulosity, and processing software Gimp (free). You'll need cables to connect the mount to your van, a long, active USB cable, a long cable for the hand controller, and a long accessory cable for 12v power to the mount.
I'm able to sit in the comfort of my own van and control the telescope, take pics, process them, and if I have Internet access, post them.
@gsfish:
Many people swear by light pollution filters, but I've never noticed much improvement. Most of my images are stretched to the limit, trying to get reasonable contrast out of a vastly underexposed image, and I feel that anything that reduces the number of photons hitting the sensor is a bad idea. When boondocking it should be unnecessary anyway.
@A SEEKER:
I try and stay current re the asteroid near misses, but that's about my limit. I guess the ones we have to worry about are the ones we don't know about so it'll end up being a surprise anyway.
Zil said:
Beautiful. thanks for showing. I wish I could get my skills back. I spent decades with a pocket camera and phone camera, now I work at getting familiar with my Sony NEX 3N hanging around my neck.
Thanks Zil.
The Sony Nex3N is a nice little camera, I was seriously considering one, but I couldn't find any astronomy capture software that worked with it on my Mac, but it's a sweet little camera, so much more portable than what I have. My normal snap-shot camera is an old Sony DSC-R1, it probably weighs 3-4 times what the Nex3N does, but it has a Zeiss zoom lens and takes nice pictures.
