tooth_dr

Thanks guys. It lasted a good four hours, and I sat watching it the whole time. 

@AKB there were constant flights coming out of the airport and I was thinking I’m glad our flight isn’t until the morning. 

Wow. I mean it when I say this, that is the best rendition I’ve ever seen on the Crescent. 

We were treated to an excellent storm on the last night of our trip to northern Italy, just outside Milan.

The view was nice from the 5th floor balcony and the rain never reached us.

I got a few shots with my D800E and a Nikon 180mm F2.8 lens 5-10s exposures at F5.6 ISO400.  Then a few wide fields with my Tokina 28-70mm F2.8 lens, 20s exposures, made into a composite image.

I made a couple of timelapses too.

I hope you enjoy them, as much as I enjoyed the whole experience.

CS

Adam

I know what you mean about forgetting stuff. I’ve dismantled a few bits prior to going on holiday and I’m not sure which spacers go where now!

Thats a great M16, all the detail is there, really excellent 

Great job Ciaran. Funny enough I tried this one last summer, and my result was similar. It’s just so low here. 

Superb Sean. Excellent framing and detail. 

20 hours ago, alexbb said:

Thank you! How did it go?

I’m still in Italy but I didn’t realise how low this would be as we are in the north. I tried a couple of nights but just couldn’t get to a dark enough location. I think I’ll have to concede that a family holiday is too difficult to combine with ‘proper’ astrophotography but is ok for some casual nightscapes.

Superb Rodd. Some of the best bubble crispness and detail I’ve ever seen

1 hour ago, KP82 said:

Tried Juan at Cheapastrophotography and Andy at Astronomiser two days ago, still no response. It looks like none of the UK based mod providers is in business anymore. So apart from the expensive service offered by Baader or TS in Germany, there is nowhere to get the camera modded or buy an existing modded camera now. Bummer!

Modded cameras appear for sale on here regularly. Just keep an eye out or make a ‘wanted thread’ 

26 minutes ago, alan potts said:

As much as I agree with you re spending, someone commented the other how good one of my shots was and the fact it was a 40D, still capable but I imagine not worth much to acquire one already modded.

Alan

Oh it’s a capable camera, I said the same above.  And likely the quality of our images will limited by our processing skills rather than the technology.

Anyway I don’t want to derail the thread since the OP asked for recommendations!

49 minutes ago, KP82 said:

You could be right, but it's just that I'm worried about ruining the camera completely by doing this myself. I've done some simple mod like fitting the rowan belt to my heq5, but this filter replacement seems to be on a completely different level of difficulty according to some youtube videos (also requires quite a few tools I don't have).

 

There is the potential for a lot to go wrong that is for sure. To give you an idea, I sold my low shutter count (can’t remember exactly but under 15k shots), modified 40d, last year for £140. 

What time was this visible last night. I may have accidentally seen it!

15 minutes ago, KP82 said:

I've been contemplating astro modding my 40D for sometime now. There are 3 main types of mod, LPF#2 removal, Baader BCF and Clear glass full spectrum. The one I'm most interested in is the Baader BCF because it allows Ha and SII to passthrough without the need of an IR/UV cut filter. Instead of doing this myself, I've been looking for a skilled 3rd party to carry it out and have come across this person http://www.dslrastromod.co.uk/index.html. Has anyone used this service before?

The 40d is getting on a bit now I’m terms of technology. I don’t think I would be spending money getting one modified.

I owned 2 x 40d cameras until recently and used them in tandem on a dual rig. I modified them myself, and 100% they are excellent cameras. But weighing up the costs, IMHO it’s only really worth it if you can do it yourself.

I removed just the one filter and left the second filter in place which does block out IR/UV.

Thank you Carole. Most helpful. 

@carastro

A thing of beauty Carole, well done.

I’ve my travel kit packed, have you any tips for lining up etc? I’m planning on either using a 180mm or 28-70mm lens (or both) with a FF DSLR. 

On 09/06/2019 at 22:49, alexbb said:

This is one of my first tries at Milky Way wide field. The aim is to cover this area at high(er) resolution over the summer/years. For now, last night, I managed to shoot a bit over 1h with 2 Canons. 50mm @F/2.8 with the 550D and 70mm @F/4 with the 6D.

Here it is:

Fabulous. I’m heading to Italy soon, and I have one astro objective - to get an image of this region 👍🏻 It will still be low but higher than Northern Ireland.

If it turns out half as good I’ll be over the moon. 

Lovely image Mick.  I'm feeling the urge to get back out imaging again.

29 minutes ago, Swoop1 said:

Just taken custodianship of my societies Lunt 60mm solar scope and intend to try it out with the Sony a6300.

What, if anything, should I do differently from when observing through it?

The 60mm Lunt has a T thread on the diagonal. You just need a Sony to T adapter and that should be you in business. 

Thanks guys. Everything has taken a back seat over the summer. The values are I think specific to your camera. You manually work them out using a process I found online. 

Fantastic images and video. The video gives a real feeling of what’s actually happening. 

Keeping it simple!

Thats a cracker Richard.  It was a delight tonight to actually get to see this too, as the forecast was not at all good.

Just to update this!  SX swapped the lens for me with no issues at all, and although as you have pointed out @AngryDonkey Mike that it doesnt use the sensor completely, I really much prefer the circular image and the FOV it portrays.  I plan to run your program once it gets a bit darker.

Well it's great to be back in the mood for astroimaging again.  A few shots using a Nikon DSLR and 180mm/F2.8 lens between the clouds, nothing spectacular, but feels really great to get back into it again.

Here they are!

Here is the image I get, I would prefer the full circle image. I don’t think this is a fault, but due to the supplied 2.5mm lens?