davew

Hi Keith, Was that the young lady who was over joyed at discovering she was made of stardust ? I heard about her. I tried doing tracked shots from lower down in the red field but all I got for my efforts was buffeted by the wind, like you, and swamped by the lights of Holt. I should start bringing a scope to Kelling and try that for a narrower view. Dave.

It was a little misty low down but as usual, once you got back up to the campsite it was ok. I think I've photographed that pond on every visit I've made to Kelling in recent years and I haven't yet got bored with it. Others may have 😉 Dave.

I attended Winterfest at Kelling once again and managed two pretty good nights worth of imaging. If anyone else has been in the area during the winter season they'll know that the steam trains running close by are fully lit with bright coloured lights. This is one occasion I don't mind the light pollution too much because it's quite short lived. This first shot was handheld and was taken last year. It shows the steam loco under power on the hill out of the station. I got the next shot completely wrong as the loco was just free wheeling down hill ! No steam or smoke on this one. The train was shot blended with the night sky that I'd taken just before the train arrived. If you're wondering just how much light pollution it makes then wonder no more. Here's a test shot at 2 seconds and ISO 10000 ! With hindsight I should have done it properly as at 2 seconds I've had to use noise reduction. No other processing, other than exposure, so you can see the mess 😮 To end the railway theme, here's a shot of a signal post. I used ten shots on the background and sky and two shots for the light painting. What you can't see are all the brambles I had to fight through to get the light painting done ! Finally. For those who don't know me too well, I have to admit I have problems with my legs ... I just can't walk passed a body of water if I see a reflection. Strange eh ? The autumn colours seem to have come out well and Orion is looking rather dashing. All quite good fun and as I'm sure you'll all want to know I was fuelled this time by Kit Kat Chunky bars. Well, four of them actually, Dave.

Another wow from me too ! Dave.

I've revisited the MW image a few times now and I'm quite taken with it. 2hrs well spent Dave.

What a neat little set up. I think widefield is what you want it to be. Even with a long refractor it's going to be widefield next to a 14" SCT ! My personal thoughts are that if you use a Camera lens then it's widefield. I like that starless image and wonder what it would look like if you reintroduced the stars from the Ha filter and/or the RGB set. Your stars look rather nice right into the corners. Dave.

Wow. That looks even more dramatic than it felt ! Short but very sweet Had we seen that lot coming we wouldn't have taken our cameras out of their bags ☔ Dave

The latest round of mirrorless cameras seem to be a step up from some of the older DSLRs. If you look at the analysis of the Z6ii, Sony A7iv and the Canon R5 they are almost identical in their approach to read noise. Set any of them between ISO800 to 6400 and super glue the setting ! They all employ a second gain circuit that drops the read noise significantly. Then all you have to do is buy the fastest lenses and away you go 😉 You're right about the light painting as it overpowers any noise. Funnily enough it's you, amongst a very few others, who have kept my interest going through the cloudy New Moon cycle of late. At least at Kelling I had a nice long walk with a good friend to offset the cloud and wind and rain. Dave

I didn't see too many stars at Kelling this time round but did manage a quick photo of the pond. I seem to have a " Thing " for water and couldn't resist. Just a few minutes after this tranquil shot the heavens opened, obviously to top it up and that was another night done for ! Nikon Z6.2, 20mm f1.8S, single exposure 20 seconds, ISO 3200 at f 2.2 The bush to the right of the photo is way out of focus but I didn't even see it in the dark. Ah well. Dave.

Wow. That must have been some light to illuminate the whole thing so well, especially as it was a single frame. Looking at the angles it appears you were slightly above it ? Excellent. Dave.

Another lovely photo Paul. I would have messed that up, if I'd done it, by light painting from either side of the chimney. I think you've shown the benefit of only doing one side and really bringing out the shape. Dave.

Cheers Curtis, Nice review and thanks. Dave

Ah, clever ! If my remote ever dies I'll try and remember what you did. Thanks, Dave.

Simply outstanding ! Dave.

That's a beautiful shot ! I just love those clouds and the light painting works well too. You've turned what could be seen as an ugly relic into a thing of beauty ! Hmm ... Marmalade on toast you say. Interesting. Did you take tea as well ? 😀 Dave. Will you put this in the challenge section ?

Well, that looks as good as it gets ! The moonlight on the rocks really makes a difference and there's not much chance of lighting that lot up with a torch ! 😎 Did you use a remote for the camera or just hope for the best with timing ? Lovely capture, Dave.

Hi James, I've finally remembered why I didn't do a 2 or 3 star alignment. All to do with the encoders but as I don't know if your Temma control is the same as mine, I'll stand back and let Geoff guide you. He probably knows more about APT than me. Good luck, Dave.

Hi James, I'll try and answer your questions but I have to say I'm not as modern as you 🙂 I've never used APT with the Tak mount and certainly never used Sharpcap ! Not only that but I've not used an EM11 either. What I have used is an EM200 Temma 2 and it's pretty much the same other than the size and the Polar Reticule. I always used the integrated Polar Scope to align and once all was set up I connected the mount and made sure all the parameters were set properly. Looking at your ASCOM connection all seems well and I assume you've used Sharpcap correctly too. I always started weights down and scope pointing approximately in the direction of the pole and then in the planetarium section of your software told it to point at a known star. I can perhaps put your mind at rest here as it NEVR EVER centred the star in quite a few years of my use ! What you do then is point the scope at the intended star ( I used to do it manually ) and then the most important bit - Sync to the star in your software. That then gives a 1 star alignment which is all I ever used and I'm not aware that a 2 or 3 star alignment is possible. Now to check if all is well what you can do is tell the scope to point at say Deneb. Sync. Tell the scope to point at Vega. If you've polar aligned ok then it will centre on Vega. Then tell it to point at Altair and it should do that ok too. If it still won't work then your polar alignment is probably out so try the polar scope. If you try a Meridian flip then you'll have to sync on your intended star again. That Ascom driver was written by an American guy called Chuck Faranda and on his Temma page there is a short manual of how to use it. Even if you use another app looking at what he's written could be a good idea - https://ccdastro.net/Temma Driver.pdf Once you have this simple technique nailed down you can use plate solving to sync your scope to the night sky. I just used the simplest alignment methods and was able to manage over 30 minutes guided with no problems. Any more problems and I'll try to help but not with software. Dave.

Nice to see you back. I did wonder what happened to you, Dave.

I like the wall detail and the ghost ! Oh yes, noctilucent clouds ... I've failed every other year so may try failing again this year 😎 I've been trying to think up a nice spot for the Lunar eclipse on the 16th but so far have failed on that too ! I'll keep thinking, Dave.

Hi Paul, Another nice view of the Dales cheers. I like your " Busy " foregrounds but wouldn't like them at all in a daylight shot. After thinking about it I recon it must be the high contrast between the lit side and shadows in the trees and branches. The same thing applied to your river / bridge scenes. Nice to see you out there still, Dave.

I'd check that 1 second is ok before you invest in an all night session ! Some slow cards may require a 2 second gap but 1 second is best if you can. You should also be able to collect over 600 images with a fully charged battery. Do all your sorting out at home ( Exposure and intervalometer settings ), then recharge and then shoot 😎 I also forgot to say the photo was nice with good colour coming through on the stars and a nicely illuminated cross. Dave.

Hi, I've never heard of the D5300 intervalometer only working for 20 minutes or so. I've downloaded the manual and it doesn't mention it there. I also looked at a few other sites and they say it will take 999 consecutive shots ! Where have you got this information from or have you found it by using the intervalometer ? If it's the latter then I think you've made some error. If you are doing 30 second exposures what intervals are you setting ? I take it you know that the interval isn't the gap between the shots but the start of the shots ie. if the exposure time is 30 seconds then the interval time must be longer than 30 seconds. Dave.

Nice idea as the Z lenses are so good but there aren't any adapters that I know of ( Says very little ! ) The flange distance of a Z lens is 16mm and there are some cameras that have a distance greater than that ie ASI 2600 so impossible to fit. There are cameras around that have a distance of 6.5 mm ie ASI 1600 but I haven't seen any 42mm to Z body mount adapters. It would be simple enough to have one made if you can get hold of a Body mount but I've not seen any of those around either ( Ebay may have some hidden away somewhere ) Another problem would be where to find the room for a filter holder. They start from around 20mm I think. All adapters I've seen for Nikon are for the F mount. They will appear one day ! Dave.

An excellent choice. These are the kind of details we need to help in the fight against ordinary biscuits And to the photo ... I do love these stone walls as they give such rich textures. The grass looks good too. Well done on the Zodiacal light. I remember searching for that a few years ago and when I looked at my subs, it had been there all the time ! Another great shot so thanks. Off to Kielder next week so I'll be praying for a bit of Dales weather, Dave.