davew

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.

Wow. There's some thought and effort went into that photo ! The little Fuji has done you proud. Dave

Cheers Paul, Even though you've pointed it out, the hut still looks far away ! I still wave a torch about too but I've bought a dimmable light so may try LLL. It's all proper posh and will do colour temperature too ! Dave.

Great composition. I love all the angles and lights. Dave.

Very nice indeed. Did you set up some low level lighting for the hut ? It's got a crisp, clean and detailed look about it. I assume you didn't walk all that way waving a torch. Nice to see the star of the show got a mention ... Hot Chocolate ! 🤩 I see you can stand still for longer than me so well done there too ! Dave.

There were some fantastic shots in this challenge and I can say that I enjoyed and appreciated every single one. Dave.

Two things ... One, fantastic shot and I happen to like the star trail shape here. Two, thanks for highlighting the " Secret Spitfire Memorial " Of course, no one told me 🤣 Very nice effort, Dave.

Nicely put together and good to see you ! The busy sky is mirrored very neatly by the rocks strewn about and the bridge stone work. Cheers and thanks for letting me know, Dave.

Thanks for the dates. I can now try, for the first time in a few years, to organise my calendar and life ! I couldn't even find the dates on Go Stargazing. Cheers, Dave.

I'm assuming this event's main weekend days will be 2nd and 3rd April as that's around New Moon. The link from Kelling Heath appears dead. Either I'm looking in all the wrong places for information or it's invitation only and I'm not invited They must remember me from previous star parties ! Dave.

I agree that you'll have to go back and do the selfie ! Nice to see a neat little stone bridge because I like stone bridges You've done a nice job, Dave.

If you are looking for software then are you wanting to connect via a laptop or tablet ? One way to view images from the D50 is to view it as an external hard drive. If on a tablet then you can view via MPT host and they don't ( As far as I know ) actually down load but are visible as with any camera. To connect a device without the correct USB connection then you'd need an OTG ( On the go ) adapter. Again, as with any camera I know of. Adobe Photoshop will remote fire a D50 via WIA control and will also view the files as a remote hard drive. It won't do both at the same time unfortunately. There were a few bits of software that were reported to work but I can't remember what they are. I think QDSLR was one or maybe Digicamcontrol ? I know for a fact that Maxim DL 5 works fully with the D50 as I have used it ! The main way of controlling the D50 was via an IR remote and I believe a smart phone can sometimes be persuaded to work but no viewer unless the OTG cable works. No idea, not tried that. Dave.

Sounds like a plan to me ! They are excellent quality. Dave.

Very rich, detailed and colourful. Really nice. Did you use daylight colour balance ? Dave.

Those marks remind me of polishing / grinding marks that have been seen on some Sony chips. I realise the 1600 is a Panasonic but I'm sure they follow roughly the same process. The marks were first brought to my attention by Mark Shelly ( Sharkmelly on SGL ) who discovered that some larger Sony chips were in fact smaller chips that were stitched together and so had marks that didn't align. These may not be the same thing so treat what I'm saying as a place to start and not a definitive answer. Dave.

As a first step, and when the Moon has gone down a bit, I would use your setup on a static tripod and aim for somewhere round Orion as you can use Sirius to aid focus. I would try to use around a 20 second exposure at f2.8 and if it's a dark place use ISO 800 and if it's fairly bright with light pollution then around ISO200. I'd then alter settings from that base. Make sure you focus correctly or any settings will be fairly useless otherwise. Use the self timer or a remote to avoid shacking the camera and switch off noise reduction in the menu. Try to give more information with your next questions as I don't know what hemisphere you're in, imaging from the middle of a city or countryside or if you even use a tripod. Good luck and once you can take one single image well then you can set about getting fancy and trying stacking, tracking etc. Dave.

This is a little spot I've been meaning to image for ages. It's near Errwood Hall Derbyshire and is a little shrine built in 1889, dedicated to St. Joseph and in memory of Dona Maria Dolores de Ybarguen. I had three ( Why ! ? ) cameras with me and used two for this shot. The foreground with a Nikon Z6 and the sky with a Sony RX100. Nikon Z6 - 3x 120 seconds f3.5 ISO 800 for a base layer. 10 x 10 seconds f5.6 ISO 800 for the light painting. Sony RX 100 - 20 x 15 seconds f1.8 ISO 1600. It got down to -5, according to my thermometer, but I remained warm with two small plain chocolate bars and a home made Mince pie 😋 Software - Lightroom, PS and Sequator. Orion was placed in the same spot as it appeared on the Nikon images. Dave.

Adapters with correcting glass will work but I doubt that a very cheap adapter will use decent glass. You can always try it though. Other than money, what have you got to loose ? I have heard ( From one person ! ) that Urth adapters aren't bad. Dave.

M42 and T mounts are two different things. The T mount was designed to use a 55mm flange distance and the M42 was designed for a 45.5mm flange distance ( Roughly ) The Nikon requires 46.5mm so the M42 won't work at infinity without an extra correcting lens. It will however fit a Canon EOS at 44mm. Dave.

As someone who's been known to mosaic with a 14mm lens then there's not much out there wide enough 😀 I could actually do with a few more seconds per shot that my AltAz tracker would give me without having to lug loads of heavy gear up hill. Perhaps I ought to bribe myself with chocolate and mince pies. On the other hand, they could be why I can't lug gear up hill ! Good idea to look into getting a duo band or one like it. Merry Christmas Agnes, Dave.

That's a fantastic result and nothing like the first image ! You've set your own bar quite a bit higher now I keep meaning to do a bit with camera lenses and AltAz but never get round to it. I really should shouldn't I ? Dave.