MarkAR

Had a closer look at the flame and it does look great, shame that Altinak is trying to blow it out.

I think you got a bit lucky there. With high winds I probably would have stopped everything down as tight as possible and forget about airflow. Had experience in the past with car covers, wind gets underneath and everything get torn to shreds or blown off completely.

A lovely rendition, I especially like the Flame.

A DIY counterweight bar and weights are a fairly easy project if you have a lathe, a pillar drill and a few other tools. Could be an interesting little project. The bar might have to be something like chrome alloy steel with all the weights hanging off. Possibly even go up to 30mm depending on how and what is attached at each end. Large diameter stainless steel rounds are pretty expensive, smaller diameters could be drilled and filled with lead. Delrin could be used with lead slugs, they won't rust. Attaching the saddle to the shaft so it doesn't come loose has various solutions, threaded in with a locking nut, cross pinned, loctite... The main question, is it worth the faff in time and effort or easier to pay the 169 Euros.

Stunning image.

Superb.

Heres what it looks like with nothing to diffuse the screen.

I think without the disks, the white screen would be too harsh and needs some diffusing. Will take a couple of test shots later.

Check out AstroBackYard on Youtube, some really good advice on filters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDim3HHq7rk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFq-y8wTp9o

Costa Rica is lovely, so much wildlife to photograph as well.

Hi Olly, that's pretty much what I was planning to do, hold the laptop up to the lens. It's finding something suitable to hold the opal plastic disks to the lens hood that's the problem. Saying that I have an idea which might work. How about putting 4 pins or 2 curved pieces to hold the opal sheets on the front, the pins or curved pieces would sit over the larger petals top and bottom and not get into the field of view. Might try that as I don't think the Samyang hood will fit.

I would definitely get the modded 60D, factor in the cost of the filter included and it's cheaper than the 600Da.

WOW!!! Very nice details.

That could work, although I've just found that Samyang do a filter holder. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samyang-SFH-14-Filter-Holder-for-Samyang-14mm-F2-8-ED-AS-IF-UMC-MF-New-UK/223852374043?hash=item341ea4281b:g:KHIAAOSwsFZeHcWS Add 2 sheets of 3mm opal and hopefully that might be enough. Can always dim the laptop screen or sandwich on another sheet. I'm presuming that the lens hood on the 14mm F2.4 is the same as the F2.8, can't find anything more specific.

Any machine shop will be able to open it up to fit quite easily, if you were closer to Guildford I would say pop round and I'll stick it on my lathe. Looks like it just needs boring out to around 2.5 inches.

Hi All, I have a Samyang 14mm F2.4 lens that has a fixed petal shaped lens hood. My initial idea to take flats is to get some opal plastic disks, maybe a couple of 3mm think and a 5mm thick one and shooting at my laptop screen set to white. https://www.cutplasticsheeting.co.uk/frosted-acrylic-perspex-sheeting/opal-frost-acrylic-sheeting Trouble it on how to attach the disks to the lens hood, some sort of rubber slip on boot ??? Anyone any other Ideas on a set up to take flats with this lens?

Some good detail, can't wait to see the finished image.

I looked into this myself a couple of weeks ago and from all the reviews I found online it seems that the Optolong L-Pro has the least tint.

Thank you all for the warm welcome, shame the weather isn't as pleasant.

Lovely image, I like the halos but wonder if they could be softened just a tad to eliminate the stepped look. No idea if that's possible or not.

I particularly like the 3rd image, lovely crisp craters.

Very nice, lovely colours.

Dedicated metal working chopsaws run at a lot slower rpm than woodworking ones, swarf will still get everywhere but not so extreme. A powerful vacuum cleaner definitely saves time, I use a 1400w one that really sucks 🙂 Regarding the poorly machined worm wheel, I hope you kicked up a big enough stink to at least get a partial refund and also well done for making it right.

Both great images, the rework has a little more vitality and a slightly "stormier" feel about it. The original a little more peaceful looking.

Cheers Stu, looking at light pollution maps it does get down to Bortal 4 a little further south, hope to find somewhere not too far away where I can park up away from the glow a bit, looks like there are quite a few choices of commons to visit.