Nikon D5100 + Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm VR - any useful?

[Major]

Hi guys!

It's been a while since I last posted here. But still intrest in the sky didn't go away .

I wanted to buy 200P for extreme plane spotting, but gave up. Motorcycles got in the way and I bought my first little thing, all the gear, currently do DAS. It helped me a lot to fulfill myself in my big hobby - aviation photography and riding a bike.

I have a consumer camera with standard telephoto lens, as mentioned in the title. I am happy with results I get in the airports and at the airshows, even with that short focal lenght. I did try to shoot our lovely Moon few times and must say - for hand held shots I am happy.

But I wonder - is my set any good for any photos of Milky Way?I do have small tripod to support camera, also have Photoshop CS6 and even can use it somehow .

Tell me guys - is it worth giving it a shot? If I'd take 20-50 pics of 20-25 sec exposure, half with high ISO and half with low, would it work? Would it be possible to picture space without star trails?

I know that I would need some proper gear - scope, ccd camera etc, but to be honest - I can't afford all my hobbies . Just after DAS I want to get new bike, more gear, more tools etc, but simple observing with 16x50 binos and slightly bigger scope doesn't cut it anymore.

Here is sample of my pics. Currently can't post any Moon pics, cause I have stored all of them on my portable HDD, and that is away till Tuesday.





Thanks in advance for all input.

Cheers
Tom

[rob0971]

Hi Tom,

The 70-300 will be a little long without a tracking mount for anything more than a few seconds. For the milky way, you really want a fast wide angle lens that can be opened right up to its biggest aperture for exposures up to 30 secs. If you had a tracking mount, your lens could be quite useful on large objects such as the Andromeda galaxy.

Rob

[Major]

Thank you Rob!

Thought so, unfortunately. Maybe let me form question in a little different way - is there any chance of using this lens to photograph anything after Moon?

[Knight of Clear Skies]

For widefields you'd need a tracking mount to use it. The exposure time would have to be very short to avoid trailing, probably 3 seconds at 70mm

However, a tracking mount doesn't have to be that expensive, I picked up my EQ3-2 for £120 and spent another £30 on a polar scope. I don't have it running smoothly yet so I'm dropping subs, but have got some decent results with it. Here's a 1 minute Andromeda test shot with my 250mm zoom lens from a dark site, with a little processing.

Zoom lenses aren't usually the best for AP, note the coma at the corners. However, this could be cropped out or corrected in processing.

You can take longer exposures at short focal lengths from a fixed tripod and stack them.

[Major]

I did see your thread before and results you get are amazing. Me really likes it!

The troubble is - if I get tracking mount, I will get scope and more stuff to it, I know that. I'm not that tight with money, but I tend to pick up expensive hobbies and my old lady doesn't like it much - can't blame her really

However, winter is coming again and I need something to do during those long, cold nights. Will give it a go with a lot of short exposures stacked in one, if that won't work, well, I guess I'll have to listen about my another toy.

Thanks for sharing your pics mate!