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Imaging with a Star Adventurer


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52 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

There are a lot of Pentax Super Takumar lenses that are excellent for astro use, they have an M42 thread ( slightly different to a "standard M42 thread ) the 135mm 1.8 is good also the 200mm.

Dave

Just be aware of what version you get: the "Super Takumar SMC"  (super multi coated) is probably ok, and I've seen gorgeous pictures done with it, but I got the older version instead (I think it's called only "Super Takumar", non SMC) and I got massive chromatic aberration and stars bigs as baloons.

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12 minutes ago, waruna said:

Ok in that case once I get my DSLR (Nikon D5300), I will get suggestion for the most ‘economical but excellent’ lens for me. 

Thank you all.

I think the old M42 lenses wont achieve focus with Nikon cameras as the camera flange to focal plane distance is too great so you will be stuck with the own brand lenses or third party ones from Samyang/Sigma etc.

Alan

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6 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

I think the old M42 lenses wont achieve focus with Nikon cameras as the camera flange to focal plane distance is too great so you will be stuck with the own brand lenses or third party ones from Samyang/Sigma etc.

Alan

Hi Mr. Alan,

Understood. So I guess I’ll just stick to the stock lens kit first before investing on Samyang lens. Maybe can find 2nd hand with good condition. 

Thank you Sir

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47 minutes ago, waruna said:

Hi Mr. Alan,

Understood. So I guess I’ll just stick to the stock lens kit first before investing on Samyang lens. Maybe can find 2nd hand with good condition. 

Thank you Sir

I think you will find that the stock lenses are far better than their price would suggest and more than good enough to get you going.

Alan

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11 hours ago, waruna said:

Hi Sir,

Yes, budget is quite tight right now. Sorry for this noob question, but what is vintage prime lens? 

Is it achievable if I just use the DSLR stock lens kit for starter?

Thank you.

A vintage prime lens is a pretty old lens with fixed focal lenght, for example the pentax takumar 135mm f2.5 is an extremly popular one.

You will need an adapter to attach to you body for example pentax pk to canon eos or similar...just happened that I yesterday received my cosinon auto mc 135mm f2.8 lens and the adapter to use on my canon.

1 more thing about vintage lens (in normal borders) is that they are extremly cheap! Just make sure to get the adapter which makes infinity focus possible and that the glasses are in perfect shape!

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On 02/02/2018 at 13:56, Delboy_Hog said:

Having the star adventurer has actually given me a real kick of enjoyment recently from the wider-field (than most telescopes) images.  Andromeda will look lovely at 250mm (as well as shorter focal lengths, which might enable slightly longer subs) as will M45 I'd have thought, and even with relatively short exposures you'll be able to get some cracking images in and around Orion anywhere within your 55 - 250mm range.  At the lower ranges of that lens, you can get some interesting shots with 2 or more of the better known galaxies in.  At the 50 - 85mm range you'll get Andromeda and M33 in the field which is pretty spectacular to see, and you'll similarly get M51 and M101 in if you focus somewhere between the stars Alkaid and Mizar in the plough.

If in doubt, I'd recommend a quick peek in the images section of this forum, or the website "Astrobin", where you can see what other people with similar kit are imaging.  You also get a good idea of what kind of camera settings / exposure lengths etc that you'll need to think about using.

Hope that helps!

I found this really helpful thanks ?. Getting loads of great tips from this thread, and am inspired by the quality of the pictures taken with this cracking bit of kit. Loving it's versatility. 

Clear skies 

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Ready for tonight ! 
Gonna practise polar aligning and then fire off some shots of Andromeda. Hopefully he moon won't wash out all my shots! 

One thing though, when I put 6 at the bottom on the polar scope it obviously puts the camera at a funny angle. Is this ok ? Feels a bit strange to me. 

15405791907275936054123140630494.jpg

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3 minutes ago, Leon-Fleet said:

One thing though, when I put 6 at the bottom on the polar scope it obviously puts the camera at a funny angle. Is this ok ? Feels a bit strange to me. 

Ignore the camera, you're aligning the mount.

Dave

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15 minutes ago, Leon-Fleet said:

Ready for tonight ! 
Gonna practise polar aligning and then fire off some shots of Andromeda. Hopefully he moon won't wash out all my shots! 

One thing though, when I put 6 at the bottom on the polar scope it obviously puts the camera at a funny angle. Is this ok ? Feels a bit strange to me. 

15405791907275936054123140630494.jpg

It is normal.

What I would suggest is to decide what you want.

You want to use the L bracket only, or the ballhead only.

The 2 together is a pretty heavy combination ;)

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1 hour ago, serbiadarksky said:

You want to use the L bracket only, or the ballhead only.

The 2 together is a pretty heavy combination

Not enough weight to bother it and set up like that you can still check the PA occasionally.

Dave

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3 hours ago, serbiadarksky said:

It is normal.

What I would suggest is to decide what you want.

You want to use the L bracket only, or the ballhead only.

The 2 together is a pretty heavy combination ;)

Thanks.

It's not too heavy I'm sure of it. I'll eventually put a guide scope on it too ?. But I'm ages away from even thinking about it.   

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1 hour ago, Davey-T said:

Not enough weight to bother it and set up like that you can still check the PA occasionally.

Dave

Ive been out for a while this evening, I   managed to take only 10 minutes to polar align! Found Andromeda and get a few very shakey shots of Andromeda but that's where I've hit a wall, my nikkon AF 70-300 lens won't work with the intervelomiter. I can't remotely shoot  or  manually take any shots because of the shakes. I switched to my 18-70mm but can't see Andromeda. 

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That's weird the lens shouldn't affect it, never had a Nikon but most DSLR cameras have a menu setting to shoot without a lens attached or something similar.

Is the lens set to manual focus ?

Dave

Edited by Davey-T
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7 hours ago, Davey-T said:

That's weird the lens shouldn't affect it, never had a Nikon but most DSLR cameras have a menu setting to shoot without a lens attached or something similar.

Is the lens set to manual focus ?

Dave

Hi Dave, 

I think it's because it's an auto lens, no option to set it to manual. as soon as I put on my manual 18- 70  it worked fine.

15406251585123789829077939533235.jpg

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26 minutes ago, knobby said:

Hi Leon - fellow Nikon user here, it's strange that you can't get the intervalometer to work (D90 Nikon?)

Have a skim through this...

 

Thanis Knobby, I Watched this same video last night. I figured out the problem is actually because the lens is an automatic. As soon as I put the 18-70 mm manual lens on it worked. Very frustrating as I was aligned and had Andromeda centred and focused. 

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Are you talking about the lens being auto focus ? Surely you can set it to manual focus somehow ?

Doesn't the D90 have a focus mode switch  below the lens release button.

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56 minutes ago, knobby said:

Are you talking about the lens being auto focus ? Surely you can set it to manual focus somehow ?

Doesn't the D90 have a focus mode switch  below the lens release button.

Yeah the lens is auto focus only I have the camera set to manual and the switch On the side of the camera switched to manual too. It didn't make any difference unfortunately.

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34 minutes ago, knobby said:

The front ring near the lens cap is the manual focus ring ...

what exactly was the problem with the intervalometer ? did it not work at all or where the pics out of focus ?

The intervelomiter was counting down but the shutter was not firing. 

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