Imaging with the Samyang 135mm f2

[woldsman]

Managed to grab this last night before getting in the car for a long drive. 60 x 30" at f2.8 & ISO 400 using the Canon EOS 100d. 

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Here's a couple recent images using the Samyang, I've been experimenting with blending deep Ha images with quick colour starfields.

[Uranium235]

Out and about tonight, testing the microfocuser.... which had made things MUCH easier:

Shame about the LP in my backyard, it makes (good) luminance work almost impossible, limited to 180s on this. Not that I could go much further anyway without blowing the core too much.

35x180s  @ F2   

 

[Uranium235]

More data from the same evening, deteriorating conditions but still acceptable:

8x600s

[ddm4313]

Does anyone know what mounting rings are compatible with the Rokinon? 

[Phillyo]

This was taken with the Samyang 135 and the ASI533. Total of around 11 hours or so of data (reduced from 15hours after weighting). Loving this combo for the really widefield images it produces.

[nephilim]

On 12/12/2021 at 02:00, ddm4313 said:

Does anyone know what mounting rings are compatible with the Rokinon? 

@ddm4313 I use these with mine although I insert a thin velcro strip to make it snug. This is my full mounting kit, the rings are obviously bottom left. Primalucelab are very good quality & everything is solid. When it comes to mounting your gear dont be tempted to 'go cheap', remember that the mounting equipment is keeping your very expensive AP gear from dropping to the floor. Primalucelab equipment is expensive but very much worth the cost for its stability & piece of mind.

Edited December 13, 2021 by nephilim
Extra info

[glafnazur]

3 hours ago, Phillyo said:

This was taken with the Samyang 135 and the ASI533. Total of around 11 hours or so of data (reduced from 15hours after weighting). Loving this combo for the really widefield images it produces.

That's a stunning image, beautiful 👍

[Craney]

So this one took me by surprise.

I tend not to go for the Orion nebula (M42) because it is usually too bright  !!  ( yes, the core tends to saturate my Atik 414ex mono).     Earlier this week, on a scattered cloud type of evening, when I had far too much work on my mind,   I let the  Samyang absorb photons from midnight onwards   (the Graveyard shift).    No expectation at all.  Virtually a full moon in Taurus, cloud sweeping the sky  enabling exposures  realistically  at the 6 to 20 secs range.    Knowing previous attempts with longer focal lengths tended to have H-Alpha dominance, I was expecting a vividly red smudge..... Oh well.....  might catch a meteor to give me an action shot.

Actually turned out quite colourful with a bit of detail as well.     Now, some of that nebulousness in the rest of the frame may be an artifact of having so many cloud streaked subs, but as long as nobody knows that, everything is ok.

This is  80x 6s  Ha,    80 x 10s O3,   80 x 20s S2.

Hope everybody is well and stays well.    Rgds, Sean.

           

 

[900SL]

This is my set up, 135mm Sammy on a Fornax LT2. About as good as you can get accuracy wise. I only use the ASI AP and 120mm guide scope for polar alignment to less than 1 arc minute. Everything runs off a 10,000 mAh bank with 5.5 - 12V USB step up leads. I usually use a D5600 as main camera for narrower FOV and a heavy Bosch survey tripod for longer focal length exposures

 

I can shoot 4 minutes with zero trailing and have managed 3 minutes with a WO GT71. Reframing is easy with the locking pan heads on the RA and Dec axis  

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by 900SL

[nephilim]

Taken Friday 17th Dec but I've only just got round to processing but to be honest I'm not sure I'm happy with the colour. I was trying to do a Hubble 'style' process which has worked fairly well on a previous image. I'll more than likely come back to this shortly & just process it as a normal RGB image.
It's the first time I've had even a sniff of a clear sky over the last month or so & this night still wasn't very clear hence sticking to 60 second subs. I managed a total of 4hrs but still had to throw out 2hrs due to cloud.

The North American Nebula including the Cygnus Wall & The Pelican Nebula.

I just love the FOV with this lens & hopefully I wont have too long to wait until I can get more time on it before it loses its good position in the sky in around a moths time.

145x 1 min
30x Darks
20x Flats
Bortle 4
SQL 21.66
Equipment used as per my signature but with no guiding
Stacked & processed etc in PI

Thanks for looking

Steve

Edited December 26, 2021 by nephilim

[nephilim]

https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/samyang-officially-teased-the-new-135mm-f-1-8-fe-lens/

Just spotted this, @ f1.8  I can't see it been of much interest to owners of the f2 version that most of us own. It'll be interesting to see if its as good for AP although I won't be buying one (...........Famous last words 😂)

Edited January 1, 2022 by nephilim

[nephilim]

This is a reprocess of an image I took a couple of weeks ago. I decided to try it using the false Hubble Palette & quite pleased with how its turned out. I'm still vey much a newbie with all this, especially when it comes to PI but i'm slowly refining a half decent workflow that is working for me at the moment.
Theres a fair bit of noise in this (needs more time on it) & theres a gradient from the 97% full Moon that was unavoidable with the Moon been quite near the object at the time.
I'll come back to this once i've got more imaging time on it.

The North American & Pelican Nebula in Cygnus

145x 1 min
30x Darks
20x Flats
Bortle 4
SQL 21.66
Equipment used as per my signature but with no guiding
Stacked & processed etc in PI

Thanks for looking

Steve

[Uranium235]

Quite difficult, I knew there was Ha in the Hyades.... so decided to go looking for it.

Needs more exposure and better processing (when I have the right amount of data!).

[Knight of Clear Skies]

What's the capture details for that one please Uranium?

[Uranium235]

1 hour ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

What's the capture details for that one please Uranium?

12x900 @f2.8 👍

It's very tenuous though, I'd say about as difficult as the IFN in terms of processing 

[imagebylight]

Been looking at getting this lens, I have Nikon d7100 and d800, I have been using my sigma 70-200 f2.8 but i dont think its a good lens for astro or atleast my copy as I get weird shaped stars, I'm new to this AP game so still learning!!  and it could be something im doing.

I have star adventure 2i with above cameras, would this be a sensible buy?

[powerlord]

most zooms are not very good for stars. I think this 40 page thread is testament to the samyang 135 being a good buy. BUT, you don't need to spend 400 quid on a samyang. I'm not a nikon man, but if you get yourself a vintage prime lens from ebay - 135-200 or so for 30 quid, chance are good that it will work quite well too. And with the savings, get yourself an L-extreme 2" and screw it over the end.

that'd be my advice anyhoo.

stu

[Alien 13]

31 minutes ago, powerlord said:

most zooms are not very good for stars. I think this 40 page thread is testament to the samyang 135 being a good buy. BUT, you don't need to spend 400 quid on a samyang. I'm not a nikon man, but if you get yourself a vintage prime lens from ebay - 135-200 or so for 30 quid, chance are good that it will work quite well too. And with the savings, get yourself an L-extreme 2" and screw it over the end.

that'd be my advice anyhoo.

stu

Good advice but unfortunately very few if any old lenses will work with Nikon due to backfocus issues..

Alan

[powerlord]

ah. sorry didn't know.

[imagebylight]

17 hours ago, powerlord said:

most zooms are not very good for stars. I think this 40 page thread is testament to the samyang 135 being a good buy. BUT, you don't need to spend 400 quid on a samyang. I'm not a nikon man, but if you get yourself a vintage prime lens from ebay - 135-200 or so for 30 quid, chance are good that it will work quite well too. And with the savings, get yourself an L-extreme 2" and screw it over the end.

that'd be my advice anyhoo.

stu

thanks for the reply, I have just placed my order and hopefully the lens will be here within the week on a side note I have plenty of old lenses for my nikon and for my fuji set up but they all have their problems!! I just didnt list them here, I even have the 135 pentacon which is beautiful for portraits but horrible for astro, but I really like the focal length.

[powerlord]

Oh that's a pity. I 've found most of the old lenses I've bought have been good for astro once shut down a few stops

[imagebylight]

11 minutes ago, powerlord said:

Oh that's a pity. I 've found most of the old lenses I've bought have been good for astro once shut down a few stops

It may be just my copies of them! and was a few years ago I played with them for astro, but now I have the wonderful Sammy on its way to me, I cannot wait to get out with it. so much info in this thread im overwelmed and excited to receive it.

[Uranium235]

Star testing, Shedar - widefield with corner shots - all @ f2

Uncropped, unguided 60s x15 (KAF8300 sensor)

 

Corners: TL, TR, BL, BR

Not bad....

[Uranium235]

Further testing.... Id say this lens is 100% sorted now:

4x900 (Ha) @ f2   KAF8300 sensor

Poor sky conditions, but good enough for Ha