Sadr and a few other stars with a Canon 5D4

[Photosbykev]

A nice night to tweak some system settings for astrophotography  This is 27 x 1 minute exposures with a Canon 5D4 and Canon 200mm lens on a SkyGuider Pro mount autoguided with a zwo ASI120MM mini camera and scope in PHD2. Images were aligned and median stacked in PS CC with some levels and curves adjustment. Minor crop to clean out some vignetting in the corners.

Center (RA, Dec): (304.835, 39.156)
Center (RA, hms): 20h 19m 20.394s
Center (Dec, dms): +39° 09' 20.166"
Size: 9.48 x 6.32 deg
Radius: 5.697 deg
Pixel scale: 16.7 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 270 degrees E of N

[alan potts]

Very nice shot Kev but I do wish camera lenses didn't leave the spikes, I need to try my 300mm F2.8 wide open see what come out. I tried it at F4 a while back on Orions belt but was far from happy, personal taste I guess.

Alan

[tooth_dr]

2 hours ago, alan potts said:

Very nice shot Kev but I do wish camera lenses didn't leave the spikes, I need to try my 300mm F2.8 wide open see what come out. I tried it at F4 a while back on Orions belt but was far from happy, personal taste I guess.

Alan

Stop down with a step down ring to avoid spikes

[Photosbykev]

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

Stop down with a step down ring to avoid spikes

Yup I don't dislike them on the main stars but next purchase will be an astrograph for some 'proper' astro work

best regards

Kev

[Photosbykev]

3 hours ago, alan potts said:

Very nice shot Kev but I do wish camera lenses didn't leave the spikes, I need to try my 300mm F2.8 wide open see what come out. I tried it at F4 a while back on Orions belt but was far from happy, personal taste I guess.

Alan

Very few camera lenses are coma free wide open, especially at the longer focal lengths and I'll take spikes over coma every day of the week. This was at f/8 on a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L lens. Next purchase an astrograph lol

Edited August 19, 2019 by Photosbykev

[alan potts]

19 minutes ago, Photosbykev said:

Very few camera lenses are coma free wide open, especially at the longer focal lengths and I'll take spikes over coma every day of the week. This was at f/8 on a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L lens. Next purchase an astrograph lol

Really, I would have thought at the cost new now they would be decent from Canon of all people, this one though is about 12 years old and is sharp for normal work, I use to have the 200 F1.8, that stopped down 2 stops would still be F3.5. Now I have a duel mount bar on route I can play around with the telephotos I have, mind you the 500mm weighs as much as a telescope as I dare say the 600mm is more so.

Alan

[Astroscot2]

Hello Kev, very nice images, any change of seeing your SGP mount auto guider set up

Thanks

Mark

[Photosbykev]

21 hours ago, Astroscot2 said:

Hello Kev, very nice images, any change of seeing your SGP mount auto guider set up

Thanks

Mark

I fitted an Arca Swiss clamp plate to the SGP and a generic Arca Swiss L bracket to the camera to hold the guidescope. I went this way so shooting wide angle the bracket on the Camera base would fit the Arca Swiss clamp. The larger lenses mount directly to the clamp and the guidescope remains fixed to the camera body

Kev

Edited August 21, 2019 by Photosbykev

[Astroscot2]

Thanks for the photos Kev, I like that configuration, looks like a good lightweight option

[Jkulin]

That is really helpful Kev, I have just had a nosey on fleabay and that had a similar setup for my Sony for £30 and it was designed to work with my Benro as well, so I bought that and then will work out a bracket for my Polemaster: -

I currently have it set up like this, but have to admit I like the way yours still allows you to use the weights for counter balance: -

[Photosbykev]

1 hour ago, Jkulin said:

That is really helpful Kev, I have just had a nosey on fleabay and that had a similar setup for my Sony for £30 and it was designed to work with my Benro as well, so I bought that and then will work out a bracket for my Polemaster: -

I currently have it set up like this, but have to admit I like the way yours still allows you to use the weights for counter balance: -

 

Nice setup  I decided to finish the rig off properly and bought a WO Zenithstar 61 and flattener to stick on the front of the Canon 5D4  For info, I had to add one 3/8" diameter washer under the screwhead on the bottom of the counterweight shaft. This allowed me to move the counterweight one more millimeter down the shaft. The balance is fractionally camera heavy which I prefer to keep the gearing engaged

Edited August 22, 2019 by Photosbykev
extra info added