35mm SLR Help

[flight69er]

I have just been given a Nikon F60 35mm SLR camera body. Can anyone help me on using this camera with my SKyWatcher Explorer 130P SupaTrak (exposures, film iso's etc) for lunar, planetary and DSO photography. My knowledge of SLR cameras is very limited. Any help would be ace.

[Cornelius Varley]

I would guess that first of all the same issues that people are having with DSLRs and focussing will still affect a 35mm camera. The mirror needs to be moved up the tube or a barlow lens used to bring the focus point within the range of the focuser. Planetary photography is going to be difficult due to the short focal length of the telescope and even using a 5x barlow the size of the planet will be small. For lunar photography a 2x barlow would give a moon of about 12mm dia on the film plane and a 3x barlow about 18mm. Using eyepice projection you could achieve greater magnifications.

Anne Dittmer's website Ann Dittmer's Lunar Photography has some formulae for calculating the magnifcation. Michael A Covington has an astro exposure calculator for working out exposures and optical calculations. Free Astrophotography Software

I would give DSO photography a miss with your mount / camera combination. Long exposures and alt-az mounts don't mix especially when using film.

For film I would go for Iflord XP1 bw film for shooting the moon. XP! can be processed in C41 colour film developer and printed in normal colour processors.It also has the advantage of having a wide exposure latitude. The film speed is nominally ASA 400 but can be used anywhere between ASA100 and ASA1600 (all on the same roll) and when suitably processed can produce good results.

Peter

[flight69er]

Thanks for your help Cornelius. Will the autotracking mode on my mount not be accurate enough for DSO's?

[Cornelius Varley]

Apart from tracking accuracy, an alt az mount is not suitable for DSO photography. This type of mount tracks by moving up/down left/right to keep an object centred. They cannot compensate for field rotation in their tracking unless on an equatorial wedge. Stars will become elongated after a relatively short exposure.

Peter

[Merlin66]

We successfully used SLR's for almost twenty years ( prior to DSLR's) to image DSO's and planets etc.

One important difference is the ability to stack images!

Jack Martin still prefers film to record spectra due to the good blue responce.

A good fine grained film has a "pixel" size of 20 micron, so by balancing the focal length of the scope, you can get some very good results.

Ken

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Used to use a 35mm with my scope. I generally found the Fuji Sensia or Provia series professional film for slides gave the best results. Used Provia 800/1600 ISO. I do not know whether these are still available. The advantage of slides is that the photo labs cannot mess up the colour balance/exposrure during printing.

I have seen many excelent results with (gas-treated to avoid reduced sensitivity at long exposure times) Kodak Technical Pan film, but again, I do not know whether people still supply this.

[Merlin66]

Unfortunately the fine grain Tech Pan is long gone.....no longer produced.

Jack Martin still uses film for his spectroscopy work. Ilford FP4, Ilford HP5, Ilford SFX - which has better red responce and Fuji Neopan.

Ken

[flight69er]

Thanks for all your help, will try out as soon as I get clear skies (whenever that will be).

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Unfortunately the fine grain Tech Pan is long gone.....no longer produced.

Jack Martin still uses film for his spectroscopy work. Ilford FP4, Ilford HP5, Ilford SFX - which has better red responce and Fuji Neopan.

Ken

, shame about the tech-pan, my favourite B&W film for landscape (for that Ansel Adams sharpness)