Fisheye lens with an Astrotrac

[sheri_barri]

Good evening out with low humidity and clear skies. Amazing after the snow yesterday! Bit of fun with a Pentax ist and a half fisheye lens on a manfrotto tripod with astrotrac. Lovely constellation views. Planning to make an overlay powerpoint with constellation lines if anyone is interested to teach with.

Starry skies!

Sheri

[steppenwolf]

Now that's what I call wide!

[Dangerous-Dave]

Nice work Sheri. I have been hankering after a Sigma 4.5mm for a while, for some full sky shots, but the cost is a bit frightening!

[sheri_barri]

This lens came from an eBay shop out of Hong Kong so not too pricey. Probably not the quality of a Sigma does does a nice job for the occasional really wide angle shots. Best when the FOV is reduced a bit to eliminate the worst of the distorted edges when used terrestrially.

[gregnorth1982]

Sheri those pics are fantastic...I might start pricing up fisheye lenses!

Greg

[RobH]

Great work Sheri....looks like you had a great clear night there

Cheers

Rob

[sheri_barri]

It was certainly one of those nights, late in the 'winter' sky season that really looked suitable for the fish-eye. A bit of fun!

Cheers for the comments Greg and Rob!

Sheri

[Jaffa007]

Great images!!

[pauldaviesuk]

An alternative to a fisheye lens is a Tele Extender and a (merely) wide angle lens

I've an old Contax 24mm f/1.2 prime (mental note.. must get a Contax -> Canon adapter!) and an 0.42x tele compressor that screws onto the filter thread on the front of the lens, giving a 10mm fisheye. I picked it up years ago from the second hand 'Odds 'n' Ends' bin of my local photographic shop for a few quid. This is a link to (I think) the same model I have - $36.

This an example image taken using the tele compressor and my Sigma 17-70 wide zoom on my old Canon 3a0D. In this case the camera was pointing (almost) vertically and the tele compressor was just sitting on the UV filter on the front of the lens as the filter threads didn't match. The Image was captured at Side, Turkey the evening after the total solar eclipse there in '06.

cheers

Paul

[Astorix]

really lovely images!

[Dangerous-Dave]

An alternative to a fisheye lens is a Tele Extender and a (merely) wide angle lens

I've an old Contax 24mm f/1.2 prime (mental note.. must get a Contax -> Canon adapter!) and an 0.42x tele compressor that screws onto the filter thread on the front of the lens, giving a 10mm fisheye. I picked it up years ago from the second hand 'Odds 'n' Ends' bin of my local photographic shop for a few quid. This is a link to (I think) the same model I have - $36.

This an example image taken using the tele compressor and my Sigma 17-70 wide zoom on my old Canon 3a0D. In this case the camera was pointing (almost) vertically and the tele compressor was just sitting on the UV filter on the front of the lens as the filter threads didn't match. The Image was captured at Side, Turkey the evening after the total solar eclipse there in '06.

cheers

Paul

That doesn't look too bad, I tried a Japanese 0.42x compressor on my old Takumar 28mm wide lens but was really disappointed with the result.

ASTRO-CHAT - Astronomy Forum :: View topic - Startrails - 0.42x Fisheye converter test

I've just bought a Samyang 8mm/f3.5 fisheye from a Polish company called Foto-Tip, £225 delivered. It's a highly rated lens despite the price, I am looking forward to trying it out. Fully manual, which doesn't bother me as I will only use it for astro.

[pauldaviesuk]

Its not a bad bit of kit, especially for the price. If you zoom right into the image, the stars are quite round all the way out to the edge (of the vignetting).

Paul

[callump]

Hi Sheri,

what length of exposures were you using ?

thanks, Callum