The Orion Constellation (amateur DSLR)

[MikeWilson]

Hi everyone,

I've not posted an image in well over a month simply because my telescope hasn't been out in well over a month. Where are all our clear cold skies?

I took my new 550D and tripod out to play and took these shots which I thought were rather nice and show at least to me what can be done without a telescope and just 50mm (85mm equivalent) of zoom.

The Orion Constellation by MikeWPhotos, on Flickr

Orion by MikeWPhotos, on Flickr

Faux Aurora by MikeWPhotos, on Flickr

All photos were taken at f/1.8 and between 20 and 30 seconds of exposure. Single images with limited processing.

[MikeWilson]

*message deleted - duplicate*

[russ]

Well done Mike, they have come out well. A good start to your partnership with the 550D.

[MikeWilson]

Thanks Russ,

I was surprised at how well the images came out. I did use an Astronomik CLS-CCD clip filter to kill the light pollution (otherwise just a couple of seconds would orange-out the whole image) and an EF 50mm lens.

That nifty fifty lens is proving to be quite a performer (and really good value too).

[russ]

The Nifty Fifty is a great lens (the build is little off putting at first) and has huge potential. I took this with the 300D & Nifty Fifty:

[MikeWilson]

Recognise me?

[russ]

hehe yep focus is fun.

[MikeWilson]

The Nifty Fifty is a great lens (the build is little off putting at first) and has huge potential. I took this with the 300D & Nifty Fifty:

Wow - did you use a filter and where you somewhere dark?

I did a similar wide star field image but it doesn't work so well here. Having said that, I pointed the camera at an area of sky which was orange in colour and didn't have many bright stars and still managed to capture something (it shows how good some light pollution filters are).

[russ]

Amazingly i didn't use a filter and it was taken from the garden. Fortunately it was one of the rare mornings with excellent transparency and also the railway had their lights off. On those days my skies are pretty good. 9/10 times they are rubbish though.

The image needed some time consuming work in Photoshop to look like that. The potential was there, just needed teasing out.

I do need to invest in an EOS clip filter though, like the one you have.

[MikeWilson]

Amazingly i didn't use a filter and it was taken from the garden. Fortunately it was one of the rare mornings with excellent transparency and also the railway had their lights off. On those days my skies are pretty good. 9/10 times they are rubbish though.

The image needed some time consuming work in Photoshop to look like that. The potential was there, just needed teasing out.

I do need to invest in an EOS clip filter though, like the one you have.

It's worth it, Russ. Even more so in my opinion since it works independently of a telescope and will do a great job with any EF lens.

Without it I can't do much astronomy from my back garden and with it I literally get to see the most amazing things. From yours, I don't know - it might be too harsh. I've read user opinions that say the Huatech IDAS II filter is better but I can't say that I've seen that available as an EOS clip in yet.

[russ]

I'll keep an eye out on the secondhand market for one. Would be dead handy as i have a collection of M42 lenses, all with different filter sizes. Have a few step down rings for the 52mm and 55mm threads but the 62mm will just introduce huge vignetting if i use a step down ring with the filter.

I did have the normal 2" CLS before and it was pretty aggressive but as you say, not seen another EOS clip filter.

[MartinB]

Great work Mike, You've produced some good colour which can be tricky with the CLS in place.

[Venus_is_my_friend]

They are some awesome pictures! The last one has a eerie and slightly unearthly feel about it, which is good.

I have been mucking about with my new camera a bit and got some ok shots of Orion's sword, but nowt like these.

Great work!

Also I have to ask (after looking at your profile picture) have you stole my sunglasses than seem to have gone walkabout? hehe.

Neil

[kris h]

Great Pics Mike

[Nexus 6]

Really interesting pictures Mike, just shows, that by fitting a fairly decent filter you can get such nice shots.

Russ, your pic is excellent!

Alan

[MikeWilson]

Great work Mike, You've produced some good colour which can be tricky with the CLS in place.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the comment. You're right about the colour being off with the CLS in place although I have tested a modified DSLR with the same filter and find that the colour balance isn't so badly shifted (the blue is the big culprit being shifted half-way down the right on the histogram but all colours are affected).

The red bamboo leaves you see are supposed to be green, or at least gray. But I found altering their colour affected the natural colour of the sky so left them as they are!

They are some awesome pictures! The last one has a eerie and slightly unearthly feel about it, which is good.

I have been mucking about with my new camera a bit and got some ok shots of Orion's sword, but nowt like these.

Great work!

Also I have to ask (after looking at your profile picture) have you stole my sunglasses than seem to have gone walkabout? hehe.

Neil

Thanks Neil,

I've actually misplaced those sunglasses but fortunately my daytime ones change colour in the sun so they'll have to do for now

The 50mm f1.8 lens was key to getting these images without visible trailing (there is trailing if you zoom right in). If you've got a nice big wide open lens then it's rather easy to do (although you may need a light pollution filter too).

Great Pics Mike

Very kind of you How's the 1000D getting on?

Really interesting pictures Mike, just shows, that by fitting a fairly decent filter you can get such nice shots.

Russ, your pic is excellent!

Alan

Russ' picture is very good and given how he didn't need a filter the starfield colour looks just right. It just goes to show that you don't need a lot of expensive kit to get some nice pictures of the sky (but it helps!).

I love that little plastic nifty fifty lens!