morticiaskeeper

Three of my moon pics

I think this one was taken with my Sigma 70-300 lens, I was shooting in jpg then, so there isn't any editing.


These two we're taken with the D40 t-mounted to the focuser of a Skywatcher 1145p reflector telescope. This is a 1000mm focal length scope, but is only 500mm long, so there is a 2x Barlow built in.

These were taken in RAW, so have been doctored in Darktable.



Jupiter is pretty easy to see with my scope, on a good day you can see the bands and the moons, even the spot sometimes. Taking a picture is very difficult.

I have taken video of Jupiter using an Xbox webcam, modified to remove the IR filter and back lights. The video frames were then stacked in Avistack, but I was never happy with the results.

I've recently found a new site with less light pollution, so will have another go sometime.

Star trails are easier to get than not :-(

The 500 rule shows the maximum exposure before star trail begins.

Focal length. APS-C 1.5x exposure in seconds

12. 28
14. 24
16. 21
18. 19
20. 17
24. 14
28. 12
35. 10

If you want to take longer exposures, you will need a well setup eq mount and RA motor.

Much easier to take a number of exposures and then stack them.

I use Darktable on Ubuntu Linux for tethering, but would really like to tether to the iPad.

The Eye-fi Pro X2 card can setup an ad hoc wifi network. If the camera is set to RAW +JPEG! the JPEG can be sent to the iPad using shuttersnitch.

I use a more powerful scope, and still have problems.!

I use a skywatcher 1145p reflector, although, for the moon, I have to leave the outer lenscap on due to brightness.

The camera t mounts to the focuser in place of the eyepiece.

I've also used a webcam for image stacking, but nothing comes out as good as the eyepiece image

My first photography "career" was almost totally Motorsport. With a couple of ad jobs for a local company, mainly shop interiors.

I got back into DSLR's for a week in the Swiss mountains. Now I take mainly aircraft, but I'm starting to look further afield. Astro seems to be a bit difficult, I'm finding video stacking is better with my scope. I've even thought about some basic studio stuff.

A couple of days ago, I set the auto ISO to 1/100 & 1600. When I'm out snapping, rather than taking photos, I tend to forget about ISO, probably a legacy from my film days.

I always keep the D80 & D40 in P mode, so a quick snap can be taken, although Manual mode and a Weston Euromaster are the main settings.

My wife came home and told me about the fog covering the local field. Sensing a picture opportunity, I grabbed the D80 with Nikkor 18-70 f3.5, a tripod and the remote control. My thinking was, to take a snap in P mode, look at the result, then adjust things in M mode. It was the sort of shot where the exposure was always going to be a compromise. AF couldn't cope, so MF was used.

I took the shot. It was about 7 seconds at f22. When I looked at the exif data,the ISO was 1600. So far so good.

Based on what I saw, and a fair bit of experience, I switched to manual and set 20 seconds at f22. Took the shot. The exif data showed an ISO of 140. So, for a base ISO of 100, my top of the head settings had been pretty close:-)

BUT...

Who the hell at Nikon though it a good idea for Auto ISO to work in Manual mode?

The manufacturers put all these different modes on a modern camera, most I will never use, the majority of buyers don't even understand them all.

When I select Manual mode, I select it because I want to make the decisions. Which part of MANUAL don't they understand?

I thought the Auto ISO was a good idea, other family members could use it, and, truth be told, my memory has got worse over the years, it might just save me sometime.

I had a look through the manual, and I can't find a way round the problem. Having Auto ISO would be useful. But I will not have the camera fiddling with my decisions when I select M mode.

Rant over :-)

P.S. By the time I'd turned the Auto ISO off, the fog had gone, the moon had gone too high and too bright. All the photos were rubbish!

Not sure about the D7100, but if my D40 & D80 can, I'm sure you can.

If you're really struggling, an eye-fi SD card will give you wireless tethering.

Scooby.

If your running Linux, have a try with Darktable. I do the vast majority of my processing wit it, only using Gimp rarely.

If HDR is your thing, Luminance is pretty simple to use, although I haven't been overwhelmed by the results, a bit of Gimp work on the final pic would probably be required.

Kodak ekta 110
Kodak instamatic
Mayflower (like a box brownie)
Practical MTL5 (still got it)
Practical B100
Olympus OM10
Olympus OM30
Canon A1
Lubitel 166b 6 x 6

Sold the lot, except the MTL5

Nikon APS compact
Various Samsung compacts
Nikon D40
Pentax OP85 compact ( bought for rock climbing, one handed use)
Nikon D80 (bought secondhand last July)

The Meteor was built ten minutes from here. It belongs to Classic Air Force, based in Coventry and Newquay. Everytime they transport between the two, it goes over my house! Trevor at CAF normally tells his pilots to beat up the runway at Staverton as they pass. All the shots were taken at Fairford over the last couple of years, except the air to air shot of the Eurostar EV-97. The person behind the D40 in that shot is my wife. I took the shot from another Eurostar, then I carried on flying it :-) I'm afraid I took that shot with a Pentax compact (sorry). YourSpitfire is nice, I think it's one of the ones with new wings from my mate at VMI engineering.

A few of my aircraft shots

Hi, I'm Paul

I gave up photography in the late 80's until about 6 years ago, when I bought a D40 for a holiday.

In the past year, I've started to take things seriously again, switching to RAW and getting into the processing mindset.

I've done a bit of work for my flying club and had some photos in the local rag.

I tend to capture the moment, rather than set up shots, although I'm starting to think a bit more about what I take.

My Flickr account is here: http://www.flickr.co...orticiaskeeper/

All comments welcome!