645 Astro

Inspired by Spad's efforts I will start to post some of my images.

I too dabble in astrophotography. I shoot with a Canon camera for now, but at some point that will be changing. But I use some Pentax 645 glass. Namely a 300mm f4, the manual version, and a 600mm f5.6. The 300mm has no tripod foot which creates a problem, but it is a problem that has been overcome with the help of a 3d printer.

My workflow is along the same lines as Spad's, but slightly different. I used an equatorial mount that is controlled by a laptop, I collect my data, and I have a friend process it for me in PI. At the moment, I am focusing my efforts on improving the raw data that I collect before I go down the rabbit hole of processing this data. I am based in NZ, so my images may appear upside compared to how you are normally used to seeing them, I kid you not. I don't use a telescope, just camera lenses.

But I will post images as I get the chance. Life, work, the moon, and clouds all hinder this.

But here is my first image. The Horsehead and Flame nebula. As you will see, it has room for improvement, and we will get there. It is a bit of try something, and see how it works, or not.




Gary

Thank you for the warm comments.

I will add to this thread. Sadly, this is not a type of photography where you can't rattle off a load of images in one session.

But yes, the final image looks good, but there is room to improve. If I can make forward progress with my data collection, I have more than happy to share and explain what I am doing.

Just to add one more thing. With this image, I used the Pentax 645 600mm f5.6.

Gary