O-GPS1 Astrotracer function is phenomenal!

Thanks for adding the info about the exposure and process - it's very encouraging to see such a good photo without tons of additional processing

Sounds awesome. Got to love the plug for NZ there

Where are people buying theirs from?
Seems one if those items that is cheaper from the US presently.

I bought mine from B&H photo NY as I had a gift voucher to use up. It's on its way to a friend in the US who can bring it over at Xmas.

SRS are now advertising these for £179 - one of the best prices around!

Mine came from link. It was my birthday present .

Hi Rich,

I got mine from amazon as SRS didn't have stock when I purchased the K30 from them. The cost was difficult to justify, but it is a true 2 in 1 piece of equipment along with the GPS!

Always happy to plug New Zealand and show the merits of the O-GPS1.

Here is my second attempt at using my 0-GPS1 in Astrotracer mode, shot using Pentax DA* 60-250, F4 90 seconds at 1600 ISO.
Showing the Star Vega and surroundings in the constellation Lyra, unfortunately have not had clear skies since I shot this in November...

I suspect that the limiter for us UK folk will be the presence of dark sky. This looks quite useful - a light pollution map. Some other useful links:

- Stellarium to see what you're looking at (website)
- Star Walk, my daugher's favourite app of mine. Point ipad at sky and it tells you what's there.

I'm hoping that light pollution becomes less of a problem at higher altitudes - I'm intending to take some photos from up on the Malvern hills!

Thanks garnetgarnet for the info. I can't wait to take mine to a really dark sky.
Impressive image cycler: 90 s f/4, no trails and basically no purple fringing. I'll have to get one of those DA* lens!

Lenny - here is my one of my favourite "light pollution" shots, it's not a great example for the astrotracer function. It has quite a bit of trailing towards the edge of the frame - due I imagine to the orientation of the shot and the wide angle. But I hope the extra information recorded may sway you - even though it is a curiosity and doesn't answer your question!

Looking north (info recorded by O-GPS1) at an altitude of 949.5m (info recorded by O-GPS1)

Taken with the 12-24mm lens at 12mm f4 for 90 seconds - iso 1600.




I guess Björkliden to the north has a permanent population of between 1 and 30, yet still manages to kick out all that orange glow - it bugged me at the time, but I find the results quite pleasing now.

Francois - you seem like a man who knows his astro - I think the astrotracer has found the perfect match with someone as knowledgeable as yourself. I am trying to learn more about the night sky rather than blindly point and shooting!. Thanks for the information about Barnard's loop - I spent a good amount of time looking over the images from the proper astrophotographers - I see what you mean about the red in pentax.

Nass,

Thanks for the links - looks like I'm in the red!!

I totally agree about the presence of dark skies - that yellow orange glow is troublesome .

There's a nice website for some places in the UK that may be useful.

http://www.darkskydiscovery.org.uk/dark-sky-discovery-sites/map.html

I have got some ok ish results from my suburban back garden in West Yorkshire looking over the tops of houses, but yes light pollution does come into play as seen below.





Taken with the 31mm lens f4 for 30 seconds - iso 800.

Thanks garnetgarnet - it's nice to see a shot with light pollution as a feature (really nice photo) - you don't need to sway me anymore....

...I've toppled over the edge

Couldn't resist having a go

Quick Photoshop light pollution killer...

* Duplicate the image (Ctrl-J)

On the top layer do the following:
* Use Gaussian blur with a very large value (e.g. 50 pixels)
(You should see a completely smooth and featureless image)
* Change the layer's blend mode to "Difference"
(You can dial the layer opacity back a bit to let a bit of feature through)
* Now tweak with levels if required

Voila! (Worked a treat on the West Yorkshire image)

Many thanks Matt,

I will try that later - all those commands seem to ring a bell from elements.

Feel free to post the killer version on here - I'm sure it will benefit myself and hopefully others.

If you have the time, do you have any other tips for processing these types of night images?

I remember you from sharpen-o-matic - sharpening is something I've never grasped. Please could you one day do a tutorial on lightroom sharpening in general!!

This is why I'm Geo tagging all my pics in Lightroom. It's great to be able to select all pics from the same locations over the years.


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