Site with some Pentax IR tech info.

Don't know if you have come across this site before,

http://www.jr-worldwi.de/photo/

there is some interesting info., especially about infrared, macro and flash on Pentax digital.

It may help out anyone interested in giving it a go.

Hi Galoot,

Saw that and saved to my favourites straight away. Nothing's too geeky for a nerd like me.. whether I understand it or not will be another matter mind.

I'll have a read when I get more time. I've just got back in with 2gb of sunset photos to have a sort through..

Cheers

Liam

You actually saw some SUN ?

It's been steady gales and rain here for as long as I can remember

Working in Fort William and Mallaig area next week for 4 - 5 days, hoping for a few shafts of sunlight. Might get a pic or two if I'm lucky.

Liam,

Any chance that there is a comet in those sunset photos?

Hi,

the south coast had a sunset. A bit of a gamble driving all the way down there on the off chance, but I got lucky. Fort William eh? Try McTavishes, just up from Nevis Sport on the high street, oposite the little park. Gorgeous cup of coffee, and IIRC the jacket potatos are quite nice as well.

Tim, I didn't see any comets, but then I was only facing west and wasn't looking for one, so it could have been behind me. I can have another look, if you have more detail though.

Cheers

Liam

Liam,

On Sunday Comet Macnaught was about 10 degrees south of the sun, that's the width of your fist at arms length. There have been reports of people spotting it in borad daylight. I couln't see it here in South Bucks.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070114_comet_mcnaught.html

LiamD, did you know McTavishes burnt down in June 2006 ? So I didn't get my coffee !!!

Got a couple of pics from my time in the 'Fort' , I'll try and post a couple later, ( new lens, first time all RAW, don't know if I like it ) ?

I'll have to let Mrs. Liam know. Did you notice if the other branch was still there.. three quarters of the way up the high street on the opposite side? Obviously if I'd known about the fire, I'd have mentioned it at the time.

Looking forward to them. Does that mean you didn't like the new lens or RAW?

Cheers

Liam

Love the lens, Pentax - A 50mm 1.4, never used RAW before, except for a couple of experiments. Decided to jump into the deep end and take all my Ft William trip pics in RAW. Still 'developing' them, will have to see if I'm happy with the results. Posted a few the General Chat forum, have a look, will add to them later

As I was getting home from work tonight, I looked across the fields near home and saw the new moon, in a deep blue sky, and thought "I'll nip in, get my long lens, and shoot straight back out again to get a pic or two".

As always, the clouds were drifting across by the time I got to a decent position, but I rattled off a few shots, and I've just had a look at them.

Here's one:




A bit blurred (the wind was coming straight into my lenshood, exposure was a couple of seconds I think), and certainly not the best pic I've ever taken, but what interested me was this, in the top left corner of the image:




...which I immediately thought "ooh, it's that comet!". It's on both the shots that it should be in (composition-wise). But I've just followed Tims link to the comet info website, and it should be below the horizon for us now... Any thoughts? Is it just a blurred star?

Dan

Dan,

That is probably Venus.

A radio-active dust spot on your sensor...

Andy

I was guessing Venus was the really bright blob above and to the right of the moon - the little 'smear' is near the left edge, near the top. I think it's just a star, that's got blurred due to the wind moving the camera, but it's odd that it's the same in both pics, and the 'tail' is pointing away from the sun - the venus blob looks as though it's blurred more in an up and down direction.

Dan

Ooops. Sorry - I have difficulty in telling my right and left. The bright object top right in the top picture is definitely Venus, The smudge I'm not sure about.

What time was the picture taken? I'll plug it into Winstars www.winstars.net/english and see what comes up.

EDIT:-

Now we are so far OT this is more ET. I took a guess that the pic was taken at 16:55, Jan 20, plugged that into winstars (hey it's free!) and:-



Looks like it might be the star "Nashira"

I reckon you're right Tim - took the pic a little later (nearer 5.30 I think), but Nashira looks as though it's in the right place.

I'll have to look back at the images and see just how much camera movement there was. Perhaps I should have left the hood off my lens, it's like a bucket, so probably didn't help with the wind coming straight on.

Cheers,
Dan

P.S. Winstars is free? Will have to have a look at that, seems like a 'nice to have' program.