I'd love it to be correct, especially as skies are clear here in Northumberland where I am visiting. However the aurora forecasts are so poor that I am going to do my bit to increase the chances by heading back south

Paul

Thanks for that Mikeyscope - I'd got the other links posted already, but not the bz component. Was cloudy last night up here in Northumberland, and kpindex so far low-ish, but will check during the day to see whether an evening in a dark venue is likely to be productive.
Yesterdays forecast was for no cloud. Now showing partly cloudy, which would be OK so long as views to north are clear.

Paul

It so happens I'm off to Northumberland tonight (weds) and intending to travel back tomorrow. Sounds like I might be staying in Northumberland longer than planned! Skies are clear also according to current forcast.
Many thanks for the heads up Gwyn.

Paul

Flipping heck. That's amazing! Well done.
Paul

For aurora and milky way (i.e. wide field night sky shots), I use a Sigma 15mm f2.8.
Not tried any digital astrophotography of any smaller objects, but for the moon something north of 500mm would be useful, and for any smaller / fainter objects than that you're talking telescopes and guiding.


Paul

Hi.
Excellent images Bjorn, my faves are 3 and 5, but all great. Totally support your comments about the suitability of the K5 for NL photography, I'd add that I was only down 1 bar on battery after 4 hours at -30C. Camera never missed a beat, but lens front element was misting up on occasions. I used a sigms 15mm f2.8 prime, which works very well for NL photography. I also found that upping the clarity in ACR worked well in post, as did dropping the black point.
I assembled some of my images into a timelapse, in retrospect I'd have pushed the ISO even higher (3200/6400) to shorten the shutter speed and put up with the noise if I was doing that again.
Cheers

Paul

I'm aware that Johnsons have had some mixed feedback on these forums, so I thought I should give credit where credit is due. Changing lenses outdoors on a recent holiday, I managed to get some dust on my focussing screen. Top tip - don't try to remove dust from a focussing screen with an arctic butterfly, it static charges the screen and you end up making things worse not better. So decided to send it to the professionals. As I live in Manchester and work in Birmingham sometimes, dropping into the potteries was easy, and they were happy to receive personal callers.
End result - focussing screen pristine, sensor also cleaned and firmware upgraded while I waited, also given a nice cuppa foc by the lady on reception, all sorted while I waited.
Top bunch of people. Very impressed.

Paul

Total convert to Lightroom. Only use PSE for stitched images. If you shoot raw, the full RAW converter in LR knocks spots off the crippled one in PSE. LR handles 16 bit images a treat, but doesn't do layers. However its curves support is as full PS I understand.

Paul

Got to agree - fabulous shot, very well done.

Paul

Interesting topic, and post, John. In Bruce Barnbaum's excellent "Art of Photography" book, chapter 8 and onwards, he explains the zone system, with particular reference to B&W film photography. I too had always understood that colour slide film for example had narrowest dynamic range, colour neg film considerably wider, agree on the dynamic range of digital sensors, and John when you say "much wider latitude" for some B&W films, Barnbaum says the latitude can be 16-18 stops. And then goes on to describe how the real challenge and art of the zone system is deciding which zones you want to appear on 10 stop paper. Sort of comparable to the challenges we have in getting an HDR scene to look natural on a monitor!
Personally I'd occasionally like a wider DR sensor for dealing with high contrast scenes, but I agree we are spoilt!

Paul