First Andromeda - Single Exposure

I bought another camera, a Pentax K-1

I've been wanting another Pentax camera for a long time, namely for the Astrotrac feature .

Anyway, I got the camera on Friday and Friday night I took a couple of shots of the night sky in my backyard. Having never used this feature, I way overexposed the shot. I also was just shooting in my backyard, in a neighborhood, so there was a lot of light pollution.

Here's what I got with a 1 minute shot using an old Takumar 200mm F3.5 lens.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2aXC​Dru

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2aXB​QwC

Very nice. Bonus points to Pentax for adding the Astrotac feature.

NeverFollow wrote in post #18729039
Very nice. Bonus points to Pentax for adding the Astrotac feature.

What is the astrotrac feature?

the jimmy wrote in post #18729611
What is the astrotrac feature?

I'm guessing they're referring to Astrotracer, which is a system Pentax has developed to allow long exposures without star trailing.

Looks kind of like image stabilization to the extreme.

Sounds interesting!

Thanks everyone!

Here's another from tonight, same suburban skies. This is 8, 20 second shots at 3200 ISO using the K-1 and a Soviet Tair 3 300mm F4.5 lens.

I have no idea what I am doing with the stacking program, or what dark frames, light frames or biased frames are. I just pushed my way through the program, then adjusted it in Photoshop. It is going to be a fun hobby, but I can see already that I have A LOT to learn.

I also have to see how to best use the Astrotracer feature as I am getting some trailing at 20 seconds with a 300mm lens.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/PXFB​F3

Hi Colorado CJ

I don't know what program your using to stack with but if you go here http://deepskystacker.​free.fr/english/faq.ht​m this may help you understand the light frames and darks and more.

Nice 1st shots. I still remember the first time I captured the glow of Andromeda. Just a 55mm lens, but I was hooked. Here is a youtube tutorial for Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop processing and it is using Andromeda. Also go to the very bottom right in Deep Sky Stacker and click on "DeepSkyStacker's help" lots of good explanations and help there. Keep up the good work. If you want help and suggestions, you will find plenty on here. Warning....it can get expensive, but there are wonderful things to see. Wonderful landscapes on Flickr, Do you have links to any of your Milkyway shots on there? I only found a couple.

Mo


My 1st Andromeda
http://i347.photobucke​t.com …Andromeda11-29-11jpeg.jpg

Years later
https://www.astrobin.c​om/full/55461/C/

Thanks, I'll be sure to look at that!


Here's my first real go at stacking, with dark frames, light frames and flats.

It didn't turn out right (strange halo effect and weird colors), but I was able to fix it somewhat. The stacking program has HUGE amounts of variables, so I am sure I am not getting the best out of the images.

This is 30 images stacked, each image shot for 30 seconds at 800 ISO. Just shot in my backyard with l bright half moon, so not the best circumstances. It is also HEAVILY cropped, so it isn't as clear as it could be.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Q4ok​9d

Had another go after some reading.

It turns out I was calibrating my camera sensors wrong. So after calibrating it the right way, I am able to get 50+ seconds with a 300mm lens.

Here is an 8 shot stack taken with 50 second exposures. I am going to have to take a lot more exposures after seeing how good just 8 looks!

Here is the cropped photo.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Q6qY​Aw

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2cex​Na4