There hasn't been much opportunity to shoot the stars in UK these past few weeks, but I finally got a chance last night. I've been dying to try the 600L I bought 3 weeks ago on the stars. I'd already done a dry run to make sure the tripod, heads, and Astrotrac were capable of holding the heavy lens. Here's the set-up: Manfrotto 058 tripod with 405 Pro Geared Head holding the Astrotrac aligned with the Pole Star, then 468 Hydrostatic Ball Head to hold the lens. I had the angle finder on the camera to make it easier to look through.
The light grasp of the 600/4 is impressive. I shot 44 exposures of 10 seconds each (f/4, ISO 6400, on 5DII), and stacked the best 90% in DSS. Then I stretched the contrast in Photoshop CS6 and did a bit of noise reduction in Lightroom 4. My limiting magnitude here is about 17.5, and I've never recorded so much of the nebula before. I know there are some experienced astrophotographers on here, but for me this is my best yet.
