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February was a good month for astrophotography, and I got out three
nights without ever having to worry about getting up for work. Part of the
month's haul has been posted, along with a few new equipment and other shots for
my web pages. I'm still working on a composite of Sh2-240 and a Provia F
100 film test shot at f/4. My attempt to shoot the Vela SNR from 39.9N was
successful but unspectacular and won't be posted.
First,
a new photo of me on the Background page, just in case you were wondering what
recently unemployed folks look like after 24 years of steady work.
Actually the shot was taken last Fall.
I'm
using a new mounting plate I had made at a local machine shop. I've
been calling it a "multi-mounting plate" but I think the term Superthingamajig
is more fitting. This is the plate I used for the Leonid storm, and the
last photo on the page shows my meteor rig. Notice the lack of snow at
9000 feet in November - the other shots were taken this
month.
No,
this isn't the Michelin Man with a tan looking for some Ass Kung Fu.
It's one for Herm and all you other folks in tropical locations who don't
know what a sharply dressed astrophotographer really looks like. The
double-thick knee material lets me get down and dirty with a Knife-edge in any
weather. It's about 15F in early twilight in this shot, having
dropped from 45F in the previous hour while I was setting up. And you call
that shindig in Florida a "Winter" star party - yeah.
Alright, enough of that stuff - on to the astrophtos:
1)
Borg 100ED at f/6.4 on a night of spectacularly steady seeing - best I've ever
had. Cold. Two 60-minute exposures, one each on E200 and Provia
400F. This film combination looks very good together to my
eye.
2)
Same setup, date, and exposure info as above. The stars got a little big
on me in this one - probably a focus shift due to dropping temperatures. I
tried some masking tricks to make them smaller, but that wound up making some
dark rings around the stars embedded in nebulosity. I'll probably start
this one from scratch sometime in the future.
3)
Borg100ED at f/4 on night of more typical (that is, fair to poor) seeing.
Two images on E200, 30 and 45 minutes. 45 minutes is really, really deep
at f/4 on this film. I may have gone a bit far with the color correction
on this one.
4)
Same rig as 3), a couple of nights later. Two 40m exposures on E200.
This one's kind of a face-slapper, especially at full resolution, and I may back
off on the Rosette a bit in another run at it.
5) One
wide-field shot is ready, done with the 105mm f/2.4 Pentax 67 lens. Two
60-minute shots at f/6.7, one each on E200 and Provia 400F.
There's some trailing visible at high zoom, probably due to the tripod head QR
plate slipping again.
Comments always welcome, even if just to make fun of my
wardrobe.
Sincerely,
Jon Kolb Adventures in Astrophotography http://home.datawest.net/jkolb/ jkolb@datawest.net |