Moon & Orion Nebula: We where out in the light overcast and Bright Moon light shooting pics of the Moon and the Orion Nebula. Tough conditions for the nebula but I think I got a...

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

We where out in the light overcast and Bright Moon light shooting pics of the Moon and the Orion Nebula.
Tough conditions for the nebula but I think I got a reasonably good shot. I was able to pull out some nebulosity in Post Processing.
The Moon
Nikon D800E w/Meade 8" Scope
2000mm
f/10 fixed
1/100 sec
ISO 100
The Orion Nebula
Nikon D800E w/Meade 8" Scope
2000mm
f/10 fixed
30 sec
ISO 400

The Moon

(Download)

The Orion Nebula

(Download)

brucew29 Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

CraigFair wrote:

We where out in the light overcast and Bright Moon light shooting pics of the Moon and the Orion Nebula.
Tough conditions for the nebula but I think I got a reasonably good shot. I was able to pull out some nebulosity in Post Processing.
The Moon
Nikon D800E w/Meade 8" Scope
2000mm
f/10 fixed
1/100 sec
ISO 100
The Orion Nebula
Nikon D800E w/Meade 8" Scope
2000mm
f/10 fixed
30 sec
ISO 400

Nice shots Craig... I might get my Dynamax 8 out in a few weeks when the weather is nice and warm... I want to try the Orion Nebula also...

P.S. I forgot... isn't Orion a winter constellation? I'll have to check Stellarium to see where it will be in a few weeks... it might be too low to see by then... well maybe I'll get the scope out sooner if we have another warm night soon... Oh and another question... did you have your clock drive on for Orion or will a 20-30 second snap be alright without the clock drive on?

northcoast42 Loc: Puget Sound, Washington

CraigFair wrote:

We where out in the light overcast and Bright Moon light shooting pics of the Moon and the Orion Nebula.
Tough conditions for the nebula but I think I got a reasonably good shot. I was able to pull out some nebulosity in Post Processing.

NIce shots Craig. Great moon. I especially like the Orion Nebula. Beautiful capture! :thumbup:

gwong1 Loc: Tampa, FL

Very nice again Craig. I am shooting full moon rising over downtown Sarasota Saturday. Will post if anything decent.
Gary

CraigFair wrote:

We where out in the light overcast and Bright Moon light shooting pics of the Moon and the Orion Nebula.
Tough conditions for the nebula but I think I got a reasonably good shot. I was able to pull out some nebulosity in Post Processing.
The Moon
Nikon D800E w/Meade 8" Scope
2000mm
f/10 fixed
1/100 sec
ISO 100
The Orion Nebula
Nikon D800E w/Meade 8" Scope
2000mm
f/10 fixed
30 sec
ISO 400

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

brucew29 wrote:

Nice shots Craig... I might get my Dynamax 8 out i... (show quote)

Thank you Bruce. Orion is getting pretty low I only have about an hour after celestia twilight to shot photos. And yes you'll need the drive unit to get long enough shutter time on the camera.
Craig

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

northcoast42 wrote:

NIce shots Craig. Great moon. I especially like the Orion Nebula. Beautiful capture! :thumbup:

Thank you very much NorthCoast for looking in and the nice comment.
Craig

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

gwong1 wrote:

Very nice again Craig. I am shooting full moon rising over downtown Sarasota Saturday. Will post if anything decent.
Gary

Thank you very much Gary. I really look forward to your post.
Remember the Lunar Eclipse is Sat morning, don't know if you can see much of it.
Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) - April 4, 2015
Partial umbral begins: 6:15 a.m. on - April 4th
Total eclipse begins: 7:58 a.m.
Greatest eclipse: 8:00 a.m.
Total eclipse ends: 8:03 a.m.
Partial umbral eclipse ends: 9:45 a.m.
>>Moonset at 6:39am in New York<<
Craig

Desert Gecko Loc: desert southwest, USA

Craig (or any others),

I have a growing interest in astro shots, and so far I've been after the MW with my ultrawide, and the moon or trails with longer lenses. I just picked up a decent long lens (a Sony 70-400G) that, coupled with my 2x extender will give me a bit of reach on a crop sensor. I know at that length my shutter would need to be un-usably fast to prevent trailing, so...

I have been looking into equitorial mounts, or motorized rails, and evn barn door mounts (I am not sure what exactly I need.) I would like to keep expenses low for this as I am still in sticker shock over the lens purchase. Any advice or recommendations? I looked around the forum to no avail. Thanks.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Desert Gecko wrote:

Craig (or any others), br br I have a growing int... (show quote)

Hello Gecko. Here are 2 shots of my old Celestron Nexstar mount with the bracket and camera/lens setup I use.

brucew29 Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

CraigFair wrote:

Hello Gecko. Here are 2 shots of my old Celestron Nexstar mount with the bracket and camera/lens setup I use.

Great setup Craig... I especially like how you have adapted your camera to the Celestron Nexstar mount... does the electronic tracking for the camera tripod work pretty good? Any balancing issues?

I also like your scope and mount... The hand controls look great and should make it much easier to track objects... I have to manually track by hand with my Dynamax 8... it has a clock but it wont track the Moon or Planets... it will only track the stars... fixed rate!

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Desert Gecko wrote:

Craig (or any others), br br I have a growing int... (show quote)

Hello Gecko. Here are 2 shots of my old Celestron Nexstar mount with the bracket and camera/lens setup I use.
Craig

guts Loc: texas.

I really need to look into the camera set up seems like it would track okay(maybe not) ? great setups you have there and some super shots.

Desert Gecko Loc: desert southwest, USA

Thanks, Craig. So if I we're to come across a telescope mount with tracking, all I would have to do is MacGyver a mount for my camera?

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

guts wrote:

I really need to look into the camera set up seems like it would track okay(maybe not) ? great setups you have there and some super shots.

Thanks Bill the one with the Dovetail Bracket works really well for me and it holds my Nikon D800E Full Frame camera, the big Tamron 150-600mm Lens with 2 1/2 lb counterweight on the lower arm I added later.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Beautiful captures, Craig!

And thanks for the mounts post. Food for thought there.

I can see where I would be putting "toe holds" down for sure on your patio. :lol:

So you shot the pictures through the Meade 8" SCT?