Lens test: I took both of these last night as a test of the quality of the Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens on a Canon 60d. Both shots are at 600mm with the lens at full aperture. The first...

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

I took both of these last night as a test of the quality of the Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens on a Canon 60d. Both shots are at 600mm with the lens at full aperture. The first was 30 seconds for the nebulosity and the second was at 5 seconds to show the separation of the Trapezium stars. The second was obviously cropped.

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Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Very nice, but I have to ask, how much money did you invest in the tripod and tracking system? I have a 500 f/4 but not so sure that I want to get into this.

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

Blurryeyed wrote:

Very nice, but I have to ask, how much money did you invest in the tripod and tracking system? I have a 500 f/4 but not so sure that I want to get into this.

That was also part of my test...out of the box first setup Celestron Advanced VX mount. They were/are on sale $699
It has a 30lb instrument rating and with my camera and lens it is as rock stable as you could want. I was able to manually focus on the Trapezium without the mount shaking at all. This is as good a combo Camera, Lens, mount for wide to medium field of view images. I'm sure if I set up auto guiding I could get better results. I did have a bit of problem finding stars through the camera to align the mount, but other than that I'm pleased.

bastro

Maybe I'm misinterpreting. This was with tracking, correct? What do you mean by autoguiding?
I tried a very similar shot the other night but did not take time to properly focus or set up tracking. What a disaster, but it was cold and I had guests coming!

alberio wrote:

That was also part of my test...out of the box fir... (show quote)

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

bastro wrote:

Maybe I'm misinterpreting. This was with tracking, correct? What do you mean by autoguiding?
I tried a very similar shot the other night but did not take time to properly focus or set up tracking. What a disaster, but it was cold and I had guests coming!

The longer focal length your lens or telescope are and the longer your exposures are, will require tracking (preferably a equatorial mount). You already know to be as accurate as possible with your polar alignment of the mount to counter the rotation of the earth. Also there are slight errors in the gearing of the mount which then requires PEC (periodic error correction) and some type of precise guiding to keep the stars pinpoints. People used to sit at the eyepiece of their guide scope for hours with a hand control keeping a guide star within the crosshairs of their eyepiece. Fortunately someone invented Autoguiding, which attaches a digital camera on the guide scope and the computer makes the corrections necessary. For wide field images you can get away without all that if your exposures are short enough. Remember a 14mm lens can probably get a decent image at 15-20 seconds with just a tripod, but a 600mm lens will show star trails much past 2sec on a tripod. If you put it on a tracking mount and rough polar align the mount, then those times go up considerably. I hope this cleared things up. It can be quite demanding if you strive for the perfect deep space object that is very dim. Sometimes total exposure times are hours long over a period of days. I'm getting more affected by the cold and want to just get what I can as quickly as i can.

tony85629 Loc: Sahuarita, Az

alberio wrote:

I took both of these last night as a test of the quality of the Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens on a Canon 60d. Both shots are at 600mm with the lens at full aperture. The first was 30 seconds for the nebulosity and the second was at 5 seconds to show the separation of the Trapezium stars. The second was obviously cropped.

Impressive results!

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

tony85629 wrote:

Impressive results!

Thank You

Gampa

Amazing!

Ronsh Loc: Floresville,Tx.

alberio wrote:

I took both of these last night as a test of the quality of the Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens on a Canon 60d. Both shots are at 600mm with the lens at full aperture. The first was 30 seconds for the nebulosity and the second was at 5 seconds to show the separation of the Trapezium stars. The second was obviously cropped.

Awesome!

scooter1 Loc: Yacolt, Wa.

alberio wrote:

I took both of these last night as a test of the quality of the Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens on a Canon 60d. Both shots are at 600mm with the lens at full aperture. The first was 30 seconds for the nebulosity and the second was at 5 seconds to show the separation of the Trapezium stars. The second was obviously cropped.

Great shots. What kind and size of telescope did you use?

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

scooter1 wrote:

Great shots. What kind and size of telescope did you use?

Thank You for your comment. No telescope, but a Tamron 150-600mm G2 camera lens, which makes this a versatile combination.

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

That lens did a great job. Will you try stacking next?

Also to help with the alignment, you can look into a laser pen to attach to the camera, works very well. If you are interested, i’ll Get links for what you would need to attach to your camera. Also, i’ve wasted money on lasers, so I could recommend one that will work.

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

Europa wrote:

That lens did a great job. Will you try stacking next?

Also to help with the alignment, you can look into a laser pen to attach to the camera, works very well. If you are interested, i’ll Get links for what you would need to attach to your camera. Also, i’ve wasted money on lasers, so I could recommend one that will work.

Thanks Europa for the suggestion. I was just wondering about a laser. I would appreciate any info you have to offer.

bastro

bastro wrote:

Maybe I'm misinterpreting. This was with tracking, correct? What do you mean by autoguiding?
I tried a very similar shot the other night but did not take time to properly focus or set up tracking. What a disaster, but it was cold and I had guests coming!

Thanks Albireo,
I've used autoguiding on my scope but have not considered using it with the DSLR. I've not looked for a mount that would work, maybe something to look into. My imaging work is going more technical for scope work, photomtery and astrometry for some research projects, but I am enamored with wide field imaging of nebula and molecular gas clouds which can actually be done better with the DSLR I think (still working on it). Thanks for the comments, pictures and consideration!

Ronsh Loc: Floresville,Tx.

Europa wrote:

That lens did a great job. Will you try stacking next?

Also to help with the alignment, you can look into a laser pen to attach to the camera, works very well. If you are interested, i’ll Get links for what you would need to attach to your camera. Also, i’ve wasted money on lasers, so I could recommend one that will work.

I would like the info as well, thanks.