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M39 in a sea of stars using a Tamron 24-70mm zoom at 70mm
Jul 12, 2015 16:17:22 #
I set up the equatorial drive last night and decided to see what I could do with the Tamron 70-200mm lens. Yesterday, I did a panorama using the 70mm end on a tripod using 3 sec shots.
This time, I went to the 200mm end and did a 30 sec shot at F2.8 and ISO 3200 using a full frame Sony A99. I had intended to do a panorama, but I was having trouble offsetting the drive to overlap as I wanted, so I decided to just take a look at what I was able to shoot with just one image.
M39 is an open cluster which you can see as the brighter stars in the center which are completely surrounded by a vast sea of stars. You won't see many stars in the thumbnail since the stars are well focused and are very tiny. When compressed, most disappear. Even when downloaded, you don't see all of them. So click again to blow it up even more.
In the blow up, there are a number of larger objects. Some may be galaxies or nebula. I'll need to look later with a longer focal length. They are not resolvable at 200mm.
The conclusion from this is that the Tamron 70-200mm zoom is very sharp and quite capable of capturing decent star images as you can see from these results.
For focusing, the Sony uses a EVF and I had set the magnification to max and very carefully rocked the focus adjust to the point that the stars were the absolute smallest in size. With the ISO set to 3200, I was see many stars in the viewfinder and picked out a dim one to do the focusing. It doesn't work as well focusing on a brighter star that is showing blooming effects.
This time, I went to the 200mm end and did a 30 sec shot at F2.8 and ISO 3200 using a full frame Sony A99. I had intended to do a panorama, but I was having trouble offsetting the drive to overlap as I wanted, so I decided to just take a look at what I was able to shoot with just one image.
M39 is an open cluster which you can see as the brighter stars in the center which are completely surrounded by a vast sea of stars. You won't see many stars in the thumbnail since the stars are well focused and are very tiny. When compressed, most disappear. Even when downloaded, you don't see all of them. So click again to blow it up even more.
In the blow up, there are a number of larger objects. Some may be galaxies or nebula. I'll need to look later with a longer focal length. They are not resolvable at 200mm.
The conclusion from this is that the Tamron 70-200mm zoom is very sharp and quite capable of capturing decent star images as you can see from these results.
For focusing, the Sony uses a EVF and I had set the magnification to max and very carefully rocked the focus adjust to the point that the stars were the absolute smallest in size. With the ISO set to 3200, I was see many stars in the viewfinder and picked out a dim one to do the focusing. It doesn't work as well focusing on a brighter star that is showing blooming effects.
Jul 12, 2015 19:59:29 #
JimH123 wrote:
I set up the equatorial drive last night and decid... (show quote)
Nice job Mark I found this one easily.
The Tamron 70-200mm does an excellent job.
I've been looking at the Nikon and I think the Tamron is the best choice.
Craig
PS: The ISS is passing over tonight
To United-States-California-Santa-Maria-AM@lists.hq.nasa.gov
Time: Mon Jul 13 4:43 AM, Visible: 3 min, Max Height: 83 degrees, Appears: SW, Disappears: NE
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