Stunning photograph. Definitely a wall hanger and a boost to your ability. RFB
Hi Jack, Say hello to my sister who also lives in La Pine. RFB
Hi Profshane, I, too, am from Pittsburgh on the West End of town, namely, Westwood/Greentree area. Left Pitts. back in the 60s after serving in the navy. Only been back three times. Things have really changed so much that I probably would not recognize the town any more. Show us some of your work. What do you like shooting? I shoot trains and stars. Great combination!! RFB
This is a three truck Pacific Shay built in Lima, Ohio, the same company that built the GS Series for the Southern Pacific. These were built for temporary use on rails both narrow gauge and standard gauge. They are powerful, but only can get to about 12 MPH downhill! They come in different flavors, too. Three truck, two truck, three cylinder and two cylinder. There are a few still running in West Virginia, Jamestown, Ca. and the Yosemite Valley Sugar Pines Railroad in Fish Camp, Ca. Many are on static display in the logging country of the western pacific forests. These were also exported to countries that had large forests and mountains. When I was in Taiwan, I found three of these locomotive types in different areas of the country. Unfortunately, these are all static displays with no hope of running again. RFB
In my experience, I have found the Star Adventurer a great first mount using a camera and a lens. Timed exposure would run about one to two minutes depending on how level the tripod and Polar Alignment. However that being said, the Star Adventurer is limited to 5 KG, that's about 11 pounds not including the counter weight. If you have a big FF camera, a long lens, and a finder scope, you will be giving the mount a challenge. Remember that the max load is what the mount can handle, not how well it can track. Keep the load to about half of the max load; about 5.5 pounds.
Now on the other side of the coin, getting a GOTO mount is great since, as stated in other posts, has control for both RA and DEC movements. The Star Adventurer only moves on the Right Ascension. Now this has to be a decision for you, the GOTO mounts are more expensive and requires additional support, namely, power, laptop, and patience. However, the rewards are great! Oh and remember to get a German Equatorial Mount, not an Alt Azm mount. They cannot tract the targets for over a long exposure, roughly over 3 minutes. Object rotation becomes apparent given the longer timed exposures you use. I may have rambled on ,but the bottom line is a GEM mount equipped with a GOTO system. I went from a Star Adventurer to a Ioptron CEM 40 mount with an 8 inch RC telescope. Remember, this can be a black financial hole so step carefully and enjoy!!! Clear Skies!! RFB
Good job, Dennis. Keep shooting and you will get better. Also in Lightroom, try to different white balance to get a warmer view. Just a suggestion, not a criticism. RFB BTW, look at my avatar to see what I have done.
Hi Bret, I just started using Gimp and I like it. Understand that I only use it for astrophotography, but the sane levels and curves function are available in Gimp. It also has the layers so that you can go from one layer to another to check on the progress of your work. I am still learning, but for my astro work, it fits the bill. Only thing I need to learn is how to remove the green cast caused by the Bayer filter over the sensor. RFB
Welcome aboard, senior chief as one sailor to another. I was with the anti-submarine fleet flying helicopters looking for you guys. Never let it be known that we never found any of you fellas underwater. Only time we found you is when you are tied up at pier in Hawaii! Of course, that was back in the Vietnam days. But we did do this, chased every North Vietnam submarine out of the Tonkin Gulf. Good for us. However, no one told us that the NV never had any sailable subs, so... Great having you on the HOGG. RFB
Wow! Cool beans, bro. This beats the hell out of watching the endless run of orange BNSF and yellow Union Pacific General Electric power!!!
Back in the 80's I worked for a company that manufactured the windshields and the canopies for that bird. We designed a new windshield/canopy because the original transparencies were for crap! When the F-111 went into service, the AF lost two birds in almost the same time period. Final determination of the crashes were bird strikes into the windshields by a 4 oz. bird! That is the size of a sparrow! I got to test this windshield/canopy since I was a test engineer at this company. To say the least, there were never any further losses of A/C due to windshields striking birds! RFB
I concur with all the advice given by these people. I started out with a POS Orion GEM that could not track even with my 50 mm Canon 6d. However, I learned my lesson and bought the best mount I could afford. I got a CEM 40 from Ioptron and have not looked back since. Remember if you wish to progress in this hobby, upgrading your OTA has limits with your mount so buy a mount that can handle the load. My mount can handle 40 pounds, but I would never put that much on it. I limit it to no more than 30 pounds and that can be running to its limit. Plan ahead and get the best mount for the money. BYW, I travel out to the desert away from Las Vegas so I can shoot in a Bortle 4 area. Going another hour will net me Bortle 2 skies. Summer is when I go there; not winter. Too cold and too much wind. RFB
Good explanation about Polar Alignment. However, it should be noted that the guide scope and the main scope should be aligned BEFORE Polar alignment simply due to the inherent misalignment when placing the guide scope onto the main tube. This is a good way AAFTER guide scope/main scope alignment.
But I cheat! I have an Ioptron CEM 40 equipped with its own guide camera attached to the RA axis. I just use the az/alt mount adjustments and I can get the alignment within a few seconds of alignment. as we use to say in the Navy, "Close enough for government work". BTW, what post processing software do you use? I am dipping my foot into Pixinsight to help me with my processing. I also use ASI suite for quicky image stacking. Keep up the good work! I know what it is like in this hobby. Some people told be it is a passion, to me it is a compulsion!!! RFB
Beautiful music. I remember playing that piece in high school over 55 years ago! RFB
I do believe it may have something to the field of view. Wide angle lenses are called that because of their field of view. My 14 mm lens has a field of view of 104 by 50 degrees. Therefore no a apparent movement is detectable at 25 seconds exposure. However, at 500 mm, the field of view is only 4.1 by 5.0 degrees. With this in mind, you can see that there is a much smaller field of view in the long lens as to the wide angle lens. I did some calculation, but remember, I have been out of this environment for 20 years, so I come up with about a 20 to one ratio which appears right given the time of exposure of the wide angle to the telephoto lenses. Its approximate, but you get the idea. The wider the lens, the slower the shutter speed. That's my two cents worth. I use computer guided mount to track my stars so I don't care about time. I use an 8 inch RC optical tube assembly on my Ioptron CEM 40. My exposures are in the minutes, not seconds. RFB