Constillations with the new camera...

[Lomitus]

Howdy Folks!
Well we got out last night to "field test" the new camera. We were out at Findley State Park here in Ohio...we had a decent sky, but were plagued by dew, moisture and fog all evening :( . I wasn't able to get any pics thru the scope...even with my dew shield on, the scope fogged over really bad. As it was I had to clean the camera lens about every 2-3 pics just to get the shots I did...it was pretty thick out there to say the least.

I did get some good practice in the the new camera...learnin so "do's" and "don'ts" with it and I did manage to get some decent constillation shots though to share with everyone, so here they are...I'll name them as I load them :). BTW, please note that accept for file size adjustments and a little bit of brightness/contrast adjustments, these pics are pretty much as they came off the camera. I'll go back later and do a "dark frame" to take out some of the noise and artifacts later when I have more experience with that.

First up is the Big Dipper (as if you couldn't have guessed!)

All pic's were taken using an Olympus C-4000 mounted on a standard photo tripod and were taken between 10:00 pm and 2:00 am from the dam location at Findley. The camera settings were pretty much wide open...ISO 400 equiv, f2.8, 16 second shutter speed, etc..

[Lomitus]

Second is Cassiopeia

[Lomitus]

Third up is Bootes (I actually had to go back and read my notes to find out what this one actually was! LOL!!!)

[Lomitus]

The "Mighty Tea Pot", Sagittarius

[Lomitus]

Last but not least is The Pleades...not techinically a constillation, but a nice pic all the same (I still think it looks like a Dolphin! LOL!).


All and all I'm pretty happy with these...I shot a lot of "dud's" last night so I'm glad I wasn't using film! LOL! I'm sure I will get progressivly better and these give me hopes of doing even better further down the road.

I hope everyone enjoys!
Bright Blessings & Gentle Breezes,
Jim

[slotdrag]

i enjoyed them well done

[xXxDarkSkyNitexzxXx]

Nice job this the first time ive seen how The Pleades look like from earth. nice keep on trying. Is The Pleades the brightest star?

[Lomitus]

Hi DarkSkyNite,
The Pleades in that picture is the group of stars in the lower center of the picture..to me it looks like a dolphin jumping out of the water :-)

I have a number of other pictues of The Pleades (as well as some new constillation pics) taken from the same location, Findley State Park in Wellington, Ohio that I shot the night after I took these. I actually took a number of pictures that night (still working with/getting the hang of the new camera) and I will try and get some of those posted either here or at my gallery at BytePhoto.com in the next couple of days (my wifes been sick the last couple of days so it's taking me some extra time to get things processed through PhotoShop).

Thanks to all for the great comments!
Bright Blessings & Gentle Breezes,
Jim

[Bee in the hive]

Wow. They are great photos Its nice to see some pics which show a similar view to what you can see with the naked eye. Thx for sharing. :)

[imported_iceman]

Hi.

Nice wide-field shots there, I enjoyed the pleiades one the most.

You should try to do some post-processing in photoshop, and try stacking a few images to really bring out some of the colours.

Good work and keep on trying!

[damienpaul]

hey there lotimus, these pics are fantastic! keep them coming.

[Manchurian Taikonaut]

great pictures :D

[Kneeknocker]

Well done on some great photo's lotimus, i agree that the pleiades shot was the best one. hope to see more soon :D

[Callisto]

Yeah those are very wonderfull pictures.
The Pleades in that picture is the group of stars in the lower center of the picture..to me it looks like a dolphin jumping out of the water :-)

I never looked it that way lomitus, and it does look like a dolphin jumping out of water. COOL! B)

[unixobject]

I especially like that picture of Sagittarius, thanks! so clear