My astrophotography 2021

[hhzhang]

I am using a medium telephoto of 85mm full frame equivalent.
For my tracker, make it face south and aligned everything to the south since we’re 1 degree north.

I use a wireless trigger via the Olympus app on my phone. The only variable is the wind from my living room but I’m not to sure how much can wind affect the set up.

hmm. is it set to the correct rotation direction (south rather than north, i.e. CW vs CCW)? what's the primary direction of the star trail?

Yup, set to south and It tend to trail south west.

No idea. Have you tried drift alignment?

[joshua1189]

hmm. is it set to the correct rotation direction (south rather than north, i.e. CW vs CCW)? what's the primary direction of the star trail?

Yup, set to south and It tend to trail south west.

No idea. Have you tried drift alignment?

I want to but the MSM tracker is not compatible to any of the softwares nor guide scope. not sure if the software like PHD2 can be linked to the camera to do drift alignment?

[celeron787]

Yup, set to south and It tend to trail south west.

No idea. Have you tried drift alignment?

I want to but the MSM tracker is not compatible to any of the softwares nor guide scope. not sure if the software like PHD2 can be linked to the camera to do drift alignment?

Isn't the MSM tracker for wide angle milky way shots? Not sure if it's sturdy enough to hold a 85mm lens.

[joshua1189]

No idea. Have you tried drift alignment?

I want to but the MSM tracker is not compatible to any of the softwares nor guide scope. not sure if the software like PHD2 can be linked to the camera to do drift alignment?

Isn't the MSM tracker for wide angle milky way shots? Not sure if it's sturdy enough to hold a 85mm lens.

Not really, it can do deep space Astro. According to MSM, it is able to handle focal length up to 200mm. There are people posting in the group that they’re able to do 1-3 mins exposure when polar aligned with Polaris or using photopills app.

I tried the photopills app, when there’s no wind I am able to get 20-30s but when there’s wind (the place I stay is very windy, as my flat is a north south facing and it is unblocked), I can barely do 3-4s.

I tried manual drift alignment, I’m able to get 50s but my hit rate is 50% partially due to the strong winds and clouds, however, I am not sure if my settings yesterday will be valid the next time haha

[celeron787]

Not really, it can do deep space Astro. According to MSM, it is able to handle focal length up to 200mm. There are people posting in the group that they’re able to do 1-3 mins exposure when polar aligned with Polaris or using photopills app.

I tried the photopills app, when there’s no wind I am able to get 20-30s but when there’s wind (the place I stay is very windy, as my flat is a north south facing and it is unblocked), I can barely do 3-4s.

I tried manual drift alignment, I’m able to get 50s but my hit rate is 50% partially due to the strong winds and clouds, however, I am not sure if my settings yesterday will be valid the next time haha

I think if you can get 50sec, you're probably there already!
You can try the DARV method using a camera https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/c ... vice-r2760
I'm using this method mentioned by another member here viewtopic.php?p=68705#p68705

[hhzhang]

2021-7-27

Sunset: the deformation of the image of the sun disc



Keep tracking the motion of Venus and of Mars. With Helicopters adding to the show.

[hhzhang]

2021-7-28

From watching sunset @ Changi to capturing Venus falling into Victoria hall @ City hall

[hhzhang]

2021-7-29

I cannot help but did a little touchup in postprocessing to the images of Venus, Regulus and Mars.

[hhzhang]

2021-7-30 Early morning

Tiangong Space Station dancing across the Singapore sky?
I was meant to snap some nice photos of the relatively rare event of Tiangong transiting high in the local sky while passing by the moon closely. What actually happened was I miscalculated my time and it was too late for me to reach the site (a skygarden in the block) and set up the gear properly. When I reached there and took my first look into the sky, the bright spot was already steadily moving near the moon. So in a frantic attempt to quickly take out and set up the tripod and the camera and snap whatever photos, I made mistakes -- ended up with a shaky 4-second exposure that saw the straight trajectory became a shaky track. But isn't the error actually adding to the dramatic scene?

[hhzhang]

2021-7-31

Lower peirce reservior got fabulous sights of the water, the PUB structure, and the brightest planet.

Rushed to the site after a disappointing sighting of sunset at a high-rise HDB roof garden.

It was quite late when I reached the reservior and only managed to capture the final moment of the twilight. But it turns out quite good.

Today it was a good hand-on learning journey of light-painting, focus-bracketing, exposure-bracketing and HDR techniques.