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D70 and Astronomy (-pics) - The Continuing Story

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Marc-Andre said:
This thread is intended to be an general post thread for astronomy
pictures. As already some of you use a D70 for this night-killing
hobby, please post your results here. We all want to know how the
D70 performs. So this postings may be a decision point for somebody
to buy this new Nikon camera.

For myself I was very happy to know I made the right choice with
the D70. I am still in the learning curve but my primary testing is
completed and I like the results as some of them are the best shoot
I ever acquired.

For the next several weeks and month I have to learn a lot about
digital image processing. I have to improve my guiding and setup.

So, here are my primarily testing pictures:

Moon, 1600mm, f/6,3; ISO200; 1/340s:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/Mond.jpg

M27, 1600mm; f/6,3; ISO1600, 2min, PEC error:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/M27.jpg

Leo with Jupiter; 50mm; ISO800, 57sec:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/Leof.jpg

Venus + Mars + M45 + Hyades, 50mm, ISO400; 187sec:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/VMAP01.jpg

Cygnus with NGC7000 in dawn; 50mm, ISO800, 181sec:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/Cygnusuf03.jpg

M51; ISO1600; two 5min images stacked:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/M51finalc.jpg

Currently under work: M101, M63, better version of M27, M57, . . .

I hope you can enjoy my pictures and understand why I like this
camera so much.

Clear Skies
Marc-André Besel
Click to expand...
--
Mike L.

http://www.pbase.com/ferrari355/galleries

Minolta Dimage S404
 
As some people were interested in my setup, here is a small description:

I use a 10? LX200-GPS UHTC Telescope from Meade. It has a Schmitt-Cassegrain optical design with a focal length of 2540mm. It is mounted on the double fork mount on a Super Wedge for a exact polar alignment.





For focusing I use the supplied Crayford-Micro-Focuser.

When I need larger fields I use the f6,3 focal reducer and filed flattener. The D70 is attached to this construction via an Off-Axis Guider and a T2-ring. As vingetting occurs with this setup, I will replace these things with some better in the near future.



For piggyback photography I use a self made rail-way system on the tube:



This rail-way system is very slippery and not too stiff, so I will replace this also with a better design in the near future. This new system must also be capable to carry a 4.5? guiding scope.

As you see, it is far away from being perfect, but with this setup I am very, very happy with my images.

The images you saw, were not guided and not very well focused. So here is a huge amount of capability to do much better things with the D70.

Regards
Marc-André Besel
Germany
 
Marc,

I have exactly the same setup like yours but less the D70. Do you have any deep-sky pics with D70? I am still in "wait and see" mode on D70.

Dean
Marc-Andre said:
As some people were interested in my setup, here is a small
description:

I use a 10? LX200-GPS UHTC Telescope from Meade. It has a
Schmitt-Cassegrain optical design with a focal length of 2540mm. It
is mounted on the double fork mount on a Super Wedge for a exact
polar alignment.





For focusing I use the supplied Crayford-Micro-Focuser.
When I need larger fields I use the f6,3 focal reducer and filed
flattener. The D70 is attached to this construction via an Off-Axis
Guider and a T2-ring. As vingetting occurs with this setup, I will
replace these things with some better in the near future.



For piggyback photography I use a self made rail-way system on the
tube:



This rail-way system is very slippery and not too stiff, so I will
replace this also with a better design in the near future. This new
system must also be capable to carry a 4.5? guiding scope.

As you see, it is far away from being perfect, but with this setup
I am very, very happy with my images.

The images you saw, were not guided and not very well focused. So
here is a huge amount of capability to do much better things with
the D70.

Regards
Marc-André Besel
Germany
Click to expand...
--
*********************
God Is Good All The Time
 
Hi Jared,

nice to hear that those "upper lever" students are also interested in those setups and photos by amateurs.

I am just a little bit concerned about loosing my favourit hobby when finishing my Astrophysics PhD in about seven years or so while doing all these things professionally with the Calor Alto, Keck, VLT, . . .

But that is in the future. Right now I still have my troubles with math in my first semester.

Good Success for your PhD
Marc-Andre
Germany

PS: Do you know a good university in the US for an foreign semester (astronomy related)?
 
Photobug said:
First, amazing shots! Especially the moon. It's amazing.

But I saw a bit of amp glow at the upper left corner on "Leo and
Jupiter". Did you forget to turn on Noise Reduction on that one? I
expect NR to help. No?
Click to expand...
Actually I forgot to take a apropiate dark image for this exposure.
The others are dark corrected.

The internal noise reduction is good, but not too good for astronomy as you can loose too much signal while not knowing which algorithems the camera really uses for a NR

The D70 may have a problem with its offset, so you need many pictures to really compensate the noise.
 
The remote controll works perfectly. As the self timer has no mirror pre-relese, it is of no need for us.

Lets pray, Nikon will release a firmware with a mirror pre-release.

MArc-Andre
 
You will need to deal with image rotation even if you can guide a dob.

Dean
DRL photo said:
http://www.geocities.com/reaganjj/
John M. Polston said:
Unfortunately, the big ground based Dob's don't have guide motors.
It's a huge reflector scope, 8 inches in diameter with 1200mm of
Focal Length. It's a huge scope and really brings in objects but
without the guide I am afraid that photographing objects other than
the bright moon would be out of the question. BTW, when you post
the specifics, could you also post the shutter speed at which you
took the different shots? That would help me decide whether to
look to invest in a scope with a motor.

Thanks,

JP

--
John M. Polston
Atlanta, GA
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
*********************
God Is Good All The Time
 
Nissii said:
Marc,

I have exactly the same setup like yours but less the D70. Do you
have any deep-sky pics with D70? I am still in "wait and see" mode
on D70.

Dean
Click to expand...
Is 37 000 000 light years (M51) not deeeep enough? When you like objects far more away you should not use a L200 with a D70.

The Hubble Space Telescope would be ideal for you in this case. So if money permits, go to NASA and finance some more years for Hubble to produce real deep sky images :-)))

Just kidding
Marc-Andre
 
Marc,

My mistake. After a million threads I though the pics were taken from someone with a Dob without tracking... don't mind me.

At what temperature were these photos taken?

Dean
Marc-Andre said:
Nissii said:
Marc,

I have exactly the same setup like yours but less the D70. Do you
have any deep-sky pics with D70? I am still in "wait and see" mode
on D70.

Dean
Click to expand...
Is 37 000 000 light years (M51) not deeeep enough? When you like
objects far more away you should not use a L200 with a D70.
The Hubble Space Telescope would be ideal for you in this case. So
if money permits, go to NASA and finance some more years for Hubble
to produce real deep sky images :-)))

Just kidding
Marc-Andre
Click to expand...
--
*********************
God Is Good All The Time
 
Marc-Andre said:
This thread is intended to be an general post thread for astronomy
pictures. As already some of you use a D70 for this night-killing
hobby, please post your results here. We all want to know how the
D70 performs. So this postings may be a decision point for somebody
to buy this new Nikon camera.

For myself I was very happy to know I made the right choice with
the D70. I am still in the learning curve but my primary testing is
completed and I like the results as some of them are the best shoot
I ever acquired.

For the next several weeks and month I have to learn a lot about
digital image processing. I have to improve my guiding and setup.
Click to expand...
Insret nice astro pics here.
Marc-Andre said:
Clear Skies
Marc-André Besel
Click to expand...
Very, very nice.

Here's the best I've been able to do with my puny 70-300mm zoom:



Nikon D70
Lens: Sigma 70-300mm F/4-5.6 D
Focal Length: 300mm
1/200 sec - F/11
Exposure Comp.: 0 EV
Sensitivity: ISO 200
 
I just found this japanese page with 2 astro pictures,
  • as far as I understand ;-) taken by using the D70:
( http://www.m-matsu.com/astro/M106.html )
( http://www.m-matsu.com/astro/M51.htm )
looks quite well I guess!
Marc-Andre said:
This thread is intended to be an general post thread for astronomy
pictures. As already some of you use a D70 for this night-killing
hobby, please post your results here. We all want to know how the
D70 performs. So this postings may be a decision point for somebody
to buy this new Nikon camera.

For myself I was very happy to know I made the right choice with
the D70. I am still in the learning curve but my primary testing is
completed and I like the results as some of them are the best shoot
I ever acquired.

For the next several weeks and month I have to learn a lot about
digital image processing. I have to improve my guiding and setup.

So, here are my primarily testing pictures:

Moon, 1600mm, f/6,3; ISO200; 1/340s:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/Mond.jpg

M27, 1600mm; f/6,3; ISO1600, 2min, PEC error:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/M27.jpg

Leo with Jupiter; 50mm; ISO800, 57sec:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/Leof.jpg

Venus + Mars + M45 + Hyades, 50mm, ISO400; 187sec:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/VMAP01.jpg

Cygnus with NGC7000 in dawn; 50mm, ISO800, 181sec:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/Cygnusuf03.jpg

M51; ISO1600; two 5min images stacked:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/M51finalc.jpg

Currently under work: M101, M63, better version of M27, M57, . . .

I hope you can enjoy my pictures and understand why I like this
camera so much.

Clear Skies
Marc-André Besel
Click to expand...
 
Nice pics! The noise level isn't that bad.

I am convinced! I just order my D70 from JandR. Out of stock now but I am willing to wait.

Dean
....I told my wife this time
ThomasG said:
  • as far as I understand ;-) taken by using the D70:
( http://www.m-matsu.com/astro/M106.html )
( http://www.m-matsu.com/astro/M51.htm )
looks quite well I guess!
Marc-Andre said:
This thread is intended to be an general post thread for astronomy
pictures. As already some of you use a D70 for this night-killing
hobby, please post your results here. We all want to know how the
D70 performs. So this postings may be a decision point for somebody
to buy this new Nikon camera.

For myself I was very happy to know I made the right choice with
the D70. I am still in the learning curve but my primary testing is
completed and I like the results as some of them are the best shoot
I ever acquired.

For the next several weeks and month I have to learn a lot about
digital image processing. I have to improve my guiding and setup.

So, here are my primarily testing pictures:

Moon, 1600mm, f/6,3; ISO200; 1/340s:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/Mond.jpg

M27, 1600mm; f/6,3; ISO1600, 2min, PEC error:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/M27.jpg

Leo with Jupiter; 50mm; ISO800, 57sec:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/Leof.jpg

Venus + Mars + M45 + Hyades, 50mm, ISO400; 187sec:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/VMAP01.jpg

Cygnus with NGC7000 in dawn; 50mm, ISO800, 181sec:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/Cygnusuf03.jpg

M51; ISO1600; two 5min images stacked:



Bigger: people.freenet.de/besel/Bilder-dp/M51finalc.jpg

Currently under work: M101, M63, better version of M27, M57, . . .

I hope you can enjoy my pictures and understand why I like this
camera so much.

Clear Skies
Marc-André Besel
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
*********************
God Is Good All The Time
 
A comparison page from Christan Buil, the developer of Iris:

http://astrosurf.com/buil/us/d70/darksignal.htm

What I wrote him regarding the offset-problem:

I shot several offset images at various high shutter speeds and Iso settings. I always got a different "pattern structure". Never the same. I checked the camera settings back and had no indication that any internal processing was acquired. Could this strange performance be related to the electronic shutter and a not well programmed read-out-firmware? But nevertheless, this problem can be averaged by combining several frames so it should be just a minor issue.

My dealer told me that this problem is known by nikon. Perhaps they will be able to correct that in the future.

Marc-Andre
 
Hi there,

I am not sure what you are asking, do you want a school to attend for a degree or just for a semester? what areas of research are you interested in?

I am always interested in the so called amateurs because I think that they are the people who still fully appreciate and love astronomy, I used to be passionate about it but somehow the work and research kills alot of the beauty of it. I love whenever someone reminds me why I went into this in the first place, your pictures do that.

Best,
Jared
Marc-Andre said:
Hi Jared,

nice to hear that those "upper lever" students are also interested
in those setups and photos by amateurs.

I am just a little bit concerned about loosing my favourit hobby
when finishing my Astrophysics PhD in about seven years or so while
doing all these things professionally with the Calor Alto, Keck,
VLT, . . .

But that is in the future. Right now I still have my troubles with
math in my first semester.

Good Success for your PhD
Marc-Andre
Germany

PS: Do you know a good university in the US for an foreign semester
(astronomy related)?
Click to expand...
 
After going through this whole thread, all I can say is that I am drooooooooling :-)

Thanks you for such nice pics, and my favorite post is that of the details of your setup Marc.

BTW, I just visited Munich and Meinigan Germany... whereabouts are you?

Germany is perhaps the greatest place in Europe... love that Autobahn LOL

--
Manny
http://www.pbase.com/gonzalu/
 
Marc-Andre said:
A comparison page from Christan Buil, the developer of Iris:

http://astrosurf.com/buil/us/d70/darksignal.htm
Click to expand...
That Web page says:

"For this test the internal noise reduction function was turned off, but the result is strange... A real time correction of the hot pixels is very probable!"

I have the same suspicion. My first D70 had some very bad hot pixels (they were apparent in normal photos at 1/30 second). While testing the bad D70 and its replacement, I noticed that with both cameras, hot pixels that appeared at shutter speeds just faster than 1 second disappeared at 1 second and slower --- even if NR mode was off.

Evidently something, aside from the user-settable NR mode, changes in the operation of the CCD or in the processing of the images at speeds of 1 second and slower.
 
gonzalu said:
BTW, I just visited Munich and Meinigan Germany... whereabouts are
you?
Click to expand...
I'am just between Frankfurt and Mannheim. And of course Heidelberg is just 50 minutes via train.
gonzalu said:
Germany is perhaps the greatest place in Europe... love that
Autobahn LOL
Click to expand...
Ok, you like it we do it also, sometimes at least.
BTW: I like American Interstates much more, you can relax, .. . . . .
gonzalu said:
--
Manny
http://www.pbase.com/gonzalu/
Click to expand...
 
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