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Panstarrs
O.K. gurus. What focal length/s should I be thinking about? Around the 12th and 13th of March, it should be near the waxing, crescent moon. The Photographer's Ephemeris tells me the moon will set at 277 and 282 degrees (for my latitude), so I'm thinking about foregrounds and where to set up the camera.
I'll be pissed if the weather is cloudy. I took a trip with a friend to get away from the city lights to see Halley's comet. It was cloudy. Back in the city it was freaking clear. I'll be dead or 100y.o. in 2061. If I'm alive I might not give a rat's behind by then.
I'll be pissed if the weather is cloudy. I took a trip with a friend to get away from the city lights to see Halley's comet. It was cloudy. Back in the city it was freaking clear. I'll be dead or 100y.o. in 2061. If I'm alive I might not give a rat's behind by then.
"We have to find someone who can not only fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner."
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
Replies
Scroll down for computer generated images for relative position of the comet, moon and Jupiter. Also the direction of the tail, but actual length may not be similar to computer images.
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
I need a foreground with no light pollution. Preferably where I won't have car traffic. During the last meteor shower I had a visitor who thought my truck might be broke down. I told them I was watching the meteor shower and they looked at me like I was from Mars.
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
that said, I almost guarantee you, the 24-70, mostly at the 24-35mm range, will be the main show. I want to capture as much tailing of the comet as I can.
remember that the comet will be most visible shortly after sunset. So light pollution will be less of an issue than for meteors. Chances are there will be residual dusk that is brighter than a lot of ground sources. But a skyline or framing (trees? etc) device will make a difference.
BTW, i've been going to Flickr daily and searching for PANSTARRS. Only a few images so far, but the nice thing is that you can kinda scout for what to expect, in terms of exposures, focal lengths, etc.
right now it's only visible in the southern hemisphere and nowhere near as cool as it should look in mid-march, but the best pic I've seen so far was shot on a canon 6D, f/2.8, 135mm, 10 seconds.
Photo by Luis Argerich, Buenos Aires, Argentina
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lrargerich/8471764494/
my guess is that by March 12, a shot around 15 sec, f/2.8, 2200 ISO should give you a good balance between seeing some background stars, good bit of tail, and the comet head.
slow pitch right over home plate.
I ain't takin' no pictures of Uranus.
ISO 200, F4 (wide is 3.5) at 25" 19mm (30mm f.o.v.) Also I can't go above 30" unless I go to bulb.
100% crop. Does anybody know why the stars have halos on one side? Dirty lens, low quality lens, or function of aperture?
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
f/stops are controlled by a rear thumb wheel; shutter with the front. Exposure correction (deviation from the "correct" exposure) adjustable with the combination of one button and one of the aforementioned thumb wheels. ISO adjustable with another button/thumbwheel combo.
I change each of them dozens if not hundreds of times in a night (especially the exposure comp dial) without thinking twice about it when shooting concerts. I had a sh*tload of manual film cameras in my day, and I don't find it any less intuitive or distracting than any of them. Better, in fact, because unlike some of my more primitive film cameras (my old Pentax SP's for instance) I see both shutter and f/stop displayed in the viewfinder, so I don't have to look away from the finder to make sure I turned the knobs the right number of increments.
1) don't shoot at 200 ISO. I'm sure you can reach at least 800 right? shooting at 200 for star photos simply will not yield good results in almost any situation. Whether film or digital.
2) 25 sec at 30mm is probably a bit too long. Rule of thumb is up to about 30 sec is fine for very wide lenses (12-18 mm) For a 35-50mm, maybe 8 sec. For anything longer than that, it's gotta be real short. For a 135, you'll get some noticeable movement even at 2-4 sec. If you see the star at all.
I don't have a viewfinder display for my Olympus. Quick release on the Manfrotto wasn't locked tight enough. Cameras are not made to fall six feet without consequences. With the 10d on the tripod, pointed up I couldn't use the viewfinder display. The olympus can display settings on the lcd on back, but with the 10d, if you can't use the viewfinder display, you are stuck with the LED display on top. I wish the back lighting function on that display would stay on until you manually turn if off.
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
and yeah, there's an advantage to having one camera body, and getting to know it intimately. When I was a kid, I used to practce setting my nikkormat in the dark, including changing lenses; I knew what each one was at wide open, so could count down the stops to set the exposure blindfolded.
Kinda ridiculous extreme, but I was 19. What else do you expect. lol
probably the best tip is don't be too focused on the 12th. That's expected to be the prime, but in reality, you could get great shots anytime between the 8th and the 19th or so, nobody knows for sure. The 12th is a good guess, but depends on how the tail develops, what your local light is like, etc. One reason I say not to shoot at 200 iso is that you'll get the bright stars, but not the fainter ones. Aside from providing a richer more colorful star field, the tail (which is the thing that separates a comet from just another bright spot in the sky) will be MUCH fainter than the head, and so you'll need to do longer exposures at higher ISO to pick it up.
BTW, f/4, while not optimal, is not unworkable. My ultra-wide zoom (12-24) is only an f/4 and I still use it. But am saving for a f/2.8. ;-)
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/8516691031/
note that this is a much shorter exposure than the one from three days ago, yet still shows some of the comet's tail. the problem is that the comet tail will get larger as it approaches the sun, but that also means that it will rise in the morning sky CLOSER to the sun, so long exposures may be drowned out by dawn.
When it comes out the other side of the sun, around March 8, we'll ahve the same issue, btu each night it will be a little further behind the sun and hence will have a darker background. this may allow for better shots of the tail.
I thought about turning a graduated nd filter on its side or some other angle to match the moon's and exposure with the comet.
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
i suffer from this issue as well. it's called middle age.
if the camera's on the tripod, why flashlight in the mouth? setting dials is a one hand operation on most cameras.
according to my moon calculator app, new moon is on the 11th, on the 12th and 13th you'll have just the tiniest sliver of a moon visible, should be well matched to the comet.
each night beyond that, the moon will compete more and more with the comet.
Comet McNaught Jan. 22, 2007 by John **** Photography, on Flickr
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
I don't know how much the bearing of the comet will change. Down here, the bearing to the setting moon will change over five degrees between the 12th and 13th.
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.