It was too cold in Colorado to go out during the full moon to do Deep Space Astro in December, but I knew I would be back in California in January. So off to Joshua Tree I ran on Thursday afternoon so I could set up my gear and do some DSO Astro which I hadn't been able to do in a couple of months.
I set up in my favorite spot just inside the entrance gate from Twentynine Palms. The forecast had it to be a bit windy during the day and calming down at night. When I got there I didn't feel any breeze at all, so I thought that was great. But just about the time I got my SkyGuider Pro set up with my D850 and Tamron 150-600mm and aligned on Polaris, the wind started to blow. All of my test shots, the stars turned into squiggles as my heavy set up balanced on the tracker was bouncing all over. I moved my jeep to block the wind the best I could and took a few test shots of Orion to get started. When the wind took a break I could get 2 min long exposures, but when it was blowing I had to cut it down to 30 secs. Not ideal by any means, but it's what I had.
So I went after my first target which was the Triangulum Galaxy. It's one I hadn't shot yet, but since my setup is all manual except for the tracking, it was the normal find the needle in the haystack. I got lucky though I found it pretty fast, once I got it centered in the frame though, even 60 sec shutter speeds had the stars bouncing all over in the frame. So I knocked it down to 30 secs, which I didn't care for as it meant I had to shoot at ISO 6400 which I prefer not too. After 30 mins of that, I went down to 20 sec shutter speeds just to make sure the wind wasn't blowing and moving things too much. Everything looked pretty sharp. After about 40 mins of that, I decided to try a 60 sec exposure again as the wind had died down a bit, and I found I could get solid 60 sec exposures. So then I took an hour worth of those. By this time Triangulum was getting pretty low in the sky, so I switched off to my next subject the Rosette Nebula to shoot for a few more hours. I wrapped up about 3am just as the wind started to lose it's mind.
SkyGuider Pro
Nikon D850
Tamron 150-600mm @ 600mm
60 @ ISO 3200 f6.3
20 - Dark Frames
DeepSkyStacker
With all of the issues with the wind, I am really happy for my first time targeting Triangulum.
All comments are welcome,
Jim
I set up in my favorite spot just inside the entrance gate from Twentynine Palms. The forecast had it to be a bit windy during the day and calming down at night. When I got there I didn't feel any breeze at all, so I thought that was great. But just about the time I got my SkyGuider Pro set up with my D850 and Tamron 150-600mm and aligned on Polaris, the wind started to blow. All of my test shots, the stars turned into squiggles as my heavy set up balanced on the tracker was bouncing all over. I moved my jeep to block the wind the best I could and took a few test shots of Orion to get started. When the wind took a break I could get 2 min long exposures, but when it was blowing I had to cut it down to 30 secs. Not ideal by any means, but it's what I had.
So I went after my first target which was the Triangulum Galaxy. It's one I hadn't shot yet, but since my setup is all manual except for the tracking, it was the normal find the needle in the haystack. I got lucky though I found it pretty fast, once I got it centered in the frame though, even 60 sec shutter speeds had the stars bouncing all over in the frame. So I knocked it down to 30 secs, which I didn't care for as it meant I had to shoot at ISO 6400 which I prefer not too. After 30 mins of that, I went down to 20 sec shutter speeds just to make sure the wind wasn't blowing and moving things too much. Everything looked pretty sharp. After about 40 mins of that, I decided to try a 60 sec exposure again as the wind had died down a bit, and I found I could get solid 60 sec exposures. So then I took an hour worth of those. By this time Triangulum was getting pretty low in the sky, so I switched off to my next subject the Rosette Nebula to shoot for a few more hours. I wrapped up about 3am just as the wind started to lose it's mind.
SkyGuider Pro
Nikon D850
Tamron 150-600mm @ 600mm
60 @ ISO 3200 f6.3
20 - Dark Frames
DeepSkyStacker
With all of the issues with the wind, I am really happy for my first time targeting Triangulum.
All comments are welcome,
Jim
