Telescope Eyepieces and filters

This is all well and good, but I'm going to have to ask you to return the whole lot. Thanks in advance!

Ah, and I also was considering of putting that Samyang on my Christmas list! Let me know!

I think it's always best to have an observing session with other people. There's nothing quite like sharing the sights of the sky with others, so I fully concur with your thoughts, Tej.

As you know, I use Ethos eyepieces almost exclusively. I've not found another eyepiece to match them in terms of field of view and sharpness across the image. You're right about the eye relief though, but most people who've looked through them don't seem to have a problem in my experience. Perhaps it's because the field of view is so huge... even if you are slightly outside the full viewing angle (the eye relief distance), you still get a pretty big field of view! I use them with and without glasses without a problem.

I'll be interested to look through your new eyepieces, however... once the obligatory 2 weeks of rain are out the way after you've purchased new equipment 😉

I think you'll enjoy the O III filter as well... a great investment if you enjoy looking at emission nebula.

I also bought a Samyang 16mm F2 lens a few weeks ago

Never used the lens, but heard good things about it.

I was on an editorial assignment the other day with a photographer who had an extraordinary lens in her kit - I don't remember what the focal length was but the aperture was f/1.2 !

I'm sure you guys would have loved it. I tried all kinds of tricks but sadly couldn't distract her long enough for me to half-inch the thing 😉

I don’t remember what the focal length was but the aperture was f/1.2

Probably a 50mm f/1.2. Nice lens.

Nothing compares, though, to the Leica Noctilux 50mm f/0.95! The world's best low light lens. Incomparable. And a snip at £7,500!!

And a snip at £7,500!!

Mike - for the second it took me to reach the end of the line, I entertained the thought of putting that lens on my Christmas list.
Alas I have known too long that Santa doesn't exist... sob.

Mind, at the pub after the astro photo workshop one of the chaps was telling us about turntables he was looking at buying, which were £10 grands!
Perhaps I run another workshop, convince him that it's more worthwhile to invest in the lens rather than the turntable, make him join Flamsteed (he works in London every day anyway) and get him to lend it to us (or donate it to the society 😉 ).

Posted on wrong thread, ignore

With skies clear tomorrow, I thought I go camping in Brede which seem to have reasonably dark skies and take my Samyang 16mm f2 for a first light spin as its also the start of the Geminids meteor shower.

Only thing is, its a bloody full moon. So I guess dark skies location is not really worth spending travel money and time getting to a dark sky location is it?

I think I will still go and just embrace the full moon and take a time lapse of it or something. If I get any background stars and constellations, I'll treat as a bonus. Certainly wont get any milky way or even a meteor.

I received both my Orion planetary and wide angled eyepieces today, so will also give them a play too tomorrow.

Only thing is, its a bloody full moon. So I guess dark skies location is not really worth spending travel money and time getting to a dark sky location is it?

Errrr... no 😉

<div class="d4p-bbt-quote-title">Tej wrote:</div>
Only thing is, its a bloody full moon. So I guess dark skies location is not really worth spending travel money and time getting to a dark sky location is it?

Errrr… no

You're snapping my mind into some sort of rare sensibility. I was all set for the camp! OK I'll leave Brede camping for another day. I set this day aside for astronomy though so, I'll still try out my new toys, find some beauty spots in London maybe for the moonrise at 3:40ish. Then later on sneak into my Dulwich sports club grounds for a threesome with Jupes and the Moon until until they chuck me out.

Well I went down to the Greenwich docks yesterday on the riverbank opposite City airport and attempted to do my first timelapse of a moonrise. Fours later, I left the docks hobbling like a walking icicle. Man it was cold. I spent that whole four hours sitting on my stool clicking my laptop mouse button every two or three seconds as the lighting changed rapidly during a moonrise. It didnt make sense to use a timer. I used my laptop software to control the camera and focus with 5X live view. I must try and learn how to do all of that on the camera itself because I know its not practical to use my laptop all the time! However, the laptop gives me easier control, focussing and monitoring the histogram. I am still yet to assemble that timelapse but I thought I extract a couple of frames to just process on their own. I want to learn how to do all this so I hope for some tips from you.

One thing I have to say, the moon looked beautiful with its full features so distinct and lovely reflection in the water...yet I cant capture anything like what I saw with my eyes 🙁 All that detail on the moon just comes out as a white glow. If I crank down the exposure then I could get the details but then nothing else is visible. So how do photographers capture both moon details and a nice detailed scenery setting in one shot?...or is that only achieved with separate layered shots?

Anyway, so I focussed the Samyang 16mm F2 lens at full open aperture. Later on I realised that the pictures look sharper with the aperture two stops down but this single frame was with it fully open as the moon was too high up for proper framing on later ones with the aperture stepped down. So first lesson learnt, use this Samyang lens two F stops down for sharper images in future.

The sun had just set as the full moon rose. I was looking at my histogram and adjusting the exposure to keep the peak two thirds but as the moon rose, having it there made the moon look way over exposed. So I completely lost any idea of what the hell to do and madly had it on all sorts of ISO and shutter speeds. Again I really dont know what was best here.

This frame I chose shows a plane taking off from City airport but it just looks like striped lines from the 1 sec exposure at ISO 100.

The lens itself was so not right for this type of photography...its way too wide angled! I had to major crop it by a good 4/5ths of the image. I think my next purchase will be the popular 50mm F1.4 or F1.8 lens.

I did try to find a foreground object but there was a rail along the river bank so I didnt have much leeway to maneuver around so could only mount the camera over the rail.

Please let me know how to improve original capture and thoughts on better processing.

That's a nice final image, Tej... but I think you can make it more effective.

Before I get to that, some answers to your questions...

So how do photographers capture both moon details and a nice detailed scenery setting in one shot?…or is that only achieved with separate layered shots?

A one second exposure will completely overexpose the lit area of the Moon. Exposures of this length are very effective in showing "Earthshine" of the unlit part of the Moon, but, of course, it was full Moon last night. Your eyes have got a far greater dynamic range than a camera sensor. We have a range of about 24 f-stops, with an instantaneous dynamic range (i.e. without allowing our eyes to adjust pupil size) of about 14 f-stops. Most digital SLR cameras can only manage 8-11 stops. That's why you can see detail on the Moon as well as detail in the foreground. Your camera can't do this. The way around it is take more than one exposure of the same scene with different exposure times and stack afterwards. HDR photography is essentially the same thing, so you can try this as well.

Later on I realised that the pictures look sharper with the aperture two stops down

I've yet to find a lens that doesn't look sharper with the aperture stopped down by one or two stops. It's good practise to do so.

The lens itself was so not right for this type of photography…its way too wide angled!

That's probably true in this case. You need to choose a focal length which is suited to the object that you're trying to photograph.

On that theme (and forgive me), it's not entirely clear to me what you were trying to photograph. Was it the Moon, the reflection of the Moon on the water, the boats on the river, the plane taking off? With the way that you've composed the final image, I find my eye wandering to each of these things. The reflection of the Moon on the water is wonderful, and is my favourite part of the image... everything else is a distraction.

Remember the rule of thirds when composing your image. Yes, you can break this rule, but it's tried and trusted... and if you find yourself unsure of how to compose your image, always resort back to it. Place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines. In your final image, the horizon is in the middle, as is the Moon and its reflection. It doesn't feel balanced as a result.

If it was me, I'd have used a tighter focal length (perhaps 35-50mm). The Moon reflection would have been placed on one of the thirds. I'd have included the Moon, but lost some of the sky (which isn't that interesting... not much cloud and no stars visible). The boats are great, and are a perfect foreground object. The yellow boat on the right is perfectly placed... put that on the other third. As regards exposure, I may have kept it at one second, as I don't mind the overexposed Moon, the Moon reflection is what I want. However, if I was concerned about this, I may have tried a HDR image, and seen what I could do in post-processing.

In final processing, I may have cropped the image square, as this can be very effective. Otherwise, a landscape 16x9 could have worked... but it's important that there aren't any distractions from the focus of the image.

A bit more contrast in the water would be nice, but I wouldn't push it too far.

That's my thoughts, for what they are worth. As I say, it's a nice image, so don't take this advice the wrong way. There are no right or wrong answers ultimately... just opinions!

Yay, that's exactly what I want, Mike...free photography lessons 🙂

Our eyes are awesome tech!

The moon and its reflection was supposed to be the main focus. So yep too much going on around the scene.

Will pick another frame and recrop. Thanks for your tips, Mike!

Well I really need to just go reshoot with a different lens instead of recropping what was a badly framed image in the first place.

But is this the kind of framing I should try next time? Anyway, I'm crap at this photography right now, I'll try out my new Orion eyepiece on Jupiter tonight instead from my living room 😀

Yes, this is much better composed, IMO.

Next time, I'd try to get more of the boats in the image. Perhaps change your viewing angle so that the Moon and Moon reflection is highlighting one of the boats.

You'll get there... it just takes practise... a lifetime of it 😉