The Pinwheel Galaxy

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stuck
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by stuck »

Graeme wrote:
21 May 2020, 06:10
Yes and in the rabbit hole there are many shiny things!...
but, as yet, you've not found a new camera down there?

I can heartily recommend a camera body upgrade. I inherited my Canon 400D at the start of 2011, when my Father's dementia robbed him of the abailty to use it. He'd bought back in 2006 or maybe 2007 so it was already an 'old' model by the time I acquired it. It still takes good pictures, providing I use it correctly but I often found I was pushing at it's limits in terms of sensor noise and pixel count. So, not long before the lockdown hit the UK I splashed out and bought a 90D. The extra goodness in the far superior sensor is impressive. Having said that all that extra tech doesn't compensate for poor skills. I've already got plenty of high res, low noise, rubbishy pictures to prove it.

Ken

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Nick Vittum
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by Nick Vittum »

This thread is fun to read. I wish I knew more about digitography, so I could understand more of what you both are saying. I got extremely interested in photography when I was in high school (in the 60s). Worked a lot with a twin lens reflex that was almost an antique even then (I've forgotten the brand, but it was one of the grand old names of the era—not a Rolleiflex; more of a workhorse brand, that news photographers might use in the field). Then with a beautiful SLR owned by the school (a Pentax, if I remember correctly). Some of the best photography I did in that era was with a little point-and-shoot with a Zeiss lens. I also used to visit the local college's observatory, and dream of taking photographs through their telescope, but I never got up the nerve to ask. But after high school I had no access to a decent darkroom, and then a premature family to provide for, and I kind of fell out of it. The digital age has left me hopelessly behind. But I love to read stuff like this thread, and dream.
—Nick

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StuartR
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

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stuck wrote:
21 May 2020, 12:28
... all that extra tech doesn't compensate for poor skills. I've already got plenty of high res, low noise, rubbishy pictures to prove it.
:laugh: And here was me being super-intimidated by your fabulous photography skills
StuartR


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Graeme
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by Graeme »

stuck wrote:
21 May 2020, 12:28
Graeme wrote:
21 May 2020, 06:10
Yes and in the rabbit hole there are many shiny things!...
but, as yet, you've not found a new camera down there?

I can heartily recommend a camera body upgrade. I inherited my Canon 400D at the start of 2011, when my Father's dementia robbed him of the abailty to use it. He'd bought back in 2006 or maybe 2007 so it was already an 'old' model by the time I acquired it. It still takes good pictures, providing I use it correctly but I often found I was pushing at it's limits in terms of sensor noise and pixel count. So, not long before the lockdown hit the UK I splashed out and bought a 90D. The extra goodness in the far superior sensor is impressive. Having said that all that extra tech doesn't compensate for poor skills. I've already got plenty of high res, low noise, rubbishy pictures to prove it.

Ken

I did buy an astro dedicated camera but with it's small sensor on the end of a 2350mm focal length telescope it's very tricky to control. It gives me just over 10' of arc for a field of view. My 600D was second hand from Ebay for £180 and it does a great job but recently, now we have summer warmth, after 18 x 240 second exposures of M57, the Ring Nebula, the sensor reached 42ºC! I had to let it cool down to reduce the noise. I would like a 90D but my next purchase will be a cooled astro camera.

Regards

Graeme
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Graeme
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by Graeme »

Nick Vittum wrote:
21 May 2020, 12:43
This thread is fun to read. I wish I knew more about digitography, so I could understand more of what you both are saying. I got extremely interested in photography when I was in high school (in the 60s). Worked a lot with a twin lens reflex that was almost an antique even then (I've forgotten the brand, but it was one of the grand old names of the era—not a Rolleiflex; more of a workhorse brand, that news photographers might use in the field). Then with a beautiful SLR owned by the school (a Pentax, if I remember correctly). Some of the best photography I did in that era was with a little point-and-shoot with a Zeiss lens. I also used to visit the local college's observatory, and dream of taking photographs through their telescope, but I never got up the nerve to ask. But after high school I had no access to a decent darkroom, and then a premature family to provide for, and I kind of fell out of it. The digital age has left me hopelessly behind. But I love to read stuff like this thread, and dream.
It's never too late to start, I'll be retiring in a couple of years and I'm a newbie astrophotographer!
StuartR wrote:
21 May 2020, 12:54
stuck wrote:
21 May 2020, 12:28
... all that extra tech doesn't compensate for poor skills. I've already got plenty of high res, low noise, rubbishy pictures to prove it.
:laugh: And here was me being super-intimidated by your fabulous photography skills
Me too!
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PaulB
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by PaulB »

I never realized that camera sensors could overheat except maybe when pointed at the sun. What causes this?
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stuck
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by stuck »

StuartR wrote:
21 May 2020, 12:54
And here was me being super-intimidated by your fabulous photography skills
Thank you for the high praise but if you want to see really good stuff try browsing the Cambridge in Colour forum.

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stuck
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by stuck »

PaulB wrote:
21 May 2020, 15:28
I never realized that camera sensors could overheat except maybe when pointed at the sun. What causes this?
From here:
https://photo.stackexchange.com/questio ... r-overheat
...As a sensor is operating, it is consuming power and this causes heat to build up. That heat results in mistaken readings where the sensor things there is light when there is not. The longer the sensor is active, the more heat builds up...
Ken

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stuck
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by stuck »

Nick Vittum wrote:
21 May 2020, 12:43
... The digital age has left me hopelessly behind...
Except if you cut your teeth on a Pentax SLR (I had an ME Super and then an SFXn) you'll already know something about shutter speeds and f stops and ISO. That 'exposure triangle' is fundamental to all photography and even if you think you've forgotten it all, it will come back when you pick up a modern camera.

Photography is not about hardware, it's about light and composition.

Ken

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Argus
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by Argus »

As Nick, and doubtless many other, I also found photography interesting around that age, with access to darkrooms then (only B/W). After that it went downhill. :laugh: Now it's the camera in the mobile.
stuck wrote:
21 May 2020, 16:19
Photography is not about hardware, it's about light and composition.
True.
(Hardware may set some limits of what can be done; but as you said "extra tech doesn't compensate for poor skills"; that is so true.)
Byelingual    When you speak two languages but start losing vocabulary in both of them.

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Graeme
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by Graeme »

Argus wrote:
22 May 2020, 07:42
As Nick, and doubtless many other, I also found photography interesting around that age, with access to darkrooms then (only B/W). After that it went downhill. :laugh: Now it's the camera in the mobile.
stuck wrote:
21 May 2020, 16:19
Photography is not about hardware, it's about light and composition.
True.
(Hardware may set some limits of what can be done; but as you said "extra tech doesn't compensate for poor skills"; that is so true.)
I had a Zenit B (or was it a C) as a kid and access to my Dad's monochrome dark room in the loft. Then I had a Sony Alpha DSLR in the 00s but my astrophotography endeavours only started a couple of years ago. And whilst better, more expensive hardware enables better quality images the poor skills restriction still applies. More equipment gives you more scope in the lowest noise exposure duration/iso tradeoff. More equipment allows images of celestial objects of less magnitude to be captured. Astro images are also about light and composition, about capturing every photon, some that have been travelling for millions of years, optimising the light to noise ratio and processing out all that is not part of the image. It's a hobby that is technical, scientific and arty too!

Regards

Graeme
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BobH
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by BobH »

You answered my question late in thread: Where do you find 'dark sky?' I live in a relatively underpopulated area but light pollution is such a problem that I have to travel 60 miles or more to find enough ambient dark to use my old Celestron (without all the great tracking kit).
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Graeme
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Re: The Pinwheel Galaxy

Post by Graeme »

BobH wrote:
22 May 2020, 18:47
You answered my question late in thread: Where do you find 'dark sky?' I live in a relatively underpopulated area but light pollution is such a problem that I have to travel 60 miles or more to find enough ambient dark to use my old Celestron (without all the great tracking kit).

You could try this site Bob:

https://www.darksitefinder.com/maps/wor ... .84/-98.00

Regards

Graeme
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