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midtskogen
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Re: Astrophotography

21 Dec 2022 06:48

Wow where were you located for that eclipse, Mid?  That sounds as cold as any temperature I've ever experienced....my coldest was  -3 F or about -20 C so about as cold as that and it was difficult for me to be outside for more than a few minutes.
That was in Svalbard, at 78N.  I made this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_SmaCnHIgU

I used a regular DSLR (picture in picture) and the video recorder for the overview.  I also had a GoPro, but it didn't work in the cold.  The battery in the video recorder also went flat just a few minutes after totality.
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Re: Astrophotography

22 Dec 2022 03:43

Wow where were you located for that eclipse, Mid?  That sounds as cold as any temperature I've ever experienced....my coldest was  -3 F or about -20 C so about as cold as that and it was difficult for me to be outside for more than a few minutes.
That was in Svalbard, at 78N.  I made this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_SmaCnHIgU

I used a regular DSLR (picture in picture) and the video recorder for the overview.  I also had a GoPro, but it didn't work in the cold.  The battery in the video recorder also went flat just a few minutes after totality.
Wow fortunately it lasted long enough to capture totality!  I have a problem in temperatures below 0 C with batteries also, so I have bought a variety of back up power including usb power, dummy batteries to ac and cig lighter (to be powered by car battery), even battery holders that take AA batteries.  Being in northern NY state and near the Canadian border for this next eclipse in early April, no telling how cold it could be, we have seen major snowfalls all the way down to NYC and Long Island in the middle of April so anything is possible.
 
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Re: Astrophotography

22 Dec 2022 04:02

Saw something amazing yesterday morning, December 21, 2022.  I guess you could call it "Solstice Morning."

The skies are exceptionally clear here, as they usually are in December when there isn't a storm coming (there will be one tonight.)  So I was able to see one of the thinnest crescent moons I have ever seen,  it really looked like a very thin strand of hair.  It rose over my neighbor's roof (lol) at around 6:30 AM and I only had half an hour to take pictures of it before the brightening sky drowned it out.  I took pictures at various focal lengths from 500MM to 2800mm (2400MM to 2800MM were with "fine digital zoom").  You could even see some of the craters at the edge of the moon.  The ISO was up at 1600 which I never usually use on the moon but it was so slender it needed it plus I was able to also capture earthshine!  What I didn't expect to see-- especially with the sky getting brighter-- is an object slightly "above" the moon.  To my knowledge there wouldn't be any planets close to the moon right now and when I looked up what it could be, the only thing I could come up with was Dschubba, the star at the head of Scorpio's "crown."  It's a mag 2.25 star (variable) so no idea how I was able to see it in the LCD of the P900 camera much less capture it.  It only shows up on 3 of my pictures (I took 1,144 in 30 minutes of continuous shooting.) but that's still pretty good, especially since I was using my lunar settings not settings to capture stars (shutter speed was only 1/30 to 1/60 sec at f/5.6 to f/6.5 at ISO 1600.)  I had to back off a bit on the focal length to get the moon and the star in the same frame and 1000 MM and f/5.6 seemed to be the best setting for that.  I think the key to capturing it and the sharp shots of the moon was setting the focus to Infinity (there is a button for that), which put both the star and the moon into focus.  It's much easier to do than manual focusing and I had strong doubts that autofocusing would work on such a slender moon....so setting the focus to Infinity on this camera may be a good idea for eclipses too.  I'll do further testing.  This is the only camera I have that actually has a button for setting focus to Infinity.

add-- the file size of the pictures is large so I'll try to resize them to post.  One other thing, I took images at 16 MP, 4 MP and 2 MP (1080P at 60 FPS) and I do have to say I believe the 4 MP pictures turned out the best.  I think because I was using ISO 1600 and there was no visible noise (not even in the sky) at the 4 MP setting (2x2 binning?) and digital zoom did not show any artifacts at that setting either.
 
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midtskogen
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Re: Astrophotography

22 Dec 2022 06:45

I have a problem in temperatures below 0 C with batteries also, so I have bought a variety of back up power including usb power, dummy batteries to ac and cig lighter (to be powered by car battery), even battery holders that take AA batteries.
I good trick is to keep batteries in a pocket close to your body to keep them warm, and insert them just before you use the cameras.  Still, in very low temperatures batteries can cool down quickly.  And LCD displays might become so sluggish that they're useless.  Also avoid taking cameras indoors and then outdoors again, since frost and dew easily form on and in the camera when you take in indoors.  Once indoors the camera should be left unused until it was fully warmed up.  These things are usually not a big issues down to -10C or so, though sometimes batteries are so bad that even around 0C there could be problems.  But at -20C and colder these things definitely become problematic.  And cameras become problematic to operate because you need to take off the mittens and it's easy to get frostbitten skin.
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Re: Astrophotography

23 Dec 2022 07:26

I have a problem in temperatures below 0 C with batteries also, so I have bought a variety of back up power including usb power, dummy batteries to ac and cig lighter (to be powered by car battery), even battery holders that take AA batteries.
I good trick is to keep batteries in a pocket close to your body to keep them warm, and insert them just before you use the cameras.  Still, in very low temperatures batteries can cool down quickly.  And LCD displays might become so sluggish that they're useless.  Also avoid taking cameras indoors and then outdoors again, since frost and dew easily form on and in the camera when you take in indoors.  Once indoors the camera should be left unused until it was fully warmed up.  These things are usually not a big issues down to -10C or so, though sometimes batteries are so bad that even around 0C there could be problems.  But at -20C and colder these things definitely become problematic.  And cameras become problematic to operate because you need to take off the mittens and it's easy to get frostbitten skin.
Good points, Mid!  We see these recommendations made for telescopes and eyepieces too.  I wonder if dew and frost can damage optics or electronics or do they return to normal if left unused for awhile until they warm up like you said?

Also, I am considering putting a lot of my excess equipment that I don't use very frequently in my garage, which has no heating.  Would that damage any of my extra cameras, lenses, eyepieces, batteries, binoculars or telescopes do you think?  That's at my other house where it can get colder than it does here (it's in the Poconos mountains where it can get down to -30 C infrequently.)
 
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Re: Astrophotography

23 Dec 2022 09:40

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66721849

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66721782

Posted a few images of the Solstice Crescent Moon, the Crown of Scorpius and Earthshine.
 
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Re: Astrophotography

31 Dec 2022 02:50

I wonder if dew and frost can damage optics or electronics or do they return to normal if left unused for awhile until they warm up like you said?

Also, I am considering putting a lot of my excess equipment that I don't use very frequently in my garage, which has no heating.  Would that damage any of my extra cameras, lenses, eyepieces, batteries, binoculars or telescopes do you think?  That's at my other house where it can get colder than it does here (it's in the Poconos mountains where it can get down to -30 C infrequently.)
I wouldn't worry to much about condensation on optics brought in from the cold, and electronics generally recover, but long exposure to moisture will cause corrosion, so storing electronics in an unheated garage is not a good idea.  I would avoid that for optics as well, and in warm climates mold can become as issue.
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Re: Astrophotography

04 Jan 2023 00:50

Good point! I have electric heating inside the house so that should keep it dry.  I figured cabinets in the garage would keep the exposure to moisture low but since the cabinets aren't air proof, moisture can get inside too.

Are those little desiccant packets of any usefulness?  Or do they need to be replaced every few weeks?  Thanks!
 
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Re: Astrophotography

06 Jan 2023 03:25

Are those little desiccant packets of any usefulness?  Or do they need to be replaced every few weeks?  Thanks!
They're useful, to a certain degree.  They absorb moisture, but will of course get saturated to the point that they no longer absorb until they're allowed to dry.  So the long term relative humidity stays pretty much the same, but they will level out the humidity and soften short peaks in the humidity.
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Re: Astrophotography

01 Mar 2023 02:21

There's been quite a bit of northern lights in the past few days, even as far south as Germany.  This image from one of our meteor cameras is from Telemark in southern Norway.  1/25 sec exposure.
x.jpg
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Re: Astrophotography

01 Mar 2023 10:26

Yep, the first G3-level (Kp~7) storm we've had in a while! I could see red and green curtains reaching about 45° above the horizon from here in Bellingham, through small gaps in overcast. Visibility even reached as far south as Colorado which is impressive!
 
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Re: Astrophotography

01 Mar 2023 23:58

Jupiter and Venus had a close encounter yesterday.  I could watch them set in the video from the meteor camera when they were 0.52 and 0.50 degrees below the horizon.  This is partly due to refraction, partly due to the Earth's curvature.  Thanks to their brightnesses they were still clearly visible.  Here, two specks of light sitting on the horizon a bit to the left of the centre:
x.jpg
With calibrated grid:
y.jpg
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Re: Astrophotography

02 Mar 2023 02:26

Mid did you see these Northern Lights?  They are absolutely amazing! 

I wonder what camera settings are needed for these?

Here are some Northern Lights images I found, one Southern Lights image and an image of them from Saturn!


https://spaceweathergallery2.com/index. ... ng_point=0
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193381
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193317
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193266
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193125
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193290
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193535
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193525
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193514
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193511
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193510
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193492
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193316
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_ ... _id=193487

I checked these out-- wild that the Northern Lights (and pink colored at that!) were visible as far south as Vernon, NJ and Erie, PA!

I wonder what kind of camera settings are needed to capture these?
Others in this list were from as far south as Missouri and Oklahoma!
The best ones were of course from Scandanavia, the happiest place on Earth lol.
 
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Re: Astrophotography

02 Mar 2023 05:35

Mid did you see these Northern Lights?  They are absolutely amazing! 

I wonder what camera settings are needed for these?
I occasionally checked the cameras and looked out of the window to see for myself.  I live 100 km away from these cameras or so.  But it's too much light pollution here to see faint aurora by just looking out of the window, and when there was a bit stronger aurora, it was too cloudy here.  It would have been clearly visible if I had driven off a few minutes to a dark place and waited a little.  But I've seen aurora many times.  It's unlikely that any aurora here in southern Norway can ever match what I've seen many times in northern Norway.

The cameras are of the type IMX291.  Google for specs.  They record video at 25 fps.
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Re: Astrophotography

02 Mar 2023 13:52

Thanks, so video is best? It would show the movement of the lights as they increase and decrease.  I see much of what is captured is not easily visible with the eyes.

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