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[stargazer]

Well I guess Christmas came early for me. Yestaerday I got a 600mm lenz for my camera. Now all I need is a really good event to use it on. Maybe I'll try it out on the Leonids shower coming up. This will be great come Feb while I am down at the WSP.

Becky

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Wow.....600mm!!!

That's a telescope in itself! But that much of a telephoto would not be practical for a meteor shower...UNLESS.....you focus to infinity on to the radiant of the shower and get a bright one coming right at the camera. THAT would be quite cool!

Show me it next time we meet, I'd like to see it.

[stargazer]

I cant wait till the Moon is out at night so I can take some good close ups of the lovely Luna. I should get some good shots of it. Last night we tried Orion but dont know if it turned out yet. I still need to play with it. Iwill bring it to the next Triton if your going.

Becky

[dewayne]

You might try a nice cluster like M44 or M45

[stargazer]

Well I had the camera out last night had to checkout the new lenz. What a difference. I was laying on the bench looking stright up at a small grouping of stars and when I put the camera to it alot more stars showed up. I took some pics but didnt use the tripod so Im not sure they will turn out to good. Tonight if it stays nice out I am going to try the Pleaides. The one thing I have to do to the camera is change out the screen. Its one of those frosted ones and Im looking for a clear one so I can see more of what Im looking at. The only problem I have is can I change it out. I cant wait to target the Moon. I should get some really good ones. I will let you know how things turn out with it. My Fla trip ought to be really fun with this new toy. I cant wait to get it into truley dark skies.

We shall see

Becky

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Becks,

Yep, you can change out that Frensel plate with a plain clear one. Some have removed them completely, as the focus is usually set to infinity for astronomy photos. A tripod of course is quite necessary as you will need a time exposure of any celestial target. Fast film...1600 asa and open the f-stop all the way. With that much power (600mm) your exposures will have to be rather short in order not to create star trails, in the order of..oh 1/2 to 3 seconds tops. And use a cable release...a must. The moon will be easier and exposures much shorter.

What I did as a kid was to do the hat trick. As one presses the shutter button, unavoidably there is a slight quiver and tremble from all the mechanisms coming into play and causing a less than perfect image.

To overcome this inherent problem, put a hat or any other cover over the lens of the camera.
With the cable release, snap the shutter open, and either lock it down, or keep your thumb on the cable button. Then when all has settled down, (couple of seconds), carefully remove the hat and count your time, then close the shutter when complete.

Then when ready to develop, one must educate the ignorant that these are astronomical images and to treat them as such. A Walgreens or other chain like that will not accomplish your job with any care. I always took mine to a camera store for development.

But of course Becks, you knew all this anyway.

[stargazer]

Yes Joe,

I did know all of this but I take me stuff to Walgreens. There is two girls there that know my film and do a good job with it. I normally use a tripod but didnt want to carry it to the river as I had the Bino's, Camera and a cup of coffee. The camera I have is a Hanimex and we are not sure if it can be changed or not. We have to pick up a camera part on Mon so I will ask then. This camera is from 1982.

Becky

[jglover]

stargazer said:

Yes Joe,

cup of coffee. The camera I have is a Hanimex and we are not sure if it can be changed or not. We have to pick up a camera part on Mon so I will ask then. This camera is from 1982.

Becky

Hi Becky,

I'm not sure if a Hanimex camera has interchangeable focus screens. It sounds as though you have a standard ground glass screen with a split image or microprism focusing collar. That should work well for the moon or other bright objects. Here's a link that may help figure out if your camera's screen's are interchangeable:

www.praktica-collector.de/

Typically this is found only on the higher end cameras. Even my Pentax DSLR does not have interchangeable screen. The matte screen is quite difficult to use in the dark. What I typically do is find something bright and far away, like a street light, focus on that, then disable my autofocus and mout the camera and shoot....seems to work most times!