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Archive 2013 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

voltaire
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to share this 60 second image of the Milky Way shot over a week ago.

Thanks for looking.
Voltaire

Mar 16, 2013 at 01:16 PM

astrodave
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Nicely done..great sky color and tracking. Where was it shot?

Mar 16, 2013 at 01:49 PM

ppmax
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Thanks for the pm Voltaire. Great shot and exactly what I'm going for on Mauna kea.

PP

Mar 16, 2013 at 01:55 PM

JimFox
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Hi Voltaire,

What a nice shot of the Milky Way, it looks like your new tool is being put to good use.

Jim

Mar 16, 2013 at 02:53 PM

harshaj1
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Excellent.
Harsha

Mar 16, 2013 at 03:02 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Love it.

Did you use Vixen Polarie's "half speed" tracking?
That seems to be a good compromise for stars+foreground images without resorting to blending.
Fred

Mar 16, 2013 at 03:19 PM

astro-ep
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Nice shot.

Eric

Mar 16, 2013 at 03:41 PM

RobDickinson
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

I assume you shoot foreground shot and blend?

It seems to say it works in the northern hemisphere, does it do the south? how long can it track for?

Edit - nev4ermind read the manual, impressive bit of kit.

Mar 16, 2013 at 04:19 PM

voltaire
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Thank you so much, astrodave, PPmax, Jim, Harsha, Fred, Eric, and Rob. I appreciate it. Some answers to your questions:

Fred and Rob,
I didn't use the half tracker nor did I blend in images. The blurry foreground started becoming more evident past 120 seconds.

Fred, I plan to use the half tracker tonight with a 100-400 fingers crossed to capture Orion's nebula. This was all processed using Lightroom.

As you all know, limitation is the weight on the Polarie so there's no way I can use the superteles so if you're not doing deep sky, Polarie will work just fine.

Astrodave,
This was shot in San Juan Bautista, Ca; about an hour south of San Jose.

Mar 16, 2013 at 06:16 PM

voltaire
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Rob, it can do the Southern Hemisphere as well. :-)

Mar 16, 2013 at 06:21 PM

Sunny Sra
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Sweet shot! i really need to get me one of these doohickies

Mar 16, 2013 at 06:32 PM

RobDickinson
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

So full speed tracking at 15mm (zeiss?) @ 60 seconds and the landscape was fine?

Mar 16, 2013 at 07:03 PM

Fred Miranda
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

RobDickinson wrote:
So full speed tracking at 15mm (zeiss?) @ 60 seconds and the landscape was fine?

The image has fisheye distortion, so I'm guessing he used a fisheye lens.

voltaire wrote:

Fred, I plan to use the half tracker tonight with a 100-400 fingers crossed to capture Orion's nebula. This was all processed using Lightroom.

Voltaire, I can't wait to see your results at 1/2 tracking. I never try that but it seems to be a good compromise as long as exposures are not too long.
Fred

Mar 16, 2013 at 07:14 PM

dgdg
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

awesome shot!

I found at 448 mm fov (200mm f4 lens + 1.4x + crop body) on the vixen polarie with scope, you can obtain great polar alignment, but you will start to get some oblong stars. That being said, you'd have to look close to 100% on your monitor to see it. I need to work on getting more images to stack to the reduce noise as narrow fields seem more sensitive compared to my milky way shots. Then I need to learn to pp them better. It seems to be a totally different skill (to me!). Dew has been my bane for long total exposures (30 minutes or more). Finally got a dew heater.

Mar 16, 2013 at 08:58 PM

astro-ep
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

dgdg wrote:
Then I need to learn to pp them better. It seems to be a totally different skill (to me!).

I have to say that with my CCD astro efforts, the software and post processing held the steepest learning curve for me (still climbing that one, in fact). It seems like no two images use the same process or technique. But believe this... The better the data, the easier the post processing. That generally means stacking many images for faint targets, especially in areas with light pollution. My best images are typically more than 20 hours of actual open shutter time (shot over several nights). It's a commitment, but the results are surprising.

Eric

Mar 16, 2013 at 10:01 PM

dgdg
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

thanks for the encouragement! I guess 45 minutes on a dim dso, I should be pleased with what I am seeing so far on my recent outing.

Mar 16, 2013 at 10:32 PM

alatoo60
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Nice!

Mar 17, 2013 at 12:34 AM

SteveF
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Enjoy seeing these - going to have to get one of these gadgets I think.

Mar 17, 2013 at 07:25 AM

Lincoln Harrison
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

Nice shot mate, i got a polarie a few days ago, great piece of gear.

If anyone is considering one of these and lives in the southern hemisphere, grab the polar scope too, makes alignment much easier.

Mar 17, 2013 at 07:51 AM

CW100
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Milky Way Using Vixen Polarie

nice shot!

Mar 17, 2013 at 04:27 PM

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