Comet NEOWISE

Camera equipment and technique for taking photos.
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mtn_nut
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by mtn_nut »

bdloftin77 wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 8:48 am Is the tail still visible via binoculars or spotting scope? Waited too long to try to view it, and last week the glare from the moon only made the comet itself visible.
It's not very bright anymore. If you do see it, you'll only see a faint blue glow now, even with a pretty good telescope.
https://cobs.si/analysis2?col=comet_id& ... lot_type=0
pvnisher wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 12:22 am You guys mind sharing the settings/lens you used for those?
If you're taking a night photo, any night photo, you probably have heard of the 500 rule. Focal length/500 = max exposure time without significant star trails. That is the simplest version.
A little more expansive version can be found here - https://www.lonelyspeck.com/advanced-as ... alculator/

For lenses, the lower the F-stop, the better, but shooting at the minimum F-stop is going to make your stars in the corners softer instead of sharp. For my camera, I own the Sigma 16mm, 30mm, and 56mm F/1.4 and Rokinon 135mm f/2 primes, and I shoot on an A6100 since its the same sensor as the A6400 and A6600, so the picture quality is the same even if it doesn't have the extra features of the more expensive cameras. Those lenses are my go-to for astro. Even with the 16mm, which is a 24mm equivalent since I shoot APS-C, I can only get around 20 seconds without seeing trails when I zoom in on my photos.

So, when I'm shooting without a tracker, my settings on my 16mm is ~15-20 seconds, F/2, and ISO800 or so, and using a sturdy tripod and a cheap shutter release/intervalometer. If I want to, I can also stack photos at night, and if you want to really push the ability of your camera, you can take bias, dark, and flat frames and add them to your stacking to make the photos even sharper and reduce noise.

However, when I shoot with my tracker, I can shoot much longer exposures, like 2-5 minutes, so I can drop the ISO to 400 or 200, and maybe even increase the f-stop to F/2.8 if I want a little more sharpness.

For post processing, I normally just use lightroom, and I've found Topaz Denoise AI is pretty helpful too.
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mtn_nut
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by mtn_nut »

rsz_dsc00048-2.jpg
rsz_dsc00048-2.jpg (56.52 KiB) Viewed 3236 times
Heres the comet over Denver early one morning back in July from Squaw pass. A6100 w/ Sigma 16mm f/1.4. 30-second exposure with tracker (that's why the foreground is a little blurry).

You can see the Pleiades and Venus really well in this photo too.
Last edited by mtn_nut on Wed Aug 05, 2020 2:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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LetsGoMets
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Re: Comet NEOWISE

Post by LetsGoMets »

Does it amplify firebending?

Also, I’m 40.
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