Today's "The Toon-Box"
Posted by Wesley on
Testing sensitivity with Pluto imaging
Posted by Wesley on
Pluto's movement from Sept. 9 to Sept. 10, 2015 (50% size)
One of the main reasons I decided to buy a new camera was that it would yield a lower-noise photo at high ISO settings, making it better for long-exposure astrophotography. To confirm this, one of the first objects I chose to take photos of was the dwarf planet Pluto.
It moved a little to the east since the last time, already past the ξ2(Xi 2) Sagittarii and not near a particularly bright star. The brightest stars in the animated frames above are only about magnitude 11. Nevertheless, Pluto was discernible when comparing the two frames taken a day apart under a bright monitor. Dimmest stars visible reached magnitude 15, and Pluto itself moved clearly enough to see that it's not a background star.
If you feel particularly bored, you can try picking it out of the full version of the September 10 photo.
Pluto is in here somewhere
Device: Sony A5000 (prime focus)
Settings: (1500mm) - (f/10)
Filters: None
Location: Naju, Korea
#1: ISO 800 - 20s - 2015-09-09 22:09 KST
#2: ISO 1000 - 30s - 2015-09-10 21:44 KST
Defined tags for this entry: astronomy, Celestron NexStar 6SE, dwarf planet, planet, Pluto, Sony A5000, telescope
Today's "The Toon-Box"
Posted by Wesley on
Defined tags for this entry: Celine Chung, foam, isocyanate, Jeonnam Science Festival, polyol, polyurethane
Sony A5000 takes over astrophoto duties
Posted by Wesley on
Sony A5000 mirrorless camera with T-ring & adapter
My Canon EOS 450D DSLR camera is a fine equipment, but it is showing its age. So I decided to invest in a new equipment but not at too much expense. After much comparing, I decided to go with A5000, an entry-level mirrorless camera from Sony. It's got a highly sensitive sensor for its class, yet it's currently selling at quite a discount - about US$280 with a 16-50mm bundled lens, or just under US$200 for the main body.
As I ordered this camera, I also bought a T-ring for its E-mount lens mount so I could install it on my Celestron telescope. What you see above is how the camera looks with this attachment. I only took a handful of photos with the bundled lens before replacing it with the T-ring to start photographing the stars. I'm keeping the lens around just in case I need to shoot regular photos.
A5000 installed on the Celestron NexStar 6SE telescope
And this is how my new astrophotography setup looks like. The camera is practically the lightest APS-C sensor-based mirrorless camera out there, so it hardly burdens the telescope. I can also use my smartphone to remotely control the camera - a convenient feature that also prevents shaky images. I'm hoping to get some nice photographs out of this, so stay tuned.
Today's "The Toon-Box"
Posted by Wesley on