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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Astroscope + DSLR = Gallery! (8 Viewers)

Olympus E-520 Skywatcher ED 80
Greenshank
distance 45m
cropped to 2070x 1550 then resized
ISO= 400 , 1/1250

Lapwing
cropped to 2070x 1550 then resized
ISO= 400 1/800
 

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Tree Swallows were foraging in the marsh on a cool May morning in northeast Tennessee.

Nikon D2X
Celestron 80ED refractor
1/800 sec; ISO 400
 

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Shot these today. Using a Borg 76ED with Kenko 1.4 TC and Canon 450D
Manual setting, 800 ISO 3 of the 5 were handheld.
Its been sometime since I last posted, a bit rusty at this.|^|
 

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Another photo taken with a catadioptric scope. This one taken at prime focus with a Meade ETX-90.

Eastern Bluebird
Meade ETX-90 mirror lens @ prime focus (1250mm fl)
Nikon D40 with electronic shutter release
1/200 sec @ iso 800
distance: around 40 feet in good light
 

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Olympus E-3, celestron 80ED 600mm

Hawfinch
iso-200
1/400s

Nuthatch
iso-200
1/400s

Woodpecker
iso-200
1/400s

Brambling
iso-250
1/320s

Dove (Columba palumbus)
iso-200
1/320s
 
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How do you handhold this setup and focus at the same time? Great capture!
My English is poor, but I try to explain:
It's easy to handhold , but requires some strength- keeping dovetail with four fingers of left hand I can reach focuser with my thumb, focus and track bird.
Large raptors are easy to spot- moving slowly or in predictable direction. Adapter with chip helps, but when bird is moving fast it's better to use own eyes ;).

Turtle Dove ISO=400, 1/125 s setup supported on my knee, build-in
IS helps. 70% crop, resized. Distance appr. 8 m
 

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White-crowned Sparrow

Nice lazy Sunday afternoon, sparrow having a picnic.
80mm Celestron EDF on old SLIK tripod, 1/350th sec., ~2.1x telenegative, ISO 400.
 

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SW 120mm 600 ST

1+2. Mallard Iso 100 1/350

3+4. Mallard Ducklets Iso 200 1/500

5. Gadwall Pair Is0 100 1/750
 

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3 photos of a Blue Tit carrying insects back to the nest box. All taken using the front element from a Miranda 75-300mm lens mounted close to the camera inside an empty macro tube. This acts as a 0.6X focal reducer taking the 600mm SW80ED down to 360mm. Photos taken from only 5m range which is why I needed the focal reduction.

Canon 450D - SW80ED - 50mm extra extension only needed in the focuser as the focal reducer lens means you need very little extra extension.

First photo 1/250sec
Second and third photos were 1/500sec
All ISO800
Weather was mostly cloudy with varying brightness.
 

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Here's one more with a nice big juicy caterpillar. Same method as above with the focal reducer.

Sun is out today and for this one I managed 1/2000sec at ISO800.
 

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A few more Blue Tit shots. Nice clear air here today made for some sharp images.

All ISO800 1/1600 and again used the 0.6X focal reducer to give 360mm equivalent.

Flying shot was ISO1600 1/3200sec but will need more speed to really freeze frame it.

Paul.
 

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More Onyx pics

Some (uncropped) pics with the 80mm EDF + Canon 100-200 FD telenegative mounted inside a cheap Chinese extension tube + Pentax K200D camera. Had a heavy overcast day, very dull lighting, slower than normal shutter speeds, and higher ISO than I wanted. Very light drizzle of rain, scope leaning on padded lunch bag on the car door with window rolled down, Shake Reduction set at 350mm as an experiment also. Estimate system focal length to be 500mm * 1.6 = 800mm. Plus camera crop = 1200mm. All pics approximately 112-160 feet in distance, according to Google Earth.

First three are Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus), last one is Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata). Fairly common for an Arboretum environment.

Not too bad but cannot tell how sharp this setup is with such dull light. The 100mm TN definitely has much less distortion than the 80mm TN. No sun in sight until much later next week. Had to do more than usual post processing to look sharp and bright enough and deal with noise removal. Hopefully, better next week.....

B :)
 

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Managed to nail some nice flight shots today.

All are with the 0.6X focal reducer to take the SW80ED down to 360mm equivalent.

All are ISO1600 and 1/4000sec which is the maximum shutter speed of the Canon 450D.
 

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Some more recent shots. A Red-billed Makoha with 80ED and a Stork-billed KF with 80ED + 1.9X TN (Canon 75-150). Makoha slightly cropped while KF uncropped. All from Jpeg file un-edited.
 

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Cloudy weather, dark forest.
Skywatcher 80ED+ Olympus 520
Black woodpecker
ISO=400, 1/320, tripod
Wren
ISO=400, 1/80, tripod
 

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I tried my Skywatcher 80 ED with old 2x TC Komura Telemore 95 7 KMC ( M42 thread) that gives focal length 1200 mm and 2400 mm equivalent.
Setup suffers from lack of contrast and magenta cast (old coatings of TC ), but chromatic aberration is well controlled. Tried to shot birds in flight ( large, slowly flying raptors and storks), but focusing without chip is extremaly difficult. Angle of view (1 degree) is just a bit wider than size of the Moon.
Telescope mounted on Velbon Sherpa 600 tripod and cheap gimbal head.
ISO 200, 1/200 s pushed in PP +0,8 EV, sharpened and denoised in Neat Image
1:1 crop attached.
Distance exactly 15 m.
 
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