Released at last on Region 2 DVD on 28/12/2009, available at Amazon for less than a tenner...
It's been a long wait, I'm sure it will have been worthwhile.
Archive for the 'Shiny new kit' Category
A bit on the side
It took a while to summon up the courage, but eventually I got myself a little frac. It's easy to mount and fits in nicely beside the big black 8-incher!
😯
Observing Report / Lens Test 22nd September 2009 (Big Dubyah)
I'd not planned to go out observing, but there was an hour or so of cloudless sky yesterday evening and I had a little time to spare. This was an opportunity to sky-test the Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G lens to assess how well it is suited to taking widefield pics of the night sky.
In particular I was looking to see:
- how much sky would be captured in the frame;
- if a reasonable focus could be achieved using the camera's auto setting;
- how quickly the camera sensor would become saturated at f/1.8 and ISO 200;
- how much vignetting would be caused by using a 52-48mm step-down ring and Light-Pollution filter;
- how much coma would be present at the edges and corners of the image; and
- how much star-trailing would be caused when using a static tripod as opposed to using a driven equatorial mount.
The challenges would be to see if I could find a reasonable exposure time, get a small number of images for stacking, and then process-out the vignetting, star-trailing and any light-pollution.
Jupiter was in the southern sky so I pointed the camera at it to get the autofocus set. I then turned off the autofocus and fixed the position of the lens focus ring by the judicious application of duct-tape.
Next, I pointed the camera at the Cassiopeia / M31 Andromeda area and took a few test-frames of various durations. Eventually I settled on an exposure duration of 30 seconds and took 12 pics.
These were stacked in DSS and hurriedly processed in PSCS3, and here's the result:
Mouse-over the pic for details, click it for a bigger pic.
I have to say that I'm quite impressed with the raw images that this lens produced. Shooting with the aperture wide open captured a lot of light, and for a change I had to tone down the details rather than go through the usual routine of having to drag the details out of the murk. I'm damned if I can find any coma in the raw frames, which means that there'll be no need to crop off any bad areas. The expected vignetting was dealt with in PSCS3, the compensation isn't perfect but to be fair I've only done a quick fix, no doubt I could get it better if necessary. The amount of star-trailing was acceptable, and I'm confident that I could get it processed out if necessary and if I had enough time.
And the framing? I'm happy with it for targets the size of Cassiopeia, but the capture-area might be a tad small for meteor-work. Time will tell - between now and the end of the year there will be plenty of opportunities for snapping a few meteor trails (more on that in another post very soon (but don't hold your breath)).
Coniston Fells Wildcamping (again) – Part 1 – Up Sam Bottom
After the previous effort to walk these fells (see here and here), I was determined to get the job done this time. The weather forecast was a poignant reminder of the conditions during the last outing, but I've walked through much worse.
The weather was fine and hot, with just a few clouds here and there to frame the view. The drive up the road from Coniston to the old quarry car-park had to be interrupted to take in this fine sight of some of the target fells:
Coniston Fells Panorama
Beside the Walna Scar Road
I parked up in exactly the same space as before in the car-park near Timley Knott on the Walna Scar Road and, after getting kitted-up, started off along the winding quarry-road towards Boulder Valley and Levers Water:
The quarry-road
After a while I passed through the gap between The Bell and Stubthwaite Crag and onto the section where the path passes along a ledge beneath Crowberry Haws. From there, the views across the Coppermines Valley were impressive:
Looking towards Wetherlam
The Coppermines Valley and YHA
There was also a fine selection of flora and fauna next to the path:
Purple #1
Purple #2
The next stop was in Boulder Valley, to have a look at the famous "Pudding Stone" (the one on the left). OK, so it's a big boulder, but I wouldn't say it was anything special:
The Pudding Stone
Next it was up to the gap between Brim Fell End and Simon's Nick for the first sight of Levers Water:
Levers Water, with Swirl Hawse on the skyline
and a glimpse down into the darkness of the Nick:
The Nick
After the short stroll around to the weir to cross the outflow, it was time to take on some water and to grab a few more pics:
Levers Water again
Swirl How beyond Levers Water
From there it was a quick walk to the top end of the Water, where, after a brief look back towards Raven Tor...
Raven Tor above Levers Water
I took the path that leads up towards the col of Swirl Hawse. The grimness of the shaded scene above was amply compensated by the views of ground already traversed:
Another look back
After some heavy breathing, a stiff pull and a sweaty half-hour I was in position to pitch my erection in Sam Bottom, where I stayed until sunrise:
😯 😯 😯
The tarn with no name
A smaller tarn nearby
Pitched by the tarn
Another view of the pitch
And another
A final look back towards Coniston
Blue evening sky above Swirl Hawse
To be continued.
It’s a stick-up!
The Argos Small 2 Person Teepee was also on offer at half-price (£24.44). I decreed that it would be a better alternative to the crappy beach-tents that we trash every year, so SWMBO gave the OK to grab one. Just like the Tiger Paws, it's a great little tent for the money. One pole stuck up the middle, 8 pegs (or 16 if you want it fully secure) and a detachable groundsheet make this quite a versatile bit of kit. There's plenty of privacy when closed, and excellent ventilation when open. I can see us getting a fair bit of use from this thing:
Just in case the item disappears from the website, here's a copy of the spec:
- 1 room.
- 2 doors and 2 windows. To be fussy, where Argos say "doors", they really mean "entrances".
- 1 top air vent.
- 2000mm hydrostatic head.
- Taped seams.
- Fire retardant.
- Tension adjusters.
- Size 150 x 270 x 270cm.
- Height at highest point 150cm.
- Packed size 16 x 16 x 60cm.
- Weight 3.7kg.
