Early in 2003 I purchased a used Nikkor 105 mm F/2.5 lens from Tony Hallas. I had always wanted one of these lenses as it fills a nitch in sky coverage offered by the other lenses I have for my Nikon F. This lens certainly lives up to its reputation of being a very sharp lens on stars. It is the sharpest lens I have with the exception of the 8-inch Schmidt camera. The lens is so sharp it displays the error in my polar alignment that night. Images taken with other lenses do not show the slight field rotation evident in the 105 mm images. Because of a number of weather and equipment related malfunctions it was not until late November that I was able to finally use the lens under the sky. I am really pleased with it and plan to use it more frequently. All the images displayed here were 30 minute exposures at F/2.5 on Kodak E200 pushed one stop. The slides were scanned with a 1st generation PhotoSmart scanner and run through a quick and dirty processing in Photoshop. I did not spend too mych time addressing the vignetting evident with this lens.
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Aquila and Barnard 143
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North America and
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The constallation LyraClick here for 1000 X 674 pixel 205 K .jpg |
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IC 1396 nebulaClick here for 1000 X 673 pixel 248 K .jpg |
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The constellation
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The area around M 52
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Double Cluster and
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M 35 area in GeminiClick here for 1000 X 676 pixel 210 K .jpg |
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Taurus and PleiadesClick here for 1000 X 677 pixel 147 K .jpg |
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Scutum Star CloudClick here for 1000 X 681 pixel 146 K .jpg |
This image has been a two-year struggle. I placed it at the bottom of this page so I post a rather long story about it. It started at Okie-Tex in 2001 when Kent Kirkley let me borrow his 105 mm f/2.5 Nikkor. This lens has a field of view that fills a nice nitch in wide-field work that I hadden't been able to address because I didn't have that lens. I shot the Scutum Star Cloud, among other objects, using Kent's goodies at Okie-Tex. But somehow I bumped the lens out of focus and got a really mushy image of Scutum. So at TSP 2002 I bummed the lens off Kent again for a shot of the same area. Darned if I didn't somehow knock it out of focus again! Jump to early this year and Tony Hallas put his 105 mm Nikkor up for sale. I snagged it! I checked it with a Hartmann mask and the infinity focus was at infinity. So I waited for clear sky here at home...and it never came. So off to TSP 2003 and a week of clear skies. I set up the 105 mm for piggyback work and my drive corrector goes up in flames (it was 25 years old and the transformer toasted). The scope worked on 110V, but I couldn't guide for astrophotography. The next day I scuttled up to Rex's Astrostuff and bought another drive corrector. I plugged it in that night and... poof! It goes up in flames as well. An astonished Rex gave me my money back and photography at TSP went out the window. I got a third drive corrector back home and got everything working. Now wait for clear weather. The sky finally cooperated in late October and off I went for skyshooting. Another try at Scutum and.....incredibly it is again way out of focus! There is something eronometrically out of whack between me and this lens! Somehow I manage to kick it out of focus without knowing it when I handle the camera. A month later on November 20 it is beautifully clear and I have the 105 mm locked on infinity with about two pounds of masking tape. Scutum sets really early in November, so I got off one shot before it sunk too low. Then off to other objects as the clear night went on. But the north never really looked as clear as it should, it looked hazy. But there were no clouds and I thought "Aurora? Naw, not this far south." Well it was, and it was a damn bright one on 30 minute E200 exposures. Who would have ever thought a shot of Scutum from south Texas would get whacked by an aurora? Now I know why Canadian astrophotographers chunk their telescopes into Lake Ontario and take up stamp collecting. After fiddling around trying the de-aurorafy the Scutum image in Photoshop, it looks halfway descent now. This image is the result of a two year battle that is not yet won. I'm waiting for Scutum to come back next Spring. That constellation owes me one!
