Andrea,
As an amateur astonomer, I appreciate the hazards of stumbling around in the
dark. I have a collection of red-beam flashlights to help guide me, but I had a
few near misses myself in shooting the planetary alignment from a small hill
nearby. Hope you recover quickly.
I'm surprised you couldn't see anything in the viewfinder. You should be able
to see the brighter planets & stars well enough to at least frame. Focusing is
another matter (what camera were you using?). The short story is that infinity
should be good for most wide to normal focal lengths. (Finding the exact
infinity focus for a lens is another topic that I won't get into.) I have a 1-8
screen for my main astro camera, but it's possible to find & focus a bright star
or planet on every SLR I've ever used if you're using a f2.8 or faster lens.
Perhaps your eyes weren't dark adapted when you were doing this; you need 10 to
30 minutes after being exposed to bright light to get decent dark adaptation.
My series of planet alignment shots turned out pretty well. You can check out
the "final" version here:
http://home.houston.rr.com/dtlocke/4planets.htm
I ended up using an Oly C4040 digital, an OM2n, as well as N*k*n equipment on
the various shots.
-Dick
From: Andrea <pdxgirl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [OM] The Planets
I also tried my hand at shooting the planets, with somewhat disastrous
results... while I was leaving, fell down
a grassy slope (with tripod/camera in hand, no less) and summarily broke
my ankle....
But what surprised me was this: I couldn't see worth a darn what I was
focusing on! The viewfinder was more or less *dark*. I ended up
focusing at infinity and I bracketed, hoping something would come out.
What do folks use when shooting at dusk or in the dark? From the e-SIF,
it looks like the 1-8 might be good. Should I have used my OM 1-MD
instead???
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