Curiosity, Night Gazing & Visual Explorations

Few months ago, following my heart, and a little intuition, I started taking pictures… Here are some of my recent pics !  Enjoy !

New Pics

Part of the pleasure is to handle some technical gear. I’m a geek since several decades… here is my current setup :

Body

I’m currently on Sony cameras. I own and shoot on a Sony A7R3. 

Lenses

• Sony FE 14mm f/1.8 GM – Very sharp and a great lens for Astro !
• Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM – Incredible wide angle lens. Splendid for travelling, Night & Astro photography.
• Sony FE 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS (SEL24240) – Very nice all-rounder. To me, Ideal when you are limited in weight. 
• Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD – Excellent for portrait. 
• Sony FE 200-600 mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS – The Sony Superzoom ! For capturing planets as Jupiter, and Saturn, with the 2X Teleconverter.  
• Teleconverters
  • SONY E-MOUNT 2X TELECONVERTER (SEL20TC)
  • SONY E-MOUNT 1.4X TELECONVERTER (SEL14TC)

Filters

• NiSi Filter Kit 82mm : UV HUC, CPL HUC, Natural Night
• Urth – Filter Kit 82 mm : ND8, ND64 et ND1000
• + step-up adapter rings 82mm to all my lenses

Tripods

• BENRO Tortoise 34C+GX35 Carbon Tripod 
• Benro Carbon Travel Tripod
• Manfrotto Video Twin Leg Tripod MVT502AM 

Star Tracker

How to shoot long exposures of stars, without having star trails, due to earth rotation ? Use a star tracker, that makes your camera turns opposite to the earth rotation. 

• Move Shoot Move (MSM) Star tracker
• Sky Watcher Star Adventurer

Software for Astrophotography

• PIPP – Crop videos from planets
• Autostakkert
• Lightroom & Photoshop

Essential Tools

• photopills.com
• lightpollutionmap.info
• darksitefinder.com
• cleardarksky.com