ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY WITH THE OLYMPUS 35MM CAMERAS Last updated: 27 December 2006

Subject:	Some Astrophotography The Old Fashion Way??!
Sent:	Monday, December 25, 2006 15:31:02
From:	M. J. The Madjordainain (madjordainian@insightbb.com)
I recently purchased an Olympus OM1 Camera complete with 3 lenses; a
hard case; & a couple of other accessories at an auction.  I originally
bought the outfit to get at the 35mm; 50mm; & 80mm X 200mm zoom lenses
that were in the case with the ideal of using them for some  DSI-Pro
wide fields using a Mogg adaptor.  The camera was in pretty good shape &
I though what the heck I'll give it a shot, I visited a couple of film
astrophotographer sites to pick up a couple of tips on using film and
give it a try.

I have been at the CCD angle of it for a little over a year now & so
crossing over to the film for some fun was not a huge step.  In fact it
made the film astrophotography seem like a snap & quite a bit easier
than the DSI-Pro CCD was at first!  The biggest draw back being no
instant gratification of being able to see & evaluate your ongoing
image.  Although, taking the first roll I shot to the developer &
waiting to get it back made it seem like opening a Christmas package
when I did get it back!  I did apply my CCD lessons learned from
autoguiding and such to the 35mm camera, which was part of what made it
seem so easy.  I already had a pretty good grasp on autoguiding the
Meade LXD75 mount with the DSI-P camera & Envisage software.

Well I was visiting your site this evening after the last of the
Christmas Day guests left and noticed your 35mm camera section looked
rather lonely & user neglected for the past couple of years.  Well
here's a few "new" photos for your 35mm film section I shot these over
November & December of this year using an 8" Orion SVP Newt mounted on
my LXD75 with an Orion 80mm ED as the guidescope.  I used the DSI-Pro
for my Guide Camera with the Envisage software doing the calibrations &
guidance.  All in all I have been pleased with the performance this
combination gave me, not bad for a film camera outfit costing < $50.00
second hand!  I plan to sometime in the future get a DSLR camera or
larger format/chip CCD, but I'm going to have some fun with this "new"
outfit for a while!

Some information on the photos:

C14 The Double Cluster - 15 minute guided exposure Kodak Elite Chrome
200 on 11/22/06



C11 The Bubble Nebula & M52 - 60 minute guided exposure Kodak Elite
Chrome 200 on 12/09/06



M45 The Pleiades Cluster - 40 minute guided exposure Kodak Elite Chrome
200 on 12/09/06



M42_43 & NGC1977 Orion Nebula Complex 25 minute exposure Kodak Elite
chrome 200 on 11/23/06



Lunar Photo 1/500 second Kodak Elite Chrome 200 12/01/06



It is amazing to me how that original DSI camera opened up my astronomy!
I would have never dreamed I could be doing astrophotography with a CCD
or 35mm camera just a couple of years ago, not on my budget!  Film is
not dead, & as I have seen said else where - this ain't your daddy's
film.  The Kodak EC 200 was straight off the shelf from Miejers, out of
the box & in the camera - no additional treatments for long exposure
astrophotography.  This will be fun for a while!

Mark Jordan
The Mad One
Greenfield, IN

Subject:	Orion Photo
Sent:	Wednesday, January 9, 2002 18:11:56
From:	igrodroch@enlace.net (Ignacio Rodriguez)
This is a photo of Orion. It was taken last week from my backyard.
Setup:  Olympus OM-1n + Vivitar 135mm/2.8  @ f/8  + tripod + Kodak Supra
800.  It was about 8 minutes long begining with the lens defocused and
then focusing 7 times to finish focused to infinity. I saw a similar
photo in Astronomy magazine and decided to try.

I'll send some piggyback and prime focus photos with my ETX125 latter
this month.

Congratulations again for your great site.

Ignacio

Subject:	M42 astrophoto
Sent:	Saturday, January 19, 2002 15:27:20
From:	igrodroch@enlace.net (Ignacio Rodriguez)
Here is a piggyback photo of Orion Nebula using my OM-1n and a Vivitar
500mm f/8 mirror lens.  The picture is guided using the ETX125 in polar
mode. Exposure 10 min.  Film: Kodak Royal Gold 400.  The photo was taken
January 17 2002 from my backyard.  In the Deep sky Guest
astrophotography gallery there is a photo of this setup (
ETX125+OM-1+500mm lens ) I sent on Sept 2001

Ignacio

Subject:	Moon photo
Sent:	Friday, January 17, 2003 11:32:31
From:	shibori@harborside.com (William Mason)
Here is a picture of the moon that I took with my ETX-125EC Telescope. I
use a 35mm Olympus OM-1n through the photo-port. Film speed 400, camera
speed, 15th of a second.  Film developed into prints at Wal-Mart, then
scanned with HP PSC 500 scanner.  Processed with PhotoImpact 6.

Kip Mason
shibori@harborside.com 

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