Star/Astro shots - 50sii vs 100s?

[Sal K]

Hello,

I am pondering a move to medium format.  One driver for me is to be able to get better star shots.  I am thinking the bigger sensor will help a fair amount.  The question I have is which is then more important once you have a bigger sensor (aka 100s and 50sii are same physical size) - the higher megapixels to catch more detail (100s) or larger photo receptor sites on the lower megapixel sensor (50sii).

My hunch is the 50sii.....but its more hunch than informed by experience with these bodies.

[jerryy]

Between the two, the 50 will probably be a better choice for stars in the night sky, but, …, well that may not be your best approach according to folks that discuss those issues:

https://astrojolo.com/gears/pixel-scale-and-resolution/

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/imaging-foundations-richard-wright/astrophotography-pick-your-pixels/

I think if you enjoy the hobby and want to use your camera for the images by all means give it a try.

But do keep in mind that you will need a g mount to telescope (t mount) adapter instead of the easier to find x mount to telescope adapter. Also, be aware that most popular telescopes use a two inch (M48) focuser — and associated other gear. This is ideal for APS-C sized sensors, but causes vignetting for full frame sensors and will not send an image outside the two inch circle to large frame sensors — you get an inner image with vignetting to black rectangle framing. This is not impossible to deal with, replace the focuser with one more appropriate but expensive especially after you make similar changes to any other gear.

[Sal K]

Oh I am a total hack.  My thought would be to first get the kit 35-70 with an eye on the 20-35 as a more appropriate use case (wider, very marginally faster).  I don't plan to start hooking up my telescope to anything given the massive number of permutations and combinations to consider (not to mention the size/weigth and the fact i can't travel with it).

I am willing to learn some new tricks on stacking.  I would be interested in maybe a very small 'tracker' but I don't plan to start hooking up actual telescopes to the body.

[jerryy]

Trackers such as Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Pro and iOptron SkyGuider Pro are quite popular. As long as you can keep the total weight (camera, lens, etc.) under 11 pounds (about 5 kilograms) these should work. These are Alt-Az types of mounts, often used for star photos as opposed to the German Equatorial Mounts more typically used for deep sky objects. Note: Depending on where you purchase one of these, the tripod may or may not be included, also make certain the counter weight is included. Resellers often put together different packages designed to inflict as much wallet damage as possible.

For stacking, there are a lot of free and paid options out there, ASTAP, Siril, Deep Sky Stacker, APT, Pix Insight are all easy to find. Affinity Photo has an built-in astrophotography stacking module. I do not think GIMP or PhotoShop have that yet, but I do not know for certain.

Show us some photos when you can.

Edited December 20, 2022 by jerryy