(長咀) Camping and simple wide field imaging

Just went camping again, this site requires three hours walk of over 10km difficult hiking trail.

So, I only had a simple small tripod plus a Canon 70D with 24mm pancake lens.

Two persons, two tent, a simple shelter more for wind shielding than anything else.

Waiting for the sunset.

This is not really a dark site, bright light from mainland China could be seen easily, but it's not bad either.

Wind was exceptionally strong, this is a shot of M45 combined with landscape... for the camera fell down with the tripod in the middle of the exposure.

We could see the light pollution from below:

I love this shot the most, combining M41 and Sirius with landscape.  I guess I shall do more of this type from now on, before going to tracked photography?

Mug shot of Orion with M42.

I was forced inside the tent after maybe ten o clock at night!

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On the way to the camping site, we had a partial solar eclipse...

(狗嶺涌營地) Camping and stargazing again!

This time I went to the Lantau Island for camping with my friend, camping is the goal and stargazing is a side dish.  This time, I bought my trusty Tele Vue Ranger without any camera in the hope to focus myself on visual observation.

Astrophotography is never my cup of tea, for:

1. Hong Kong is a city where people are proud of their light pollution
2. Astrophotography took much time and effort which I don't really have
3. I don't like post-processing.
4. By 1-3, I know my results would be less than desirable.
5. I love visual observation more, photography is just a way to keep memory going.  Just like why I keep this blog.

So, let's go back to the trip.  The sky was pretty promising.



After getting off from the bus, we have to talk 70 minutes to the camping site.  The last ten minutes:



After setting up the tent and stuff...



I setup my Ranger!  We have a small concrete platform which is nice for placing the tripod:



The above were what I had!  My Ranger, Rigel Quick Finder and my Japanese Widescan Type III 20mm.  What's new this time was a carbon fibre tripod and a swing head, they're excellent for low power scanning and observation!

This tripod is very thin and compact, it weights a bit more than 300g!  Yes, 300g only!  However, it's stable enough for this setup, no shake, not any sort of instability, none!  I'm happy with that!

M45 is visible to naked eyes, and the clear was clear.  I swing to M31 and it's there!  One of the best view with this small telescope I ever had.  When my friend finished his setup, we started cooking.

We have some strong wind that night and I left the setup there.  No problem at all!

It's a pity that the sky was fully covered after our dinner.

My Ranger were more than 20 years old!  I enjoy it as from day one of the ownership!  This is about a perfect telescope for me, light weight compact and always ready to go!



I acquired a 85ED  refractor which is both bigger and higher quality than my Ranger, but then it's already too heavy for me to bring it out for camping which requires non-trivial hiking.  Maybe I shall try to use the 85ED next time?