This series of film tests
were under very dark (Happy Jack) and moderately dark (Payson)
skies and were processed in a professional lab, scanned with
a Nikon LS2000 scanner, and processed in Photoshop 7. They typify
what one might get under good to ideal conditions with this new
film. This is the film that is widely available at mail order
houses such as B&H, and Adorama.
Testing Procedures:
Multiple rolls were exposed
on a tracking mount on various fields in the sky, including star
clouds, both red and blue nebula, and star clusters. A range
of focal lengths were used, from a wide 28mm to a longer 135mm.
Photographic Results:
While the film has a strong
peak at 650nm which would be great for Ha nebs, a strong green
peak the same height causes problems with color balance and light
pollution, and tends to wash out the really faint dim red nebulosities.
Grain is acceptable, but the quality control of this product
is terrible. Several rolls were fogged from leaking cartridges
right of out the box, and rolls shot simultaneously had very
different colors and sky backgrounds from roll to roll variation.
Overall, the results with the telephotos were disappointing,
the strong greens and strangely blue tinted bright stars made
for some amusing images. Most of the negatives had a strong magenta
cast, yielding a greenish background color to the uncorrected
images.
Upcoming results: Shots
with a prime focus setup with my 12.5 inch Newtonian were surprisingly
better, and will be highlighted in a few days.
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Scorpius from Payson
- 50mm f/3.5, 15 mins
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Antares/Rho
Ophiuchi - 135mm f/3.5, 30 mins |
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Stinger
of Scorpius - 135mm f/3.5, 15 mins |
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Lagoon
to M24 - 50mm f/3.5, 15 mins |
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Sagittarius/Pipe
neb - 50mm f/3.5 15 mins |
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Lagoon
to M24 - 50mm f/3.5, 30 mins |
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Cygnus
- 50mm f/3.5 15 mins |
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Lagoon/Trifid
- 135mm f/3.5, 15 mins |
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Gamma
Cygni (light fog) - 135mm f/3.5, 15 mins |
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Deneb
regions (light fog) - 135mm f/3.5, 15m |
Instruments: Pentax K1000 with 28mm f/2.8, 50mm f/2.8, 135mm f/2.5
Platform: Televue GEM
Film: Konica Cneturia Super 400
Exposure: 15 - 30m
Filters: NONE
Location: Happy Jack & Payson, Arizona
Elevation: 6800/5150 ft.
Sky: Seeing 8/10, Transparency 7/10
Outside Temperature: 20 C
Processing: Photoshop
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