The Astrocast
The Astrocast
Episode 68 - Wisconsin Bound!
WELCOME BAAAACK to The Astrocast!
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T Minus 2 days until it's wheels up for Dark Skies! Roo is going on his first ever FLIGHT for a dark sky trip, and takes you through many of his thoughts before. We also discuss a new FILM camera (35mm AP, anyone?!) as well as his lovely wife Jess joining him to see the Milky Way for her first time ever!!!!
Links from this weeks show:
The Pelican Case (still on sale!)
3D Printed Camera Caps, M42/48/55/68 M and F
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Email me at "RooAstrocast@gmail.com" with any questions/comments. Thanks for listening!
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;52;26
Unknown
Sorry, I, I think the. You are listening to. Yes. Oh. Oh. Oh.
00;00;52;28 - 00;01;25;15
Unknown
Welcome back to the Astrocast! Today is Thursday, August 21st, 2025. So we got about 3% left on the waning crescent moon.
00;01;25;18 - 00;01;47;05
Unknown
Just a, tiny little sliver left in the sky. If you happen to get up early enough to see it. Thank you for tuning in this week. My name is Roo. Thanks for joining, as always. Let's see, I've got, why not a lot of stuff to catch you guys up on. That's happened in the last week.
00;01;47;05 - 00;02;10;19
Unknown
I mean, it's been hectic because, as I mentioned on last week's show, I will be heading on a dark sky trip this weekend. So to give you just a a little bit more information, I'm heading up to Wisconsin and, meeting up with some friends, and, we are going to be staying at another friend's, cabin.
00;02;10;19 - 00;02;32;27
Unknown
So he has a cabin in very beautiful dark skies, and I'm like, it's like a mortal 3 or 4, if I'm not mistaken. He sent me shots of Milky Way that he gets over the lake, and they're just absolutely gorgeous. So I'm very, very much looking forward to that. Get to meet some new people that I'm very much looking forward to.
00;02;32;27 - 00;02;54;10
Unknown
And we'll have more to come on that in the near future. But I'm leaving on Saturday. I wanted to leave on Friday originally, but unfortunately. Work, work is work. And because of work, I couldn't leave on Friday. Because, well, we don't need to get into specifics. I couldn't leave on Friday, so I ended up having to leave on Saturday.
00;02;54;13 - 00;03;17;03
Unknown
And, I'll be coming back Tuesday night, so I should have three nights. The weather report is looking pretty good so far. I haven't checked on it today. But our host, Mark has been keeping me informed, and he says that it's looking pretty good, so fingers crossed that we get, you know, at least one really good night.
00;03;17;05 - 00;03;52;29
Unknown
I would hate to bring all this gear up there and, you know, not get to use it, but I understand that's part of the game, too. You know, we we do what we can, and we take advantage when we can. I will tell you that I am very much enjoying this, Pelican case that I purchased, a little over a month ago, and I, started packing it in earnest this week, and, I folded the AM3 down to zero degrees, so it's like a perfectly, you know, flat surface as compact as it can get.
00;03;53;02 - 00;04;27;03
Unknown
And that packs in very well. And then I was able to easily get my, NASCAR refractor or the Isca 55 in there along with my camera. I was able to leave. The autofocus are attached, which is nice. So, I'll put a photo of the, fully packed case up on the Facebook page. And if you guys want to check it out, you can, just to give you an idea of, you know, the kind of gear that you can fit in a case like that, which I never really considered getting a pelican before because I always thought they were just, like, outrageously expensive.
00;04;27;03 - 00;04;50;14
Unknown
I knew they were good, obviously, they're good cases, but I didn't think they'd be good enough to justify the kind of premium that they were demanding. But as it turns out, you can find them for, you know, pretty affordable prices if you look around in your patient. So you just got to, you know, be patient, no one wanted to jump, etc..
00;04;50;22 - 00;05;09;21
Unknown
Pay attention to prices, look for sales. I don't know if that same one is still on sale on PNH photo. I'll check and if I remember, I'll put it in the show notes. But, I mentioned it on the show a few weeks ago, so hopefully you heard about that. So, let's see the the Patreon man, oh man, has it been busy.
00;05;09;21 - 00;05;27;27
Unknown
We we keep getting new members and it's so awesome to have all of you guys there. I just want to once again say thank you to all of our Patreon members. You guys are great. Thanks for becoming, Really, members of the Astro cast family is the best way I can put it, because it sure feels that way.
00;05;27;29 - 00;06;00;03
Unknown
And our chat's in the discord, so if you'd like to join us, you can always do that at Patreon.com. Forward slash the Astro cast. So last weekend, I got to do something that I have been trying to do for man for years now. Maybe it's been a while. So I am a very, happily married man. Been married for 11 years and, about a month.
00;06;00;05 - 00;06;22;14
Unknown
Three weeks, to be specific. And, I got to marry my my high school crush, which is just awesome. And we get along very, very well. Really never fight. For the most part. We might have a little squabbles every now and then, but, you know, pretty much everyone we know says we're the happy, happiest married couple that they know.
00;06;22;17 - 00;06;47;19
Unknown
And I tend to agree with that. But one thing that I had not been able to do up until last weekend was get my wife to go with me to check out the Milky Way one night. And, you know, no, no fault of hers. Everybody has different interests and hers does not include sitting out under the night sky for hours at a time in the middle of the night, and I can't blame her for that.
00;06;47;19 - 00;07;09;02
Unknown
I know it's not for everyone, but I did, you know, want her to get a chance to at least experience it and see, you know, what makes it so special to us? To, you know, hopefully let her understand, with with me going on this dark sky trip and I'm going to be flying up and I want my my cell.
00;07;09;02 - 00;07;32;06
Unknown
She can't come. Unfortunately. She's got to stay home and take care of the pets. I figured this was the perfect time, for us to go and check it out. So, I was watching the weather report, and Sunday night actually looked quite promising. We had a fairly busy weekend. But on Sunday, I kind of cornered her and said, hey, you're in a good mood.
00;07;32;08 - 00;07;58;07
Unknown
Do you want to go check out the Milky Way tonight? And because we've talked about it for a long, long time, but we just haven't had a good opportunity. So, we went down to my in-laws and had dinner with them. It was great. And there was a point where I had had two cocktails, and I was I had eaten a big dinner and I was like, man, I love going to the, going Milky Way hunting, that I might not happen, but I relaxed.
00;07;58;10 - 00;08;23;03
Unknown
You know what? It, let the iris wear off and regrouped. And, at first I thought, you know, why don't we go somewhere where we can be alone? You know, like any of the dark sky sites that I find. Then I was like, you know, I probably shouldn't bring my wife to a graveyard and middle of the night for her first, dark sky session.
00;08;23;03 - 00;08;50;04
Unknown
So after, much consideration, I decided the observatory would be the best place to go. So we went down to, Gail Rigsby Observatory on Sunday evening. And it's funny, when you're driving down to the, Charlotte Amateur Astronomer Club. Observatory, you go from Charlotte, which, as you know or may not know, it's a pretty big city.
00;08;50;04 - 00;09;21;11
Unknown
You know, it's not New York or anything, but it is, I think, between in between Atlanta and New York on the eastern seaboard, it's the biggest city. So pretty big city. So you drive to the southern part of the city, and then you get on this kind of like back road highway. It's just a two lane road, and you drive for pretty much an hour with a couple of turns, and you eventually get to South Carolina, and then you're kind of like in the middle of nowhere.
00;09;21;11 - 00;09;48;10
Unknown
Essentially, there's still houses and stuff, but not like big neighborhoods. And every time I make that trip, I always am worried about deer because this particular area is just like overrun with deer. They are everywhere. I don't think that there's like too many people that are going hunting in that area and therefore like the numbers are just not ever cold.
00;09;48;12 - 00;10;14;23
Unknown
And the population just gets bigger and bigger and bigger if it's left unchecked, which, you know, isn't like the the biggest deal in the world. But when you're, you know, driving home from the observatory at 4:00 in the morning and you're very, very tired, it can be really dangerous. And, while we were driving to the observatory, it was just before sundown.
00;10;14;25 - 00;10;34;16
Unknown
And, you know, starting to get dark. And sure enough, we had, mama deer and a baby deer jump right out in front of the car. Now, I was, not going 55 miles an hour, which is the speed limit on that road. I was going about 35 because I know to expect these things. And I avoided it.
00;10;34;16 - 00;10;57;24
Unknown
They were able to safely cross the street, which is great, but it makes you realize why so many of the guys down there who do own their own observatory buildings have a bed in their warm room because they, they like to not, drive home at 4:00 in the morning and just wait until the sun's up when they can, you know, safely get home.
00;10;57;24 - 00;11;21;03
Unknown
But there's been just countless times that I have come home from the observatory really, really late at night. And, it's always, like, such a adventure because you just never know how many deer you're going to see. You're guaranteed to see some deer. You will see them. It's just a matter of how many will you see? And will they jump right out in front of you?
00;11;21;08 - 00;11;46;14
Unknown
So anyway, we got down, to the observatory and there weren't a lot of people there. There was one person on the, the giant Newtonian scope that you need stairs to get to the top of that view. The eyepiece of it's pointed up to the meridian. And, I said hi to him, and then I went down to the, the, you know, main pad that everybody can set up on.
00;11;46;16 - 00;12;16;12
Unknown
And Bill was there. He's a, older gentleman, longtime member of the club. Super nice guy. I've seen him many, many times down there. He actually owns his own building down there. So he's there quite frequently. And, he was also working on some Milky Way stuff that night. So, being that I knew I wasn't going to be staying for, super long time, and I knew obviously with Jess being there, I knew she, she would probably have a good time, but she wouldn't want to sit out there for five hours.
00;12;16;13 - 00;12;41;07
Unknown
So I only brought the, the move chute move. Which is a star tracker. I've talked about it on the show a few times. I've had it for, I don't know, the whole summer now, essentially. And, man, I just. I can't find a bad thing to say about that tracker. It sets up so quickly. And if you have, the wedge that it comes with, it's just incredibly easy to polar align.
00;12;41;07 - 00;13;07;21
Unknown
It holds its polar alignment. Well, I was doing 62nd tracked exposures with my, 16 millimeter canon RF lens, and they all came out perfect. I just I love that thing. You know, I highly, highly, highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a super portable setup. I'm planning on bring it with me, to this dark sky trip.
00;13;07;24 - 00;13;33;08
Unknown
So obviously I'm bringing the ACR refractor. I'm bringing the AMS three mount, which, by the way, excellent tracking. Whenever I went out and did the test on it, I was getting like 0.38 on my guiding, and that was not even with, like, a phenomenal polar alignment. I was under one minute. But like, normally I like get under 15 seconds under 10s somewhere in that area.
00;13;33;11 - 00;13;57;17
Unknown
But with just like a really quick polar alignment, I was getting like 0.38, like no counterweights, like that's just unreal to me. And I love the sound of that mount slewing. There's just something about it. It sounds so good. I really like the build quality of it. I was able to run it off the air, which is nice.
00;13;57;17 - 00;14;15;15
Unknown
I know everyone says you shouldn't do that, but I've done it with, I think, every mount that I've owned, and I've never had a problem yet. So, you know, until I do have a problem, I'll continue to, You know, I don't know if you can give me, like, a good reason why I should not be doing that.
00;14;15;15 - 00;14;49;24
Unknown
I am definitely open to hearing it. Feel free to email me at ru Astro cast at gmail.com and we can talk about it. But it does seem to work fine. So, I actually got, the little, What is it, the cold shoe or, Yeah, cold shoe adapter, for the side of the M3, because it's got a couple of mounting holes right there on the saddle, and you can attach the AC air directly to it, and that just cleans up your cable management and makes everything a little bit more tidy.
00;14;49;26 - 00;15;15;16
Unknown
So that is really super cool. I also, you know, speaking of tidying things up, when I was packing, for this trip, I got my, you know, the little cases that zwo cameras come in. They're the soft padded cases, and it fits just the camera. And, you know, after you set up your rig, you probably never even look at the bag again.
00;15;15;16 - 00;15;41;09
Unknown
But, you know, if you're traveling and you actually need to break down your rig, it's good to have. So I got that out and I realized I didn't have, the, the, like, lens cap. I guess you would say for the camera. I think it's actually a dust cover, technically. But anyway, I found a 3D print file for M42, M48, and M 52.
00;15;41;09 - 00;16;03;16
Unknown
I want to say it is the next step up from 48. Print it out. Two of them, they work great. So that was really, really cool. I posted the link for that on the Facebook page, but I will put the link to the 3D print file in the show notes. I also have another one I want to tell you about later, but let me, let me get back to the, the observatory.
00;16;03;16 - 00;16;24;13
Unknown
So we got down there, I set up the move. Shoot, move. Jess is sitting in my foldout chair looking up, and she's just seeing satellite after satellite after satellite, which is a cool thing to see. If you're not accustomed to it. I mean, don't get me wrong, I still think it's cool to see a satellite flying overhead.
00;16;24;20 - 00;16;52;00
Unknown
I just wish there weren't 15,000 of them as all. And I think we can all agree on that. But it was still, you know, not, you know, astronomical darkness by any means. When we were done setting up, so we're kind of sitting there and waiting and anticipation and, Bill was asking for some, you know, troubleshooting steps with his, canon camera that he had borrowed from his wife.
00;16;52;02 - 00;17;12;07
Unknown
And I was doing my best to help him, but it was a, a dSLR canon, which I have owned in the past. But I've been shooting mirrorless for, I don't know, five years now. So it's not often that I play with canon dSLR. The menus are still very similar to what we have and so are the controls.
00;17;12;07 - 00;17;48;20
Unknown
But man, he was having just some weird funky issues with this camera. And it reminded me to to let you guys know something we were talking about, you know, Milky Way tips last week. And I just want to say one of the worst things you can do for astrophotography is to go out on, like, a dark sky trip or a milky way shoot and not know your camera inside and out because you will run into issues.
00;17;48;20 - 00;18;12;09
Unknown
It's not if, it's when. Because if you don't know that camera inside and out and have your custom mode set or you know, you know you're going to do a 32nd exposure at f 3.5 16 millimeter lens, we're going to set ISO 1600. We'll have a two second delay. Like you need to know all of these things like muscle memory.
00;18;12;09 - 00;18;37;18
Unknown
Because if you don't you're going to have a very, very frustrating time. And I don't know what it is. But when I'm not at home, like in my comfort place, I have an even harder time because I'm just kind of like out of my environment. And I could tell that Bill was struggling with those issues because he kept, you know, leaning back on this is my wife's camera.
00;18;37;18 - 00;19;02;22
Unknown
And I'm like, okay, I get it. I understand if it's not your camera that you use every day, you know you're going to have trouble. It's dark out. You don't know all the buttons and the dials. And believe me when I say full frame, canon doesn't have a lot of buttons and dials on them. So he was running into weird issues, like half pressing the shutter, and the screen wasn't turning on at all.
00;19;02;24 - 00;19;35;19
Unknown
And then we had, autofocus versus manual focus issue. We had an exposure length issue, just like issue after issue after issue. He finally got it fixed and was able to, properly expose, several Milky Way photos. They did come out great. And I think by the time I had gotten all of my gear set up, and he had done the same, the Milky Way was finally starting to come out.
00;19;35;19 - 00;19;58;03
Unknown
And man, it was it was super cool to see. And I was trying to think, like, I don't know if I had seen it this summer yet because it's been so cloudy and so rainy and so smoky and like, we even made that, you know, dark sky trip me and my sister did all the way up to Virginia back in June.
00;19;58;03 - 00;20;24;26
Unknown
Or was it may not have been May, May or June? And we weren't able to see the Milky Way because of the wildfires, even though the the moon wasn't out. So, like, you know, it is a really, really, special thing to be able to, to witness it. But when you get to witness it with someone that you love and care about for the first time, it just makes it all the more special.
00;20;24;26 - 00;20;50;09
Unknown
So we didn't stay too late. I was doing like I say, I was doing 62nd exposures. I stopped down the lens slightly to f 3.5, just to sharpen up the stars. That's always a good thing to do. I know I mentioned it before, but, you know, stop down your lens just a little bit because you will notice that the, the stars come out much, much nicer.
00;20;50;12 - 00;21;29;28
Unknown
And I think it was ISO 1600 and again, 62nd exposures. And I was, I was using the shutter app again. I gotta say, I've used that app for quite a while now, and I can definitely recommend it. So if you go on the, the App Store and it might be on the Android Play Store as well, or Google Play Store, it's called shutter and it's just it's a really great tool, for Astrophotographers because it lets you basically manually set all of the controls from your camera, and then you can pick how many shots you want to do.
00;21;29;29 - 00;21;56;19
Unknown
You can set it to unlimited and they can just, you know, expose, expose, expose for you which is which is a great thing, obviously. So I got done, we got a, you know, a really good view of the Milky Way for, I'd say 45 minutes or so. And then like, the whole sky changed. It was still clear out, but the humidity just got awful.
00;21;56;19 - 00;22;22;27
Unknown
Like instantly. And the scene just was destroyed, like where we were able to make out some fine details of the Milky Way. It just became like a really light smudge after, the humidity increased. And, you know, at that point, I knew it was pretty much over, for the night, unfortunately. So I, I still had one thing left to do, though.
00;22;22;27 - 00;22;43;02
Unknown
I had been taking, you know, obviously, shots of the core of the Milky Way. And I wanted to make sure that I could commemorate the moment, since it was the first time that my wife really went stargazing with me outside of a meteor shower that we did a few years ago. I think she went with it with me on that.
00;22;43;05 - 00;23;13;25
Unknown
So I, broke down my rig and I put the camera back on the tripod and moved it back about 15ft from where we were standing. And, you know, if you don't know, this is the process of doing, like, a foreground shot, and you don't have to do it. When it's blue hour, blue hour being, like the hour before astronomical darkness, when it's still, you know, somewhat light outside.
00;23;13;25 - 00;23;30;13
Unknown
That's when a lot of people like to take their foreground shots. But you don't have to do it. Then you can do it when it's dark out. And if you have something like a, a red headlamp that you can set down on the ground behind you or your subject, then you can, you know, make it that much better.
00;23;30;15 - 00;23;55;10
Unknown
Just by lighting up your subject a little bit. And then if you want to adjust the light, you can always do that in post, because you can change colors in Lightroom. So if you want to make it look more natural, you can. If you want to leave the red, you can, etc.. But I had, just stand about ten feet in front of the camera, and I walked up beside her and put my arm around her, and then I exposed the shutter for I want to say 10s.
00;23;55;10 - 00;24;27;25
Unknown
And I stopped it down a little bit, just to sharpen it up again and give me a wider, focal plane, which is obviously important to have for a foreground shot. And, I think it came out really good. So I, I ended up coming home, obviously, we got home, I think around 1130, and, the next morning it was time to go ahead and stack those Milky Way photos and, stacking Milky Way photos.
00;24;27;25 - 00;24;56;22
Unknown
So I ran into, some interesting stuff in pix insight that I want to speak briefly on, but I don't think I'm going to get like two detailed into it because it might be it might end up being like a whole tutorial. And I'll tell you why in a second. So anyway, when it was time to stack the photos, there's a lot of different ways that you can stack Milky Way photos.
00;24;56;24 - 00;25;20;19
Unknown
I personally don't use Pix insight, for Milky Way photo stacking because there is a, a solving a plate, solving that needs to happen. When you're using pix insight and if you can't plate solve the image, the stack won't work properly. At least I haven't found out a way to make it work properly. If you know how to, please let me know.
00;25;20;21 - 00;25;50;11
Unknown
But I use an app on my MacBook actually, so the Mac has a an excellent app called Starry Landscape Stacker. And, they have a free version and a paid version. I have the paid version. It's not super expensive. I think I paid like $40 for it, if I'm not mistaken. And it's a really, really great application that just it works phenomenally for, for, stacking specifically, you know, wide field Milky Way shots.
00;25;50;11 - 00;26;28;19
Unknown
It's got a really easy interface to use. You can basically paint the sky area, and then it aligns and stacks everything for you and lets you save the stacked image. And from there, you can put it wherever you want. So normally for me, what I've been doing in the past is taking that stacked image and then bringing it into Photoshop and then, you know, masking it all off, and then I'll lay my foreground on top after I've edited the photo and, you know, got the Milky Way just how I want it.
00;26;28;21 - 00;27;02;14
Unknown
But I really I wanted to try Pix insight again because Pix insight has some tools within it that can be super helpful when you're doing Milky Way photos. And yet that plate solve can still be quite a pain in the butt. To achieve. While you're working with Milky Way photos. So the thing that I was mentioning earlier, that I might do a tutorial on, I don't know, you guys let me know if it's something that you want to hear more about it.
00;27;02;16 - 00;27;28;09
Unknown
Let me know and I will, take a lot of notes next time I do it. Because I was just trying to bumble my way through and looking up different sources and trying different things. Anyway, I found a way to to plate solve properly with, pretty good success actually. In pix insight for Milky Way photos, and in the past I have had nothing but failure when trying to do that.
00;27;28;11 - 00;27;52;25
Unknown
And I found out it's it's a combination of a lot of different things. At the same time, I would try to, you know, just upload the photo to astrometry dot net. No luck there either. They would just fail. But I was able to do it, and there were, a lot of different reasons. But like I say, if you guys are interested, let me know.
00;27;52;27 - 00;28;21;19
Unknown
And I will see if I can put together an episode of that. But after I got the plate solved on, I was able to immediately run blur. Exterminator. Which just, that's so, so, so nice to run on a milky way image, because no matter how good, in my opinion, your star tracker is, and you know how great your glasses and whether you got it stopped down or not.
00;28;21;21 - 00;28;50;28
Unknown
You can always have better looking stars and Milky Way core, in my opinion. Then what comes out of the camera and blur? Exterminator is just so good at doing that, in my opinion, so that's fantastic. But the real, well, you don't need pix insight for this tool because there's a separate standalone version of it. But Bert, using that, on a milky way photo is awesome.
00;28;50;28 - 00;29;13;11
Unknown
If you've never done a gradient removal, on the Milky Way, it really brings out a lot of the fainter details that you may have missed. You gotta be careful with it because you can go overboard and end up, you know, removing some fainter details. If I was in a darker location, for example, than I probably would have been able to pick up the blue horsehead.
00;29;13;11 - 00;29;51;18
Unknown
I didn't do long enough. Total integration to even get it. And like I say, it was humid out, the saying wasn't great, etc.. But, you know, blur. Exterminator. You can do a star reduction, which is super nice. The obviously auto stretching. If you want to do that, you can make adjustments. I just use the curves tool and adjusted it because it doesn't take much when you have like a stacked CR three file, with 30 exposures or however much you get, it's already going to have color and it.
00;29;51;18 - 00;30;17;07
Unknown
So it doesn't take a whole lot, to get it where it needs to be stretching wise. But you get great results in pix insight. You just can't deny it. So once I finished up there, I exported it to Lightroom. And I did a little bit of a color balance tweak. So I like, kind of depending on how the photo is and what time of year it is.
00;30;17;07 - 00;30;41;10
Unknown
Sometimes I'll go a little cooler with my Milky Way shots, which I'm a big fan of, and sometimes I'll go a little warmer with my, Milky Way shots. And this one I actually went a little warmer with, and I think it, it came out better for it. So the colors, get a little redder. There's more orange, you know, as opposed to the more purplish and blue kind of hues you get with a cooler frame.
00;30;41;10 - 00;31;10;10
Unknown
The Milky Way photo, and it came out great. So, you know, once I had that done, it was just a matter of loading up both images and Photoshop the foreground image, obviously, and then the actual Milky Way image and, there's a million tutorials online that can tell you how to remove the foreground, from a shot and then place it on top of your Milky Way photo.
00;31;10;10 - 00;31;33;18
Unknown
The tricky part is putting them together in such a way that looks natural, because you don't want them to look like they have completely different color schemes going on, like you wouldn't want to do a really cool, you know, exposed foreground image and then have a super warm Milky Way because it's going to be like, what is this?
00;31;33;18 - 00;32;01;10
Unknown
I don't know what I'm looking at here, but if you can really kind of match up the to, play around in Lightroom with both images until you get them, you know, looking pretty good for how you want, that then it can work out just really, really great. And, you know, if you have any issues where, you know, trees get clipped or it's not a wide enough, etc., Photoshop's got, you know, obviously a million different tools that can, you can use to, to, to make that work.
00;32;01;10 - 00;32;21;14
Unknown
Like, for example, I had, a couple of hot pixels that showed up in the final stacked image, and since they were clipped, it just looked like black splotches on one piece of the Milky Way photo. Luckily, it was all the way near the edge, way outside of the core. It wasn't in any of the nebulosity or anything like that.
00;32;21;14 - 00;32;50;12
Unknown
So I use the clone stamp and just covered up that one tiny little area no one's ever going to know. You wouldn't know either if you looked at it, because it was a just a tiny little spot. But for quick touch ups like that, it's, it's an excellent use case, for Photoshop. So now, you know, given I realize that I'm talking about a ton of different software here, all pretty much paid applications there are free versions of everything out there.
00;32;50;12 - 00;33;13;21
Unknown
Like, if you don't like using Photoshop, Gimp is an excellent open source alternative. It might take a little bit more of a learning curve, but honestly, Photoshop has a huge learning curve, so it just it just depends on where you started and what you want to learn. Really. Cyril obviously is a good, free stand in for pix insight.
00;33;13;24 - 00;33;39;21
Unknown
I haven't personally used zero before. I have downloaded it and looked at it, but I've never actually like processed one of my images from front to back and zero. The only thing I haven't found a real true like, open source or free analog for is Lightroom. Because Lightroom, it's just it's super easy to use once you learn how the tool works.
00;33;39;23 - 00;34;06;27
Unknown
It's extremely flexible. I just I love the interface, and I don't even use Lightroom Classic. I use the CC version. I learned on the CC version. So like when I go to the classic Lightroom, I don't know how to work anything and it drives me nuts. Believe me, I've tried to because every tutorial that you'll ever look up on the internet is going to be from Lightroom Classic, and that that's just how it is.
00;34;06;27 - 00;34;46;16
Unknown
And that's okay. But I prefer the CC version personally. The only thing that I don't like about Lightroom, besides the costs, obviously, is the way that Adobe handles the, the cloud storage. I hate the way that it's set up because it's, you know, unless you are, like, really good about culling your photos and then backing them up to an external drive, like me personally, I like to open Lightroom and view several years of photos that I've taken, but there might be, you know, 30 shots of one, you know, bird shoot of the same bird.
00;34;46;16 - 00;35;05;27
Unknown
If they were all, you know, good shots out of 200 that I took. I don't want to remove those from Lightroom, but they're going to count against my cloud storage. And if you're like me and you take a whole lot of photos, you know, over time that's going to fill up and you end up buying the 100GB that they offer for a couple bucks more.
00;35;05;27 - 00;35;25;09
Unknown
And then that fills up. And before long you're just like, I guess I'm and I export the entire library to an external drive and then start over. And that's what I've done a couple of times now. But for all its faults, it is, very easy to use, and it's a very powerful tool and I definitely enjoy it.
00;35;25;09 - 00;35;48;19
Unknown
So I will, I will definitely share that Milky Way image. The, the final one that I took. I'll probably make it the, the cover for this week's artwork. If you listen on, certain podcast apps, you'll see the cover art for the, episode. If you it's on YouTube, it's it's right there as the thumbnail, obviously.
00;35;48;22 - 00;36;04;14
Unknown
So let me know what you think. If you have any thoughts on it, you can always, go to our Facebook page. Just search for the Astro cast and you'll see our logo pop right up. I posted it there, but I'll also, like I say, I'll put it on the the show notes. Let me guys know what you think.
00;36;04;14 - 00;36;33;26
Unknown
You can go to, email me at ru. Astro cast at gmail.com and let me know what you think. So I did another thing to, camera related, and I always share all of my camera related stuff with you guys, so this will be no different. As you may know, I have been trying, to get into film cameras over the last year or so.
00;36;33;29 - 00;37;03;11
Unknown
Way back in, I want to say the spring time I bought the, Pentax Auto 110, which is a, really, really cool, really tiny film camera that does negatives that are like the size of your pinky. And it's a super cool. It's 110 type film. Not to be confused with like, medium format. You know, it's very, very small.
00;37;03;13 - 00;37;27;22
Unknown
And I've enjoyed it. And I bought, I think three rolls of the 110 film when I bought this camera. And they were finally done. So I, you know, I'd finished using all three of the rolls. I know that seems like a long time for three rolls of film, but one of the things about film photography is you don't take as many photos.
00;37;27;22 - 00;38;02;18
Unknown
It's not like with your iPhone or your, mirrorless camera where you just, you know, snap everything that you see. You really do pick and choose your moments a lot more, when you're shooting film, because obviously you have a finite amount of frames that you can capture. But it definitely got me more interested. And as cute and adorable as this camera is, it's not the most practical, and it doesn't really have any settings on it.
00;38;02;18 - 00;38;30;06
Unknown
You pretty much just, well, you focus it and you press the button. That's it. And it auto exposes it, picks the shutter time, it picks the aperture. It does everything for you. So I knew I wanted to get a 35 millimeter film camera, and I've been looking for quite a while. Prices have been all over the place.
00;38;30;07 - 00;39;00;29
Unknown
What I should have done is bought one last year, because I remember looking on, like, eBay last year, and the camera's that I'm going to talk about, you could get for, like, right around $100, if not significantly less, depending on the situation and the condition. Before all these tariffs started, you could go on eBay and you could actually buy a lot of these older film cameras from Japan, and they would have really cheap shipping.
00;39;01;01 - 00;39;30;17
Unknown
And if you know anything about the Japanese culture, they take very, very good care of their possessions and will literally pass them down from generation to generation because they don't believe in waste and they do believe in fixing things and using them. What a concept, right? So if you ever go to Japan, I haven't been myself, but I've got friends who've been, you'll notice if you go into, like, a thrift goods store, for example, that everything is in very, very good condition.
00;39;30;17 - 00;39;59;04
Unknown
So these are the kind of cameras that you could find online for less than $100. And then have it shipped to you from Japan, and you've got like a 40 year old camera that looks brand new, like, how incredible is that? But unfortunately, the combination of, film reaching like, an all time high and interest, now, because it's retro and cool.
00;39;59;06 - 00;40;20;25
Unknown
That combined with the tariffs have made it very difficult, and expensive to go that route. So if you want to find the camera that was 100 last year, it's easily 200 this year. And that's before it arrives at your door. And you pay the tariffs to whoever brings it to you. Yeah. So that was kind of out of the question for me.
00;40;20;25 - 00;40;47;08
Unknown
I didn't want to go that route. I didn't want, you know, things are constantly changing. I didn't even know how much the, the total price would be because, again, I don't know what the tariffs are in Japan right now. Did it get delayed? Not cetera. Anyway, I don't want to get into that. So I thought to myself, like, if I could find one in a local store and we have a few photography stores here in Charlotte, then I would certainly consider getting one.
00;40;47;10 - 00;41;10;22
Unknown
And, last weekend, on Saturday, me and my wife were out and about, and, we happened to be in the, shopping center where, a local camera store is. I'm not going to name them. But, you know, we go to this area a lot. There's a Barnes and Noble bookstore in the area, and we always go in and get books.
00;41;10;24 - 00;41;39;22
Unknown
By the way, picked up Cujo by Stephen King, and, I've always wanted to read it. I actually read his new, short story collection earlier this year. And there is a part two of Cujo in there called rattlesnakes, and it's the best book in the collection, so I knew I had to get around to reading Cujo, and I just finished The Dead Zone, and, come to find out, he wrote Cujo right after The Dead Zone.
00;41;39;22 - 00;41;59;20
Unknown
And you can tell because the very first page of Cujo is direct reference to the dead zone. God, I love Stephen King. I can't get enough of it. Anyway, excellent book so far. But anyhow, we are in this shopping center. We were heading, right by the camera store. So I said, you mind if I run in and have a look?
00;41;59;21 - 00;42;28;27
Unknown
I had a little bit of money in my pocket that I got in for, from my mother and mother in law for my birthday, and I figured, what the heck, let's go have a look. So I go in and the same camera. So first of all, this particular store does not put price tags on anything, and it drives me nuts because, like, I don't want to have to shout across the store every time I pick something up and say, how much is this?
00;42;28;27 - 00;42;44;10
Unknown
How much is this? How much is this? You know, I'm not, like, the most frugal guy in the world, but like, I don't want to just say I'm buying this and not knowing how much it cost. I don't think that's unreasonable. But at the same time, if I'm browsing, it'd be good to know how much stuff is, you know?
00;42;44;10 - 00;43;14;05
Unknown
So anyway, they had an a glass case up front. A bunch of the retro cameras, like 35mm film cameras. They had some Nikon's, they had some canons, and they had a few others, like, an old, you know, stuff like that. And I was open to getting a Nikon. Actually, I like some of the old EF models that are built like tanks, but ultimately I really wanted a canon just because I'm a canon guy at heart.
00;43;14;07 - 00;43;37;19
Unknown
And they had a canon a E1, which is a 35mm film camera that was built. I want to say. Yeah, it was it was 1976 when it came out. So, you know, definitely an older camera, older than me. In fact, I'm not going to say how much older I'm just getting. It's about eight years older than me.
00;43;37;21 - 00;44;12;17
Unknown
When it was originally released, and it's, at the time, it was very much a quel event or equivalent to buying, like an R5 of today. It was very expensive. For its time. I think, like close to over over $3,000 if you adjusted for inflation. But it's kind of claim the fame was that it was pretty much the first mainstream consumer camera that had a microprocessor in it.
00;44;12;17 - 00;44;41;26
Unknown
So it had a, auto exposure shutter priority mode where it would basically, select the F stops for you, and all you have to do is select, what shutter speed you want. So it's a super cool camera. It's very historical. It's got like, that classic camera look, where if you ask somebody to draw a picture of a camera, they'd probably draw something that looks like an A1.
00;44;41;28 - 00;45;11;02
Unknown
And, you know, it was like the thing to have back in the late 70s and early 80s. I think they stopped making them in around 1984. And that was right around when the f glass was starting to become popular, the EF mount being, Canon's prior to RF mount type lenses. And, and this camera took what was known as the f d mount.
00;45;11;04 - 00;45;34;06
Unknown
So FDM out was first, then the EF mount and now the RF. Now, just to give you an idea of, the timing that we're talking about here, another, super cool thing about the A1, which is not an uncommon thing for older cameras, but I knew it was a must have for me was it has bulb mode built into it.
00;45;34;06 - 00;45;57;04
Unknown
So, you know, it can go 1/1000 of a second to two seconds for its regular exposures. And then it also has a bulb mode, which you can plug in a, old school shutter release cable to and actually expose for as long as you want. Obviously, I don't need to tell you that. I will definitely, use that feature.
00;45;57;04 - 00;46;24;01
Unknown
If I were to get this camera. So I was looking at it and I asked the guy if I could see it, and just asking basic questions, and I say, sir, how much does, do you want for this? And he proceeded to tell me that the camera I was holding, which, mind you, not one year ago you could find for under $100 on eBay.
00;46;24;04 - 00;46;50;08
Unknown
They were selling it for $450, which really kind of blew my mind, honestly, because even, at the inflated prices, I was fairly certain that that was like a ridiculous price. So I handed it back to the guy. I said, thanks so much. You know, I asked him about a couple other cameras. They were also way, way overpriced.
00;46;50;08 - 00;47;17;06
Unknown
Or at least I thought, so I, you know, I said, oh, well, forgot about it. I, you know, I don't mind splurging occasionally, but I do mind, like getting ripped off. I'm just going to say, I won't do that. I don't care how bad I want something, I'm not going to, you know, pay way over what you would normally pay for it, even in situations like this, because, well, anyway, I'll tell you why.
00;47;17;09 - 00;47;46;10
Unknown
So earlier. Today, when I was out and about, doing some errands, I, happened to stop in to another local camera store here in Charlotte, and I will gladly call them out. The name of the store is the photo outfitters there on Monroe Road in Charlotte, North Carolina. And, a couple of guys named Tony and Canon actually run the place.
00;47;46;10 - 00;48;14;01
Unknown
And, yes, his name is actually Canon. Anyhow, I walked in and this was, the place I actually bought my auto 110 from earlier. This year and started talking to Tony. I was, I dropped off those three rolls of 110 film to have them developed, and went over to his case, and he had a lot of new gear in there, which was really cool to see.
00;48;14;04 - 00;48;44;20
Unknown
And there it was, the canon A1. What, the same lens, the 50 millimeter f 1.8. He also had the the all black version, which is the 1.2, and it was $200. So literally less than half the price of what the other guy was charging. And there is not a single camera that comes through that place that he doesn't completely take apart, repair everything that needs repaired, and then puts it back together.
00;48;44;23 - 00;49;08;08
Unknown
He won't sell it if it doesn't work. You know what I mean? The camera itself, I had to have it at that price, you know, it was definitely in the range that I was looking to pay. And it's just phenomenal. It's it's a really, really great camera. So I grabbed, three rolls of film. I got, a local company here.
00;49;08;10 - 00;49;40;14
Unknown
Aurora 400 is the kind. So with film cameras, you may or may not know, but you actually, when you choose your film, the film determines the ISO number, and you actually, on, on my camera, the A1, you actually have a dial where you select the ISO and you have to select that before you start shooting, and you can't change it after, or your photos will end up horribly under or overexposed, depending on what you select.
00;49;40;16 - 00;50;09;02
Unknown
Whereas with like a modern mirrorless camera or dSLR, obviously you just select your ISO on the fly, but with film you can't change it. So you pick the I mean, you can change it, but you can't change it on the fly. So, you know, I've got this roll of Aurora 400. I selected 400 on the ISO dial, loaded the film up, and I won't not touch that particular number again until I put in my next roll of film.
00;50;09;05 - 00;50;41;01
Unknown
And only if it's a different ISO. So does that make sense? And, the other ones I got are, portrait 800, which is, really cool, Kodak portrait film. It's legendary. And then I also got, I got one roll of Ilford, and they actually make a kind of crazy high ISO film, for film cameras at 3200.
00;50;41;03 - 00;51;14;29
Unknown
But as you can imagine, that is what I am going to use to shoot some astrophotography on film with. So I've been, thinking long and hard about how I want to do this, and there's obviously so many different ways that you can go about doing something like this. But for me, I will just simply be using my move, shoot move tracker on a, you know, nice sturdy tripod.
00;51;15;01 - 00;51;40;08
Unknown
I will use the the Ilford 3200, ISO film and I will use that, shutter release cable that I was able to purchase at Photo Outfitters, along with the new A1, new old A1, I should say, because this camera's, old as I am, if if it was built in 84, I'm going to try and see if I can find out what year my model was built in.
00;51;40;11 - 00;51;59;07
Unknown
I haven't looked super closely all over the camera. So I don't know if they have like a year marker on them somewhere. But I'm definitely going to look into that. Another, really cool thing about it is it opens up a whole new world of retro lenses for me to try out. I'm like, so stoked for that.
00;51;59;09 - 00;52;26;19
Unknown
Just because there's a lot of like, old FD mount glass out there that is dirt cheap, obviously, but not necessarily bad. You can get some really cool shots with it. So obviously I will still cherish my R5. Like I'm not going to use this for, you know, wildlife photography or anything like that, but like when I'm hanging out with family and stuff like that, what's cooler than getting a film shot of, you know, your family at dinner or something like that?
00;52;26;19 - 00;52;47;22
Unknown
I just don't think you can beat that. So yeah, the move, shoot, move along with the, the A1 and a shutter release cable. It should give me a pretty good experience. And, obviously it'll probably be a little bit because I'll probably shoot all three year olds of this film before I go and get it developed.
00;52;47;22 - 00;53;21;02
Unknown
But when I do develop those photos, I will make sure to, share some of them with you guys online. And another thing to that point, if you, are thinking about doing something similar, I just wanted to mention that, you know, I talked about the, the dust covers earlier for your zwo cameras. My, my, 3D printer has been getting a workout lately because I've just I've been finding so many useful things to print.
00;53;21;04 - 00;54;00;27
Unknown
And I found one other really super cool thing. So somebody designed a perfect laser holder for the Am three, or Am five mount. So earlier I mentioned that I mounted the ASI air to the saddle while those same two little M4. I believe they are screw holes. This laser pointer holder has two screw holes on the bottom of it that you can directly attach it to your M3 or M5 pop in a laser pointer, and then very quickly polar align your mouth.
00;54;00;29 - 00;54;26;28
Unknown
So if you wanted to do, let's say, tracked Milky Way photography, or you just wanted to really simplify things one night and not have to worry about breaking out the ASI air and all the other gear, you could just polar align your and three and five and literally, you know, a few seconds using a laser pointer and then put your mirrorless camera on top of it and Bob's your uncle.
00;54;26;28 - 00;54;48;07
Unknown
So you could you could shoot all night with that. And it's just a, it's a really cool way to use your gear that you otherwise wouldn't think to. So if you're interested in that, the laser pointer holder or the dust caps, I'll put the link to both of those in the show notes. You can also find, video I posted earlier on the Facebook page of the dust cap.
00;54;48;07 - 00;55;18;19
Unknown
So, make sure to, follow us over there. We've got quite a few people following on the Facebook page now, but if everybody who listens, went over there and gave us a follow, then we'd probably increase our listenership quite a bit, because that's how the, the old algorithm works. So I will also, I'd love to ask you guys if you have friends or family members or even just acquaintances, that have an interest in astronomy or astrophotography.
00;55;18;22 - 00;55;42;18
Unknown
Please share the show with them, because we're continuing to grow our audience and we are growing, you know, we're getting into that that kind of phase where we're coming up on two years of being a podcast and most podcasts are done, you know, well before they get to ten episodes. And, you know, we're we're getting near 100.
00;55;42;18 - 00;56;10;02
Unknown
You know, we still got a little ways to go, but we're getting there and we're going to get there, come hell or high water. So definitely, share it with a friend or family member if you have one. And I would, very, very much appreciate that. So, I do sadly have to say, that because of the dark sky trip, plus me having to return to work the day after I get back, and I'm not getting back until late at night.
00;56;10;05 - 00;56;28;25
Unknown
And there won't be a new episode next week, so I apologize for that. But I am working. I got I got a little side project I'm working on for the Astro cast. It's it's an episode, but it's a it's a very special episode that I'm kind of working on and slowly putting together for you guys.
00;56;28;25 - 00;56;57;24
Unknown
So I hope to have that out before the end of this year. It's kind of a big, probably the biggest project that I've done so far. So, you know, look forward to that. And, we are going to, also kind of have a big announcement, on the next episode. So obviously it won't be next week, but the following week when I get back from the dark sky trip, I do have an announcement, to share with you guys as well, which I, am really looking forward to doing.
00;56;57;24 - 00;57;25;25
Unknown
So definitely, tune in for that for a recommendation this week. I can really only give one recommendation this week, and there's a lot of different things I could recommend, because I've got some really cool media in my life right now that I could share with you guys. But one thing stands out in particular. And it's this week's new episode of Bob's Burgers.
00;57;25;25 - 00;57;52;01
Unknown
So hear me out. First of all, if you haven't seen Bob's Burgers, what are you doing? If you enjoy adult humor, that's pretty family friendly for the most part. And really, well, animated acts, excellently voice acting. The voice actors on that show are phenomenal. I'm a big fan of John Benjamin's work. Kristen Schaal does.
00;57;52;01 - 00;58;28;20
Unknown
Lewis obviously a lot of a lot of great voices on that show. But this week's episode in particular is titled I Believe It's Burger of the night, which is the, the song that, is song. As you know, there's a lot of musical numbers on Bob's Burgers. If you ever watch, you would know. But I was really, really able to relate with how Bob was feeling this week because without any spoilers, he, he really experienced in a different way, something that a lot of us astronomers do.
00;58;28;20 - 00;58;48;05
Unknown
So I highly encourage you to go watch it. Like I say, it's the most recent episode to release, so I believe that. I believe the air date was last Sunday. Which would have been what, the 17th? So you can watch it on Hulu. If you have Hulu or, you know, find a place to stream it online, obviously.
00;58;48;08 - 00;59;06;02
Unknown
Legally, of course. But anyway, check that out. Let me know what you think. I absolutely love that I had the song stuck in my head for days. It's still stuck in my head. And it's just it's a really great episode. So let me know what you think. So, guys, that's kind of do it for this week's episode.
00;59;06;04 - 00;59;28;15
Unknown
I am really going to miss you next week, but I'll be back very, very soon and we're going to have some really exciting news to share. So I'm definitely looking forward to doing that. I want to take a moment to first thank my wife, for joining me on the amazing Milky Way trip that we got to go on, this past weekend.
00;59;28;17 - 00;59;54;05
Unknown
I love you, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I just hope that you'll come again very soon. So I also want to say, thank you once more to all of our, Patreon members, both new and old. You guys are the best. Thank you so much for supporting the show day in and day out. Always being there. For myself and everyone else who is a member of the group, you guys are the best.
00;59;54;07 - 01;00;20;05
Unknown
If you want to join the best astronomy community in the world, you can do that at Patreon.com. Forward slash the Asterix. I might be a little bit biased, but I really do. I really do believe that. So thank you so much for listening to the Astro cast this week. I am your host and as always, just clear skies.
01;00;20;07 - 01;00;36;08
Unknown
0000.
01;00;36;10 - 01;00;47;12
Unknown
Oh.
