On 26 Feb 2009, at 09:21, Joe Bauman wrote:
Patrick, I agree about the stars. If you blow up a section of a wider view you get fatter stars. Often the smaller view will have more detail. If I made a zillion-piece mosaic that covered as much a single shot from Tyler's telescope, it would look similar. So I am not going after big objects. I'll shoot things like planetaries and galaxies that aren't enormous.
I do sometimes miss the wider fields of a short focal length OTA. Between that and a thread I started on another list, I'm actually giving serious thought to pulling my Schmidt camera out of mothballs. Fast (f/1.65) and short (230 mm focal length) and a 6 x 9 *degree* (not minute) FOV. I was at Picture Line yesterday and was surprised to see a lot of film photography stuff for sale. I doubt I'd print anything, rather I'd just scan and manipulate the negatives. So maybe this is why I've never dismantled my darkroom. patrick p.s. I love the smell of acetic acid in the morning... :)