Gear Review for my widefield low light night photography

 I've amaseed quite a range of gear over the years, from my early Nikon days to an amalgamated fascination with normal lenses (and others) from Olympus, Leica, Minolta and to Canon after going digital.

These days I almost exlusively shoot night sky (Milkyway and Aurora) with my Canon cameras and lenses as well as Sony with a considerable range of lenses from various marquees making use of vintage lenses I have collected over the years. With the Sony and various forms of lens adapters to Sony E mount I have before me overlapping range of lenses to shot the sky with.

Cameras:

Canon 6D,  5DMk3, 7D, 7DMk2

Sony A7S, A7RMk2

Lenses:

Canon EF24/1.4, EF50/1.2, EF 16-35/4

Sigma Art EF 35/1.4, EF 135/1.8

ACL 200/4

Samyang MF8/3.5, Samyang AF85/1.4, Samyang MF132/2

Leica R Summicron 35/2, R Elmarit 90/2.8, R Elmarit 135/2.8

Leica M Summicron  50/2

Voightlander M 40/1.2, Skopar 28/2.8, Skopar 35/2.8, Heliar 15/4

Olympus Zuiko 28/2.8,  Zuiko 100/2.8

Canon FD 35/2.0, FD 50/1.8, FD 135/3.5

Nikon AIS 35/1.4, AIS 50/1.8, AIS 50/1.4

Minolta Rokkor 50/1.4, Rokkor 58/1.4, Rokkor 58/1.2, Rokkor 85/1.7

Adapters :

Metabones, K-F Concept, Novoflex, Fotodiox, Neewer

Minolta Rokkor 50/1.4 on Metabones MD to Sony E dadapter

K-F Concept NIK-E with AIS 50/1.4 on Sony A7S

Minolta MC Rokkor 58/1.4

Metabones Minolta MD-E attached to Minolta MC Rokkor 58/1.4

Askar ACL200/4 

The above represents a full range of possibilities from ultrawide all the way to sky portraits. The longer lenses from 85mm to 200mm (especially Sigma Art 135/1.8 and ACL 200/4) are almost certainly only viable with the use of a star tracker of which I use the Star Adventurer. 

Most of the lenses above haven't be tested adequately for night shoots, most frequently used lenses so far are the following mostly for widefield Milkyway and Aurora :

Canon EF24/1.4, EF50/1.2, EF 16-35/4
Sigma Art EF 35/1.4
Samyang MF8/3.5, AF85/1.4

I have more or less tested the rest but haven't come to a solid conclusion ... the test was hampered by cloudy nights since Jan 2019 (see posts). I will attempt to try them out this season if the clouds permit.

Targets to attempt include Andromeda, Seven Sisters and Orion this winter ... it's been a longtime in the making, hopefully the God of the clouds nods in approval.

Skywatcher EQM 35 Pro Skyscan Goto Mount

I thought the Skywatcher EQM35 Skyscan Goto Mount would be an ideal entry into nightsky imaging following the little that I have managed to get done with the Star Adventurer after 3 years of owning it. This larger mount would drag my reluctant sorry little ass into astrophotography slowly but surely.

EQM 35 will allow simple star tracking and nightsky photography with current DSLRs that I own with the added ease of Skyscan and Goto capabilities. And when I am done and ready with that it will also allow for more serious astrophotography with flatfield apochromatic ed triplet proper telescope attached to a DSLR for more dedicated astro imaging. That's the plan trajectory anyways, has been for the past 6-8 years.

After Star Adventurer, this heftier unit should be able to handle the use of the Sigma 300/2.8 and the EF400/4.0. The EF400/4.0 was originally purchased when it came out with the intention of picking up Orion's Nebula but was never actually tested on the Adventurer after some weight considerations. The EQM35 which is heftier is rated to be able to carry up to 10kg load so it might just be possible.

The completed package for observing with telescopes as well as imaging.

EQM 35 for nightsky tracking and imaging with DSLR.

The business end of star tracking.

The foldable travel tripod for the EQM35 mount, nifty folded size for travel when the need arises.

The above set up should be able to cover Milkyway widefield as well as deeper targets. With the Adventurer it may be slightly risky to use the long heavier SLR lenses and DSLR due to weight considerations, I'm sure how the motors would behave with larger load.

The following is possibly the route that will be taken for astro imaging if all goes well and according to plan:

Skywatcher Esprit 100ED Super APO Triplet Refractor (includes 3" focuser, 2" diagonal and finder scope with right angle viewer).

Field flattener

Adapter from field flattener to Canon EOS mount.

Canon EOS77 Astro APC camera wo IR cut Filter, 24 MP, Digic 7

And these hopefully will be able to target these as part of the earning curve to master going futher into astro imaging :

Andromeda

Orion's Nebula

Pleiades

Considering that they are only 7 days of clear sky in total with a dark night here in Norway, it'll be a while yet before these objects get their due coverage. Maybe the sun could also be a viable target, in that case a 150mm sun filter would be required. For  both the Sun and the Moon, a 2x Barlow might be useful to achieve 1100mm.