Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Minor (UMi)  ·  Contains:  The star Polaris (αUMi)
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NCP RGB (OSC) - Nikkor 300mm  F/2.8 AFS-ED Field Test, andrea tasselli
NCP RGB (OSC) - Nikkor 300mm  F/2.8 AFS-ED Field Test
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NCP RGB (OSC) - Nikkor 300mm F/2.8 AFS-ED Field Test

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NCP RGB (OSC) - Nikkor 300mm  F/2.8 AFS-ED Field Test, andrea tasselli
NCP RGB (OSC) - Nikkor 300mm  F/2.8 AFS-ED Field Test
Powered byPixInsight

NCP RGB (OSC) - Nikkor 300mm F/2.8 AFS-ED Field Test

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Description

Every now and then I buy or otherwise acquire new gear, mostly lens, and do test them (the lens) against a number of requirements, the main one for anything I might deem worthy of pointing at the sky is: how good is this lens at its maximum aperture? Is a well know fact that, in terms of sheer optical prowess a sky test is the hardest of them all. No wonder therefore when I got this lens off e-bay the very moment the sly cleared (well, mostly) I mounted it on tripod and shot the only subject you can shoot in the sky without much regard of where exactly is it pointing and for how long before stars star to trail (which would spoil the analysis of the resulting images), never mind figuring out how to put it on one's mount.

So, this is the end results of all the frames taken and I am pleased to declare this lens "FANTASTIC" at full aperture across the APS frame. Didn't test with a FF camera 'cause the Nikon D7000 is the highest resolution camera I have and was keen to see how the lens was performing in terms of field aberrations. Mind you, this lens is really heavy bugger at nearly 3 kilos so not something you can easily piggy-back on your main scope, therefore it will need a proper mounting harness to go on any of my mounts.

As it happens I managed to capture Polarissima Borealis, which is a nice extra cheery on the cake. The image is best enjoyed at full resolution to give a clear idea how the PSF is behaving away from the optical axis. No adjustment have been made to final stack-up other than a non-linear stretch and whatever little colour balancing afforded by PI's PhotometricColourBalancing routine.

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NCP RGB (OSC) - Nikkor 300mm  F/2.8 AFS-ED Field Test, andrea tasselli

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