While I wait for my ordered telescope and attachments to arrive, I wanted to try taking some star trail photos, both to see how they would turn out and to practice focusing on stars with the Canon 70D before I try hooking it up to the telescope. The light pollution in Jakarta tends to get in the way of that however.
After posting a query on the Amateur Astrophotography forum I found out about the clip-in filters produced by Astronomik which seemed exactly what I was looking for. As this filter inserts between the optical train and the camera body, rather than attaching to the objective end of the lens as is usual for camera filters, it can be used both with the telescope and standard camera lenses, more on this in a bit though. After checking out the different filters available I chose the UHC-E version as the website advised this was more suited to the smaller aperture refractors such as what I have ordered. The online ordering and payment system is very simple and automatically adjusts for the fact that I was ordering from outside the EU and excluded the EU taxes. The delivery requirements required a bit of follow up communication however this was easy as the staff were immediately on the ball.
The delivery went very smoothly, 48 hrs from the order being finalized late on the Tuesday afternoon until ready to deliver on the Thursday afternoon (Hamburg, Germany to jakarta, Indonesia). The Jakarta traffic then interfered, as it has a wont to do, meaning the office had already closed by the time the courier arrived. Delivery was rescheduled for the following morning, Friday, and was received all in good order. Unfortunately we can’t plan a schedule for clear skies so there was full cloud cover both the Friday and Saturday nights.
Come Sunday evening and things were looking promising, light patchy cloud with breaks in between so it was time to play. Inserting the filter into the camera body is a very simple task and with just a little pressure it clips straight in. It was then that I found the problem. In reading the website I had read the part about it working with standard Canon format lenses and double checked that my model body (70D) was compatible, however I skipped over one crucial piece of information – yes it is compatible with standard Canon lenses “with the exception of EF-S series”, which just happens to be the standard lens type in most Canon dSLR kits except the Full frame body models. A few choice words were said while I was trying to attach my kit 18-135mm lens and it wouldn’t go.
After scratching my head for a bit and finally going back to the Astronomik website there was that “Doh !” moment as I re-read that rider. The difference between the two lens series is only a couple of mm of intrusion into the body cavity by the EF-S lenses but every mm counts ! Fortunately I also have older lenses from my original film camera which are from the EF series so a bit of rummaging around to find these and they attached without a problem so I headed outside – to find that the evening had clouded over !
I will eventually get a clear sky to try out this filter and investigate the difference that it makes. In the meantime however, I have learnt Rule #1.
Rule #1 : when ordering online, check ALL the specification of prospective purchases in minute detail before committing to the purchase.
I was fortunate in this instance that I had suitable alternate lenses available however I may not be so lucky in the future.
