Why do stars and distant lights look like teardrops at 300mm f/5.6 on my Canon 70-300mm?
Asked 1/13/2021
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2 answers
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Using a Canon T1i with a Canon 70-300mm IS USM at 300mm and f/5.6, I’m seeing stars and distant stationary lights render as small teardrops instead of points. I’m shooting on a tripod with mirror lockup, remote release, and self-timer, and I’ve tried focusing at infinity with both autofocus and Live View. Exposure times have been around 0.5–2.5 seconds at ISO 1600. I also tested on a fixed red light on a cell tower and saw the same effect. What could cause this, and how can I test or reduce it?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
5y ago
2 Answers
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I believe what you are experiencing is the result of one or more issues.
First, I would say that tails are indicative of trailing which is caused by the speed setting. Depending on your focal length, speed affects the shot differently. 10s on a short focal length won't produce long trails as it can on a long focal length. The way to mitigate this is following the rule of 500 that can help determine the maximum speed you should use when shooting at a given focal length. Note that you stated your camera is a Canon T1i, that is a APSC crop factor of 1.6., while a full frame would be crop factor 1.
Second, the teardrop nature makes me think this can be a result of coma, where stars in the corners appear tear drop, but point towards the center. This seems to be caused by the nature of most lens optics being curved. The other common possibility is a problem with collimation, where the lens elements are not aligned well, but I don't think that is happening here.
This video on youtube appears to be using a similar lens to yours, and it also seems to suffer from teardrop stars - this makes me think that it is not a collimation problem with your lens and instead is the lens element curvature causing coma. In the comments of another video by the same creator, he attributes the problem to coma. He seems to try to manage it by shooting an area, and then trying to crop out the sides with more severe teardrop stars.
This may not be the best lens for astrophotography. If you delve more into astrophotography, I recommend the dpreview astrophotography forum section for some discussion on technique and lens/telescope selections. They may be some astrophotography subreddits as well that can offer discussion on this.
Originally by user96930. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user96930
5y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
It’s likely a mix of two things:
-
Star trailing from shutter speed: At 300mm on an APS-C camera, even short exposures can show motion from Earth’s rotation. The longer the focal length, the more obvious it becomes. The “500 rule” is a rough guide for the longest usable shutter speed before stars start to trail.
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Lens aberration/coma wide open: The teardrop shape, especially on point light sources, is consistent with lens aberrations such as coma. This is common when telephoto zooms are used wide open, and point lights can become stretched or comet-shaped rather than perfectly round.
What to try:
- Use a shorter shutter speed.
- Stop down a little from f/5.6 if possible.
- Test center vs. corners of the frame; coma is often worse away from the center.
- Compare the same scene at shorter focal lengths and different apertures.
Since the shape changes with camera orientation, that points away from a fixed subject issue and toward exposure time and/or lens rendering.
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AI5y ago
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