Stars above.

Mr Bean said:
climber said:
Click said:
climber said:
Milky Way

I really like your shot climber. Well done.

Thanks.

Here is another one from the same spot.
Wow, very nice climber. What gear/settings did you use?

Thanks.

It is panorama stitched out of 6-7 vertical shots (don't remember).

Gear and settings: 5D Mk3, 24-70 at 24 mm each shot, f/2.8, 25s, ISO 8000
 
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A shot of the milky way in greece. I decided to shoot it vertically in order to preserve the beautiful milky way and all the surrounding stars all along it. Moreover the dimly lit road in the bottom part frames the stars.

Minimal processing in photoshop, just a bit of sharpness and WB. You can see it also here (https://500px.com/photo/86269779).
 

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Another shot of a milky way in Greece. In this one I used two people in order to convey the perspective and give the observer a human sized reference. Right at the bottom of the image, far away it's possible to see the island of Paxos.
EXIF and more here: https://500px.com/photo/86381229
 

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5.jpg


Samyang 14mm f/2.8 @ 20s/2.8/iso800

First attempt of shooting stars, had no clue what I shot until I came home 2 weeks later.
Hate that I can't blow it up and print because of the stars that seem to be out of focus :(.

Any tips for a next time? :)
 
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First, nice shot. I think what you have is camera shake. extra weight on the tripod and/or using the 10 sec timer and mirror lockup will help. You can test your tripod with a telephoto on the moon or bright star live view @ 10x a light tap and see how long it takes to settle , I find 2 sec not quite enough, but I have a med weight tripod.
 
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niteclicks said:
First, nice shot. I think what you have is camera shake. extra weight on the tripod and/or using the 10 sec timer and mirror lockup will help. You can test your tripod with a telephoto on the moon or bright star live view @ 10x a light tap and see how long it takes to settle , I find 2 sec not quite enough, but I have a med weight tripod.

Hmm sounds possible, I was using 2s timer, no lockup. Thanks for the tips!
 
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I am hoping for some CC regarding this image, specifics wise, I shot it with a 6d, Sigma 35MM art, 1000 iso at 10sec, composition of about 60 photos. Used Lightroom, just determining if I went overboard or any advice in how to compose images where star trails and auroras mingle. When I was shooting these photos, the Aurora was not visible at all and only appeared in the camera after.
 

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20Dave

CR Pro
Jan 19, 2013
81
71
Here was one of my early attempts after getting a tracking mount. There are hundreds if not thousands of better images online, but I'm just showing what a beginner can do with the right equipment. It is the "North American Nebula" (you can see the outline of what looks like the Gulf of Mexico in the middle). It is a stack of about a dozen 5-minute exposures using a 20D and a 70-200 f/2.8 lens at ~200mm. It was taken in a moderate-to-heavy light pollution area in central Massachusetts.
 

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Great shot, it may need a bit of color adjustments. I am also experimenting on very humble scale with astrophotography. Do you mind to tell what kind of tracking mount do you use, 5min it is considered pretty long exposure at 200mm, and all seems to be pinpoint sharp, also looks like you have used pretty small aperture considering the star shapes what ISO if you don't mind to share?
Thanks,
Z.

20Dave said:
Here was one of my early attempts after getting a tracking mount. There are hundreds if not thousands of better images online, but I'm just showing what a beginner can do with the right equipment. It is the "North American Nebula" (you can see the outline of what looks like the Gulf of Mexico in the middle). It is a stack of about a dozen 5-minute exposures using a 20D and a 70-200 f/2.8 lens at ~200mm. It was taken in a moderate-to-heavy light pollution area in central Massachusetts.
 
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20Dave

CR Pro
Jan 19, 2013
81
71
Sunnystate said:
Great shot, it may need a bit of color adjustments. I am also experimenting on very humble scale with astrophotography. Do you mind to tell what kind of tracking mount do you use, 5min it is considered pretty long exposure at 200mm, and all seems to be pinpoint sharp, also looks like you have used pretty small aperture considering the star shapes what ISO if you don't mind to share?
Thanks,
Z.

Thanks for the feedback on the photo - I agree that the color is too red, I just never got around to fixing it .It's not a great photo, I was just excited at the time to be able to make out some structure :)

So, the mount that I used is a case of extreme overkill for 200mm. The mount is an MI-250 from a company that no longer exists. It was the entry level of the high end mounts, if that makes any sense. I bought the mount to be able to image at around 2000mm (which requires a high end mount), so I splurged on the mount but started on my learning curve with a manageable focal length.

You could get similar performance at 200mm from a mount which costs probably about 1/10 of what my mount cost. This photo was autoguided. Basically, I had a small refractor as a guidescope with a cheap CCD camera (I have a used Meade DSI-2), and I piggybacked the 20D on top of that. I only did a very simple polar alignment of the setup (literally, I eyeballed it, no polar scope or drift aligning). At 200mm with autoguiding, it wasn't critical for me to spend the time to do a very accurate polar alignment.

As for the ISO, I'll have to check when I get back to the PC where the original data is stored. Given that it was a 20D, my guess was 800-1600 ISO, but that's just a guess.

Dave
 
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Thank you for the info, I was kind of hopping that you have tackled the art of taking 5min exposures @200mm without spending serious $$$ for tracking mounts and autoguides :) The photo maybe is not attractive in usual standards because you did not processed enough, but than again if you look at many of the astro photographs usually they are seriously overcooked to get the "stunning" look, which I love myself. When it comes to sharpness and seems like complete lack of trailing in your picture there is nothing to complain about.

20Dave said:
Sunnystate said:
Great shot, it may need a bit of color adjustments. I am also experimenting on very humble scale with astrophotography. Do you mind to tell what kind of tracking mount do you use, 5min it is considered pretty long exposure at 200mm, and all seems to be pinpoint sharp, also looks like you have used pretty small aperture considering the star shapes what ISO if you don't mind to share?
Thanks,
Z.

Thanks for the feedback on the photo - I agree that the color is too red, I just never got around to fixing it .It's not a great photo, I was just excited at the time to be able to make out some structure :)

So, the mount that I used is a case of extreme overkill for 200mm. The mount is an MI-250 from a company that no longer exists. It was the entry level of the high end mounts, if that makes any sense. I bought the mount to be able to image at around 2000mm (which requires a high end mount), so I splurged on the mount but started on my learning curve with a manageable focal length.

You could get similar performance at 200mm from a mount which costs probably about 1/10 of what my mount cost. This photo was autoguided. Basically, I had a small refractor as a guidescope with a cheap CCD camera (I have a used Meade DSI-2), and I piggybacked the 20D on top of that. I only did a very simple polar alignment of the setup (literally, I eyeballed it, no polar scope or drift aligning). At 200mm with autoguiding, it wasn't critical for me to spend the time to do a very accurate polar alignment.

As for the ISO, I'll have to check when I get back to the PC where the original data is stored. Given that it was a 20D, my guess was 800-1600 ISO, but that's just a guess.

Dave
 
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