Milky Way wide fields/star trails from Lake Moogerah and the Scenic Rim
Hello again everyone!
I've had an exceptionally busy few months with uni (barely touched the camera/scope at all), but we had mid semester exams last weekend so I had a good reason to celebrate with a bit of photography a short drive west of Brisbane:
Lake Moogerah (click on the links for larger/higher quality versions):
Details: ~ 360x 30 sec frames (3 hrs total) taken with a stock Canon 5DmkII and 14 mm f/2.8L II at 30 sec, f/4, ISO 3200 on a tripod. Stacked with StarStaX and finished with Photoshop.
Details: ~ 240x frames taken with a stock Canon 20D, 14 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec, ISO 1600.
5. Milky Way arching over the horizon. The glow on the left (east) is light pollution from Brisbane. The LMC can be seen just behind the lone eucalyptus tree on the right.
Details: 5x 30 sec frames, 14 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec, ISO 3200 on a fixed tripod. Stitched in Photoshop.
6. Scorpius and Sagittarius regions of the Milky Way. The nebulosity in the usual suspects (Eagle, Omega, Trifid, Lagoon, etc) can be seen in the larger version, along with the Rho Ophiuchi region's colours. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to expose any deeper.
Details: Panorama of 6x 180 sec frames, Canon 24 mm f/1.4L II @ f/2.8, ISO 400 mounted on an Astrotrac. Stitching (no stacking) and finishing in Photoshop.
These are great Dave I love them all. Congratulations on the captures. To bad you couldn't get a bit more sky above the Milky Way in that panorama one.
Cheers
Greg
Wow Dave, Lake Moogerah is one of my favourite spots..if I had the money, i'd buy one of the permanent caravan sites and go there every weekend. (other than the Leyburn weekends of course)
It's even better now that I've seen these wonderful shots from there..so peaceful....thanks
What settings do you use for GradientXterminator, Bert?
It seems to work ok on the defaults but I've never really tried the others
There is no correct way that covers all images Mike. I usually start with coarse and medium for step one. The really tricky bit is what part you are isolating for the second step and the settings.
Basically trial and error and you end up with a gut feeling for what may work.
I did forget to say if you have trees on any other non astro objects in the image the algorithm in GradientXterminator treats them as an anomalous 'gradient'. These should be eliminated with the selection tool.
What a gorgeous set of images!
I was going to suggest you download HLV to deal with the green cast you're getting.
But gradient exterminator had done the job nicely too.
Wow Dave, hard to pick a favourite out of that buch, they are all great.
Might be worth some more playing with gradient removal as per Bert, this would really make them shine!
It always amazes me looking at whole sky panoramas in this digital age and how releatively easy they are to do now. Back in my early astrophotography days the only way to appreciate such expanses of sky required multiple frames throughout a night then film developing and finally mozaicing prints together ...that was the only way really, unless you had a multi $1000 fisheye lens and these distorted the scene too much and couldn't be distorted back again in software
Wow, thanks for all the nice comments everyone - it's much appreciated I'm really liking wide fields for the small commitment + instant gratification factor... plus it's a nice way to relax after a busy month.
Quote:
Originally Posted by obsidianphotos
These are great Dave I love them all. Congratulations on the captures. To bad you couldn't get a bit more sky above the Milky Way in that panorama one.
I did actually record enough data above the Milky Way - but I can't for the life of me figure out how to make Photoshop do a rectilinear instead of fisheye projection.
If I add the extra frames in (about 50-60% of the full night sky), then it automatically becomes a fisheye projection - like Stellarium when completely zoomed out (see attached pic - or larger version here).
I'd be very interested in any suggestions?!
Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
They're fantastic! Excellent results Dave, been wondering where you've been.
I love #1 particularly. I bet you wish the powerlines weren't there for 2 and 3. Would've made the shots even better.
Thanks Mike! #1 was the only photo that I'd specifically planned to take - cross referencing Stellarium, Google Maps, BOM forecasts, Skippy Sky and my uni timetable.
Yep, the power lines were unfortunate... the water level was MUCH higher than what the Google Maps overhead photos indicated thanks to all the rain in SE QLD. I thought that I could set up a bit further south for some shots, but photo #1 already had the tripod legs at the water's edge.
By the way, I see that you now own a 5DmkII and are producing some fantastic results - good stuff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by avandonk
Really good images Dave. The problem with wide fields is always gradients.
I took the liberty of running GradientXterminator over one of your images.
Hope you do not mind. I am willing to give a full res version the same treatment.
Bert, thank you - that's a spectacular effort! I've just downloaded and tried a trial copy of GradientXTerminator - it does a great job of removing it. It does seem to also remove some areas of faint nebulosity though... I'll try running it on the individual panels first before merging the panorama to see if it helps.
If you did want to have a play around with the full res version, you're very welcome to download it here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Greg Bock
i agree Mike, no 1 is my new desktop, hope you don't mind Dave
Not at all, Greg! In fact, I'm quite flattered. If you'd like a larger version, feel free to PM me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidTrap
Very nice shots Dave. Hope the examiners are kind to you!
Would love to catch up with you and learn some of your techniques for wide field - need to get some results with my new camera!!!!!!
Hope you get a chance to come out to Leyburn sometime soon.
David, yes it'd be great to be able to get out to Leyburn (finally). Hopefully I'll have some time this coming new moon if I can catch up on my readings and study. I'm very keen to see what you and the D800 can achieve!
Quote:
Originally Posted by strongmanmike
Wow Dave, hard to pick a favourite out of that buch, they are all great.
Might be worth some more playing with gradient removal as per Bert, this would really make them shine!
It always amazes me looking at whole sky panoramas in this digital age and how releatively easy they are to do now. Back in my early astrophotography days the only way to appreciate such expanses of sky required multiple frames throughout a night then film developing and finally mozaicing prints together ...that was the only way really, unless you had a multi $1000 fisheye lens and these distorted the scene too much and couldn't be distorted back again in software
Thanks Mike! Yes, it's quite amazing that we can now stick a modern SLR + wide angle prime on a tripod, point it up at the sky, and instantly get a very usable image... no fuss required. I'd love to see what the new Canon 1D-X + 24 mm f/1.4L II combination is capable of just on a tripod.
I love them all. Congratulations on the captures. To bad you couldn't get a bit more sky above the Milky Way in that panorama one. 
...that was the only way really, unless you had a multi $1000 fisheye lens and these distorted the scene too much and couldn't be distorted back again in software 
I'm really liking wide fields for the small commitment + instant gratification factor... plus it's a nice way to relax after a busy month.
