Another Milky Way

[Octane]

A single 5-minute exposure from last night.

I had set up to take several hours of data, however, I was defeated by really bad dew. The whole rig was dripping wet.

So, working with just the one image, the goal was to bring the Milky Way to prominence.

In order to do this, I added some contrast in varying degrees to blacken the background sky, slightly increased the contrast in the Milky Way in relation to the background sky, and eroded the smaller stars that dominated the scene.

I really, really wish I had many hours of data on this to work with. I can't wait until next new Moon.

There was a bit of airglow around last night, as evidenced by the greenish tinges here and there.

Still, I'm quite happy with the natural appearance.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
300s f/5.0 at 17.0mm iso1600

Slightly larger version available here (http://users.tpg.com.au/hqureshi2/milkyway2.html).

H

[pluto]

Very nice for a single :thumbsup:

[Octane]

Thanks, Hugh!

I forgot to mention, I had in-camera noise reduction disabled for this as I had kicked off a sequence of images and I had taken a bunch of dark frames before I began. It's still very clean for 300 seconds at ISO-1600. Probably had something to do with the fact that it was below 0 at the time!

H

[Rod771]

That's awesome H!

Likewise, I love the natural look, great shot :thumbsup:

I imagine if our eyes had greater sensitivity , we'd look up and that's exactly what we would see.

Minus zero :cold: that would have defeated me.

[colinmlegg]

Big fan of natural colours too. Nicely done mate :)

[Larryp]

Very nice, H!

[leon]

Nice one H, yep, below 0 will do it. ;)

Leon :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

I agree, the colours are really nice, a good lens is worth its weight in gold :thumbsup:

Mike

[gregbradley]

That's a great shot Humi.
I like the look you achieved as well.
One tip for dew - I got a piece of foam cored insulation to wrap around the lens. I got some chemical heat pads that stick on from the chemist (about $1 each).

I focus. I tape the focus ring so it won't shift. I have to do this otherwise wrapping the insulation around the lens can shift focus. I stick on the heat pad - they are supposed to last 6-12 hours), I wrap the insulation around the lens being careful for it not to extend past the hood (wideangle lenses can pick it up otherwise). I fix it with a rubber band.

That can help reduce dew. Taking a lens from a warm room out into cold humid night with dew point at the wrong level can be almost instant dew. The wrap around keeps the lens just above dew point.
Not sure if it would work in a dripping situation but it did work nicely last winter when I did a lot of time lapses.

There's always dew straps but thats just another thing - batteries, leads, straps. The above is convenient and fits in the lens bag.

Greg.

[astronobob]

Has a good 3D about it also H, very nice to look at, magic stuff :thumbsup:

[bloodhound31]

+1 for natural colours, all the way. Beaut shot H.

Baz.

[Ross G]

Nice photo H.

Great looking colours.

Ross.