Northern Milky Way

[rogerg]

Another from last weekend, the wonderful sea of stars which makes up the northern portion of the milky way (as viewed from here!). In this case rising in the north-east.

http://astrophotography.com.au/wheatbelt-horizon-filled-with-stars/

This is probably a favorite of mine, I love the subtle colours and lack of dominating bright stars leaving the sea of milky way stars so clear.

Regards,
Roger.

[naskies]

Some nice pastel colours there, Roger :) Is it a combination of light pollution & airglow?

There are magenta halos around the stars (lens CA?), perhaps a bit of selective colour desaturation?

[rogerg]

The only light pollution is the low dome on the horizon. This location seems to always have orange horizons, I put it down to being the dusty wheatbelt :) There is some green airglow which varies the orange.



No selective saturation done, in fact the entire set of changes to the raw image were:
- a single levels layer (no mask)
- a single saturation layer of 10%+ on the master channel (no mask)

I haven't quite worked out the halos ... don't always get them with this lens but have in some shots. Only on the 6D not on the 7D so far. I am wondering if it is as much blooming combined with white balance as it is CA. :shrug:

[iceman]

Was that tracking Roger? How long was the exposure?

Lovely image.

[rogerg]

Thanks Mike.

Yes, tracked on the AstroTrac I think. 7 x 60s @ f/2.8, 6400ISO.