Wide Field Milky Way & Time Lapse

[AstroJason]

Hi all,

Here are some of my shots from our latest night out at Hargraves Lookout.

First image is of the Milky Way around the Coal Sack which is a stack of 5 x 10 second exposures at ISO 3200. For some reason I chose to stack 6 x 10 second exposures for the Milky Way core shot.

Both shot using my Canon 60D and a Sigma 50mm f1.4 Lens. These were shot wide open at f1.4. I tried stopping the lens down to improve the stars but wasn't happy with the exposures as they looked too dark for 10 seconds.

Higher Res shots can be found here:
Southern Milky Way (http://www.flickr.com/photos/59004995@N04/10184915125/in/photostream/lightbox/)
Milky Way Core (http://www.flickr.com/photos/59004995@N04/10184885984/in/photostream/lightbox/)

I also shot a time lapse of the Milky Way setting with the exact same settings used for these images. This makes up just one small sequence of a longer project I'm working on. This sequence is made up of 432 x 10 second exposures. It can be viewed here (https://vimeo.com/76593576).

Any feedback is appreciated and thanks for looking.

Jason

[killswitch]

Results look fantastic. You can make out the nebulas and clusters.

That lens really takes in a lot of light.

[Nicola]

Beautiful shots! I think you could have them pop up better by rebalancing the colors, I see a strong yellow cast overall.

[Irish stargazer]

Nice shots Jason. The Sigma F1.4 lens works really well-lets in loads of light. I find I can get away with 10 second frames around ISO 1600 with the lens fully open and get a fairly clean result. Focus is very tight though to avoid blue edged stars. Needs about 20 frames minimum.

[Ross G]

Nice looking widefileds Jason.

You can push your equipment further.

Good luck.

Ross.