IISAC 2015 Nightscapes

[Rod771]

Hi Everyone.

I had planned my deep space targets for IISAC but hadn't thought much about what nightscapes to shoot. I decided to try an on the spot pano of the imaging hill under the Milky Way. The image consists of 30 portrait images - 3 rows of 10 stitched together using Microsoft ICE. Further processing done in Pixinsight and PS CS4. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. :)

Canon 6D with Samyang 14mm @ F2.8. Exp 30 sec - ISO 6400.

I've included a slightly cropped version as well.

Also attached are two single frame shots of the scope imaging the Cone nebula. Same settings as above.

1.Large Pano (http://astrob.in/full/166623/0/)
2.Large Pano crop (http://astrob.in/full/166623/B/)
3.Large (http://astrob.in/full/166671/0/)
4.Large (http://astrob.in/full/166673/0/)


Hope you enjoy them, thanks for looking.

Cheers

Rod

[adavis]

Great shots.
I am using the same body/lens combo and sometimes have issues with stitching big panos like that.

Just a technical question, when shooting multi row panos, do you take the frist row dead level, then just move up from there?

I seem to have had some bad auto stitching with ICE lately where it just goes haywire.

nonetheless, there are some really good shots there.

cheers
Andrew

[iceman]

Great work Rod, love the first two!

[Rod771]

Thanks Mike! :) I was pleased with how the pano turned out.

[Rod771]

Thanks Andrew!

I start with the bottom row and use the 6D's digital level to "square up" then pan around adjusting the level square every couple of shots. I made sure I shot plenty of foreground, extra width to each side and extra sky in the top row with overlapping frames throughout the image. This I believe, produces a nice stitch with minimal distortion (although distortion is also subject to different projection settings), particularly in the central area which is to be cropped for the final image. After the first row I just panned up and shot the next two rows, again, adjusting the level every couple of frames.

I also updated ICE the latest version 2.0.3.0. It seems to have more settings providing the user greater control over the stitch/image. I stitched the frames as a "simple pano" and selected "Stereographic" as the Projection setting. Cropped, then exported to Pixinsight and PS CS4.

I've attached 3 frames showing the level of foreground through to sky and a screen shot the stitch in ICE.

Hope this helps :)

Cheers

Rod

[Ross G]

Great looking photos Rod.

Ross.

[Rod771]

Thanks Ross! Its not hard to get a good image in Lostock. :)

[rogerg]

Nice collection :)

[Rod771]

Thanks Roger :thumbsup:

[adavis]

Awesome, tanks for that.
I tend to do less overlap, that might be one of my issues.
How high was the camera pointing for the third row?

cheers
Andrew

[Rod771]

I think it was around 45 to 50 degrees from the ground. :question: