Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds

[gregbradley]

203764I am at my dark site and unbelievably it was clear for some of the night despite a poor forecast. Clouds rolled in a few times but cleared again.

I thought a Milky Way shot was in order.

Freezing cold at about 3C and windy I was freezing out in the field with a little gas heater to help only slightly. But the conditions were good apart from that.

Zeiss Loxia 21mm F2.8 wide open and Sony A7r2 ISO6400 x 30 seconds and 20 images stitched together in PTGui Pro.

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/163949689/large regular size

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/163949689/original large size


Greg.

[Atmos]

Very nice Greg! With a 21mm lens I didn't think it would have taken 20 panel to make it but it looks to have been worth it :)

[gregbradley]

I may have been conservative with the overlaps and didn't really check them that much so I gave it plenty of overlap. I think that helps anyway with the stitching and distortion.

Greg.

[Atmos]

Whatever works, ended with a very pleasing result :thumbsup:

[Derek Klepp]

That's a really nice mosaic the few clouds and the glow to the left behind the dead tree make it just that much more interesting. Looks like that lense is a keeper.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Derek. The glow to the left is Canberra about 150kms away.

Yes the lens is a gem. There are rumours Zeiss may do a Loxia 15mm. That could be tempting. There is a Zeiss Batis 18mm for Sony FE mount. That is the lens Zeiss recommends for astro as it has virtually no coma and distortion wide open. But these are over $2000 lenses so the difference between 18 and 21mm is not great enough to be tempting. I still have a Nikon 14-24 somewhere (if I can find where I put it!).

Greg

[Atmos]

From what I have read the 14-24 is utterly brilliant, on my wish list :)

[strongmanmike]

Hi Grego, out at "my" observatory (imaging a galaxy near the SCP :D) looking at this on my phone (errr after a coupla beers:drink:) and mate it looks fantastic, love it....Ill have another look on the propa puter monitor tomoz but I think I like it :D...hic

Mike

[RickS]

Lovely image, Greg! Looks like it appeals to sober folks as well :lol:

[strongmanmike]

:lol: Oi..I stopped at 2ltrs, just enough to mellow me out a little, still recognise a good skyscape..hic :D

Mike

[Retrograde]

That is superb Greg!

[gregbradley]

Yes its a great lens. 14mm starts to get a slight fisheye effect though and corner performance is not quite as good as the 21 but that's understandable as its wider. The 14-24 makes wide nightscapes very easy at 14mm. The trick is to avoid star elongation above the Milky Way where it gets stretched too much.



Cheers Mike. I am glad it went well with your chill out!



Hehe.



Cheers. I enjoy being out in the elements this type of imaging brings. Saw a couple of meteorites in the process. Better than staring at a computer in the dark!



Thanks very much for that compliment.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Except when you are standing in long dry grass, on a dark moonless but warm summer night...
Eastern Browns can be active on such nights......:scared:

:eyepop:

[gregbradley]

Good to know. I went over to the back part of my property on such a night.
I heard something rustling in the wind after I had setup my rig to do a nightscape on a large flat rock. I checked it out and it was a shed brown snake skin. I decided I would find a better location!

Greg.