Jaensch stockyard

[Merckx]

Camera: Sony A57
Lens: Sigma 35mm f/1.4
Composition: 21 frame mosaic
Total exposure: ~60 minutes-cm2 (17x sky 60s f/2 ISO400, 4x land f/1.4 180s ISO400)
Tracker: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
Raw converter: RawTherapee (https://rawtherapee.com/)
Processing: Hugin (http://"http://hugin.sourceforge.net/), rnc-color-stretch (http://"http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/astrophotography-rnc-color-stretch/), GIMP (http://"https://www.gimp.org/)

[gregbradley]

I really like this one. Great colours in the M Way and good framing.

Is this a single stack of 17 images or 17 individual images formed into a panorama?

I have that lens as well. Its very fast and lets in a lot of light but the corners are usually pretty poor.
Its also quite an unstable lens on a Sony camera electronically.

Greg.

[Merckx]

Hi Greg, thanks for your kind words.

I think this my best nightscape yet as I climb the learning curve juggling polar alignment, tracking, focussing, camera settings and processing. So many things to get wrong!

The image is 21 individual images formed into a panorama (17 tracked for the sky and 4 stationary for the land). (oops - need to fix the orignal post!).

Regarding the Sigma 35mm, I've had it about 3 months and used it almost exclusively for nightscapes (night-time, manual focus etc). I haven't noticed any instability with my A57 or A65. Agree the corners aren't perfect but they're a lot better than the other lenses I've used for nightscapes. In any case down scaling from a large panorama can hide many sins!

James