LMC with skyglow and satellite

[Merckx]

I'm not sure on the best way to upload/link images. It seems images are compressed when they are added as attachments. Advice very welcome!



Camera: Sony A65
Lens: Sony 85mm f/2.8
Composition: single frame
Total exposure: ~20 minutes-cm2 (1x 120s f/2.8 ISO800)
Tracker: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
Processing: RawTherapee (https://rawtherapee.com/), rnc-color-stretch (http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/astrophotography-rnc-color-stretch), GIMP (https://www.gimp.org/)

[Saturnine]

If this is your first image, it's a pretty good start. The general concensus is that several ( many ) shorter subs would get better results especially in light polluted surroundings. Also using an light pollution filter would cut down the skyglow considerably.
The image is framed nicely and the stars look round enough so try taking something like 20 X 2 minute subs and stacking in Deep Sky Stacker ( freeware ) or any image processer that will stack images together.

[ChrisV]

Really nice James! And if that's your first image ...

I don't know what the uneven illumination is - light pollution and/or uneven illumination. This could be removed with flats or background extraction with whatever processing you use. That will really make your image pop out

[xelasnave]

Maybe there is more with processing but you can be most proud of that photo. Well done.
Alex

[Merckx]

Thanks for the comments folks. Not my first image but I'm still climbing the learning curve!

Here's another one from last Friday night. This time with 15 minutes total integration time and a different lens with a smaller maximum aperture. I'm still not sure how to best size my images for upload. I reduced this one to 204kB before uploading but I see IIS is reporting it as 65kB.

Camera: Sony A65
Lens: Minolta 100-200mm f/4.5
Composition: 15 stacked frames
Total exposure: ~60 minutes-cm2 (15x 60s f/4.5 100mm ISO1600)