The Barred Core of the Milky Way

[gregbradley]

Its not really a nightscape so I thought I would post it in this section.

The Milky Way at my dark site Thurs night. A spectacular night, so nice out under the stars at a dark site.

Sigma Art 14mm F1.8, Sony A7Riii, Fornax Lightrack ii mount, Vixen tripod and Wiliam Optics wedge, Vixen Polar scope.

The A7riii now has a handy intervalometer built in (well at least up to 30 second exposures - camera makers are stuck on this 30 second limit except for Fuji).

I set it to do 50 images but the memory card didn't have enough memory.

I think I'll do a 3 x 50 image pano of the whole shebang next clear night

https://pbase.com/image/170829845/large

Greg.

[Peter Ward]

Looks like the lens needs just a couple of f-stop clicks down to produce perfect edge stars....a niggle at best.

Not bad, not bad at all. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Yes these UWA lenses don't have the best corner performance.
Next time (maybe tonight) I'll do a more accurate polar alignment and use an external intervalometer and go longer and use F2.8.

Greg.

[PKay]

Beautiful!

[Geoff45]

Nice picture Greg. Pity you can’t step back a million light years or so and get a fantastic edge-on galaxy picture.

[Slawomir]

Thank you for sharing a photo of our home Greg - very nice image that helps putting things in the right perspective :thumbsup:

[telecasterguru]

Very nice and can't wait for the next image.

[PeterSEllis]

Whow, that is one impressive shot Greg. :eyepop:

Peter

[JA]

Lovely rich image Greg. Look forward to the Mark II version. :thumbsup:

Best
JA

[Ryderscope]

A lovely wide field view Greg.

[topheart]

There's nothing more inspiring than being out under the full Milky Way!!
Beautiful!!
Cheers,
Tim

[strongmanmike]

Yep!.. looks like we do live in the outer regions of a disc of billions of stars, with a bulging centre :question:..knew it! :thumbsup:

Mike

[gregbradley]

Sure is!



Its a cool time of year when the MWay looms overhead.



Thank you very much.



Yes now that would be something eh?



Cheers Suavi. The Milky Way is always an impressive sight at a dark site.



Thanks. I did brave the cold at 3am this morning as it was cloudy most of the evening. I ended up taking a bunch of shots but not that as the MW was already a bit low in the west. Did you know M42 is rising now before dawn?


Thanks muchly Peter. I hope tonight is clear so I can do a follow up version. I managed to work out a technique to focus this lens so there is minimal coma.



Thanks JA. Hopefully tonight but I got a lot of other nice vistas early this freezing morning!



Thanks Rodney. I do enjoy taking them a lot Pity about the cold and the slight wind that makes it worse.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Oh yeah and Im sure your skies are just about as good as they get...I still can't believe what it looked like from 20km outside Chillagoe far North QLD last year. True zero light pollution dry dark skies 3hrs west of Cairns....absolutely jaw droppingly stunning!

Mike

[graham.hobart]

beautiful shot greg

[multiweb]

Top shot Greg. Good time to shoot that one right now. :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Thanks Graham.



Sounds awesome.



Cheers Marc. The moon was too bright last night to do a 2nd version. Next time.

Greg.

[marc4darkskies]

Lovely shot Greg! :thumbsup: Hmmm, I think I need one of those cameras!

[gregbradley]

Hehe, thanks Marcus. You must have lots of great views of it at your place.

Greg.

[Placidus]

Superb!

Antares and the pipe nebula are so prominent, so salient. The irregular stripe of dust across the galactic plane evokes a mouth with gnashing teeth. Safer out here, far away from the core.

One suspects that most spiral galaxies have such detail also, but we cannae see it.

[gregbradley]

Thanks M & T. Yes I can that shape you are referring to. The Milky Way is an object of endless fascination.

Greg.

[codemonkey]

Nice one Greg! Lovely colours and contrast.

[gregbradley]

Thanks Lee. It turned out better than I expected. I plan to do a wider one next time plus I learnt that its best to focus this lens using a corner star as there is plenty of sharpness in the centre that can compromise a bit.

Greg.