Toward the red zone

[Mickoid]

Took this on Saturday night from Sugarloaf Dam, located in the north eastern outskirsts of Melbourne. Probably Bortle 4 there but looking west to capture the Milky Way meant I was facing Melbourne's increasing light dome. About the only advantage it created was a nice silhouette of the trees and structures in the picinic ground. This was taken at 10.30pm, so the sun had long since set by then. It would be interesting to travel back in time and take a shot from here, at the same time of year, using the same equipment, 100 yrs ago!

[John W]

A lot of light in the sky but still worthwhile taking the image. Good view overall.

[Mickoid]

Thanks John, the sky brightness will only get worse. It was a battle bringing out any detail from the Milky Way with so much light pollution to contend with. Some kind of deep sky filter would probably have helped define it better but also ruin the natural colour of the scene. Shooting from the west of Melbourne instead of the east side this time of year, would reduce the effect of light pollution.

[astronobob]

Good result under the LP conditions Michael, I like when the milkway sit horizontal at time of year which also makes for an extra challenge sitting low, more atmosphere to contend with, even with wide fields..
Any exposure details, number of subs to share, grouse details showing in the milkway band, nebs popping nicely, cool ..

[Mickoid]

Thanks Bob, it's a few weeks ago now but I think I only used a single 30 second shot for the foreground at 800 iso with a Fujinon 15-45mm lens at 15mm, stopped down to f8. The background stars were shot with the same settings but with an iOptron SkyTracker for a 2 min exposure. I actually used a technique with this composition by dropping in an enlarged version of the backgound shot I took, the idea coming from Muzfox's "Dancing with the stars" which was posted here a few weeks earlier.

[astronobob]

Ah cool, dropping in a larger version of sky, that seems a great technique and now you mention it, and in hindsight probably why I noticed the Nebs popping,, good stuff :thumbsup: