widefield Sag and a iridium flare with sigma 17-70

[Garyh]

Hi everyone again...:hi:
Had some strange weather up here lately with some excellent seeing with the full moon up to absolutely terrible conditions with full jetstream winds and cloud..
I took these two pics with my canon 300d and sigma 17-70mm on thursday night. A bright iridium flare (-8 mag) was scheduled around 6:50 pm and it was reasonably clear, so I decided to set up and hope for the best.
Lots of low patchy cloud here and there as well as high jetstream cloud shooting through. Luckily the part of the sky where it would be was mainly cloud free...:) The flare was right on time and bright with a fainter satellite coming through in another image not long after.
Later that night the sky cleared up even more so did a widefield shot showing all those lovely messier objects in and around the galactic plane before moon rise ..

Details:

Iridium flare: 5 x 200 sec at 24mm, iso 800
Widefield: 8 x 300 sec at 70mm, iso 800

Both stacked in deepskystacker and played with in PS.
Both images around 300ks in size!!


http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/garyh-iridiumflare-5stack-200sec-.jpg
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/garyh-sagwide-70mm-8stack-300sec.jpg (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/../uploads/garyh-sagwide-70mm-8stack-300sec.jpg)

All comments welcome!!!...:thumbsup:
Cs Gary

[gbeal]

Two satelites? Good job. The later widefield is nice though, great area of sky isn't it?

[Dr Nick]

I love that milky way wide field! It is such a populated little area - lagoon, trifid, swan, and eagle! ;)

I also like the iridium flare, I have allways wanted to see one but have never managed to find one that will happen in my area before midnight... ;)

[RB]

Lovely shots Gary, excellent work.
Both look quite sharp, especially the Iridium Flare.

:thumbsup:

[iceman]

Beautiful, Gary! You caught the flare spot on, from start to finish.

Lovely widefield of the milkyway too, great to see more from you.

[leon]

Now that is some imaging Gary very nice indeed, like the Iridium Flare one, but they are both fantastic images, well done.

leon

[Ric]

Great widefields Gary, they are both excellent images :thumbsup:

The Irridium flare is a beauty, you nailed that one perfectly.

Cheers

[Garyh]

Thanks every for the comments! :thumbsup:. I am quiet happy with the results from the sigma zoom lense! there is some flaring in the top corners which does`t seem to go away without stopping it down quiet alot! but for $450 its good value.
Wasn`t the best weather that night but with a bright iridium flare coming through I wanted to have a go. We don`t seem to get many in the evening, mostly before dawn!! Also very warm that night as only had my T-shirt/shorts on which was really unusual! Made the frames very noisey and more work to process. But I got the sucker..:thumbsup:
Thanks everyone for your comments...:)
Cs Gary

[jase]

Great wide field capture Gary. Particularly like the object framing in the Sagittarius field. Very pleasurable to view.:)

[PCH]

Luv the wide angle pic, but at risk of sounding a bit thick - what's an iridium flare ? :P Doh

Cheers,
Paul

[erick]

Here you go Paul:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_flare

[Garyh]

Thanks Eric for that!!!

Thanks also Paul and Jase!!! for the comments!!...:thumbsup:
cheers Gary

[Tamtarn]

Two great widefields Gary. Particularly like the first one. Planning ahead really paid off :thumbsup:

[Rob_K]

What a fantastic Iridium flare capture Gary!:eyepop: :thumbsup: You must be really pleased with that!

Cheers -