LMC from Mangrove Mountain

[iceman]

Here's another shot taken on the weekend at Mangrove Mountain Pony Club.

The Sydney skyglow in the south-east really played havoc with this shot. I couldn't do 5 minute exposures because they just had too much light pollution, so these were 3 minute exposures. Even then there was a horrible gradient in the lower-right (the direction of Sydney) that had to be processed out.

I was part-way through a set of 10 sub when my batteries ran flat, so I only got 5 exposures.

Canon 350D + Sigma 17-70mm lens @ 70mm, f/5.0, ISO800.
5x 180s exposures, darks subtracted.
Registered and stacked in DSS, post-processing in photoshop.

Really needs a darker sky, longer exposures and more of them.

[h0ughy]

looks pretty good

[bonox]

At the moment, I can only aspire to something that good. Well done.

[joshman]

i'm with bonox on this one...some i can only aspire for!

[acropolite]

Hafta be happy with that Mike, looks very good to me.:thumbsup:

[davidpretorius]

i still like it!

[sheeny]

Good one Mike!

Al.

[jase]

Would be nice to see a larger version Mike. From this aspect, looks like a your processing was on the mark. Look forward to seeing more.

Cheers

[iceman]

Thanks guys.

Jase, here's a link to the full-res jpeg (at 75% quality): 1.5meg. It's cropped from the full frame to remove the amp glow from the bottom right, and the more objectionable abberations around the edges from the quality of the lens I use.

Full res (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/uploads/20071013-lmc-full.jpg)

Appreciate any feedback on the processing or anything else that could help me to improve.

[Dennis]

Excellent photo Mike. The only improvements I can think of right now, are going longer and using a modded DSLR or cooled CCD!

Cheers

Dennis