Milky Way - widefield images and time lapse animations

[alexch]

Hi All,

Couple of months ago I borrowed a tripod at BSG and pointed my ultra-wide angle lens upwards. Before I knew it I was hooked up.

I'd like to share a third set I did a few days ago (new moon and thin crescent). There are some wide field shots of Milky Way, time lapse animations and stacked images. I am a beginner in astro-imaging and would appreciate your comments and suggestions.

My first album is here (shot with Nikon D700 and 14-24mm f/2.8 lens on a fixed tripod, no tracking):
http://www.terrastro.com/

Thanks for looking,
Alex

[Jeffkop]

Really great viewing those Alex. Fantastic composition and detail. This forum has some very talented people who contribute to it, the variety of peoples ideas never ceases to amaze me.

A 10 from the Alstonville judge.

[AlexN]

That time lapse is sensational mate! Top job indeed! :)

[pvelez]

Just amazing! I am going to pack the camera away now - no point even trying to match that.

Thanks for sharing

Pete

[DavidU]

You have done really well. Keep 'em coming:thumbsup:.

[robin]

Alex, with a D700 & a 14-24, you've got some serious firepower there. Awesome combo

[iceman]

Stunning images and timelapse. Beautiful work!

[multiweb]

:eyepop: Mate this is unreal. I'm totally speechless. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[alexch]

Thanks everyone for kind words!

[DJDD]

that is the best timelapse animation I have seen. :thumbsup:

the focus looks spot on. I wish I could do it that well.

and I really like the shot with the clouds.

[alexch]

Thanks :) Small size and compression artefacts on the web versions don't help - there are many more stars visible in HD.

Focusing with LiveView is very easy - I just choose a bright star or Jupiter and zoom all the way in digitally, then focus manually. I only needed to do that a few times, then I remember the mark on the lens focusing ring.

[PeterM]

Alex,
Stunning, inspirational.
Thank you.

PeterM.

[erick]

Oh dear! I put up my timelapse before I looked at this thread :ashamed:

Beautiful work, Alex! :thumbsup:

[StephenM]

Great stuff Alex!

Cheers,
Stephen

[alexch]

Mike, thanks for putting it for IOTW! Much appreciated.

[RB]

Excellent work Alex and congratulations on IOTW.
Well deserved.

:)

[h0ughy]

nice work, the time lapses look pretty good as well

[StarGazing]

Great stuff Alex. WOW. Nice one mate :thumbsup:
Alex.

[gregbradley]

Amazingly beautiful.

Is that ocean view from where you live?

Greg.

[jase]

Stunning results. Well done and thanks for sharing your efforts.

[alexch]

I wish :) The surf beach is near Flinders, Vic - an hour's drive from where I am.

[spacezebra]

Stunning Alex, simply stunning.

Cheers Petra d.

[hotspur]

Theres no doubt about it.some of these are the best astro pics i

have ever seen on this forum,they are outstanding,of extremerly

high quality,and well thought out.

I would be happy to buy a good quality print of 07 and 02 and moon

in scorpio,and have them framed and hanging in my observatory.

Well done!

regards Chris

[Kal]

Fantastic pics. I look forward to what you publish when you aren't a beginner :eyepop:

[matt]

That's some very nice work, right there:thumbsup:

Thanks, and keep the contributions coming.

[alexch]

Well, I must admit that whilst I am a novice in astro-imaging, I've owned a DSLR camera for a few years. But I was truly amazed at how beautiful the Milky way and the ocean turned out.

Your kind feedback is very encouraging to pursue it further.

Regards,
Alex

[DavidU]

Yes ! Keep it up, there is a talent there.

[alexch]

Thanks Chris, your kind comments are much appreciated!

I printed out the images on my Canon i9950 A3+ inkjet printer (decent but not archival quality as the ink fades out after a few years).
02 and 07 look quite good in 13"x19" size. I can see the noise from about 20cm but I really need to be looking for it to notice and it is not objectionable. "Moon in Scorpio" however is not suitable for anything larger than A4 as it is a crop and focus wasn't 100%.

I never sold a print yet, but I guess it is never too late to start :)

I know RedBubble offers good quality prints on various types of paper or stretched canvas or a poster. Their prices appear reasonable and they pay 20% to the photographer. I uploaded high resolution images to RedBubble but if you would like to use any other online service I am happy to upload there as well.

The RedBubble address is http://www.redbubble.com/people/alexch/art

Please PM me if you would like to discuss it further.

Cheers,
Alex

[leinad]

Beautiful images Alex, thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:

[spearo]

love it!
frank

[zipdrive]

amazing well done!!!

[erick]

Now this is tempting!

[peterbat]

Hi Alex, brilliant photos and time lapses.... you've inspired me to take out my camera and give it a try. What sort of ISO settings and exposures were you using?

Peter

[alexch]

Thanks Peter,

15 seconds exposures at ISO1600 but then I push parts of the image in post-processing to ISO3200-6400.

I found that whilst 30 second exposures work okay for still images at 14mm, time-lapse looks a bit jerky so I reduced the exposure time to 15 seconds.

Alex

[mexhunter]

Hi Alex:
Beautiful work!
Many grettings
Cesar

[peterbat]

Thanks Alex, you've certainly set a high standard for us all to aim for ;)
Peter

[alexch]

Jeff, AlexN, Pete, Dave, Robin, Mike, Marc, DJDD, PeterM, Eric, Stephen, Andrew, David, Alex (StarGazing), Greg, Jase, Petra, Chris, Andrew, Matt, leinad, Frank, Peter (peterbat), Cesar and everyone - thank you so much for kind comments and encouragement, I am very glad you liked it.

Hopefully there will be more to come, time and weather permitting.

Cheers,
Alex

[gregbradley]

The south Victorian coast is very gorgeous and changing too!

Greg.

[AdrianF]

Absolutely stunning photos and animations.

Adrian

[danielsun]

WOW Alex!! That is stunning!! The pics and the time lapse are truly incredible. Just Brilliant.:thumbsup:


Cheers Daniel.

[Octane]

Alex,

Agreed with everyone -- these are works of art.

Imagine, if your output at this stage is so good, give it a few months/years -- think of what you'll be producing then. :)

You've also inspired me to chuck my 5D Mark II on a static tripod and give something like this a go. Only problem being, in Canberra, there's no coastline. Just the lake, but, it might work. :)

Regards,
Humayun

[csb]

Wow! ALL your photos give a fantastic perspective of our Milky Way.
Beautiful!

[alexch]

Thanks again everyone!

Attached is one of my first attempts at Milky Way from Border Stargaze where I caught the astro-imaging bug. BSG was great fun and very well organised (Thanks Petra!). I managed to get the Magellanic clouds in there as well as a few telescopes (the white Dob at the right corner is mine). The light glow is from Albury.

Cheers,
Alex

[danielsun]

Another stunner Alex. Beautiful work with nice colors.:thumbsup:

Cheers Daniel.

[Octane]

Alex, I met you! We were looking at M31 and M33 through your scope through that enormous eyepiece. You had to hold the dob up as the eyepiece was so heavy. :)

I was set up towards the left hand side of the left court. That's me in the freezer suit standing next to the green light which was emanating from the on/off switch of my regulated power supply. :)

Regards,
Humayun

[alexch]

I know :)

[meliux]

wow... they're great. quite artistic!

[mill]

Those time lapses are just beautiful and very well executed, a pleasure to look at.

[bps1104]

Awesome picsss...

[White Rabbit]

Beautiful work there Alex. If you dont allready know about www.timescapes.org you should check it out. I'm sure the guys over there would love to see your work as well.

Well done.

Sandy

[Jazza11]

Very beautiful images congratz

[White Rabbit]

Hi Alex

Could you explain how you up the iso to 6400 in post production.

Thanks
Sandy

[alexch]

I always shoot RAW (NEF in Nikon terms) and then post-process in Nikon Capture NX2. Nikon D700 has amazing RAW headroom and allows to recover about 2-3 f/stops of extra info.

How I do it depends on an image and is hard to explain, I use my normal daylight image processing experience. Mostly I use control points or gradient to select portions of the image and then apply levels and/or curves to brighten the highlights and midtones. Sometimes I use a few iterations to get the output I want.

I am not sure if this is "technically" correct, but my understanding is that by doing so I amplify the highlights/midtones signal by 1 or two f/stops for parts of the image (effectively increasing ISO sensitivity in highlights/midtones).

I found that with Nikon DSLRs RAW format you can underexpose by 2 f/stops at say ISO1600, then increase the exposure level in post production by 2 f/stops and arrive at the same output as if you shot at ISO6400 (the only difference is in noise reduction as set by the camera).

Hope this helps.

Alex

[Martin Pugh]

Fantastic photography

well done indeed.

Martin

[troypiggo]

How did I miss this thread? Awesome images!

[rastis95]

Just awesome Alex :thumbsup:.
Cheers
Scott

[Omaroo]

To think that I was set up there too on that very court.

Brilliant images Alex. I've only just cottoned on to them today. Wonderful! I must accelerate my D700 purchase. :)

[alexch]

Thanks Chris,

D700 is a fantastic machine especially in the high ISO department.
Alex

[AlexN]

That shot from Border Star Gaze is fantastic!! Theres a hell of a lot going on in there! :) 3 galaxies, a bunch of happy astronomers and quite a few scopes..

The D700's dynamic range must be great... the illuminated areas on the ground look nice an smooth, the milkyway looks stunning and the SMC and LMC are both showing detail! Top work!