Rho Oph "tyre tracks" running into the Milky Way

[alexch]

Hi,


Attached is the image I took a little earlier on 14th of June around 8pm. I thought the Rho Ophiuchi "tyre tracks" looked quite nice running into the core of the Milky Way. The red glow is quite evident and I think it adds to the image.

I experimented with software de-rotation and stacked three 30-second exposures of the sky in Meade Envisage. The result was reasonably better with more detail and nebulosity than a single exposure so I kept it. The ground part is a stack of seven 30-second exposures in Registax.

This is my first attempt at stacking the sky images so please point out the mistakes.

P.S. I love "Led Zeppelin" ;)

Cheers,
Alex

[jjjnettie]

What a beautiful wide field!


( ;) Zeppelin are awesome )

[[1ponders]]

I really like that Alex. Fantastic first stack.

[multiweb]

Wow! That's just awesome. Love those milkyway shots. The colours are unreal. :thumbsup:

[richardo]

That's a beaut Alex..
I too love these wide fields with the extra bonus of a terrestrial land mark.
Colours look great!

Well done.

[Octane]

Superb work, once again!

Is there a Led Zeppelin reference in the image or something? I can't see it. : )

Well, except Down by the Seaside. : D

H

[alexch]

Stairway to Heaven (well, the stargazer's interpretation...) :)

[iceman]

Awesome, again!

[iceman]

What camera and lens do you use, Alex?

[iceman]

This is now IOTW (http://www.iceinspace.com.au).

[Big Dave]

Well done Alex.
P.S. You didn't miss much at Heatcoate this weekend!

[rcheshire]

Magnificent! But it ain't for sale!

[gregbradley]

Very artistic image.

Greg.

[Lester]

Eyecatching image, thanks for the view Alex.

[Remus]

That's an awesome image you have there, well done!

[alexch]

Thanks everyone for encouraging comments!



Thanks Mike - it is much appreciated. I used the same camera/lens combination as usual - D700, 14-24mm at 14mm f/2.8.

Cheers,
Alex

[Scorpius51]

Alex

Stunning! Well done.

John

[Hagar]

Magnificent. I remember this area well. I used to rock fish from these rocks many years ago before all the board walks went in.

Thanks for posting.

[Omaroo]

Fabulous image Alex. So Rivenesque. Go the Nikon :) A D700 is probably next on my list.

[alexch]

Thanks, Chris and everyone.

D700 has an amazing dynamic range and low shadow noise at high ISO.

There is one caveat though, which you may already know about. Nikon DSLRs may not be well suited for guided photography because of the long exposure hot pixel removal algorithm which cannot be turned off. For well-guided exposures, it will discard some fainter stars as hot pixels.

All this is not a problem in my case of using fixed tripod ;)

Cheers,
Alex

[apaulo]

Well done Alex :thumbsup:

I must pick your brains at the next members nite. I might even have to get some Russian beer to extract the last bit of info ;)

Best Regards Paul.:P

[leon]

I might be a bit late here but that is a beauty, suitable for any postcard, well done indeed.

Leon

[starfinder]

Beeeeeautiful shot Alex. Great planning, well executed and highly deserving of Image of the Week. Congratulations. Russ

[Terry B]

A great photo. Well done.

[bloodhound31]

Alex, I'd like to shake your hand mate. This photograph shows your skill and eye in so many area's. Composition is exquisite, exposure is just right, colours are magnificent and processing is spot on. If I could ever turn out an image as good as this I would really feel like I had achieved something.

Is your camera a full-frame sensor or cropped frame? that 14mm F2.8 looks like it has done a spectacular job of capturing a great deal of the MW in a single frame.

Thank you for sharing this beautiful piece of art and skill mate.:thumbsup:

Baz.

[venus]

Truly awesome. Reminds me of a scene in the movie "Contact"

[acropolite]

Superb shot Alex, I'm curious about the stacked sky images, you mentioned software derotation , what software did you use, or did you end up keeping the exposure times down and not using derotation, also I'm curious as to the ISO used?

[alexch]

Thanks, Barry!

D700 is a full-frame camera and 14-24mm f/2.8 zoom covers about 120 degrees diagonally at 14mm. I must add the lens is amazing, very low distortion and sharp across the frame with minimal coma even wide open.

[alexch]

Thanks, Phil.

I used Austostar Envisage (free software from Meade) to stack this, but since then I found out that Deep Sky Stacker does a better job of de-rotating and averaging the exposures. I found that 15 second exposures at 14mm focal length work best with Deep Sky Stacker and it can successfully align 7-9 images, which is enough.

Strictly speaking Nikon D700 does not need much improvement on a 30-second exposure at f/2.8 and ISO 3200. It would be hard to tell the difference in a print unless it is very large. In all of my other photos at http://www.terrastro.com the sky is not stacked.

Cheers,
Alex

[gary]

Superb!

Best Regards

Gary

[strongmanmike]

Thought I had already commented on this..? I must be dreaming :rolleyes: :screwy:

Great shot Alex, well composed and shot, very inspiring :thumbsup:

Mike

[Neil]

Alex ,thats a great image !,I feel like I,m there,... ready to leap in. inspirational mate.

[alexch]

You certainly did Mike! And even made it IOTW :eyepop: (thanks)

[strongmanmike]

Errr...wrong Mike :question:...I don't think Mike Salway speeks to me anymore :sadeyes: :sad:

[alexch]

Indeed - my apologies to both Mikes :shrug:
(I should not be doing 10 things at one time...)

[rogerg]

I'm really quite surprised what detail you have in the sky for such short exposures. It does show the type of colour balance I'd expect for a DSLR, but still I'm surprised at the detail. I've just enjoyed looking over your website and you've got several nice shots there.

In some ways I'm wondering what I do wrong to not get such sensitivity on my 7D! Probably the biggest difference is in noise, I presume your camera would have less noise.

Full frame wide field is nice. Something I miss with my current camera.

Do you shoot wide open at f/2.8?

[alexch]

Thanks, Roger.

At night I always use the 14-24mm lens wide open - it is so good there is no real reason to stop it down.

I guess the main difference is about 1-stop sensitivity advantage due to the sensor size. I also think Nikkor 14-24 has some magic elements in it, and maybe a large 100mm front element helps with point light sources.

Cheers,
Alex

[rogerg]

I just googled the lens. Wow, that's some glass. Wow.

[Octane]

Roger,

The Nikkor 14-24mm, 24-70mm and 70-200mm make up the f/2.8 "holy trinity" of Nikon glass.

A mate of mine has the 24-70mm with the new fangled nano coating and it is an incredible lens; it resolves an enormous amount of detail.

I've found in my web trawling, that a lot of Canon owners have purchased the 14-24mm and Nikon-EF adapter for landscapes as it's just so good.

We're waiting for Canon to provide us something (the 14mm f/2.8L II doesn't count as it's a prime) of a similar standing in a wide-angled zoom.

H

[luigi]

Totally fantastic, the glow is amazing!!

[OICURMT]

Alex:

OMG! http://www.terrastro.com/showimg.php?file=/01.Ocean/v01.Moonshine.mov :eyepop: (http://www.terrastro.com/showimg.php?file=/01.Ocean/v01.Moonshine.mov)

BTW: Noted the virtual 360. What did you use to stitch it and did you use QTVR for the final product?
http://www.terrastro.com/showimg.php?file=/03.Phillip%20Island/01.360%20Virtual%20Tour.mov

[alexch]

Thanks!

I used PTGUI for both stitching and QTVR output.

Alex

[OICURMT]

Should have asked if you use a 360 tripod head as well, or do you do it "manually".

I've done some basic 360's, generally along the horizon, but yours is a full globe (love the stamp at the bottom).

I'm off to Africa in August and would like to try something like a 360 at the campsite we are staying (in the bush). I can only bring a light-weight tripod due to weight.

I plan on practicing over the next few weeks (your images have given me the courage to try... :thanx:). Any hints would greatly be appreciated.

OIC!

[alexch]

I use the panoramic head - Nodal Ninja 5, it is very good. Abot 1 kg of extra weight.

[OICURMT]

Thanks dude.... NN5 seems outta my league, but gotta admit... but the NN3 seems ripe for the taking.

Accounting for my "investment" (hate using that word on an expense) on Africa, I'm seriously considering the purchase. I'll be in Adelaide next week for meetings, so I'll give it a try (local distributor). I've done basic 360's in good light, by hand, but your movie and 360 have captured my imagination. Considering I'll be in a part of Africa with absolutely no lighting (read, DARKEST SKIES EVER), I better plan.

I've got a friend in the filming industry who told me to try "free-hand" first (i.e. with basic equipment) then upgrade if I thought it was required, so that's my tactic over the weekend (leaving Aug 12th).

I've gotta admit, I've so impressed by your shots that I'm thinking I have no hope without at least a million or so hours behind the lens...

Here's hoping... O.o
OIC!

[alexch]

I tried it without the NN head and it was not doable during the day let alone in the dark. With 14mm lens I have to shoot two rows of six images each. Accurate rotation on both axes is a requirement there and you need to do it quickly at night to minimise the effect of Earth rotation.
If you have a circular fisheye you can get away with three-four shots.

NN3 is a good choice if you gear is light, mine is rather heavy so I had to go NN5.

Alex