Friday night at The Dish

[Phil Hart]

after a long drive, alex cherney and i had some fun at The Dish on Friday night. the moonlight (and illumination from dish lights) made for some interesting shots looking in the other direction too.

i'm still not completely sold on HDR images (both of the Dish images are HDR) but Photoshop CS5 definitely does a better (and easier) job than earlier versions.

i should have had a timelapse as well, but botched two attempts! :mad2:! could be awhile before i get another nice july night at the dish with milky way, clear skies and nice soft moonlight?! :screwy:

is it time for a widefield images category in the forums yet.. or should these go in terrestial images?

Phil

[multiweb]

Nice. Love the shot with the tree in the foreground and congrats on the serial winning. :thumbsup:

[RobF]

Beautifully sharp and clear Phil. Love all 3. There's something almost sureal about the first two, showing the dish at sunset and then again with the moon.

[troypiggo]

Beautiful.

[DavidU]

Good effort Phil, stick at it you may win an award one day:P:D

[gregbradley]

I love the one with the Dish, moon at night. Wow you really have a knack for presenting scenes in a very aesthetic way.

You'll be pleased to know your efforts have inspired my wife to do some widefield imaging as well. I owe you one!
I plan to do some more as well. The DSLR has its strength in this area.

I agree widefield imaging deserves its own forum as it has its own equipment, own techniques, own lens selections etc.

Greg.

[h0ughy]

how awesome are those shots - like the last two the tree especially. Would have loved to be there, havent been to parkes since i was 11.

[zardos123]

hi phil i will email more of these to you, thought forum members might like to see you in action:)

[iceman]

Lovely shots Phil. I was going to head out there on Sunday night but was too cold and too tired.
Another time..

[iceman]

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

[spacezebra]

Stunning images of the Dish, Phil and Alex:thumbsup:.

Can you post the set up for the shots.

Cheers Petra d.

[rogerg]

Great shots Phil, very nice :thumbsup: My favorite is the tree with Milky Way.

[Ric]

Wonderful images Phil.

cheers

[Phil Hart]

The first HDR image was taken using auto-exposure bracketing with the maximum bracketing of two stops.

The three images were taken with 24mm lens at f3.5 and ISO200 on the 5DmkII. Exposure times were 1/10, 1/3 and 1.5 seconds. Merged to HDR in Photoshop using pretty much the default settings, except for increasing the black levels and reducing the highlights (ie increasing the contrast at both ends from the default settings.. the default is too much HDR and not enough impact). Then a little bit more contrast using a Levels Adjustment Layer.

[Phil Hart]

and if you look really close you can (just) see Mars and Saturn as well..

[h0ughy]

i am squinting;)

[mithrandir]

Venus at about 7oclock from the moon, Mars at about 5:50 and Saturn at 4oclock.

Mars is the hard one.

[irwjager]

Stunning! All 3.

#2 is one of those pics that make me feel like I live in 'the future' right now. :P