Our Galactic Neighborhood

[luigi]

Hi All,

I shot this image last weekend on a trip to a dark site. Great conditions but very humid I had a nasty fight against condensation (I can ask for everything!).

It shows the Milky Way and the two Magellan Clouds near Azul, Argentina about 300km away from Buenos Aires.

http://www.luisargerich.com/recent/haf83126#haf83126
(click to see larger)

Data:
Canon 5DII
Nikon 14-24 F2.8
Astrotrac Mount
ISO1600 F2.8 14mm 10x1minute
Stacked with DSS

Cheers!
Luis

[TrevorW]

excellent widefield Luis

[Octane]

Luis,

What a fabulous shot! Interesting composition, too.

You guys have to stop posting these 12-24mm shots, otherwise, you're going to send me broke!

Keep it up, mate. : )

H

[luigi]

Trevor, H, thank you!

H a 14-24 in your future I see (Say loud in Yoda´s voice)

[CometGuy]

Very nice Luis

[bkm2304]

Love the terrain in the foreground, Luis. Puts the milky way and Mag clouds in dramatic perspective.

Richard :thumbsup:

[alexch]

Very very nice Luis!

How do you find the Astrotrac?
Alex

[luigi]

@Richard & @CometGuy thanks guys!!



I like the astrotrac a lot, even with a very very rough polar alignment using just a compass and declination I could expose for 1 minute instead of 20 seconds without it. With proper PA you can go for really long exposures. I tried 1 minute with a 200mm lens without visible trails too.
In this case I exposed for 1 minute because I was having a condensatin nightmare so I had to wipe the lens often.

[danielsun]

Wow Luis! I spent quite some time in your site looking at all you photos and have to say that all your work is truly brilliant!!!:thumbsup:


Cheers Daniel.

[Ric]

Excellent work Luis.

This one is a beauty.

Cheers

[alexch]

I looked at the image again and I think DSS stacking might have "eaten" a few stars in the top corners, I've had it happen a few times and had to reduce the number of stacked images for the problem to go away.

The middle section is fantastic with nice bright detail!

Cheers,
Alex

[strongmanmike]

The Milky Way looks beautiful!...but If I may be honest Luis the scene doesn't look believable. The sky looks like it has been pasted in on top of the hills. Maybe it's because the hills are so well and evenly illuminated and there is such a hard edge between land and sky? These deep Milky Way and land shots are becoming popular but I find very few look real and believable, almost always ending with something that looks pasted together in photoshop, the key for me is to see something that looks like I am there...?

I know it's not the Milky Way but this work of yours (http://www.luisargerich.com/recent/haf83126#hfb7abfb)looks very believable, like I am there, it is beautiful work.

Mike

[luigi]

@Daniel, @Ric: Thanks a lot!

@Alex: Ty again and I think you are right DSS might have eaten some stars at the corners.

@Michael: Ty for your feedback. You had to be there, the scene really looked like the photo.I can send you one of the RAW files if you need to believe. It's as real as it can be.

[Hypnotist]

Hi Luis,

I absolutely love that pic. I wish I could take the same kind of pics with my Nikon D40x. :thumbsup:

Bart

[gregbradley]

Great shot. I agree with Mike it appears you have pasted the hills into a Milky Way image and if not it certainly looks that way.

What adapter are you using to mount your Nikon 14-24 to the 5D?

The Nikon 14-24 is definitely the lens to get.

Greg.

[luigi]

Thanks Greg! To be honest I didn't paste anything. I would have chosen a better foreground if I intended to make a composite image :lol: As-Is the composition is not very strong but it is real.

I have an old adapter from 16-9, I rotate the lens to select aperture. Works well.

The new adapters have a lever instead, they take 4 to 5 weeks to arrive and are quite expensive so I'm ok with my very very old adapter.

[strongmanmike]

Hmm? Ok fair enough, it is probably due to the fact that the hills are so well lit..? The scene may look more real if the hills were no so evenly and well illuminated..? It may also just be a function of the dynamic range handling and the fact that the scenes field of view is so similar to a naked eye scene that the brain (well mine and Gregs anyway :lol:) doesn't believe it as it is so far from the visual reality ..?

Mike

[Lester]

Very nice image Luis, thanks for the view. All the best.

[sly]

I love this wideview!
Really GREAT!

[rcheshire]

Bien hecho Luis... ?Donde esta? Patagonia

Excuse my Spanish. That's a breathtaking view.

Astrotrac is doing a great job.

PM sent.

[Hagar]

Lovely image Luis. I had a look around your web site. Brilliant. Great work.

[Octane]

Good landscape photography is often about escaping from reality. And, this image is a great example of that.

I'm not sure why people expect every photograph taken to be replicas of real life. Even Ansel Adams, arguably the greatest photographer to have ever lived, manipulated his images in post, and look at how amazing they are -- they've stood the test of time.

Keep it up, Louis.

H

[luigi]

I understand, I lifted the exposure on those hills and that may be a little unnatural as it was a pitch dark night. I appreciate your feedback as it helps me find a balance between light and darkness in the foreground.



Ty!



Thanks!



Ty! It's only 330km away from Buenos Aires. Still far from where Patagonia begins. This hills are part of the Tandilia System, it's one of the oldest rock formations on earth dating from more than 2000 million years ago. Millions of years ago the mountains where higher than the Himalayas reaching 9000mts, now they range from 50 to 400mts. It's a nice place to explore! :)

PM answered!

[luigi]

Ty a lot!!



Ty H! I completely agree with your vision. What's funny is that this maybe one of my most unprocessed images in terms of changing reality. Besides letting the camera expose and stacking for noise reduction I really did very little to the scene. I went with a group of people to this location and the ones that were along with me see it as a very natural scene, only brighter than what the eyes could see.

[iceman]

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

[astroboy]

Great shot Luis.
The Nikon lens seems to be the only game in town for this stuff , I use one with the Novoflex mount they are in stock at Mainline in Sydney.
One question if your using a tracking mount why isn't the foreground blurred ?
Nice work , I wish I had broadband so I could have a proper look at your web site.

Thanks
Zane

[DarkRevenge]

Amazing picture, Luis! Congratz!

Altough I travel very often to Córdoba (Yes, I'm from Argentina and my name is Luis too!), I have never been able to see such a dark sky... :( I hope one day the good luck help me :P

Saludos, and congratulations again!

[that_guy]

great shot Luis TOP JOB!!! that is just plain breath taking :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Tony

[luigi]

Thanks a lot for the comments and for the IOTW award, I'm really really reallly honored!

[luigi]

My site should load faster on a good day, give it a chance :)
I'm surprised to know the Novoflex adapter for G lenses is in stock anywhere, what price does it have there?
The foreground is not blurred because I took a shot of the foreground with the drive mount off. Many times I forget this and then I hate myself :)



What are the chances of finding two Luises from Argentina here? It's a small world! The Cordoba Sierras should be really dark and drier than this location, keep trying!

[astroboy]

Thanks Luis
The Novoflex mounts cost ( from memory ) $ 285 AUD , I also saw one on Ebay that went for abot $250 posted.
So the shot is done as 2 separate layers one for the foreground and one for the Milky Way stack , sorry to go on about this but its the sort of imaging that interests me now . I've been doing them all in one shot which limits me , but doing things your way would give me a reason to use the Kenko sky memo which hasn't seen much action for a while.

Thanks
Zane

[luigi]

Yes, one stack for the foreground and one for the background. Without a tracking mount the same stack can be used for both things, just aligning the stars in one stacking session and doing a no-alignment in the other session.

[cmfeldsberg]

Muy buena la foto. Felicitaciones.

Carlos/ Martinez / Buenos Aires

[p1taylor]

really grate image, wish i could do as well.

peter

[Marcus10]

Truly stunning photo, amazing skies, amazing galaxy we live in

[rcheshire]

Congratulations on IOTW Luis.

[luigi]

Thank you a lot, I'm humbly honored by the IOTW mention.
It really shows a lot of honor and good will to choose somebody from a foreign country and new to the community for the award. I really appreciate that.
I'll be around here for a long time, sometimes my images will be bad so mind the journey.

Thanks again!

[h0ughy]

LOL unless tis fits mike wouldnt know what to do with a DSLR raw file:rofl::P

what a cracker of a shot:thumbsup:

[Dygerati]

So, not sure if this is the place for this question, but it's just a quick one.

I've admired these types of photo's for a while. Would this type of capture be possible with a Nikon D90? I realize it's not nearly the caliber of camera, but a solid DSLR in its own right. So, with the proper lens/tracking system/etc, would it be possible?

Thanks!

[luigi]

Yes, of course you can do it with a D90.

The "key" is to find dark skies. If you are in Australia you already have the Southern Hemisphere advantage to the Milky Way :D
Even without tracking you can get excellent results. Stacking helps reducing noise levels and lets you squeeze more light from the photo without making it ugly.