Scorpius, Corona Australis, and Crux from Leyburn

[naskies]

Hi all,

I visited Leyburn for the first time last night with a few friends from IIS.

Seeing wasn't the greatest and the fog + airglow was pretty thick, but thanks to the cooler weather I finally managed to get more signal than noise on my longer exposure tracked DSLR shots (click on links for larger versions):


1. Scorpius and the Milky Way (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis/ScorpiusConstellation.jpg): 19x 181 sec (57 mins total), f/2.8, ISO 800 subs taken with a stock Canon 5DmkII + 24 mm f/1.4L II mounted on an Astrotrac.

2. Corona Australis (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis/CoronaAustralisConstellation.jpg): 11x 181 sec (33 mins total), f/4, ISO 1600 subs taken with a stock Canon 5DmkII + 100 mm f/2.8L IS Macro mounted on an Astrotrac. This one definitely needed more data.

3. Crux and Lambda Centauri Nebula (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis/CruxLambdaCent.jpg): 15x 182 sec (45 mins total), f/4, ISO 1600 subs taken with a stock Canon 5DmkII + 100 mm f/2.8L IS Macro mounted on an Astrotrac.


All shots stacked in DSS (lights only - no darks/flats/bias) and processed with PS CS5 and GradientXTerminator. Thanks for looking!


Cheers,

Dave

[Paul Haese]

An interesting dreamy feel about these images. Maybe the star halos are just a little too big, but overall lovely colouring and processing.

[RickS]

Very nice, Dave. They have a great feel to them.

My subs at 530mm focal length are a bit fuzzy as well. I might have been better off bringing a DSLR instead of the FSQ-106ED ;)

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

Fantastic Dave.

I love image 1! Wow.

The 5D2 still has a lot of life left in it eh?

Greg.

[TheDecepticon]

I agree about the star halos, No 1 is a bit of a cracker though!!:thumbsup:

[naskies]

Thanks guys! The fog was extremely thick, causing the huge stars, but the curves probably could have been fine tuned a bit more for the highlights.

I've never been happier with a camera than my 5DmkII... even better now with the cool weather. I constantly have to resist the urge to mod it (but terrestrial/people photography is a greater priority for me).

Here's a quick stitch from the Leyburn site (I'm still testing the trial version of AutoPano Giga) - larger version here (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13644418/iis/LeyburnSitePanorama.jpg). It was a great experience to see everyone busy imaging away under the Milky Way.

Oh well, back to all the study... hope to see everyone's amazing work again after exams!

[multiweb]

Great series. Love the fat coloured stars. Outlines the asterism nicely. It's like bold fonts for stars. Bit of formatting. :thumbsup: