Some widefield astro shots with the D800E

[Adelastro1]

As I mentioned in another thread, I went to Bordertown in the SA country last weekend for Mothers Day and got to try out my new Nikon D800E. It's amazing. Image quality is excellent at high ISO and with my new faster lenses that I bought too I got some great shots with good quality. Finally this is the camera I've been looking for to be able to a lot of things that I either couldn't previously or just a vast improvement on quality.

The images below were taken at my usual 'secret' dark spot at Poocher Swamp near Bordertown. The last few times I've imaged there it's had plenty of water so I got some good reflections but this time it's virtually all dried up except for a puddle in the middle! I was able to get close to some of the dead trees though that I normally can't get to.

Links to hi-res versions are below. Low res versions are at the bottom if this thread.

All taken with a Nikon 14-24 at 14mm, f2.8, ISO 6400 and 20sec exposure except for the last two which were 10sec. The glow on the horizon under the Milky Way centre in Scorpio/Sag was from the town lights. There was a lot or airglow that night too which produced the reddish-brown colour around the southern horizon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29005492@N07/7197076002/in/photostream/lightbox/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29005492@N07/7197053162/in/photostream/lightbox/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29005492@N07/7196991318/in/photostream/lightbox/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29005492@N07/7196967156/in/photostream/lightbox/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29005492@N07/7196937438/in/photostream/lightbox/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29005492@N07/7196915736/in/photostream/lightbox/

[multiweb]

Great serie. Very vibrant colors and nice framing. :thumbsup:

[Adelastro1]

Thank you. Yes thee was a lot of colour in the sky that night.

[iceman]

Lovely images Wayne!

[alocky]

Very impressive!
I'm looking forward to putting mine through its paces this weekend. Would you mind telling what noise reduction settings you used? High ISO NR and long exposure NR?
Cheers,
Andrew.

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Andrew.

I just used the High ISO NR as using the long exposure NR doubles the 'exposure' time (I guess the camera must take an internal dark frame and subtract it). If you don't mind waiting another 20 or 30secs then try it but I like to use the time I have out in the field more efficiently. I've had some success in reducing noise in software later, Noise Ninja for example, if it's too much of a problem but from my initial images ISO 6400 looks like it's pretty good quality for printing - I'll print a few off large and see soon.

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Mike. I shouldn't have taken these as I was already totally confused as to what images to submit for the calendar!

[gregbradley]

Magnificent images Wayne.

The stars look mighty fine to me. In fact better than normal. They have colour! Thanks to the deep wells in the 800E.
Greg.

[Adelastro1]

Thanks Greg. Yes and the Milky Way has more detail and colour I think in general too. It didn't stand out as well in previous cameras I've used (same lens) I'm sure. I should have also mentioned that all I did was process the jpegs in CS5 with auto tone, brightness/contrast, curves if needed and some extra vibrance. That's it. No sharpening or noise reduction. Obviously I can do a lot more with the RAW files too, when I get time!

[Ross G]

Great wideangle photos Wayne.

The colours look great.


Ross.

[gregbradley]

Hi Wayne,

Just looking at these images again. The 10 second ones look great in small sizes but at the largest size you see the breakdown in the dim areas - mottled green and brown areas. Same with 20 sec shots but less so.

DSLR imaging is an interesting thing. It gives these great vistas but the shots are usually a bit noisy, greenish, often (not yours here) white only stars. You have the advantage of boosting the amplification and convenience over a CCD cam. But its a conflict between exposure time and star trailing. So ultrawides then are the best option if not using a mount.

There are a number of cheapish portable mount solutions. Vixen has a cute little thingy that is a very portable little mount, so does Losmandy and Tak and probably others.

My opinion of these type shots in general to maximise their performance is:

1. Use fast ultra wide lenses for best and easy framing and widefield Mily Way.
2. Use a full frame camera if you can, although APS sized works a treat as well. Its a bit easier with full frame.
3. Use HLVG plug in almost compulsorily as DSLR images often seem to battle with green in the sky glow for some reason.
4. Use fastest F ratio and higher ISO and use in camera noise reduction if not mounted. I'd go 30 secs F2.8 ISO6400 for this camera unmounted at 14mm. Or preferably mount the camera and go ISO1250 F4 and do several minutes with library darks and adaptive dark subtraction.
5. I'd shoot in RAW and use lens distortion correction in DPP for Canon or NX2 for Nikon. Do any RAW processing you deem needed and then save as a 16 bit TIFF for post processing in Photoshop.
6. If I were really going for it I would use a mount, autoguided, dark site, library darks, flats, ISO1250 or less, 3-5 minutes, camera connected to the computer for accurate focusing etc, and several shots stacked.

By the way I got a cheapy Intervalomater off Ebay for the D800
Yongsung or similar spelling. I have also ordered a Triggertrap setup for iphone (cheap).

Also out of interest, I got a cheap Ebay Pentax lens to Nikon adapter and tried out my cheapy 2nd hand Ebay Pentax 67 165mm F2.8 and 300mm F4 lenses that work so well on my Proline. They seem to be a winner. Fabulous bokeh and easy to use. Plus the Nikon focus assist is great for manual focus. The little arrows that show which way to adjust focus and a dot that appears when you are in focus is a really handy feature.

Greg.