Milkyway - Antares wide field

[rcheshire]

Single 10 second exposure - dark site in the Macedon Ranges, Victoria. Wish I had my gear with me. This was taken with the camera resting on a baseball cap for stability and perched on the windscreen - bonnet of the car, after driving down a dirt track. It was almost pitch black and the sky absolutely stunning - cold too. It'll go sub-zero tonight for sure.

Camera Fujifilm X Pro1
Lens - 50mm f/1.4
ISO 1600
1:1 ratio in camera - no cropping.
Focus - manual.

Ignoring the fact that the lens is not designed for this type of work, the detail is quite stunning.

[jjjnettie]

Holy moley, such detail !!

[Lester]

Very nice Rowland.

[desler]

I like it a lot Rowland, very nice!

Darren

[bartman]

WOW the Fraking WOW!
Awesome Rowland!
Thanks for sharing :)
Bartman

[Rigel003]

Ah, the old camera on a baseball cap technique. Amazing result for a single exposure under those conditions. Must have been an exceptional sky.

[seeker372011]

A single 10 second exposure?
Wow

[Sarge]

Fantastic shot Rowland. Well done.
:thumbsup:
Clear skies

Rod
:D:D

[silv]

absolutely stunning detail!
and then with only 1 exposure.
must have been a wonderful sky.

[skysurfer]

Really nice for just 10 seconds !

But why the distortion in the corners ? Lots of coma / astigmatism in the corners. Is this the objective lens ?
Stopping down to f/2.8 and raising to 40 secs exposure (and tracking) makes better star images in the corners.

[rcheshire]

Thanks guys. It surprised me too. Must get it on a mount and stop it down a bit.

Yes tracking fstop etc etc would have been great, but not available at the time - missed opportunity.

[naskies]

Too bad you don't have an Astrotrac or Polarie... would've been perfect! Really-really-dark skies are an amazing sight.

[Ross G]

Amazing colour and detail Rowland.

That camera has great potential.


Ross.

[steve000]

holy carp thats unreal. Such crazy detail for a 10sec shot.

[rcheshire]

Thanks guys. It is a bit of a surprise. A flat field would be a big improvement. Here's another taken the same night.

[silv]

I've been meaning to ask - how much was the baseball cap?

f/1.4 - uhm. mine only goes down to 3.5 at 18mm.
that explains a lot of the light, doesn't it.
mine doesn't pick up pinkish glow anywhere, either :(

[Chris.B]

They are great shots.
Is that how it came out the camera or was there some post processing?

[John Hothersall]

At F1.4 this works well with colours and those fingers of dust moving toward Antares are glorious with fine structures.

John.

[Astro_Bot]

That is an amazing shot! Is the camera modded in any way?

[rcheshire]

The baseball cap is not for sale.

Camera is not modified at all.

Processing - background extraction and a slight histogram stretch.

According to the literature, the IR filter is not so strong and there is no anti aliasing filter. The sensor has an improved microlens and a none standard colour matrix. Fuji claim this all works toward greater sensitivity.

[gregbradley]

Great shot. Those XPro 1 cameras seem awesome.

The coma would be greatly reduced by stopping down to F4. F1.4 is really only useful for terrestial shots where you desire the background to be blurred.

Greg.

[Rex]

Great shots Rowland, and the detail for single 10 sec shots is stunning. You must be happy with that.

[rcheshire]

Thanks. I thought others might be interested in the performance of this camera. If it's clear tonight I hope to get it on a mount and stop the lens down.

[iceman]

Amazing for such a short exposure!