Hi Guys,
I spent last week down at the girlfriends family farm in Nannup for a bit of a serene getaway and just had to make use of the dark skies for some widefields.
Sadly, I only get to do this about once or twice a year, the rest of the time I'm in suburban LP hell, but one powerball and I'm moving there for ever!
I was able to push 15 min exposures at 1600 and f4 with minimal fogging and would be easy to go more but with no guiding, trailing was becoming an issue.
My Sky Quality Meter(SQM-L) gave consistent readings of around 21.70 to 21.75, but did get one reading of 21.79.... I was loving the dark!
Anyway, stats for this image:
Single 450 second (7.5min) exposure, no darks or flats or any other calibration.
Canon 60Da at ISO1600, 100% APS-c frame (not cropped).
Astrotrac Travel System (Pier & Wedge etc), no guiding.
Pentax Super-Takumar 105/2.8 at f4 (50year old lens)
Processing is simply some fiddling in Canon's DPP, no photoshop or PI or anything.
I was fortunate(!) when some very thin, very high level cloud passed thru the shot and bloated the brighter stars which, I believe, enhance the shot.
With the bloated stars, I decided to crank the saturation right up to highlight the star colours and I really like it.
It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I hope some of you like it
A slightly larger but much less compressed version can be viewed here:
http://www.pbase.com/image/154051615/original
Regards,
Simon