[loki78 (Jon)]

Last week on the Wednesday morning, i was up about 2am and noticed it was clear so i decided to go out and have a go at some data for my first milky way shot. Started at stanwell tops (sydney person) which was blowing a gale. doh forot to check that. so i just drove inland randomly down heathcote rd and ended up stopping in some new suburb as it was getting late and setting up in a vacant construction block. Crazy. I need to build up a list of semi local dark(ish) sites around Sydney that dont involve hours and hours of driving.

Anyway i managed some data. Ended up with 16x20sec lights. 15 darks, stacked in DSS (first time using it) and touched it up after a bit with CS6 beta ( first time using that too). Using a 600D with the 18-55mm kit lens at 18mm and about F4.5 i think it was.

Was a good learning curve and considering the randomness of the night and location i ended up in and first time using various methods, i was fairly pleased with how it turned out. A good starting point to learn from anyway. Like learning eventually that DSS doesn't work with 600D raws so i had to get the DSS beta. Good times. That one was doing my head in.

Critique away, tips to help me improve are greatly appreciated.

Also, if any Sydney siders care to share any semi dark spots they go to that aren't 3-4hours away to a real dark site, jump in by all means.