All sky shot - Center of Milky way

[universe24 (William Chin)]

Wanna take such center of Milky Way shot long time ago since year 2000. At last, Transit of Venus brought me to NT, Australia and I took the opportunity to grap it.

Taken using homemade medium format camera with 16mm fisheye f/2.8 for 135 format camera. 90 minutes exposure.

I found that the center of Milky Way actually at Dec. of about -29 degrees. The place I shot this is about -25 degrees. 3 degrees further south...this will be my next target to visit NT, Australia again.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Great image William!
I'd be interested to know more about your "homemade medium format camera"!

Cheers,
Stephen

[universe24 (William Chin)]

The fisheye got back focus of ~45mm. But normal medium format camera has longer back focus. Thus, a custom made camera body needed so that the fisheye can focus on medium format film pack.

The film pack I used is Mamiya SPro. The 16mm fisheye in 135 format camera is diagonal fisheye. When it on a medium film, it became circular fisheye.

See the picture below is how the camera look like.

[iceman (Mike)]

Beautiful shot! Looks like you had a great time in the outback.

[universe24 (William Chin)]

Dear Mike,

Yes. I and another 5 friends are happy with the trip.

We stay in the region called tropical rain forest. The sky always got clouds. We are so excited to see the clear sky in the outback.

The LMC and SMC can be seen easily every night! Although in Malaysia, we still possible to see them but very low above horizon.

[colinmlegg (Colin)]

Lovely shot. Nice to see it done on film. I guess you can't get an image like that with a medium format digital back? Too noisy?

[universe24 (William Chin)]

Originally Posted by colinmlegg

Lovely shot. Nice to see it done on film. I guess you can't get an image like that with a medium format digital back? Too noisy?

Maybe...I saw PhaseOne medium camera in action at long exposure...even the ISO100 also quite noisy.

Maybe if shot under cool weather should be better? Or add cooling system on it.

Anyway, digital medium format might also has IR cut filter before the sensor and modification needed to capture red color from outer space.

[naskies (Dave)]

Great photo! 90 min exposure... wow.