First Two Mosaic Panels

[avandonk]

I am in the process of doing a high resolution mosaic from Carina to Crux. Here are the first two panels. Cloud interrupted play last night so the RHS needs a few more exposures.
Done with the Canon 5DH and 300mm F2.8L at f/5 in HDR.

Full resolution 4MB
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~fmlee/mos1&2.jpg

With better weather may get to finish it before this area sinks into the light pollution.

Bert

[multiweb (Marc)]

Very nice field Bert. Great colors.

[iceman (Mike)]

That'll be something when it's done. Look forward to following it, Bert.

[gregbradley]

What a great project! You're off to a flying start.

Greg.

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Wow Bert - nice work.
Look forward to seeing how this pans out.
Do you work with the full size images in each panel? That would make the mosaic immense in size!!
Edit - just saw your high res and you do!!!
You're a madman Bert!!!!!
(I mean that in the nicest possible way you understand!?)

Doug

[avandonk]

Thanks all for the comments. Below is a couple of pictures of my new weapons. I did not use the iris in the lens as it produces diffraction spikes on the brighter stars. Instead mounted baffle plates out of some old achro refractors inside the lens shade. This gives very nice round stars and also reduces slight aberrations due to the outer part of the lens at f/2.8. It also has the fortunate effect of making any vignetting less severe. The other effect is the amount of unwanted light that is not contributing to the image is blocked before it can be scattered inside the lens. This will reduce contrast and add noise to the background.

The aperture of 56mm on the left gives me f/5.2 and the other of 83.5mm f/3.5. The actual focal length of a Canon 300mm F2.8L is 291mm and it has a clear aperture of 104mm. These apertures are almost exactly 1EV apart or one stop. Very handy for HDR!
Yes it was a fluke!