Milky Way 24 image 871 megapixel 360 degree mosaic

[gregbradley]

This is taking it to the max! It was another stunning night. The Milky Way is somewhat 3D at my dark site. A truly spectacular view.

360 degree view of the Milky Way with some Zodiacal light as well plus the Magellanic Clouds.

This took a bit of work to line everything up.

30 seconds each image ISO6400 Nikon D800E, Nikon 14-24m at 14mm F2.8

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/146073997/large regular

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/ima...73997/original large

Greg.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Wow! That's truly awesome. Love it! What are the cities left and right. You're looking West right?

[pluto (Hugh)]

Really nice!

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Wow! That's truly awesome. Love it! What are the cities left and right. You're looking West right?

Yes west. to the left (south) that would be Canberra and to the right that is Orange.

Originally Posted by pluto

Really nice!

Thanks. I enjoyed taking it.

Greg.

[Octane (Humayun)]

I like how the zodiacal light reaches for Rho Ophiuchus. It's like an umbilical back to earth.

H

[h0ughy (David)]

great work there - you seem to be getting quite good at these now

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Octane

I like how the zodiacal light reaches for Rho Ophiuchus. It's like an umbilical back to earth.

H

Yes. That zodiacal light doesn't seem to be there every night. I was lucky.

Originally Posted by h0ughy

great work there - you seem to be getting quite good at these now

Cheers Dave. Practice makes perfect. These new cameras are quite complex and it takes a while to get to find out the best way to use them.

Greg.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Great result Greg! Nice work.

Cheers,
Stephen

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by StephenM

Great result Greg! Nice work.

Cheers,
Stephen

Thanks Stephen!

Greg.

[lacad01 (Adam)]

What a stunning view, nice one

[DavidTrap (David)]

Great result Greg.

The sky certainly looks "blacker" than I would have expected for 6400ISO. How much have you clipped that end of the histogram?

DT

[RobF (Rob)]

Love it! What a view

[mbaddah (Mo)]

Greg that is incredible! Well done mate.

[Paul Haese]

Very nice work Greg. I think this data opens the potential for an innovation award. I reckon looking at all the opens available to stitch the data together might just produce an unexpected result. I like this image and in particular I really like the intergration of the zodical light into the center of the image.

[pixelsaurus (Mike)]

Great image.

[iceman (Mike)]

Nice work Greg, some great stuff there.

I'm not sure I like the 360 format though - the Milky Way seems too squished like an upside down U rather than a long curve like we normally see it in panoramas.
Obviously normal panoramas aren't 360degrees!

The content is great but I'm just not sure this format grabs me like some of your shorter panos.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by lacad01

What a stunning view, nice one

Thanks very much!

Originally Posted by DavidTrap

Great result Greg.

The sky certainly looks "blacker" than I would have expected for 6400ISO. How much have you clipped that end of the histogram?

DT

Thanks David. No clipping, I moved the left side of the levels slider a bit. Not that much. In fact the images have had surprisingly little processing.

Originally Posted by RobF

Love it! What a view

Thanks Rob.

Originally Posted by mbaddah

Greg that is incredible! Well done mate.

Thanks.

The Milky Way is quite a sight in the Aussie winter and I have wanted to capture it for some time.

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Very nice work Greg. I think this data opens the potential for an innovation award. I reckon looking at all the opens available to stitch the data together might just produce an unexpected result. I like this image and in particular I really like the intergration of the zodical light into the center of the image.

There are a quite a few projections so it could be presented in different ways. I'll check them out more. Most simply distort the hell out of it though.

Originally Posted by pixelsaurus

Great image.

Thanks for that.

Originally Posted by iceman

Nice work Greg, some great stuff there.

I'm not sure I like the 360 format though - the Milky Way seems too squished like an upside down U rather than a long curve like we normally see it in panoramas.
Obviously normal panoramas aren't 360degrees!

The content is great but I'm just not sure this format grabs me like some of your shorter panos.

Fair enough. There's for sure going to some distortions when a 360 degree full sky view is laid out flat like that. I liked this version compared to others I made that kept the best proportions as I personally like to keep some reasonable aspect ratio as too narrow and wide is a format I don't like too much. But yes its a compromise and I hear what you are saying. That's why I like to take lots of photos as one will stand out more than the others.


Greg.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Beautiful work. I can appreciate the work that you've put into it. Well done.

[colinmlegg (Colin)]

Greg, can you try a fisheye projection of this? I'd be interested in how well the software warps and stitches given the time between first and last image. Nice work mate.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by colinmlegg

Greg, can you try a fisheye projection of this? I'd be interested in how well the software warps and stitches given the time between first and last image. Nice work mate.

Actually you could map that on an hemisphere and export to QT for a virtual tour.