My first Astro photo in a LONG time

[hector (Andrew)]

Hi All
I recently purchased my new camera the Nikon D300. Nikon dont usually feature here in the Astro photo section as until now they were lousy at it. The D300 changes that as its performance is as good as the Canon's.
This photo of the Milky Way was taken with the D300 and an 11mm Tamron at f4.5. Two exposures were taken and layered. The telescope used was Steve Lee's set up at Coona, so a great sky was available.
I was amazed by the pic and I hope you will be to.
As a side note, there is some real science to be learnt from this picture.
From the Coal sack to just above Jupiter in Norma you will notice a LOT of Blue stars. The Dark lanes of the Milky way are also quite blue with numerous bright nebula as well. After jupiter you notice that the Dark lanes a DARK with a complete absence of blue stars and they have a more red appearence.
if the other end of the Galaxy was visible thru Cygnus you would see this reddening continue on. From this the direction of rotation of the galaxy can be discovered. The bright Blue stars in a spiral arm form on the leading edge as new stars are born. the inside of the spiral arm is where the galactic dust is most visible and the older redder stars are found. Our galaxy rotates clockwise as indicated in the photo.
Hope I didnt bore you to much.
Andrew

[skeltz (Rob)]

Geez not bad for 2 exposures,and a great image for your first one for a long time.
good to see a nikon giving the canon boys a run for there money

[madtuna (Steve)]

what a magic image!

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

That's got to be one of the nicest MW widefields I've seen in a while.
Very nice composition too.
Very well done
Doug

[hector (Andrew)]

Thanks for the kind words everyone.
The composition was a complete fluke. Steve and I just replaced a counterweight with the adaptor and camera. He was taking an image of the bug nebula and we decided that the 11mm would give a wide field so just go for it there. When the first image readout and we looked we were amazed. Unfortunatly the first image was dewed slightly so it was disgarded but we managed 2, 5min images before the scope reached zenith and required repositioning.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Never bored hector, the dusty sections stand out nicely from the galaxy

[spearo (Frank)]

lovely shot
nice contrast and colors
well done
frank

[Lester]

Very nice wide field Andrew.

Hope to see more from you.

[Tamtarn]

What an ad for the Nikon Andrew!! For just two exposures there is plenty of detail and clarity.

This is a great image of the milky way galaxy one of the best we have seen in our opinion

Enjoyed the side note explanation by the way.

[jase (Jason)]

Wow, contrasty and a good display of colour saturation. Impressed. Well done.

[AlexN]

+1 for Nikon!

Great work mate

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Great shot Andrew.

I was wondering how you managed to get an astrophoto through a 25" dob.

[Matty P (Matt)]

Beautiful Andrew!

Very well done.

[Robert_T]

Looks absolutely fabulous

The 11mm Tamron, would that be the 11-18mm tamron zoom?

[netwolf]

Fantastice image, loads of detail. Can we please get a full size or bigger version.

[RB (Andrew)]

Excellent shot Andrew and love the extra info you posted about our galaxy.

As I've said before Nikon has certainly lifted their game and this new model, the D300 an it's upmarket FF D3 are supurb.

If I was in the market for a new DSLR and didn't have lenses already I'd be very seriously looking at the Nikon gear.

Well done mate, more please.