northcoast42 Loc: Puget Sound, Washington

Back in Florida. Made my way as far south as I could go without swimming. It's the darkest sky I can find and even though Miami is 70 miles away, it casts a prominent glow to the northeast. Last night was pretty windy which was a blessing and a curse. It kept the mosquitoes away but was somewhat problematic with long exposures on my light weight travel tripod. This is a three shot composite done with my Nikon D810, 20mm f/1.8, 15 sec, ISO 6400.

(Download)

larryzplace Loc: Elk Grove Village Illinois

Beautiful... That is something that belongs on the wall

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Outstanding!

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

Very nicely done, especially with the halo effect around the tree. Did you know that composition was there or was it happenstance?

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I really like this one. Looking good. Are you in Key West? That's about as far as you can go south without swimming. But its hard to plant your tripod when swimming. The D810 does pretty well with noise at ISO 6400. That's higher than I typically venture. Usually use 1600.

Getting my bearings on what you are displaying, the bright star to the left of the tree is Altair. The bright star above it is Tarazed, and below it is Alshain. And a little ways towards the upper left is the Asterism that is known as the coat hanger. Just above the right side of the tree is a bright object. That is M8, the Lagoon Nebula. And farther to the right, the last bright object, is M7, Ptolemy's Cluster. And a bit above it is M6, the Butterfly Cluster.

Very interesting in how much farther to the north Altair is as compared to what I see (just south of San Jose), and how much more Milky Way you are seeing to the south. I don't see nearly as far in this direction. I like it. I used to make trips like these. But now that I am retired, no one offering to pay my way there anymore.

northcoast42 Loc: Puget Sound, Washington

Thank you Larry. I appreciate that. Glad you liked it.

northcoast42 Loc: Puget Sound, Washington

Thanks Donald. Much appreciated. Glad you liked the image.

northcoast42 Loc: Puget Sound, Washington

Thanks Peter. Glad you enjoyed the image. I did intentionally plan this to hopefully look the way it turned out. I used the PhotoPills app to help me determine when this shot could be done. All I needed then was the weather to cooperate...and it did

northcoast42 Loc: Puget Sound, Washington

Thanks Jim. I really enjoyed your tour through the stars in this shot. Thanks for that. I actually live in Washington state. Being that far north I also don't see so much south of the hub so I try to take advantage when my work takes me to Miami. I was just a bit inaccurate about my location. I should have said I was as far south on the peninsula as I could go. I wasn't in the keys. Those glowing areas you see along the bottom part of the image are coming from along hwy 1 on it's way out to Key West. I'm guessing those lights are coming from the area centered near Islamorada and Duck Key further south. Further to the right, not seen in this image there was a substantial glow that could only have been Key West. I was about 50 yards from the shore of the southern tip of Everglades National Park, very near the Flamingo campgrounds. It's a curious thing about the 810. It actually seems to do better at 6400 than it does at 3200. This was something of an experiment this time out. I usually don't go as high on the ISO either but my main goal that night was to accumulate as many images as I could to assemble into a video sequence. My last one was 216 images at 15fps yielding just under 15 seconds of video. This time out I was after a longer video with a higher frame rate. My previous sequence was at 20 seconds, ISO 3200. It took a long time at only 3 shots a minute. This time, at 15 seconds, I got 4 shots a minute and acquired over 400 frames. Still working on the sequence but I'm hoping for the best. I'll post a link when it's done.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Absolutely Gorgeous, John!

Love the composition of this shot!
And it appears it is noise free as well, for such a high ISO.

By now, I should know the Nebula that is at 2 O'clock to the tree. Is that the Trifid? Or a much larger nebula?

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Agreed it is a beautiful shot John.
Craig

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

What a beautiful shot both composition and processing. This is a wall hanger for sure.