lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

Milky Way has finally come around again.
Now all I need is some decent foregrounds to practice with.
Satellite passing through at about 10 oclock in the image.
Feel free to critique any problems.
I don't mind.

Gitzo Loc: Indiana

Lighthouse; that's VERY nice! The reason I say this, is because I spent many years reading every issue of "Sky & Telescope", (plus about half of all the books ever written about amateur astronomy. ) If I may, I would like to add a few comments; everyone who is "drawn" to a beautiful picture of any astronomical subject, is obviously quite interested in the science of astronomy; and ALL people who are interested in astronomy, are a very curious lot; they always want to know, "how did he take that picture"? with a D SLR on a tripod?, with a small "go to" telescope with a computer drive"? "and how long was the exposure"? "or was it with a dedicated CCD camera mounted on a telescope"? etc. etc. etc.

These are but a few of the things that people who are the most likely to appreciate a fine "astro" shot are wondering when they see such a nice photo that you've shared with us!

I can only say.....if you made that with a camera on a tripod, you obviously did everything "right"!

Cdouthitt Loc: Traverse City, MI

Mind sharing some settings?

skylane5sp Loc: Puyallup, WA

That is beautiful! What did you do?

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

Thank you Gitzo, you are very kind.
Sorry that I didn't already include the settings.
5Dii
Rokinon 14mm F/2.8 lens
ISO 1600
F/2.8
30 seconds
WB colour about 3850.
Tripod & Ballhead - Benro C2580T-B2
processed in ACR & CS5 with a final touch of noise control with Nik Dfine.

Gitzo Loc: Indiana

Thank you very much! Now I'm even more impressed! (and I'm also even more curious ).......geographically speaking, where were you when you made that photo? You had to have had superb viewing conditions, a nice dark sky, far from city lights, the moon below the horizon........and I'm mostly surprised that you were able to achieve that much sharpness with a 30 second exposure; but then again, it's only because of such a wide angle view; it would be interesting to do the exact same shot, only using, say, a 50mm or even a 100mm lens. I would love to see a shot taken under the exact same conditions, same lens, but with a well known constellation such as Orion with it's four 1st magnitude stars centered in the frame.

I can never remember Canon's nomenclature......the 5Dii, is a crop frame sensor? or is it a full frame? Since I've gone from film to digital a few years back, I've been shooting mainly with a Nikon D 300s; my widest lens is a 12-24mm / f4 zoom, so to duplicate your settings would require a 60 sec. exposure, which I'm sure would show movement of the stars.

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

Geographically speaking, in my backyard in southern Australia.
Yes, its pretty dark. Australia has lots of dark places. On a very clear night, the Milky Way is not the milky way, it is a billion brilliant pin pricks of light.
This shot was taken at 3:30 - 4am last night or thereabouts and the conditions were quite good but not perfect. There was moisture in the air as a heavy dew had settled on the ground.
Its a 14mm lens on a full frame camera so it has 114 degree field of view. The Milky Way at the top of the photo is back behind my head.
Apparently (according to the 600 rule and modifying it to the 500 rule for a safety margin) the 14mm lenses on a full frame camera are acceptably sharp for star points up to about 35 seconds.
It is impossible to take the same shot with a 50mm or 100mm lens because the field of view is so much narrower.
My 50mm lens suffers from coma. Not sure about the 100mm yet. I am still experimenting with setups and trying to find foregrounds and compositions for different times of year, different times of the month etc.
I would love to see a list of lenses recommended for this type of full frame camera photography.
Don't let what I do know confuse anyone. I am very much a novice at this type of photography and there is very much that I do not know.

Rosanna Loc: Montana

Love your photo!

Iwantitall Loc: Chicago (south side)

Wonderful capture.
Mike

joehel2 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

Very well done, thanks for posting and sharing your settings.

busted_shutter

Could you have done better?? Perhaps...but to my eyes...you done great!! Well done!! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Marionsho Loc: Kansas

Love it. Thanks for posting.

Gitzo Loc: Indiana

I had no idea you were in Australia and the southern hemisphere! I must confess, I have almost no knowledge of what constellations, stars and other astronomical objects are visible in the southern hemisphere; for many years I had my nose in an astronomy book much of the time; back then, most amateurs either bought or built small 6 or 8 inch Newtonian reflector telescopes, and because all astro photography was done with film, there were very few amateurs doing any astro photography.

That all started changing 25 or 30 years ago when companies like Meade and Celestron started making small 4 inch to 12 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain type "go-to" telescopes with battery operated computer drives; the thing that really got amateur astro photography going big time, was when digital began to displace film photography. In order to be able to justify the necessary expenditure to really get into astro work, one needed to have a VERY serious interest in astronomy, and fairly deep pockets. My interest was fairly avid for a number of years, but as I was raising a family and getting five children through college, my "pockets" were never sufficiently "deep"! I did have a 5 inch (125mm ) Meade Maksutov type compound scope for a few years that had thousands of astro objects in it's data base, and when properly aligned, a touch of a few buttons, and it would "go to" anything in it's data base; unfortunately I never quite "got around to" acquiring all of the necessary "gadgets" needed to do photography with it. Later on, after I moved to Indiana where I live now, burglars broke into my house in Ohio and made-off with my telescope.

The wide angle lens you mentioned being interested in.....anything designed for "full frame" and having an aperture of ƒ/2.8 isn't going to be cheap! When I get an urge for something like that, the first place I start looking is on eBay. You mention "being a novice at this kind of photography and that there is much that you don't know".....everyone who is now an "expert" was at that point sometime in the past, and as knowledge goes, I'd say you're off to a very good start!

Amateur astronomy has advanced so much in the past 10 or 12 years, and I have been so busy with so many other pursuits, I have become so "rusty" that I feel like I'm now back at the beginning.

waltchilds Loc: Central Florida

I like this shot a lot, thanks for posting the settings. Very nice.

Nightski

Well, you've got that Milky Way thing down, now all you've got to do is search for that interesting foreground, travel to that spot next time there's a milky way, and get the shot. I think southern hemisphere has another chance the end of March.