Milky Way Pano over Estes Park: I have had this and several versions of it in the Critique and photo gallery. I thought I would post here and see if anyone has any suggestions to make...

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

I have had this and several versions of it in the Critique and photo gallery.
I thought I would post here and see if anyone has any suggestions to make it better.
This is an 11 or 12 image pano of the milky way over Estes Park.
I am new to Astronomy and to night time photography.
This is my first attempt at a pano of the milky way.
I stitched it in Photoshop CC using the Spherical setting. It kept leaving parts out and not stitching in the other settings.

(Download)

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

I would be proud to claim this as my own!
:thumbup:

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Country's Mama wrote:

I have had this and several versions of it in the Critique and photo gallery.
I thought I would post here and see if anyone has any suggestions to make it better.
This is an 11 or 12 image pano of the milky way over Estes Park.
I am new to Astronomy and to night time photography.
This is my first attempt at a pano of the milky way.
I stitched it in Photoshop CC using the Spherical setting. It kept leaving parts out and not stitching in the other settings.

WOW!!!

My first guess as to why some pictures are being left out is that the earth has rotated far enough that the ground to star registration is failing. And PS is unable to align properly. The work around for this is to do the bottom row first. Then move up high enough that there is no overlap with ground scenes. If an image is all sky, it can be rotated as needed by auto align. But if ground is included, the stars and ground are changing relative to each other.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

JimH123 wrote:

WOW!!!

My first guess as to why some pictures are being left out is that the earth has rotated far enough that the ground to star registration is failing. And PS is unable to align properly. The work around for this is to do the bottom row first. Then move up high enough that there is no overlap with ground scenes. If an image is all sky, it can be rotated as needed by auto align. But if ground is included, the stars and ground are changing relative to each other.

Thank you. It was driving me crazy trying to get it right. This was shot with one row of verticals with a wide angle lens. So would you cut the photos in half and do the bottom half then the top half and then realign?
Or would you shoot across once to get the ground and again to get the sky?

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

Nikonian72 wrote:

I would be proud to claim this as my own!
:thumbup:

Thank you Douglas. I am excited to find someplace near home to try again.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Country's Mama wrote:

Thank you. It was driving me crazy trying to get it right. This was shot with one row of verticals with a wide angle lens. So would you cut the photos in half and do the bottom half then the top half and then realign?
Or would you shoot across once to get the ground and again to get the sky?

I would shoot all the bottom row first. And then move to the second row and to make sure there is no ground overlap in the second row.

Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA

For me, Very nice!!!
Pat

Oknoder Loc: Western North Dakota

This is a stunning image, there really is nothing to critique, but since you asked for advice to help improve it, I will throw out a couple suggestions. Without doing a complete reshoot, I like your idea about splitting the images, maybe even try the background removal tool to erase the sky, when stacking the ground and vise versa for the sky. You might even try to see if you can get some color back in your foreground and tree, as long as it does not intoduce much noise. Otherwise its about perfect.

If not, be proud its better than anything I have produced, honestly nothing I have done in widefield astroimaging has even come close.
Matthew

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

Nicely shot and stitched.
I think you're being too critical.

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Country's Mama wrote:

I have had this and several versions of it in the Critique and photo gallery.
I thought I would post here and see if anyone has any suggestions to make it better.
This is an 11 or 12 image pano of the milky way over Estes Park.
I am new to Astronomy and to night time photography.
This is my first attempt at a pano of the milky way.
I stitched it in Photoshop CC using the Spherical setting. It kept leaving parts out and not stitching in the other settings.

Very beautiful shot Mama.
Craig

BassmanBruce Loc: Middle of the Mitten

Country's Mama wrote:

Thank you Douglas. I am excited to find someplace near home to try again.

CM, I have only been here during the day, but this might have possibilities if you haven't already tried it, http://www.emmetcounty.org

Also the north half of the UP and the Atlanta area are pretty dark.

Your photo is fantastic!

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

BassmanBruce wrote:

CM, I have only been here during the day, but this might have possibilities if you haven't already tried it, http://www.emmetcounty.org
Also the north half of the UP and the Atlanta area are pretty dark. Your photo is fantastic!

Thank you for the link. that isn't too far from where my daughter lives.
Next time I am up that way I will hope for clear skies and try some there.

Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA

Can you tell us about the timing of the night for this shot?
I think capturing this "arch", is vey nice.
Pat

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

Jay Pat wrote:

Can you tell us about the timing of the night for this shot? I think capturing this "arch", is vey nice.

Thank you. It was sometime between Midnight and 1. The Exif says 12:30pm, but that might be off a little.

Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA

Country's Mama wrote:

It was sometime between Midnight and 1. The Exif says 12:30pm, but that might be off a little.

Thanks!