I had a lot of time to kill while I was waiting for my veil nebula light frames to finish at Monkton (Bortle 3-4) on 7/26/22, so I thought I put my DSLR to good use. I typically use a 14mm lens to photograph the Milky Way, but I wanted to see how things would look with a 50mm lens. It was fun seeing the Milky Way at a higher focal length than I usually use, although I think I prefer the lower focal length shots.
Canon SL3 (250D) DSLR with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens stopped down to f/2.8* at 1600 ISO
Move-Shoot-Move tracker (polar aligned)
120 sec exposures x 20 with dark, flat, and bias calibration frames
Stacked with Deep Sky Stacker, processed in Photoshop
The final image is a composite of Milky Way with foreground from my backyard combined in Photoshop.
*In retrospect, I should have stopped this down to f/4 to eliminate star distortion in the corners of the image.
Love this!
Maura
I had a lot of time to kill while I was waiting for my veil nebula light frames to finish at Monkton (Bortle 3-4) on 7/26/22, so I thought I put my DSLR to good use. I typically use a 14mm lens to photograph the Milky Way, but I wanted to see how things would look with a 50mm lens. It was fun seeing the Milky Way at a higher focal length than I usually use, although I think I prefer the lower focal length shots.
Canon SL3 (250D) DSLR with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 lens stopped down to f/2.8* at 1600 ISO
Move-Shoot-Move tracker (polar aligned)
120 sec exposures x 20 with dark, flat, and bias calibration frames
Stacked with Deep Sky Stacker, processed in Photoshop
The final image is a composite of Milky Way with foreground from my backyard combined in Photoshop.*In retrospect, I should have stopped this down to f/4 to eliminate star distortion in the corners of the image.
Beautiful capture Greg, this is one kind of AP I’ve really done poorly on. I purchased a canon RA specifically for it and never produce good results when I’ve tried it. Thanks for sharing all the details.
Terri.
P.S. and thank you for using the forum. Please let me or Scott Turnbull or Paul Walker know if something doesn’t work right.
@terri The forum has been working fine, Terri! But I'll let someone know if something doesn't seem right.
I usually like to try to get a little more color (at a lower focal length) in my MW shots, but this one seemed a little 'mysterious' the way it was so I just left it alone. My SL3 is an entry level camera and the results are not always great. Lots of noise, especially in warmer weather, so I have to opt for lower ISO's.
Geez, I would think your RA would take great astro photos! I'm surprised.
@terri The forum has been working fine, Terri! But I'll let someone know if something doesn't seem right.
I usually like to try to get a little more color (at a lower focal length) in my MW shots, but this one seemed a little 'mysterious' the way it was so I just left it alone. My SL3 is an entry level camera and the results are not always great. Lots of noise, especially in warmer weather, so I have to opt for lower ISO's.
Geez, I would think your RA would take great astro photos! I'm surprised.
Hey Greg, thanks! I'm sure it's not the camera's problem (smile). Operator error is surely suspected here so in the right hands I'm sure it's fine. I just spent 3 sleepless nights at Stellafane, and just got home and trying to 'unfogg' I haven't done AP at Stellafane yet but rather use it as an opportunity for me to work on my visual skills, which I find really fun and something I can't do with all of the neighbor lights (except for looking at the same bright objects all of the time). Stellafane publishes a challenge list that they give out pins for, so I enjoy that.
Terri
