Milkyway nightscapes

What did you use as your light source , that last image looks like daytime inside ? Is that last image a composite , the inside almost looks like a painting . Nice capture of the comet .

Considering how awesome all your pics are on here I was a little on the fence about posting a pic from my excursion last night... the weather reports were showing it clouding over from previously being clear so I nearly didn't go out but I took a chance and went anyway...

My friend said she could see the milkyway from her garden which was half a mile from the location I chose to shoot from... I appreciate my composure is a little off and tbh I aim to go back when the UK gets its next random clear night and address that as I actually quite liked the potential of a couple of aspects there... It was clearly still too light for any serious captures (yellow on the bortle scale according to the darksite map) despite what she said but I had a go...

Not quite as exciting as the locations you guys seem to have at your disposal but it was more of a learning exercise than anything else for me... so.... here it is...

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i84.photobucket​.com …apy/20160405-IMG_0415.jpg

Nice start. I have been thinking about getting that lense as I find the 14 to wide, looks like coma is well controlled as it is in the 14.

Celestron wrote in post #17962760
What did you use as your light source , that last image looks like daytime inside ? Is that last image a composite , the inside almost looks like a painting . Nice capture of the comet .

I used 5 separate LED touch lights, the kind you can buy at the store for sticking to cupboards and what-not, and 1 LED light stick. 4 of the touch lights were placed under the camera pointing in different directions to illuminate the cave, 1 was placed behind the log I'm sitting on, and the light stick was placed facing the back of the cave to provide some bright back lighting since the sandstone on that side seemed to be a little lighter in color and more light "reflective" if you will. I took 12 pictures total with different settings for the cave walls/surfaces and for the sky, the foreground shots are 1 minute exposures, f4, ISO 400. The sky shots are 1 minute exposures, f4, ISO 1600 with the Skytracker turned on. Cave shots stitched with PTGui and everything edited in Photoshop/Lightroom.

I didn't even know Comet LINEAR was going to be visible right now, when I got down there and was taking pictures I kept wondering what the hell that little green dot/smudge was in all of them. Thought there was a problem with my camera sensor, nice little treat to throw into the pictures by the universe.

tuffty wrote in post #17962851
Considering how awesome all your pics are on here I was a little on the fence about posting a pic from my excursion last night... the weather reports were showing it clouding over from previously being clear so I nearly didn't go out but I took a chance and went anyway...

My friend said she could see the milkyway from her garden which was half a mile from the location I chose to shoot from... I appreciate my composure is a little off and tbh I aim to go back when the UK gets its next random clear night and address that as I actually quite liked the potential of a couple of aspects there... It was clearly still too light for any serious captures (yellow on the bortle scale according to the darksite map) despite what she said but I had a go...

Not quite as exciting as the locations you guys seem to have at your disposal but it was more of a learning exercise than anything else for me... so.... here it is...

IMAGE LINK: http://i84.photobucket​.com …apy/20160405-IMG_0415.jpg on photobucket

I believe that you can just make out the milkyway (not the core obviously) floating off left of frame just over the top of the tree... which in my book is a win lol... (assuming it is actually the MW, it was in the right direction according to the app anyway)

Let me be the first to tell you to never be afraid to post your pictures, every photographer starts somewhere and 99% of us aren't taking amazing pictures on day 1. My first night sky shots were more or less exactly the same or yours. Looks like you got a little meteor there on the right side just above the building and maybe one just above the hedge and below the tree on the left. When you post others can look and give suggestions, ideas, and comments, notice some things you might have missed yourself. I know I fall into a trap where I'll look at a picture I've taken and edited for hours and think I've gone over it 100%, then immediately after posting someone else will see something and comment and make me go "oh ya, never noticed that!"

One thing I would look into doing is taking a longer exposure at a lower ISO for your foreground, this will help reduce noise (especially in the dark areas), and a separate shot for your sky. Then merge the two in post processing, this will help out image quality tremendously. Stacking sky shots probably won't help much in terms of widefield imaging in light polluted areas, but that's definitely something else worth learning. Stacking is a little more complicated, but in lieu of having a tracking mount it can improve image quality quite a bit as well.

pdxbenedetti wrote in post #17962895
Let me be the first to tell you to never be afraid to post your pictures, every photographer starts somewhere and 99% of us aren't taking amazing pictures on day 1. My first night sky shots were more or less exactly the same or yours. Looks like you got a little meteor there on the right side just above the building and maybe one just above the hedge and below the tree on the left. When you post others can look and give suggestions, ideas, and comments, notice some things you might have missed yourself. I know I fall into a trap where I'll look at a picture I've taken and edited for hours and think I've gone over it 100%, then immediately after posting someone else will see something and comment and make me go "oh ya, never noticed that!"

One thing I would look into doing is taking a longer exposure at a lower ISO for your foreground, this will help reduce noise (especially in the dark areas), and a separate shot for your sky. Then merge the two in post processing, this will help out image quality tremendously. Stacking sky shots probably won't help much in terms of widefield imaging in light polluted areas, but that's definitely something else worth learning. Stacking is a little more complicated, but in lieu of having a tracking mount it can improve image quality quite a bit as well.

Thanks for the input... it was my first foreground subject that wasn't just a tree tbh... was just pleased it came out as well (in my mind) as it did

Its one of the better places I have found locally to take a pic which at least means I can revisit and try out new techniques to improve this image before I go further afield... I'd like to get a little more confident before I plan to travel to Brecon Beacons for the next stage..

I'll give your tip a go next time I am out... by merge are you talking something like the HDR merge in LR/PS or a more involved cut and shut of layers in PS?

<tuffty/>

pdxbenedetti wrote in post #17962895
I didn't even know Comet LINEAR was going to be visible right now, when I got down there and was taking pictures I kept wondering what the hell that little green dot/smudge was in all of them. Thought there was a problem with my camera sensor, nice little treat to throw into the pictures by the universe.

It would have been nice if you had a set of binocs that were 15x70 or larger . It's a beautiful site in that size binocs . Even better yet is if you had a telescope say 5" or bigger it would have blew your mind . Actually there are things all I the MW that are marvelous to see that you can't see in a camera view finder . Seeing with your own eyes is a great experience !

Celestron wrote in post #17963033
It would have been nice if you had a set of binocs that were 15x70 or larger . It's a beautiful site in that size binocs . Even better yet is if you had a telescope say 5" or bigger it would have blew your mind . Actually there are things all I the MW that are marvelous to see that you can't see in a camera view finder . Seeing with your own eyes is a great experience !

Once I noticed it in one of my images after the first night I could pick it out in the sky after, the place I was at was dark enough to see it with your own eyes.

^PDX your MW work is the BEST I've seen come out of the United States. It is good to see New Zealand with some competition.
Looking at every one's work here I cringe to post this but noobies should know that even us lesser MW photographers can still have fun trying.
And you can't fault me for trying considering, But if you knew what I had to do to get this pic...the solid 20mph winds, the gusts up to 40. 26F and a windchill that allowed me to work with my fingers for only 1-2 min's at a time before pain. The 2 hour drive to where the hike started ended up a 3.5 hour drive after google maps put me way up on a rocky eroded fire-road that ended in a dead end and no trail head.....ok lots of excuses, but even after scrounging every rock I could find to hold down the tripod still not a great pic Worse was Poof and have the same colored parkas and when I pulled it out of the backpack I realized in a bad way that size S doesn't work for me the XL! Regarless I tried.
OK all that said some of us (old and half-blind) maybe aren't meant to have round stars
I will keep trying though until I can't walk up the mountain anymore

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/FU5j​mu

so MickeyMack, that place did turn out to be a semi-dark sky, dark for my area
here is the plain Jane version-

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/FWqU​xx

Thanks, MedicineMan, that means a lot to me. And like I said to tuffty, nobody should ever be hesitant or afraid to post their photos. The only reason I found out about Roger Clark's method and got to where I am now is because I posted a photo I took last summer on a reddit sub and he himself commented on it telling me to explore his website tutorial.

You've got some good detail in your shots, just maybe a little too much contrast applied in post. I'd cut back on the contrast a little bit and even pull up the exposure for the sky a little to get lightness to it. You might be able to tease out the Rho Ophiuchi complex a little more doing that.

MedicineMan4040 wrote in post #17963126
^PDX your MW work is the BEST I've seen come out of the United States. It is good to see New Zealand with some competition.
Looking at every one's work here I cringe to post this but noobies should know that even us lesser MW photographers can still have fun trying.
And you can't fault me for trying considering, But if you knew what I had to do to get this pic...the solid 20mph winds, the gusts up to 40. 26F and a windchill that allowed me to work with my fingers for only 1-2 min's at a time before pain. The 2 hour drive to where the hike started ended up a 3.5 hour drive after google maps put me way up on a rocky eroded fire-road that ended in a dead end and no trail head.....ok lots of excuses, but even after scrounging every rock I could find to hold down the tripod still not a great pic Worse was Poof and have the same colored parkas and when I pulled it out of the backpack I realized in a bad way that size S doesn't work for me the XL! Regarless I tried.
OK all that said some of us (old and half-blind) maybe aren't meant to have round stars
I will keep trying though until I can't walk up the mountain anymore

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/FU5j​mu Stand up and Face it by MedicineMan4040, on Flickr

This is still awesome. I would be more than happy with an image like this

Thanks to you both. Now what is kinda cool is that off to the right of the image about 30 degrees is Great Smoky Mountians Nat. Park and either in the park or adjacent to it I could see 3 forest fires working either up or down a mountain side.
I appreciate the kind words and will keep at it.

Now suggestion on what to do when you have no foreground ofject?
In my area we have several 6000+ mountains that allow access to the Milky Way
but all are featureless balds---thus me standing in the image trying for some Earth to
sky anchor.
i even thought about a blow up dinosaur kinda like the gas stations (ESSO) of old would use!

Camping under the Southern Cross.

Southeast Queensland, Australia

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/FCQf​j7

Always wear a hard hat when observing through a telescope... otherwise you might get hit in the head by a meteor!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/FME2​sc

MedicineMan4040 wrote in post #17963847
i even thought about a blow up dinosaur kinda like the gas stations (ESSO) of old would use!

That would be great! Where do I get one?