Milkyway nightscapes

pdxbenedetti wrote in post #17974910
I use PixInsight, I've used Photoshop and Deep Sky Stacker as well, but I find PixInsight to be the best now.

TCampbell wrote in post #17975025
Mac, Linux, and Windows. I use on Mac.

The user interface is identical on all platforms because they create their own interface environment (it doesn't look native to the OS). Getting to learn to use it can be confusing but once you get used to it, it becomes easier and easier to learn new parts of the program.

It does have a bit of a learning curve (it's not obvious what you should do when using it.)

The IP4AP.com site is well-known among Pixinsight users for their tutorials.

Thanks guys! Now i just need to be lucky so that i can get clear night

Ya, it's got a brutal learning curve, makes photoshop look like windows paint. I'm still learning it, I'd say I'm maybe 10% fluent in "PixInsight-ese".

TCampbell wrote in post #17975025
Mac, Linux, and Windows. I use on Mac.

The user interface is identical on all platforms because they create their own interface environment (it doesn't look native to the OS). Getting to learn to use it can be confusing but once you get used to it, it becomes easier and easier to learn new parts of the program.

It does have a bit of a learning curve (it's not obvious what you should do when using it.)

The IP4AP.com site is well-known among Pixinsight users for their tutorials.

pdxbenedetti wrote in post #17975070
Ya, it's got a brutal learning curve, makes photoshop look like windows paint. I'm still learning it, I'd say I'm maybe 10% fluent in "PixInsight-ese".

Well, that sounds like it will be way over my head.

Phenomenal !!

OK, again I hate to post any MW shots after seeing Pdxbenedetti's artwork but I continue to plod along
This shot though meager (I still have trouble focusing on the stars, I really do think is old age) it is significant because for years
I've been driving and driving to 'dark' sky which compared to many other places never really is dark, but last night we were at the cabin
we have in the mountains and thought why not give it a shot? The cabin is only 35 min's away and we're up there often. Still not 'dark' sky
but def. a place to practise I think.
Forgot to mention, the green blob very lower center is me wearing a green headlamp on the dock, I'd paddled over to the house why the camera
was clicking away.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/FX9W​8S

That looks pretty darn good and the Green blob is easily fixable in Photoshop. Nice shot!

Thanks Cameraman, means a lot

Now this next one is slightly different angle and way less processing.
Which do you all prefer?

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/FXcr​W5

OK last one and in this one you can see the lake.
My house is the light in the middle.
Still hard for me to believe the Milky Way has been in my backyard all this time ha!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/Geay​T1

A cabin in the mountains ~and~ on a lake? Awesome!

And those skies look great to me.

Ya, I'd say that's a pretty good place to practice. What lens do you use? With so much noise at ISO 6400 and even 3200 I'd try to lower it to 1600 and then increase the exposure in post with some noise reduction. That might be a good place to get some images of just the sky and practice stacking to help control the noise as well. Looks good, that first image it looks like the camera got bumped or something, you can see each star is duplicated. I wouldn't recommend trying to layer here (with a foreground shot and sky shot), it'll be nearly impossible to get good results with those trees (lots of thin branches).

Going out to test your star tracker on a 78% moon isn't the best idea, this was a royal pita to process and still not really happy with it!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/FYDa​Nq

Didn't turn out too bad given the moon being so bright, I'd be pretty happy with that.

Here's one from our recent trip, we co-hosted a Photography workshop down the East Coast then had a small roadtrip afterwards, was quite rewarding

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/FwLb​HB

I think it is awesome.

There's not enough photographers in that one fighting to get the perfect shot....