Never posted here before sooo....

I've always wanted to shoot the stars but haven't had the opportunity until this weekend!

Looks kinda dark there except for the camp lights . What's the Bortle Scale there and where is this ??

Hey Celestron! Forgive me for not knowing what Bortle scale means (assuming it means light or dark scale) for I don't do much night photography. But the area is Zion national park. I have purchased a tracking scope from a friend, jusy haven't had the time to set it up( as I travel around the counrty doing lanscape photography). I will, at somepoint, get more involved with celestial photogrpahy.
Thx for Looking!

Presha wrote in post #14596844
Hey Celestron! Forgive me for not knowing what Bortle scale means (assuming it means light or dark scale) for I don't do much night photography. But the area is Zion national park. I have purchased a tracking scope from a friend, jusy haven't had the time to set it up( as I travel around the counrty doing lanscape photography). I will, at somepoint, get more involved with celestial photogrpahy.
Thx for Looking!

Bortle Scale is a judging how dark it is in a given location .

Bortle Scale

According to this dark skie map find the United States and then find Utah and you'll see it's extremely dark in the area of Zion National Park which gives it a black in color on the scale but making it somewhere between 7.6 - 8.0 sky darkness which is really really dark in that spot . The Milkyway should light the sky alot !

Night Sky Map

Really like the 2nd shot....Turn off the lights next time...

Lol! Thx for the tip!

Celestron wrote in post #14597135
Bortle Scale is a judging how dark it is in a given location .

Bortle Scale

According to this dark skie map find the United States and then find Utah and you'll see it's extremely dark in the area of Zion National Park which gives it a black in color on the scale but making it somewhere between 7.6 - 8.0 sky darkness which is really really dark in that spot . The Milkyway should light the sky alot !

Night Sky Map

Thx for the info and the link!

Great shots! Would love to have dark skies like that.

Al

Very nice, I like the first shot the best

Thx everyone! I really appreciate your honesty. Can't wait to get my tracking scope and return. The sky was soo dark that you could actually see the milky way with naked eye, that's why I pulled out the camera! The light behind the bush is the campfire and my wife with a head light on. The second shot was taken on the other side of the vehicle, that's why it's a lot darker.

Don't forget to use high ISO. Try to take a few pictures at ISO1600 and 30 seconds and then stack them in DeepSkyStacker, you'll see the difference.

Thx Radekk! thatll be the next step once I setup my scope!

beautiful shots! man i gotta got out in the field. too bad its so difficult for me =/

Celestron wrote in post #14597135
Bortle Scale is a judging how dark it is in a given location .

Bortle Scale

According to this dark skie map find the United States and then find Utah and you'll see it's extremely dark in the area of Zion National Park which gives it a black in color on the scale but making it somewhere between 7.6 - 8.0 sky darkness which is really really dark in that spot . The Milkyway should light the sky alot !

Night Sky Map

and thanks for the info man!

G'day mate. I hope you don't mind, but I saw that you have captured some lovely Milky Way there, so I thought I might show you what can be brought out with a little levels and curves adjust and a slight bump in saturation. If you capture all those distant photons that have travelled millions of light years to get to you, then you may as well show them off!

I hope this helps.

Baz.

Hey A.S.I.G.N!

I don't mind the re-working you've done, I think it looks great! I'm new at this so every little pointer anyone can offer is greatly appreciated1

Thx!