Virgin.

So I took my first star shot last night on the way to LA. This was taken around 9pm looking due south. About 30 mins south of bakersfield. Not sure what I photographed star wise but I thought it came out pretty cool. Any help on what I captured?

Nice, I like it

stars look good, the streaking clouds, traffic light line etc all lead you to the horizon


hope you don't mind me editing your pic with annotations of info .....

Dave

Right on man thank you. I know the picture was a bit noisy but I'm happy with it. Thanks a lot. That's exactly what I wanted.

I was trying to photograph the Milky Way. Was I anywhere close? What did I do wrong it I was?

The Milky Way does go up through there , but its not the bright region for it
That bright light source is blotting it out, along with the clouds

see this screen capture from my astronomy prog you can see the fuzz of the MW for your photo's area .....

cheers
Dave

Very informative. Thank you.

I like the image. It works for me even though Orion is cut in half. That tree makes the image.

You guys don't think its too noisy?

Varneeezy wrote in post #17389014
You guys don't think its too noisy?

I can see the noise there ... particularly in the clouds, but it's not nasty

what camera and what settings did u use ?

Dave

Noise level is high. But I'm currently on my cell phone and the thumbnail looks great. I found my single frame shots were always noisy. It's a toss up between noise or star trails. I always converted mine to black and white. I hope to get better milky way shots with the Star-adventurer and stacking. I'm just waiting for the opportunity to try again.

Well then I guess it is good for my first time! Lol this is a single image. Canon 70d. Sigma 10-20mm at f/4.5 I think? 30 seconds. ISO 800.

its a lovely shot - I have no problems with a bit of noise. In fact I'd be really happy if mine were anywhere near as nice.

David

Killer photo - and that tree does make the image, like that guy said.

For finding out what you shot try http://nova.astrometry​.net/upload - this is pretty much the only service I'd consider subscribing to if it wasn't free You upload your photo of the sky and in 2 minutes or so it gives you a wealth of info: apart from identifying stars and objects in your frame, it tells you your field of view, your sampling (arcsec / pixel), the exact orientation, etc. The object database is huge, and will even indicate tiny, fuzzy galaxies one may mistake for stars. That being said, Davenn did a fine job, cause all that black/city lights would have messed with their algorithms - works best with images of stars only.

Concerning noise - yeah it's noisy but so what. People pay for software like Photoshop so they can actually *add* noise to their photos. Pixel-porn is funny and should be left where it belongs: on übergeek forums for tech reviews. After spending hours in total darkness, freezing cold and twisting your spine to shoot some faraway galaxy, believe me, you won't care much about noise as long as it doesn't prevent you from seeing what you actually shot.

Careful with shooting the sky though - you'll start neglecting your loved ones, spend all your cash, you'll show up late for work with a Picasso-face, start worrying about things none will understand... much like heroin if you think about it

Noise? Yes but No!
Lovely image as is and IMO, you should be very happy with it with nothing to complain.
To me this resembles like a portion of Highway 15 coming south towards San Bernardino on the way to LA but then you say you are on the other side and probably I am wrong. But I love the way cars light, has painted the nearby hill. Tree does add but electric tower don't.

If shooting ever for Milky Way, don't forget, at best MW resembles a long cloud stretched across the sky. Even if light pollution can be tolerated, avoid a cloudy sky to show Milky Way. Unless you are in really dark location with no chance of city light reflected from clouds.

Nice shot. The Orion belt area is chock full of cool stuff. There is a video called Hubble (2012) I know its on Hulu. At about the 8 minute mark they do a computer generated fly through of that huge nebula. The images are all generated from data from the space telescopes. Its amazing. 5 million an hour winds howl down that canyon that is 90 trillion miles wide. Little complete solar systems forming in all that mess too. A beautiful but incredibly violent place.

Griz