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Awesome picture competition...

SFSV650 said:
Very nice! Can you tell us a little about how you took that?
Click to expand...

Sure. I'll go for a little bit too much information maybe? :afm199

First, a little Milky Way information.

The Milky Way "season" is roughly from March->September.

Early in the "season", the Milky Way comes up in the east, horizontally, early in the morning ( say 3-4 a.m. )

By September, the Milky Way has moved to the South-SouthWest, and is vertical and appears early... like 8-9pm.

Summary = When you see a Milky Way photo that is horizontal, it is taken early in the year. When it's vertical, its taken later in the year.

The brightest part of the Milky Way is called the "galactic core" (essentially we're looking at the center of the MW) - after September, it dips below us in the Northern Hemisphere and we don't have as dramatic of a view. In my image, the galactic core would be the part in the right 2/3rds of the image... the part with the most white. On the extreme right edge of the image, the light pollution from Morgan Hill/San Jose bleed into the image.

The image I took here was taken at the end of May at around 12:30 a.m.

It's actually a composite of four vertical photos, stitched together.

In order to accomplish this type of photo, you need a tripod and a camera that lets you control how long of an exposure to take - for this photo, the images were 20 second exposures. The more time for the exposure, the brighter the MilkyWay is - but if you leave the exposure open too long, then you start to get star trails. (There is a formula which says you shouldn't have your exposure more than 500/focal length = a typical iPhone has a 28mm focal length, so 500/28 = ~17 seconds would be the longest you could go for that focal length before the stars looks less like pinpoints and turn schmeary.)

To get even higher quality images, some astrophotographers use a tripod that can "track" the night sky; essentially, the tripod moves at the same rate as the earth so you can have longer than 500/focal length exposures. This is beneficial because you can have your camera use the sweeter part of its (ISO) sensitivity range.

The Lick Observatory photo I took May 30

I was in Yosemite on May 1st for this at 2:30 a.m. {horizontal, early in the year}
_DSC6880-Pano-2.JPG


And I was on the corner of Hwy 25/198 October 1st at 8:30 p.m. for this {vertical, late in the year}
_DSC2678-Pano-2.JPG
 
Last edited:
CuriousMike said:
Sure. I'll go for a little bit too much information maybe? :afm199

First, a little Milky Way information.

The Milky Way "season" is roughly from March->September.

Early in the "season", the Milky Way comes up in the east, horizontally, early in the morning ( say 3-4 a.m. )

By September, the Milky Way has moved to the South-SouthWest, and is vertical and appears early... like 8-9pm.

Summary = When you see a Milky Way photo that is horizontal, it is taken early in the year. When it's vertical, its taken later in the year.

The brightest part of the Milky Way is called the "galactic core" (essentially we're looking at the center of the MW) - after September, it dips below us in the Northern Hemisphere and we don't have as dramatic of a view. In my image, the galactic core would be the part in the right 2/3rds of the image... the part with the most white. On the extreme right edge of the image, the light pollution from Morgan Hill/San Jose bleed into the image.

The image I took here was taken at the end of May at around 12:30 a.m.

It's actually a composite of four vertical photos, stitched together.

In order to accomplish this type of photo, you need a tripod and a camera that lets you control how long of an exposure to take - for this photo, the images were 20 second exposures. The more time for the exposure, the brighter the MilkyWay is - but if you leave the exposure open too long, then you start to get star trails. (There is a formula which says you shouldn't have your exposure more than 500/focal length = a typical iPhone has a 28mm focal length, so 500/28 = ~17 seconds would be the longest you could go for that focal length before the stars looks less like pinpoints and turn schmeary.)

To get even higher quality images, some astrophotographers use a tripod that can "track" the night sky; essentially, the tripod moves at the same rate as the earth so you can have longer than 500/focal length exposures. This is beneficial because you can have your camera use the sweeter part of its (ISO) sensitivity range.

The Lick Observatory photo I took May 30

I was in Yosemite on May 1st for this at 2:30 a.m. {horizontal, early in the year}
_DSC6880-Pano-2.JPG


And I was on the corner of Hwy 25/198 October 1st at 8:30 p.m. for this {vertical, late in the year}
_DSC2678-Pano-2.JPG
Click to expand...

World... complicated... must.... find...... safe.... space.... :wow

:thumbup Nice pic(s) & writeup!! :party
 
CuriousMike said:
In order to accomplish this type of photo, you need a tripod and a camera that lets you control how long of an exposure to take - for this photo, the images were 20 second exposures. The more time for the exposure, the brighter the MilkyWay is - but if you leave the exposure open too long, then you start to get star trails. (There is a formula which says you shouldn't have your exposure more than 500/focal length = a typical iPhone has a 28mm focal length, so 500/28 = ~17 seconds would be the longest you could go for that focal length before the stars looks less like pinpoints and turn schmeary.)
Click to expand...

But these weren't taken on an iPhone, right?

The other technique nowadays is to stack shorter images and post-process them, right? Did you do any of that?
 
berth said:
But these weren't taken on an iPhone, right?

The other technique nowadays is to stack shorter images and post-process them, right? Did you do any of that?
Click to expand...

No, a full sized DSLR was used. I was only using the iPhone to give an example of what a focal length ("amount of zoom") most people might be familiar with.

Regarding stacking:
For the Milky Way, I usually use a wide-enough (24mm) focal length with a fast enough lens (f/1.4) that I can get good shots at a low enough ISO that noise isn't too distracting. There is detail in the image.

For other night-sky objects such as the Andromeda Galaxy or Orion Nebulae, I am using a longer lens which limits exposure time. Because I'm limiting exposure time, I'm upping the ISO into a harsh area. For those images (we're talking 2-3 second exposures (Santa bring me a tracker)), then I have used stacking to good effect.
 
CuriousMike said:
Sure. I'll go for a little bit too much information maybe? :afm199

First, a little Milky Way information.

The Milky Way "season" is roughly from March->September.

Early in the "season", the Milky Way comes up in the east, horizontally, early in the morning ( say 3-4 a.m. )

By September, the Milky Way has moved to the South-SouthWest, and is vertical and appears early... like 8-9pm.

Summary = When you see a Milky Way photo that is horizontal, it is taken early in the year. When it's vertical, its taken later in the year.

The brightest part of the Milky Way is called the "galactic core" (essentially we're looking at the center of the MW) - after September, it dips below us in the Northern Hemisphere and we don't have as dramatic of a view. In my image, the galactic core would be the part in the right 2/3rds of the image... the part with the most white. On the extreme right edge of the image, the light pollution from Morgan Hill/San Jose bleed into the image.

The image I took here was taken at the end of May at around 12:30 a.m.

It's actually a composite of four vertical photos, stitched together.

In order to accomplish this type of photo, you need a tripod and a camera that lets you control how long of an exposure to take - for this photo, the images were 20 second exposures. The more time for the exposure, the brighter the MilkyWay is - but if you leave the exposure open too long, then you start to get star trails. (There is a formula which says you shouldn't have your exposure more than 500/focal length = a typical iPhone has a 28mm focal length, so 500/28 = ~17 seconds would be the longest you could go for that focal length before the stars looks less like pinpoints and turn schmeary.)

To get even higher quality images, some astrophotographers use a tripod that can "track" the night sky; essentially, the tripod moves at the same rate as the earth so you can have longer than 500/focal length exposures. This is beneficial because you can have your camera use the sweeter part of its (ISO) sensitivity range.

The Lick Observatory photo I took May 30

I was in Yosemite on May 1st for this at 2:30 a.m. {horizontal, early in the year}
_DSC6880-Pano-2.JPG


And I was on the corner of Hwy 25/198 October 1st at 8:30 p.m. for this {vertical, late in the year}
_DSC2678-Pano-2.JPG
Click to expand...

Is it as visible to naked eye as your camera captures? I've gone to Yosemite for many years hoping to see it. Have gone to Glacier Point late late in to the evening and can only see thousands of stars. Bad timing perhaps?
 
SNsMoto said:
Is it as visible to naked eye as your camera captures? I've gone to Yosemite for many years hoping to see it. Have gone to Glacier Point late late in to the evening and can only see thousands of stars. Bad timing perhaps?
Click to expand...

It is not as visible to the naked eye, but it *is* visible; maybe 1/4-1/2 as "bright" ?

Its important to go to a dark location (Yosemite works, Glacier Point great) with no moon, know the time the MW is up and the direction to look.

In my Yosemite photo above, if you were at Glacier Point at 11pm... hell, even midnight... in May, you wouldn't have seen anything because it wasn't up yet.
 
ooh ooh I have a contribution.


Last weekend, boys soccer started at 3pm. Huge amounts of rain started about 3:30.

I've already framed this one and hung it up at work. Super duper high res and you can see the raindrops, etc.


u6u34d6h.jpg
 
Expert parachutist with pet falcon who takes it on some of his skydives:



Once he deploys, they fly in formation until landing.

Dan
 
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