My greatest astro image

[starman1969]

I started about 3 years ago in astrophotography and I soon found out about the steep learning curve. Hopefully by now I've made part of the way up there. I doubt I'll get near the top, but I have ammassed a collection of very nice images ranging from planets to meteors on my short journey.

It was on a trip to South Africa recently that opened up the wonders of the southern skies to me. I also managed to take some rather nice pictures to record my visit. I'm really pleased with this image of the Southern Cross because it is such a fanastic area of sky, and the image came out so well after I'd processed it. I didn't overdo anything mind, I wanted to show the area pretty much as it looked to the naked eye and I think it does.

I used a Nikon D7100 & 50mm (f2.8 at ISO 3200)  standard lens to take the picture. The camera was mounted on an Astrotrac guider for about 3 minutes. All calibration frames were included in the processing with DSS.

C&C's welcome

[narrowbandpaul]

Very nice.

[cussine]

Nice, well done

JimW

[StuartJPP]

Nice work...how did you find polar alignment down there?

[sologuitarist61]

That is a great image - well done

[starman1969]

Nice work...how did you find polar alignment down there?

Rough to say the least, although I did some drift alignment tests which helped. There was no way i could use the polar scope on my Astrotrac. Even Beta & Alpha Centauri as guide stars were too low down. I kept the exposure times down to eliminate any possible drift.

[dodge23]

Hi starmann1969,

Dunno if you'll read this but I was just searching for D7100 images and found your great image, i've recently purchased this camera (for 'standard; photography but I have yet to try some astro photographs (I just on a tripod for now - but looking into a mount,) andI was wondering how you find it for astrophotographing?

Thanks

Phil

[bluedandelion]

Sephen,

That is a beautiful star field. Well done.

Ajay

[starman1969]

Hi starmann1969,

Dunno if you'll read this but I was just searching for D7100 images and found your great image, i've recently purchased this camera (for 'standard; photography but I have yet to try some astro photographs (I just on a tripod for now - but looking into a mount,) andI was wondering how you find it for astrophotographing?

Thanks

Phil

Thanks for looking. Pretty good I'd say, from what I got with it in South Africa. Only thing is I don't have it now, due to an upgrade to FX. I do, however, still have my trusty D7000. Between the two though I may give the edge to the D7000, but there isn't much in it really. Of course the D7100 has a greater resolution.

If you are looking for a mount I can recommend the Astrotrac which I use, or a Vixen Polarie.

[dodge23]

Thanks for the reply,

I was going to go for the Astrotrac but then I got round to thinking i'd probably want a faster lens (already got a 18-200 mm Sigma but it ain't 'fast') and when considering the price of such a lens i've decided (almost) to go for a GEM and a photo happy telescope although I realise I will be putting one foot (well both really) on the astrophotography slippy slope!

The one thing i've noticed with the D7100 is the lower than expected noise at higher ISO's.

Phil

[toxic]

very nice indeed

[NOMH]

Great field and what a great portable setup.

JB

[ollypenrice]

Great to see this. I don't think I've ever seen the southern cross on here before.

I really like the image but suspect a gradient/colour caste which might well be helped by using SCNR green in Pixinsight or the free Hasta La Vista Green from the Deep Sky Colors website.

Olly