Gerr

5 hours ago, robbie c said:

That’s a great image love it, I’m going back there in July for 10days and going to spend a night in the Parador De Las Canadas hotel, we spent a night there in 2015 and you are right when all the visitors have gone and all the lights in the cafe/souvenir shop are turned off it’s very dark I’ve never seen so many stars. Last time we were there the hotel had a 8” dob that they let me take out to the car park I got some amazing views of Jupiter 

I’m going to take my camera with me this time see if I can do some Widefield photography it’ll be a first for me as not done any before but just got a 14mm Samyang lens so will give it a try if I can work out all the settings for doing it 😂

Thanks for the kind comment. Tenerife is great for astro! The Milky Way core will be nice and high in July but a panorama maybe difficult to do then? Samyang a good choice.

Wish I was heading back there again soon!

Geraint.

4 hours ago, 900SL said:

Nice image! Lovely area, I have been there at night and it is a terrific view. Climbed half way up Mt Tiede to around 3000m but started getting out of breath  

Yes - I didn’t fancy altitude sickness with my kit on my back!! 😂👍

40 minutes ago, scotty1 said:

Brilliant pano

What are the cluster of stars/nebula to the right of the prancing horse? 

Thanks! I think you refer to the Rho Opiuchi Molecular Cloud Complex. A beautiful area of nebulosity and star cluster which is part of the constellation Scorpius with the bright yellow star Antares being dominant here.  I did a close up of this area with a Samyang 135mm that I put in the deep sky imaging forum.

1 hour ago, FenlandPaul said:

That’s super, Geraint - lovely editing and a nice composition. Really envious of those dark (and clear!) skies!!!

Thanks Paul, l like how the light of Santa Cruz lights up the central rock pillars of the old summit. Even high up on Tenerife there’s always some light pollution but this time it proved useful to me! 😂

26 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

Wow, for such a short integration that's a superb image!

That’s thanks to the great sky quality of Tenerife.😀

Tenerife has fantastic skies when you get up there in the caldera at the base of Mount Teide. There is an older and lower summit called Roques Cinchado and Garcia which is popular with tourists but at night no one is around!!

I took this panoramic shot of the Milky Way showing this feature in the centre of the image and Mount Teide to the left. Myself included at the right corner!

The foreground was focus stacked with a Sigma 50mm at f/1.6 ISO1600 60secs.

The sky was tracked with a Samyang 24mm lens and Star Adventurer 2i and Canon6D.

ISO1600 f/3.2 60secs.

Hope you like!

Tenerife Milky Way:

4 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

A great success. I do like your high black point and gentle processing.

Olly

Thanks Olly, I’m getting better at processing and am seeing the limits of what you can do before it looks unnatural and overcooked!! My images only go so far as the quality of the sky and equipment used allow. Sometimes it is easy to Photoshop the image above this threshold.
Geraint.

1 hour ago, simmo39 said:

Lovely shot! A target that I would like to do but a bit low in the sky for me.

Yes, here in the UK you’d be lucky to get the weather too! I now always pack a portable rig when I go on holiday (esp. Canaries).

Thanks,

Geraint.

1 hour ago, Vic L S said:

That's a lovely picture. I really need to upgrade my camera lens. 

Do you also use a Samyang lens for wider shots? 

Hi Vic, I use the Samyang 24mm and 14mm too. The 24mm is my workhorse for MW panoramas. You can’t beat the value of these lenses but quality control is not constant across the range!

Cheers,

Geraint.

In addition to the Summer Milky Way arc my other target whilst on Tenerife was Rho Opiuchi. I really wanted a close up of this colourful cloud complex. I had with me my Samyang 135mm and so I aimed at this nebulous complex and let loose!!

Canon6D astro modded and Star adventurer 2i were the other tools used.

20 images at ISO1600 f/3.2 60secs.

Stacked in DSS with calibration frames and then processed in Photoshop CS.

Hope you like the result.

The Rho Opiuchi Molecular Cloud Complex:

Nice capture Lee with a lovely smooth timelapse - clouds flow nicely.  It's always a bit of a guess in getting exposures right for the occasion as too many variables to play with!!

Geraint.

Great video and lovely images Paul.

I love the peace and tranquillity of the night when there is no wind and you only hear the sounds of Nature. So peaceful and serene it is a tonic to the soul. Sometimes Dawn comes too soon!

I especially like the lake with reflections of the trees and stars. The cool blues and pale yellow horizon also makes the shot stand out.

Hats off to you for getting out there when you have work next day. I struggle to do this admittedly and need a good forecast to venture forth. I had opportunity for early MW core a few days ago but had just returned from Tenerife having already got a great shot of it so I stayed in bed!! 😂

Keep up the excellent work and am looking forward to your next adventure and astrophotography.

Geraint.

Thought I’d try a shot at the moon whilst my other camera was targeting the Heart nebula two evenings ago when I was able to see clear dark skies.

I tried several shots in succession and combined two of them for the HDR effect in Photoshop CS.

Canon 6D with Canon 100-400mm lens at the long end. Shot from tripod - no tracking.

f/9 ISO 800 and exposures of 1/4sec and 1.3 secs were used.

The stars were added from an old image of the Sunflower galaxy to provide added effect!

This mage was for a bit of fun but I did like how it came out and so I thought I’d share it here too.

CC’s welcome.

HDR Crescent Moon:

8 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Wow that's impressive Ger. I'm so pleased you captured the core on your holiday and took such an amazing image. I agree with the landscapes in the Canary Islands are very moon like and a place I love to visit when possible. 

Clesr skies 

Lee 

Thanks Lee. I was lucky enough to be in La Palma in early Jan for the winter Milky Way and then last week I got the Summer Milky Way arc. When we plan holidays now I always check for night sky quality abroad before  we book (don’t tell the missus)!

I forgot to mention I used Sequator as I took at least three panels of each image in the panoramic sky row. This meant any ‘blurry’ ones could be discarded in post processing. It is very difficult to spot this in the field and I only had one night with no return ticket! 
Gerr.

35 minutes ago, FenlandPaul said:

Superb image, Gerr!! Envious of how dark and star-studded the skies must have been! Also slightly amused by how long the 14 seconds of your selfie exposure must have felt as you stood there, precariously on that outcrop!!

Felt like the shot would never end! I still had to clone stamp myself where my sides were still a bit blurry but that also helped me lose weight as an added benefit!! 
Skies were so clear that night - very lucky!

Cheers Paul. 👍

1 hour ago, shinebug777 said:

insane shot! i love the placement of the person and the location of the shot. it has great composition. and of course the milk way is just stunning. awesome capture!

Ha, I nearly fell off that rock!! I am always mindful of foreground subject (often supplemented by me) and try and remember  composition aspects.
Cheers.

Gerr.

Unlikely to get the Summer Milky Way arc in Wales so on a family holiday to Tenerife last week I took my camera and star tracker to try my hand there!

I was allowed one night star gazing on top of Tenerife in its volcanic caldera at the base of Mount Teide and ‘wow’, blown away I was by the beautiful clear sky with the core clearly seen rising from 3am.  I started taking a few shots and the one below was my highlight image. 
Located at Minas De San Jose where the terrain looks like something on the Moon with the galactic core rising in the east and having the place to myself was what I really enjoyed here. Selfie a must!

The sky was tracked and consisted of 1 row of 7 images in portrait orientation at ISO1600 f3.2 60secs with a Canon6D and Samyang 24mm lens.

The foreground was done in landscape orientation at ISO1600 f1.8 60secs (5 images).

Selfie was done at ISO3200 f1.8 14secs - some rocks were lit up quite nice too.

The image was stacked in sequator, stitched in PTGui and processed in Photoshop CS.

Hope you like?. CC’s welcome.

Summer Milky Way Arc:

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

Lovely shot.

I had the pleasure of being host here, for a week, to Dr René Dumont whose doctoral thesis was on the zodiacal light and whose article on the subject is the very last in Moran's Astronomy and Astrophysics Encyclopedia. It was a delight to be enlightened on the subject by a professional astronomer and world authority, especially since he was such a truly nice man. The sky played kindly as well...

Olly

Wow, that must of been a privilege. My head on astrophysics is not that great but if I can get a pretty picture of it’s visible characteristics than that is enough for me.

😀Geraint.

Totally shocked by the news! Alyn was an inspiration to me and I loved watching his videos. Very sad. He will be missed very much in the astrophotography world. 😢

Gweld chi yn y ser Alan.

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

I'm not sure I agree. Not destroying information in processing is as much scientific as artistic and going from unsaturated to saturated does destroy information.

Olly

Hi Olly,

I see your point and it is easy to overdo the saturation in processing without too much effort!!  I had another go at this and maybe this image shows where you are coming from better but to my eyes it is a fine line indeed to tread.

The M101 core re-done (better hopefully)??

Geraint.

9 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

It's very good and the colour is far more accurate than the bright blue spirals which we often see with M101.

The core is saturated in the first one and still saturated, though less so, in the second. The first thing I'd want to do is look at the core in the linear data. Is that saturated?  If it isn't, there is no need for it to become saturated during the stretch. You just need a better stretch, or a blending of two stretches. Maybe just a hand-shaped stretch in Curves would do it. What does the linear core look like?

Olly

Hi Olly,

Core isn’t saturated in the linear data. I guess I like the centres bright as long as I don’t obscure the dust lanes. A number of processing connotations can be followed dependent on your ‘artistic’ side. It’s what makes astro processing so difficult as there is no hard and fast rule to follow - whatever looks good I suppose!! 😂

Thanks,

Geraint.

Been interested in the Redcat51 for a while and I bagged one second hand for a great price and had opportunity to test it last night.

Conditions weren't great - some haze in the upper atmosphere and dew forming on everything but also a big 80% illuminated gibbous Moon next to my target!

It was a test - so hey ho, I had a go!!! 

I coupled the Redcat51 with my Canon6D and inserted a 2" Optolong L-eNhance filter (to try and counter the Moonlight) in the imaging train of the Redcat. I mounted this on my Star Adventurer 2i and balanced it nicely with the help of the counter-weight.

I took aim at Orions Belt (Alnitak region) and shot off 45 images of 90second duration, ISO1600 with Redcat giving a focal length of 250mm at f/4.9.

The polar alignment and tracking were pretty good for this small mount and only 7 frames had to be excluded from the stacking process in Siril.

Bias, Darks and Flats were also incorporated into the stacking process.

The image was then processed in Photoshop CS with Starnet GUI and Topaz denoise helping out.

I think I'll be using this set-up again!!!

CC's welcome.

The Result:

4 hours ago, Cozzy said:

Gerr,

That’s a very nice image, quite a substantial jump in drawing out the detail, the core also looks less dominant in comparison to the first iteration.

Justifies the hard work you put in getting the data in the first place.

👍

I could sharpen it further and improve contrast more but where do you stop!! 😂👍

Hi Cozzy,

Yes - I went back to the image data and this time ran it through Siril which seems to be better at stacking and preserving image details. I did background extraction and colour calibration before stretching using hyperbolic transformation tool.

I then exported into photoshop to finish it off (star extraction and RAW camera filter) with some gradient removal tools.

I think the result is better.

Gerr. 😀

This time of year the Zodiacal Light should be quite visible after sunset in the West (apparently) and if you have dark skies that way!

I've yet to see this phenomenon here on Anglesey where I live!!

However, I did go to La Palma (Isla Bonita) in the Canary Islands in January this year and took quite a few memorable images of the night sky there. It is a magical island for Astro photographers!

Whilst there, for the first time, I saw the Zodiacal light. I could not believe my eyes at first and didn't fully comprehend what I was seeing! 

This glow with the Jacobus Kapteyn Observatory at the base of it seemed to trigger understanding and then I knew I needed to get my camera out and shoot the scene.

I managed a panoramic composite image which included the Orion Nebula as well as the Zodiacal light  taken on top of the Roque De Los Muchachos.

The Sky shots were tracked with my Canon6D and 24mm Samyang 24mm lens at ISO1600 60secs f4.  I took 12 in portrait orientation and 5 for the landscape (ISO3200 30secs at f2).

These were stitched in PTGui and processed in Photoshop Lightroom and CS. Some hydrogen alpha was also blended in for the nebula.

Hope you like?

CC's welcome.

The Zodiacal Light: