Widefield Milky Way Attempt

[swlloyd3]

Hey,

This is my first attempt at imaging the milky way and It really was good fun

I decided to take a trip over towards Llangollen as I live in Chester and decided the LP would not be as bad there... I wanted to get up on the hills/moores below Llangollen but I arrived a bit late in the afternoon/evening and got stuck twice going up some dodges roads the width of my car!

So in the end this was taken from the campsite that I stayed at and I must say the naked eye views were really impressive The milky way was visible and there were so many stars compared to Chester!

Removing the ice crystals and dew that would form every photograph was also rather fun! Now I know why people use dew heaters!

Anyway I hope you like this photograph! Sorry for the gradient issues but I have tried my best getting rid of the LP from the town of Llangollen at the bottom right and I didn't have time to take darks as the camera was soaking and I decided it needed drying!

Details:

Canon 1000D, HEQ5-PRO, Laptop.

Around 19minute exposure made up of 1minute, 2minute and 3 minute exposures.

ISO 1600

Edited using GIMP and PAINT.NET.

[Viv]

Nice one - congrats

[Jaffa007]

First attempt, not bad, not bad at all!! :-)

[Crunchard]

Very good for a first attempt!

When I finally get round to imaging I hope my first attempts are half as good as this...

[swlloyd3]

Thanks for the kind comments!

Ste.

[Psychobilly]

Much better than my first attempt nice star color

[Cloudwatcher]

There you go,Llangollen is now LP free......... I'm sure they will be very happy!

[blackparticle]

Lovely.

CW - I think you might want to do a step-by-step for what you did there.

[swlloyd3]

As above.... How the hell did you do that CW?

That looks stunning I'm hoping your not going to say photoshop... please tell me it was in a free program because I'm a cheapskate

[Andrewsean1985]

Stunning picture! May I download and use on my facebook page (your name will be under the picture!) I'm trying to get my friends into astronomy.

[darkside]

very nice first image

[swlloyd3]

Ok so I have finally got a copy of PixInsight and photoshop after deciding they are worth it if I am to do this as a proper hobby.

Anyway this is the second attempted edit of the photograph, I had a go at removing the gradients (although some remain)

By dealing with the gradient to some extent it has enabled me to pull more detail from the image...It could be much better though!

Let me know what you think!

Ste.