Southern Milky Way (with compact camera)

[sgazer]

hi all, firstly apologies for writing all my posts on one line with no paragraph breaks, for some reason 'Enter' doesn't work on this forum! Anyhow, I took the kids away at the weekend camping, crazy I know, we're in the middle of winter here and it's been a chilly 19C, but we've got a heater in the trailer, so it's manageable (LOL!). The night started off shrouded in mist, quite spooky in the middle of the forest, but I stuck my head out at about 10pm and it had cleared up beautifully. I'd not gone prepared for astronomy, but the view of the Milky Way out there was simply stunning. I've never seen anything like it and we were just an hours drive outside of Melbourne. I had to stop and check the clouds I was seeing, weren't just clouds in the sky, but clouds of stars, unbelievable. I only had my trusty Panasonic FZ200 compact camera and no tripod or remote timer, so I simply stuck it on the boot of the car pointing up and very gently pressed the shutter so as not to disturb it. I took 9 x 30s subs at ISO800, jpg and RAW. Here's what I got out from jpg and RAW respectively. I seem to get better colour from the jpgs. Just for reference, I've also added what one single frame looked like with no processing (almost represents the brightness (but with more detail) that could be seen by eye). Thanks for looking.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice work. I like the middle one best. most natural colour. The first (jpg) gets the colour balance wrong (too blue).

[foundaplanet]

Good stuff, I agree with Michael and prefer the colour of the second one.

19C must be awful for you, the only way we can get temperatures like that here is by having a bath..

[wxsatuser]

Middle one.

[Superdavo]

Middle one is definitely best, and quite amazing!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Seriously impressive given the gear and method. I have to agree with everyone else and say the middle one is the nicest,natural looking one.

[sgazer]

thanks for your comments all, I think I agree the middle one is the best, most natural one. I'm still impressed what this camera can do, considering it's got a tiny sensor (albeit with a huge lens attached). A few more subs would have been great to have knocked down the noise a bit more, but I was trying different positions and it was time consuming to have to manually press the shutter each time. I must remember to take my timer remote with me next time. I must admit, the weather has been quite nice for winter over the past couple of weeks, considering it's Melbourne, but next week will be a different story, getting cloudy and wet about 13C. It does get cold at night and there's been a frost for a couple of nights. But yes, I forget how cold it used to get in the UK, having been here for nearly 3 years now, anything below 20 feels cold.

[WaveSoarer]

Really excellent. The middle one for me too.

[Polar Bear]

Great shots, my vote goes for the first one, much more impact.

Just have a thought for us poor souls here in the UK, middle of summer and 15 degrees today !

Paul

[Velvet]

well i am now jealous very nice images, my vote goes for middle one too.

Velvet

[iksose7]

Great set of images, think i like the 1st best! I prefer the exaggerated colours in widefield Milky Way shots.

[robbie c]

I'd have to say the middle one as well