Milky Way from a dark spot

[Space Ranger]

Was taking a milky way shot at a local dark spot (22.0-22.1 overhead on the Unihedron Sky Quality Meter) and discovered some faint aurora playing peekaboo from behind the trees......

[Adamar98]

That's a great shot! I'd love to have skies dark enough to grab a shot like that.

[astrodam]

Beautiful shot Space Ranger I think I am going to start look for a decent dark site near me.

[rjc404]

Fantastic shot! Is that one single exposure? Yeah, I definitely need to find a dark site.

[Space Ranger]

Thanks all - glad you like it.

Fantastic shot! Is that one single exposure? Yeah, I definitely need to find a dark site.

It was a single exposure rjc404. A little bit of a cheat though - it's a 2 minute exposure (at ISO1600 and f/3.5) on a telescope tracking mount. I thought I'd give it a bit of a try after a session imaging through a scope and I'm delighted I did.

All my previous milky way landscape images have been from a static camera tripod (eg http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/196996-dark-dirlot-skies/), where there is a trade off between maximising the exposure without the star trailing becoming too noticeable. With the motorised mount I can keep the stars sharp and the ISO a little lower. That does however mean the foreground has to cope with a little blurring from the mount movement, or you could do a composite foreground in photo editing software (probably beyond my processing capabilities!).

All that said, clear dark skies certainly help

[stolenfeather]

Wonderful shot!  I teach in the remote north and have seen the auroras many times.  Unfortunately, I have not able to capture a shot as beautiful as this one.

Isabelle

[Space Ranger]

Wonderful shot!  I teach in the remote north and have seen the auroras many times.  Unfortunately, I have not able to capture a shot as beautiful as this one.

Isabelle

Keep trying Isabelle - practice (and a good bit of luck) is needed. I have many more poor images than good ones, but the advantage of digital cameras is you can easily delete and forget about the ones that don't come out as intended

[davefrance]

If you don't have a motorised mount you can improve your chances even in LP skies by taking multiple images and stacking. As space ranger says you could edit the foreground afterwards if you wished. Wide angle lenses are more tolerant of movement so great for Milky Way.

This one taken @ 18mm (27mm equivalent on 35mm film) F3.5, 10 secs exposure ISO 6400 stacked with DSS. I like it.

[Space Ranger]

Good idea davefrance - haven't tried that approach myself. Nice pic - being a good bit further north I can't quite see the brightest parts of the Milky Way like you can.

[davefrance]

Good idea davefrance - haven't tried that approach myself. Nice pic - being a good bit further north I can't quite see the brightest parts of the Milky Way like you can.

no.......but you do get to see the aurora. Happy snapping

[LeeWilky]

Very nice

Oh to be near dark skies.....

[JessicaFaye]

lovely image... need to get me to a dark site!

[iksobarg]

All I can say is, "wallpaper."

[Dreadz]

That is a really beautiful image. Congratulations

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Space Ranger]

Thanks again for all your kind comments - delighted you like the photo.

Anyone else see the "dark" shape of a deer in the milky way above the Pleiades and Hyades?

no.......but you do get to see the aurora. Happy snapping

It would be nice to be able to have my cake an eat it too.