Kelling Milky Way

[davew]

I wasn't going to post this as I think the best images are already here but that's not the spirit, is it ?

Myself and two friends walked down to the fishing ponds at Kelling last month and had a go at the Milky Way. Surprisingly non of us got in the way of the others !

The image was processed as four distinct areas. The Milky Way sky, of course, the water, trees and the yellow bush to the right. Trying to process the image in one sweep messed some areas up as others improved. The yellow bush is blurred due to a slight breeze that was blowing and wouldn't tighten up ! The trees had no obvious form to them so they were lightened a bit to show what they were in fact trees !

10 images shot at 20 seconds each f1.8 ISO 3200 ( not 1600 as I've said elsewhere ! ) on a 14mm Sigma and Nikon Z6. Even at those exposures there was black clipping in the bottom right corner but it didn't matter in the end. All put into my favourite stacking software, Sequator

 

We have two bites at the night sky because much to my surprise, the Milky Way seems to show up in the pond too,

Dave.

Edited October 27, 2019 by davew

[carastro]

Very atmospheric and I like the reflection of the sky in the pond.

A very worthwhile and well executed image. 

Carole 

[barkis]

An splendid bit of imaging is what I'd call it Dave. A combined Earth and Sky is always complimentary, and you've displayed some deft skills in creating this. If it was a competition entry, It would have got my vote for sure.  Well done Matey. 👍

Ron.

[davew]

22 hours ago, carastro said:

Very atmospheric and I like the reflection of the sky in the pond.

A very worthwhile and well executed image. 

Carole 

Thanks Carole,

It's even darker down there than the main field so if you fancy a go, watch where you walk :)

Dave.

21 hours ago, barkis said:

An splendid bit of imaging is what I'd call it Dave. A combined Earth and Sky is always complimentary, and you've displayed some deft skills in creating this. If it was a competition entry, It would have got my vote for sure.  Well done Matey. 👍

Ron.

Cheers Ron,

You made it a pleasure to post,

Dave.

[MartinB]

Lovely image Dave, you are the master of reflected sky!  

Do you get much parallax error with your mosaics or are you using a pano head?

[davew]

7 hours ago, MartinB said:

Lovely image Dave, you are the master of reflected sky!  

Do you get much parallax error with your mosaics or are you using a pano head?

Thanks Martin

Rumour has it that I walk round with a bucket of water to ensure I get a reflection no matter where I image !

With mosaics I always use the No Parallax Point these days. I get the measurements in my garden at home using two sticks ( ! ) and then transfer that info onto a piece of masking tape that I stuck on the top of my nodal plates. Note the plural. With very wide lenses the long nodal plates can just show so I have a short one specially for the Sigma 14mm.

Experience tells me that if mosaics can go wrong then eventually they will. The NPP allows single and multi row stitching without errors showing up. I believe you have a suitable device ( if I remember correctly ) but I have to make the up / down settings by eye. If I'm just doing up and down then I can set the top of the ball head at 90*. I should get a proper multi row pano head !

Dave.

[MartinB]

Yes I have a nodal ninja.  I haven't used it a great deal so far but have been pleased with it.  Seems I now need to invest in a bucket for the water!