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Advice for Milkyway imaging


Iem1

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Morning guys,

Just after some advice on how others go about image acquisition. I am new to nightscapes, only been out a few times recently under the stars with my 14mm Samyang lens and my astro modded 600D and my Sky Guider pro.

I am interested to learn how others go about image acquisition, the techniques used/ISO settings/exposure times/Total integration times and the like. Just looking for ways to improve on my own methods.

I currently use ISO 1600 as a staple and 90 second exposures with my 600D, here is my latest capture. 

2138379747_SeqNonandromeda.thumb.png.6e8a29334b5e741e33064f0684136164.png

 

this is x4 90 second exposures at ISO 1600 of both the foreground and sky, the sky being stacked in sequator, taken on a moonless night in a bortle 3-4

I notice the image is quite light, and the milkyway a little dim. I am thinking next time I might try dropping to ISO 800 and perhaps increasing exposure length? Not sure how else to approach it. Is x4 90 second subs considered a decent total integration, or extremely short (as with Deep Sky imaging)?

I am using the technique of imaging the foreground first (Usually while waiting on clouds to clear) and then for the sky I will angle the camera upwards a bit, lowering the foreground in the FOV in order to make blending the images easier (I like to keep a more natural effect with the gradient of the horizon in shot). Did not work 100% here as there is some overlap present near the mountains, I must have shifted left or right while waiting for clouds to clear.

 

Any advice/tips on things to try or how to improve is appreciated, cheers guys!

 

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great start, well done!

I'd be curious tp know when star trails start to appear with the setup you have, perhaps a longer exposure would allow a less noisy ISO.

If it were me I'd choose a longer exposure on the foreground, to lighten it up a bit more. Not much though, I like the silhouette and the blue windows.

Would a colour tint adjustment remove the orange have in the lower sky?

looking forward to the next image. cheers for sharing.

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17 minutes ago, AstroGee said:

great start, well done!

I'd be curious tp know when star trails start to appear with the setup you have, perhaps a longer exposure would allow a less noisy ISO.

If it were me I'd choose a longer exposure on the foreground, to lighten it up a bit more. Not much though, I like the silhouette and the blue windows.

Would a colour tint adjustment remove the orange have in the lower sky?

looking forward to the next image. cheers for sharing.

Thank you!

I might try shooting for 2-3 minutes next time with ISO 800, hopefully help with noise a bit more :D 

The foreground seems to be darker when uploaded here and viewed on PC, the photo on social media or viewed on a mobile seems a touch lighter!

Hereis another shot, but I angled the camera up a lot more; Though I am not a fan as I feel like it is quite unnatural for some reason, but it does capture Andromeda I think!

2125180085_SeqAndrom(New).thumb.png.1544caf20163c7a7f239466df61ed5b3.png

 

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Nice shots, last time I did the Milky Way from a Bortle 4 I did ISO 2000 for 30 seconds unguided, 30s being the limit of the camera I had at the time. Normally for camera I use between ISO 800-1600.

Looking at the yellow skyglow have you considered a filter? This will have the effect of needing to expose for longer though you are already acheiving that. Also the more light frames you can stack the better and combine with flats, darks and bias to remove any artifacts and noise.

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9 hours ago, Iem1 said:

The foreground seems to be darker when uploaded here and viewed on PC,

I sometime find it tricky to gauge the brightness also, especially when working from a laptop with variable brightness. I haven't yet but plan to get a set of images which I know are at the proper exposure, to use as a comparative reference.

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5 hours ago, Elp said:

Nice shots, last time I did the Milky Way from a Bortle 4 I did ISO 2000 for 30 seconds unguided, 30s being the limit of the camera I had at the time. Normally for camera I use between ISO 800-1600.

Looking at the yellow skyglow have you considered a filter? This will have the effect of needing to expose for longer though you are already acheiving that. Also the more light frames you can stack the better and combine with flats, darks and bias to remove any artifacts and noise.

Thank you for the response! :)

yeah, I think modded 600D isn't exactly a top notch camera and the Samyang isn't top notch either, so I guess it's a case of making the best of it. If I can drop to 800 it might help with noise im thinking.

never thought about a filter, but will look into it. I silly travel to bortle 3-4 so it's never been too much of an issue I don't think, thank you :)

13 minutes ago, AstroGee said:

I sometime find it tricky to gauge the brightness also, especially when working from a laptop with variable brightness. I haven't yet but plan to get a set of images which I know are at the proper exposure, to use as a comparative reference.

Yeah it is a finicky business :D

I have done a bit more research and learned that with the long exposures with the tracker, I should be able to also go from 2.8 up(down?) A stop or so? To help with coma and the like and hopefully improve quality a bit? Something I may try

Haven't had much luck in the way of weather, I had a 20-30 minute window to get the images above between clouds...Wish I had more time to play around with settings :D

- swap from 2.8 to 4

- Drop ISO from 1600 to 800

- Raise exposure to 2 - 2.5 minutes 

- Increase total integration time and apply calibration frames

^ Plan of action during next outing. Having a lot of fun with nightscapes (While I am saving up for my EQ6-R Pro :D)

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Look for foregrounds where the sky lightpollution is low as this really helps with sky detail , try also single exposures as it will surprise you the detail that can be pulled out from a single shot, the maths say that the 14mm samyang on a full frame camera should be good for 30sec exposure without a tracker but in my experience 25 secs is better, with 30secs there is some trailing noticeable around the edges, for your crop sensor that might just work though you may have to go down to 20secs. Try lightpainting your foreground to for a single shot, experiment with it as much as you can, one nice effect is to use a single yankee candle to light something up, really surprising how much light it will put out during 20-30 secs.

This is a single photo from the summit of Slieve Bearnagh in The Mourne mountains during the summer with some foreground painting on the Torrs , shooting from class 4 directly towards a large class 5 town (Kilkeel) so not ideal but it will give you an idea of what is possible from a single photo for very little effort. Lol not sure whats worse, the light pollution or the satellite pollution.

May be an image of nature and sky

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@chewie That's a pretty image! 

Yeah, I might experiment with a single image v's a stack soon.

This was the first attempt at a milkyway shot I took, and it was taken only a short way down the road from where the above one was taken

SquarePic_20211011_14484233.thumb.jpg.9baeda74f1d1dfcb2fb21555b1d9faea.jpg

This was I think either a single 60 or 90 second image of both the foreground and sky.

fellow SGL members helped me blend the two images, and I think they also processed the sky a bit, but nothing drastic...it certainly packed more punch than my stacked imaged above.

Though I guess there could be many reasons for differences..most likely me doing something wrong :D

looking forward to getting back out there for another go

(Still bitter that I started nightscapes just as milkyway season ended tool! :D)

 

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