Some widefield shots

[MaCross]

Yesterday the sky looked sort of ok-ish and our family decided to go and have a little star hunting session up Dunnet Head, the most northerly point on british mainland.

Once we arrived some light Hare has come in and some clouds too... As predicted, my kids got bored quickly and I had to hurry up to get some shots before they were to start a mutiny

Here are a few that I manged to grab in the 20 minutes or so up there (standing in the blazing cold wind)

Looking West over Thurso

Looking East

Looking Up

Backyard view

I am just trying to get a feel for my cam and lenses at night and I am trying out different combination of lenses/exposures and ISO speeds.

Also any processing tips would be very welcome as this (as in astro) is now to me.

All pics were done with a Canon 5DmkII and the 24-105L. ISO`s varied from 1250 to 2000. All images are stacked of 2 subs and show about 50 seconds or so...

[brendant]

A fantastic set of images, love the presentation of the first three with the starfield and horizon showing , beautiful images, well done.

Brendan

[MaCross]

Cheers Brendant, your comment is very kind!

[ashenlight]

Amazing work, MaCross, your framing is spot on and the sheer detail and depth of the images is staggering. You've done a smashing job. Brilliantly executed

I agree with Brendan, the first 3 are particularly impressive with the horizon and starfield. I love the way you have captured stars 'behind' the incoming golden clouds too, really feels like 'infinity'

These images have really cheered up a very gusty and wet day in S.Wales, thank you and keep them coming!

[MaCross]

Thank you very much for your kind comment ashenlight! I hope your weather will improve soon! Looking out of the window, I feel I am in S.Wales just now

It means really much to me to get good comments and encouragement from "Pros"

[melsky]

Fantastic images MaCross, very atmospheric, wish I’d been there. Did you use a driven mount to take these?

Mel

[MaCross]

Cheers Mel! No, it was just an ordinary static Manfrotto. Eventually I will get the big beast mount out, for now I am just trying to get a feeling of the night with the normal tripod

[steppenwolf]

A lovely set of wide-field images - great skies!

[Beyond_Vision]

A lovely set of shots I especially like the first two

Regards

Kevin

[nicnac]

looking west and looking up............nice, im moving!

[MaCross]

Thank you so much Steve, Kevin & nicnac, your nice comments are muchly appreciated!

@ Steve, I got a lot of info out of your fantastic book, now I will have to try and translate it to the telescope :-)