Milkway from horizon to horizon

[sgazer]

I've been trying to get a panoramic image of the Milkyway for some time, but my imgaing processing skills really fall short of what it required ! I've found it really difficult with the extreme gradients in the sky as it doesn't really get dark and also I've had difficulties stiching the images together and ended up using MS ICE to do it. I've tried gradient exterminator which does a reasonable job, but then leaves some strange effects when I stretch the histogram. Also, I've tried applying flats in Pixinsight, but then I get a really strange grid pattern when I do the histrogram stretch.

Anyhow, enough excuses, here's my best effort, 9 single subs taken with a 1000d, 18mm kit lens on a ALT/AZ goto mount, ISO200, stitched with MS ICE, processed in Photoshop. It spans about 110 degrees from the trees on the left to the house on the right, the yellow square is the bedroom light! I'm not sure where the vertical dark channels have come from, something in the stiching process perhaps. The original tiff was 250MB, so I've had to shrink it a little!

Thanks for looking.

[Psychobilly]

Nicely done...

Peter...

[Jamie]

Very impressive......Indeed....

[jgs001]

Nice work, loads to see

[sgazer]

thank you for your kind comments. I'd like to get it a bit better and remove those vertical dark bands as I suspect they probably aren't just cracks in space-time , so I'll keep working on it. Also, I started taking the subs at the wrong end ie. I started in the North where the sun was setting and worked toward the south. Should have done it the other way so the north was as dark as it could be by the end of the session.

[sgazer]

and just for the sake of asthetics, here are the dark bits touched up with a simple clone brush, so they're not really real. I'm sure there's another way to lighter those areas, I'll try and work it out with Photoshop.

[Psychobilly]

Looks mighty good to me

Might not be Astrometricaly correct but its Aesthetically very pleasing

Peter...

[sgazer]

ohh, and is that M31 just rising above the trees??!! I think it could be

[ncjunk]

Looks like m31 and quacks like m31!

I was getting confused with those dark bands, i couldnt remember ever seeing them!

Nice duck...i mean m31.

[sgazer]

ah, it was the 'dodge' tool in Photoshop to lighten the dark bits, so here it is, now asthetically and astronomically correct!

[Alestrom]

That's really cool mate, unusual and creative with the silhouettes (is that spelt right?!) of the buildings and whatnot

[DarkerSky]

That is truly stunning. Well done

The North American Nebula looks awesome too right towards the center of the image

Really cool stuff

[Beyond_Vision]

I bet you are pleased with that the final edit is looking really good

Regards

Kevin

[saturn5]

Fab work,i think the silhouettes really add to the atmosphere of the shot.(no pun intended)..lol