Milky Way Astro-seascapes & landscapes

[DaveC Oz]

• Samyang AF 24mm F1.8
• 24.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 250 sec
• ISO 1600

25 x 10 second exposures, aligned and stacked, foreground lit by two LED light panels. Shack Bay near Cape Paterson.

 

[DaveC Oz]

Got up at stupid o'clock this morning, and drove down to the Murray river near Mildura to take some Milky Way shots each of the following is the result from 25 shots stacked. Each grouping was taken at different settings, then stacked using Sequator to align the stars.
Later in the morning it was great to meet up with Ralph for a coffee and chat.

• Samyang AF 24mm F1.8
• 24.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 250 sec
• ISO 6400

• Samyang AF 24mm F1.8
• 24.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 200 sec
• ISO 800

• Samyang AF 24mm F1.8
• 24.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 250 sec
• ISO 800

 

[alexpler]

Got up at stupid o'clock this morning, and drove down to the Murray river near Mildura to take some Milky Way shots each of the following is the result from 25 shots stacked. Each grouping was taken at different settings, then stacked using Sequator to align the stars.
Later in the morning it was great to meet up with Ralph for a coffee and chat.
View attachment 57000View attachment 57001View attachment 57002

Waking up early was totally worth it.

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Great shots @DaveC Oz
And good on ya for linking with Ralph!

 

[Ralph]

This is one thing I would like to leaning in our hobby.
It had interested me for a very long time,

And the meet up was great Dave and his wife with get and east to get along with.
Though time was short.

 

[Ralph]

I am sorry about this post as it just doesn't read right..
But the meeting did go really well and the writing of it was really bad.
I should explain a little so you understand where I am coming from.
Pain is a big one in changing what I want to say and it is not a deliberate one it just happpens to change what I am going to write even after reading it more than a few times.
I have an adult form of Dyslexia and this stuffs me up a lot.
I hope this puts you in the picture a little more. I know living with it is a challenge.
So if I stuff up on my writing just ask what did I really mean.
So I am sorry about some of these confusing replies.

 

[DaveC Oz]

Don't worry Ralph, we enjoyed our too short time, and are looking forward to catching up some more in the future.

 

[Ralph]

Thanks for that as I know I really did enjoy meeting you both. And lets hope next time it can be much longer and that our camera's can get out and used.

 

[DaveC Oz]

Taking advantage of a brief clear sky window, I travelled up to the Noojee Heritage Centre park. My plan had been to shoot the Milky Way core over the locomotive and station, lighting them with some very low level lighting. Unfortunately when I arrived there I discovered that both the station and locomotive were brightly lit. Even the headlight on the loco is shining. So my original idea was completely impossible. The following shots are what I was able to get before the clouds rolled back in.

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 6 sec
• ISO 1600

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 6 sec
• ISO 1600

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 180 sec
• ISO 1600

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 180 sec
• ISO 1600

 

[DaveC Oz]

Revisited the Noojee Heritage park on Saturday, much brighter moonlight this time so the Milky way is less visible, but it does light up the foreground.

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 150 sec
• ISO 640

 

[Ralph]

Still unsure of how you go about all this but the day I am ready I will ask ya.
Well done.

 

[DaveC Oz]

Still unsure of how you go about all this but the day I am ready I will ask ya.
Well done.

In the case of the above shot it is just 25 X 6 second identical exposures. I load them into my computer. Synchronise the colour temp, then use some free software called Sequator to stack all the images into one tiff file with the stars aligned. Then I edit that tiff file to emphasize the starry portion of the sky. I picked up much of what I have learned so far through watching youtube videos by the late Alyn Wallace, (who we sadly lost last month), and Richard Tatti.
The rest has been trial and error. The Photopills app has been great for pre-planning but has been another learing curve.

 

[DaveC Oz]

Haven't had time to do any work on photo's from my recent road/camping trip to Snowy River National Park, But as a preliminary I have this jpg of a SOOC raw file. It's super noisy as you would expect from the very high ISO, but I was quite pleased with it given that it was just a shot to check correct aim of the camera before adjusting the settings back to more moderate levels.

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 200 sec
• ISO 2500

Apologies all, the above image is a 25 shot stack taken after the framing shot. Below is the original single framing shot. My excuse? not nearly enough sleep in the past 48hrs

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 8 sec
• ISO 16000

 

[Ralph]

Well done mate.

 

[alexpler]

Haven't had time to do any work on photo's from my recent road/camping trip to Snowy River National Park, But as a preliminary I have this jpg of a SOOC raw file. It's super noisy as you would expect from the very high ISO, but I was quite pleased with it given that it was just a shot to check correct aim of the camera before adjusting the settings back to more moderate levels.View attachment 60486
Apologies all, the above image is a 25 shot stack taken after the framing shot. Below is the original single framing shot. My excuse? not nearly enough sleep in the past 48hrs
View attachment 60492

It looks beautiful even in big screen. Good work.

I prefer the first shot. It's darker, but night is supposed to be dark so it looks more natural and pleasing.

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Haven't had time to do any work on photo's from my recent road/camping trip to Snowy River National Park, But as a preliminary I have this jpg of a SOOC raw file. It's super noisy as you would expect from the very high ISO, but I was quite pleased with it given that it was just a shot to check correct aim of the camera before adjusting the settings back to more moderate levels.View attachment 60486
Apologies all, the above image is a 25 shot stack taken after the framing shot. Below is the original single framing shot. My excuse? not nearly enough sleep in the past 48hrs
View attachment 60492

Being able to compare a single frame versus a 25 shot-stack, with the same framing, is really useful information. Next time I find myself in dark sky territory I will try my hand at it too.

 

[DaveC Oz]

For several months I planned a visit to the Snowy River National Park to try to capture the night sky over McKillops Bridge. I first camped in this area in my teens, and knew it had truly dark sky. It is remote enough that not only is there no phone reception, there is only very patchy AM radio reception during the night. Imagine my frustration when on the first night clouds rolled in just as the Milky Way core was due to rise. The following day started cloudy but cleared up until about an hour before sunset, grrr. I took the a few shots of the bridge anyway using LED panels to illuminate it, then went to sleep thinking the trip was wasted as far as astrophotography went. About 3:30am I was woken up by a neighbourhood dispute between a couple of the resident kangaroos, looked outside and discover clear sky, so got up and got busy.

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/4
• 1/1600 sec
• ISO 800

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/4
• 20 sec
• ISO 800

• ILCE-7CR
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 200 sec
• ISO 3200

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 200 sec
• ISO 2500

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Super!

What are the LED panels that you use? I've seen a couple of outdoor pics where the taker has highlit features. Must be quite powerful?

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

For several months I planned a visit to the Snowy River National Park to try to capture the night sky over McKillops Bridge. I first camped in this area in my teens, and knew it had truly dark sky. It is remote enough that not only is there no phone reception, there is only very patchy AM radio reception during the night. Imagine my frustration when on the first night clouds rolled in just as the Milky Way core was due to rise. The following day started cloudy but cleared up until about an hour before sunset, grrr. I took the a few shots of the bridge anyway using LED panels to illuminate it, then went to sleep thinking the trip was wasted as far as astrophotography went. About 3:30am I was woken up by a neighbourhood dispute between a couple of the resident kangaroos, looked outside and discover clear sky, so got up and got busy. View attachment 60574View attachment 60575View attachment 60576View attachment 60577

Stunning mate!

 

[DaveC Oz]

Super!

What are the LED panels that you use? I've seen a couple of outdoor pics where the taker has highlit features. Must be quite powerful?

Hi Thad the LED panels I have are Andoer W140RGB panels I bought on Ebay. They aren't super powerful, but with my high exposure times, and ISO's they don't need to throw a lot of light to be effective. When I use them for astrophotography they are often set at only one or two% output. For the illuminated bridge shot there were two panels each set to 100%. For the Milky Way core shots the first is unlit, and the second is lit by a camping lantern laying on the sand for a few of the frames.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Hi Thad the LED panels I have

Thanks, very interesting. It must have taken a lot of work and practice to find out how to get the right results. But then, I guess the entire field of astro, long, stacked, exposures, must do.

I guess I'm a lazy photographer!

 

[DaveC Oz]

It hasn't been much work at all thanks to a few tips on light painting via the magic of YouTube. For me the bonus has been getting to be out in some beautiful locations, and enjoying the quietness that comes with the times and locations. Of course the down side is the travel times to get there and back.