Milky Way Astro-seascapes & landscapes

[DaveC Oz]

Stacked 20x6 sec shot of Walhalla Rail Bridge. A difficult capture with bright security lighting around the bridge. The concrete reflecting the light combined with an otherwise reasonably dark sky and background made exposure settings a bit experimental.

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/2.5
• 120 sec
• ISO 5000

 

[DaveC Oz]

20 X 8 second exposure of Muckleford Bridge on the Goldfields Historic Rail line.
First with moonlight only, then lit with my Godox LED light tube from approx 30m down the line @ 2% power

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/2.7999999523163
• 160 sec
• ISO 5000

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/2.7999999523163
• 160 sec
• ISO 5000

 

[THXGEEK]

Wow! I really like these!

 

[alexpler]

20 X 8 second exposure of Muckleford Bridge on the Goldfields Historic Rail line.
First with moonlight only, then lit with my Godox LED light tube from approx 30m down the line @ 2% powerView attachment 77406View attachment 77405

Both are amazing but I think the 2nd shots looks more impactful and the colors are pleasing too.

 

[DaveC Oz]

Wow! I really like these!

Thankyou

 

[DaveC Oz]

Both are amazing but I think the 2nd shots looks more impactful and the colors are pleasing too.

Thankyou, I also prefer the illuminated bridge shot. I took the moonlit shots as an experiment as I was packing my LED'S away

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Agreed; its funny that the second shot, with its artificial illumination, has a more natural feel to the shadows and blends well with the scene.

 

[DaveC Oz]

Multi-stacked, multi-row panorama, Blue Rock Dam near Willow Grove. 17 X 10 stacked 8 second exposures total of 170 shots in two rows

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/2
• 80 sec
• ISO 5000

 

[DaveC Oz]

A single stacked image (10 X 8s) taken near the other end of the lake to the previous shot later in the night

• Viltrox 16mm F1.8 FE
• 16.0 mm
• ƒ/1.7999999523163
• 88 sec
• ISO 4000

 

[DaveC Oz]

On Sunday I revisited Blue Rock dam with my star tracker. I picked up the tracker nearly two years ago, but have been concentrating on leaning to shoot and edit without the additional complication of blending stationary and tracked images. For a first effort I'm fairly happy with it.

Composite of two images each 130 seconds in length. Both from the same location. A tracked sky shot - 130sec, ISO 1600, f2.8, blended with an untracked foreground shot 130sec, ISO 800, f8.

Adjusted and blended using ON1 Photo Raw 2024

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

 

[THXGEEK]

Nice shots, Dave!

What model tracker are you using?

 

[DaveC Oz]

Nice shots, Dave!

What model tracker are you using?

Thank you Craig, my tacker is an I-Optron Sky Tracker Pro. I picked it up second hand nearly two years ago, but struggled with both alignment and post-processing. I made the decision to put it aside until I felt more confident in my workflow. Finally last Sunday I decided to stop procrastinating and give it a go again. For a first serious attempt at using it, I'm very happy with the results. Best of all the setting-up and processing went very smoothly, and took about the same time as my previous stacking method.

 

[THXGEEK]

Thank you Craig, my tacker is an I-Optron Sky Tracker Pro. I picked it up second hand nearly two years ago, but struggled with both alignment and post-processing. I made the decision to put it aside until I felt more confident in my workflow. Finally last Sunday I decided to stop procrastinating and give it a go again. For a first serious attempt at using it, I'm very happy with the results. Best of all the setting-up and processing went very smoothly, and took about the same time as my previous stacking method.

Very happy to hear this as I have been looking at that exact device! I used to be into astronomy (I had a Meade LX200GPS and ETX-125 among others), but never for photography. I may very well pull the trigger for this and see how it goes... Any sage words of advice (for alignment, counter-weights, balance, etc) would be MOST appreciated!

Cheers!

 

[Richard A]

I have been looking at one of these:

STAR ADVENTURER MINI PRO PACK

 

[DaveC Oz]

Very happy to hear this as I have been looking at that exact device! I used to be into astronomy (I had a Meade LX200GPS and ETX-125 among others), but never for photography. I may very well pull the trigger for this and see how it goes... Any sage words of advice (for alignment, counter-weights, balance, etc) would be MOST appreciated!

Cheers!

I'm not sure I can help too much with alignment, as I'm aligning for the South celestial pole. For astro-landscapes generally the lenses used tend to be wider angle lenses which are generally lighter than the deep sky tele lenses. With my A7CR/Viltrox 16mm combo I haven't used a counter balance as the weight is well under the specified load for the tracker.
The late Alynn Wallace still has many videos on YouTube with lots of excellent tips, as does Richard Tatti of Nightscape Images, although Richards are more oriented to the southern hemisphere.

 

[DaveC Oz]

I have been looking at one of these:

STAR ADVENTURER MINI PRO PACK

Looks like a nice piece of gear Richard. I wasn't really looking for a tracker when I got mine, but it came up for about $100, on a FB marketplace group just after I'd received a bonus at work, so I grabbed it.

 

[Richard A]

That's lucky. I'm starting to search for one of these second hand.