Orpington Astronomical Society

Astronomy => Astrophotography => Topic started by: MarkS on May 29, 2014, 23:23:53

Title: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: MarkS on May 29, 2014, 23:23:53
The Milky Way from High Halden on an exceptional night.  35mm Nikon lens at F4 on modded Canon 400D. 15x200sec exposures at ISO 800.  
No light pollution filter was used ;).

(http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2014/milkyway24072012small.jpg)

I've subtracted as much light pollution as possible but that has the effect of "amplifying" the red glow from Tenterden.   The stars at the bottom of the image have not stacked properly because of differential atmospheric refraction between the subs.  The smeared cluster M6 at the bottom of the image is only 5deg above the horizon.  So there's a lot wrong with the image but I still like it enough to post it.

Here's a bigger version, scaled by 2/3 from the original size:
http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2014/milkyway24072012.jpg

Mark
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: MarkH on May 30, 2014, 06:15:25
Superb Mark!
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: JohnP on May 30, 2014, 08:37:40
Looks excellent to me Mark and reminds me I must get round to modifying the 400D I have in my bottom draw at work... especially if I can get results anything like that...

Top image - John
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: Fay on May 30, 2014, 09:25:28
very nice Mark. i must get my act together!
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: The Thing on May 30, 2014, 09:26:13
You are far too picky Mark, that's excellent.

You could always ask Alan Kyedah [avoid CIA picking this up in their scans!] to nuke Tenterden but you can't change what nature is doing to the light close to the horizon so accept it! The only way I can see the image being any better would be if you did a mosaic and used an ADC set differently for each altitude to correct the atmospheric dispersion.
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: julian on Jun 02, 2014, 20:03:47
Quotevery nice Mark. i must get my act together!

And Me!!!!

very nice
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: MarkS on Jun 03, 2014, 06:10:42
Milky Way would be perfectly placed (i.e. due south at 1am) for a potential uDSC at Running Waters end of June ;-)
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: Fay on Jun 03, 2014, 09:17:25
oh dear i have relatives from the north coming down!
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: Mike on Jun 03, 2014, 10:19:48
Wow that's really effective Mark.  Great picture.
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: The Thing on Jun 03, 2014, 12:19:20
Quote from: Fay on Jun 03, 2014, 09:17:25
oh dear i have relatives from the north coming down!
Get them to bring a tent and 'come down' a bit further with you ;-)
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: Fay on Jun 03, 2014, 15:08:52
Mark you would have to have used a cls in my garden ! :lol:
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: MarkS on Jun 03, 2014, 19:09:15
Quote from: Fay
Mark you would have to have used a cls in my garden ! :lol:

And chop your trees down!
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: Fay on Jun 03, 2014, 19:31:17
tell me about it!
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: Fay on Jun 03, 2014, 19:58:53
mark how was your milky way from running waters? i think you did one there
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: MarkS on Jun 03, 2014, 20:30:29
Quote from: Fay
mark how was your milky way from running waters? i think you did one there

I was concentrating on the area around Antares.  I managed 4 exposures before the iOptron batteries failed.  Once I realised and replaced the batteries I got 6 exposures of a different part of the sky because I forgot to re-frame the image and these had varying amounts of hazy cloud.  All in all a disaster :(

However, that aside, the sky quality in terms of darkness was excellent.
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: RobertM on Jun 03, 2014, 21:24:58
I agree it's a very good image, especially with only 15 exposures, well focused and good star shapes too from that Nikon glass.

Have you tried the 550D yet, even without cooling the copper should keep the sensor temperature down.
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: MarkS on Jun 03, 2014, 21:37:41

The heatsinked 550D was used on my IC1340 (Veil) image.  The decrease in noise just having the copper exposed to the elements is quite noticeable.  It almost completely stops the heat build up of the sensor.  Haven't added the Peltier yet.

Mark
Title: Re: Milky Way from High Halden
Post by: RobertM on Jun 03, 2014, 21:43:09
Yes, I noticed how noise free the Veil image was.  Did you see banding in any of the processing steps ?