Orpington Astronomical Society

Astronomy => Astrophotography => Topic started by: The Thing on Jul 04, 2014, 20:44:02

Title: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: The Thing on Jul 04, 2014, 20:44:02
Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche. 200 x 60s. Canon 1000Da with 50mm Pentax lens at f4, no filters.
Gaps at the end of the trails are clouds obscuring the stars. There is an Iridium flare and several planes and satellites.

Click image for 1/2 sized version
(http://iloapp.dewityourself.co.uk/data/_gallery/public/0/140450240961737600_resized.jpg?width=972&height=648) (http://iloapp.dewityourself.co.uk/data/_gallery/public/0/140450240961737600_resized.jpg)
Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: Carole on Jul 05, 2014, 00:13:21
Wow, that's impressive.

Carole
Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: The Thing on Jul 05, 2014, 08:01:24
Thanks Carole.

BTW the Iridium flare is the bright dot on the far left middle (shows much better on the individual sub) and alignment was a bit of trial and error. FoV is 20 x 24 degrees.
Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: MarkH on Jul 05, 2014, 13:06:21
Excellent Duncan it kind of resembles the view out of a sweet shop window at night. :D
Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: Carole on Jul 05, 2014, 13:41:05
I feel like I am falling into a vortex with a black hole at the bottom.

Carole
Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: MarkS on Jul 05, 2014, 20:46:35
Really nice!!
Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: JohnP on Jul 07, 2014, 09:14:14
Excellent Duncan - Thats come out really well - shows star colours really nicely. Only comment would background needs cleaning a little (hot/ rogue pixels etc.) but other than that top notch. I've never managed to get an image like this & its definitely on my todo list.

John
Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: The Thing on Jul 07, 2014, 10:08:40
Thanks John.

This was a first cut process using Startrails. I set it to create an averaged background from 5 frames but it seems to have retained some stars in the background. I didn't use darks as the subs were only 10 seconds. A lot of the hot pixels are airplane trails and there is a satellite track and the Iridium flare. I should really have left those subs out - Startrails (updated recentlyish) has an option to fill in the gaps. I didn't do any cleaning up of the final image, a bit of gamma tweaking makes it really psychadelic! Always room for improvement!
Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: Mike on Jul 07, 2014, 11:50:42
Really nice Duncan. Only criticism from me is that a lot of the stars look pink to me.

Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: The Thing on Jul 07, 2014, 17:50:55
I could post a re-process or three...  :o
Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: Mike on Jul 07, 2014, 20:30:19
Oh you know how much we all love re-processes.
Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: Fay on Jul 07, 2014, 22:02:40
Really nice startrails Duncan
Title: Re: Polar Startrails. 4 July 2012 00:29, Gonneville, 50560, Manche.
Post by: The Thing on Jul 08, 2014, 07:50:06
Thanks Fay.