Milky Way from Spain

[Carole]

Stayed with some friends who have an apartment by the beach south of Estepona.  It was still rather LP as I could not see the Milky Way.  There were lights from the other apartments and also lights along the beach path which I managed to block out with various items. 

This is the first acceptable Milky Way I have done since I started imaging.

On Friday I took this image with the Nifty 50 lens, Modified Canon 1100D and the Ioptron Skytracker 16 x 1 min subs. 

You can click on the images for a larger version (esp the annotated version you will need to do so).



Then a few days later I took another part of the Milky way, this time the Core of the galaxy, PA seemed to go well so I risked 4min exposures with same kit as above - 5 x 4mins.



I then attempted to make them into a mosaic.  This was tricky due to the different length exposures and differing gradients and processing, I combined them manually - here is the result:



...and lastly an annotated version.

[Carole]

Just to complete the "set", I have joined the Antares Region image onto the Milky Way mosaic.  I haven't bothered to try to match the image to the MW but just merely put it in context.

[Fay]

you  did very well Carole. I can imagine you blocking things out with"various items"

Fay

[ApophisAstros]

Really great, can you imagine doing the whole Milky Way!
Roger

[Carole]

Thanks Fay and Roger. 

I can imagine you blocking things out with"various items"

Yes , there were two doors approx 4' high to 4'6", a rug hung over next door's trellis and one of their terrace seat cushions bridging the gap between. 

I was fortunate enough to be able to see Polaris just over the top of the apartments, something I was not sure about until I got there.



This was to block out a whole row of lights along the path.

Then there were the lights on adjacent apartments to cope with.

[Carole]

can you imagine doing the whole Milky Way!

It has been done, but I think you need to live near the equator to achieve it.  Either that or take some in each hemisphere.

Carole

[MarkS]

You've done OK Carole, given that you couldn't see the Milky Way!

You have the main structures and some of the obvious nebulae.

As usual, it seems that light pollution was your limiting factor,

Mark

[Carole]

Thanks Mark, well given this is my first successful Milky Way, I did at least feel I had achieved something.

Must make a trip to a dark European site at some point.

Carole