Milky Way from Cairds DSC July 2018 (southern horizon)

[Carole]

Had 3 clear (but short) nights at Cairds this weekend, with Roger and 2 non OAS members, clear every night with a little passing cloud.

I got my Canon camera and kit lens out and put it on my Skytracker and got some milky way.  I took a few locations in the MW, so there could be more to follow plus if it will fit together maybe a mosaic.

5 x 1min subs stacked in DSS with a single sub overlaid for the foreground rather than it be smeared (you can slightly see the smeared layer poking out behind the trees.

You can make out M16, M17, Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae, Sagittarius and I was wondering what that bright "star" was to the left and up a bit of the Lagoon, turns out to be Saturn.  (I haven't studied my planet locations for this year yet).  Also a couple of streaks of clouds which I could not see with the naked eye.  You can make out the front of my van bottom right.

It was also great to see Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars pass across the sky on the same night, also great for pointing out to the general public who were very interested in what we were doing.

Anyway, enough waffle.

[MarkS]

Always nice to see a Milky Way image

Mark

[Carole]

Thanks Mark, particularly pleased as I always had focus difficulties with a DSLR camera lens previously, has taken me many years to get a reasonable MW image.

Carole

[ApophisAstros]

Still think its wonderful as i did when i first saw it.
Roger

[Carole]

Thanks Roger

[The Thing]

Nice Carole, we don't often see this sort of image taken, puts everything in context i.e. it's all around us and it's full of stars. Thanks, you may have inspired me to have a go at widefield again, I've never got a wide lens to focus well enough either...

[Carole]

Thanks Duncan,

I've never got a wide lens to focus well enough either...

I tried to focus with a Bahtinov mask but quite frankly even the brightest stars could not be seen on live view even zoomed in, let alone with a Mask on, so ended up focussing by eye with Mars being the brightest thing up there (and the only thing that would show up), and just getting it as small as possible.  So without Mars to focus on I doubt I would have got a usable image at all.

Glad this has inspired you Duncan.

Carole

[Carole]

Looking around at some other people's MW images I think mine was too red and too dark so I have done a slightly amended version which I think shows up the milky way a little better.

Shame there were a few thin clouds up there to spoil the image. 

[The Thing]

That looks much more nautral Carole, very nice. That's really good for a kit lens. Another one for me to add to my list of things I would like to image.

[MarkS]

Yes, the second version is a big improvement.  The Milky Way stands out much better against the background sky and its colour is more accurate.

Mark

[Hugh]

Will have to include you in my Outreach update Carole as from your original message it seems as if you are doing your bit at Cairds with the general public!

Clear skies

Hugh

[Carole]

Thanks Duncan and Mark, glad you liked the improvement.

That's really good for a kit lens.

I am pleased with it too.

ill have to include you in my Outreach update Carole as from your original message it seems as if you are doing your bit at Cairds with the general public!

Lol, yes I do get a fair bit of "passing trade", there was one chap there last time extremely interested, English but normally lives in Belgium but was here on holiday, and I think he was inspired enough to get himself a telescope when he gets home.  He also sent me some photos afterwards of me and my kit.

It was quite funny at one point because a man woman and child went up to Lorenzo (our Italian visiting DSC member) and he sent them over to me, it took me a few seconds to realise why, because he didn't feel confident enough to show them what he was doing speaking in English - lol.

Carole