Amy and I took a trip to Newberry Crater last week. What a fun trip and we had beautiful weather. We brought the telescopes along to do some viewing in the evenings as the skies are very dark down there. I couldn't resist getting a wide angle shot of our Galaxy though so I set up the camera and went to work.
This is a slightly cropped 17mm shot from just above the horizon. I had to crop it just a bit as I has some serious noise along the edges of the frame that I couldn't figure out how to get rid of.
Posted by Hans Hibbard on August 12, 2007 at 9:36 PM
Cosmic shot Eric. Really, 17mm? I've never taken night shots but, this is really cool.
Posted by Adrian Klein on August 12, 2007 at 9:42 PM
Very cool Eric. I appreciate these kind of photos, always reminds us how small we really are here. Again, nice image.
Posted by Zack Schnepf on August 12, 2007 at 9:48 PM
Posted by Mike Stovall on August 13, 2007 at 12:52 PM
WOW. Are you saying that this is WITHOUT the telescope? It's really amazing what you can get out of the night sky when you are away from light pollution and know where to point the camera!
No telescope Mike, just a 5D, a 17-40 @ 17mm and stopped down to f4.5, set the camera to ISO 3200 and put it on my photo tripod. Next time I'll have to try some longer, guided exposures on the telescope mount but it was too windy up there that night for any shots through the telescope. As it was I had my tripod at it's lowest position to the ground and I was hiding behind my truck to protect myself and camera from the wind.
Wow, Eric! You mean this is from just ONE exposure??? Now, I'm psyched! Were you able to see any of this through the viewfinder? I wonder what a few stacked images would bring. Even if it weren't tracked, I bet Registax or one of the those progs would be able to line up the shots.
Now I really have to try this...there's so many ways this would be useful.
Kevin
Posted by Eric Hahl on August 14, 2007 at 10:33 AM
Yeah bud, you could see the Milky Way clear as could be down there in the dark skies, although not this detailed. It's real hard to achieve focus though, its more like just take a shot, check the LCD, adjust the focus and try again and again until it's in focus.
Stacked images would increase the signal to noise ratio and really enhance the photo by cleaning up the background noise that is present in the dark sky of this shot. It's hard to see it in this small file.
Discussion
19 repliesThis is a slightly cropped 17mm shot from just above the horizon. I had to crop it just a bit as I has some serious noise along the edges of the frame that I couldn't figure out how to get rid of.
I love it!!!
Ellen (Mark's daughter)
Ellen
(mark's daughter)
- pradeep
Now I really have to try this...there's so many ways this would be useful.
Kevin
Stacked images would increase the signal to noise ratio and really enhance the photo by cleaning up the background noise that is present in the dark sky of this shot. It's hard to see it in this small file.