Southern skies following the constellation Scorpius (this helps to keep me humble)

[JBW]

Our garden was developed to be beautiful at night as well as in the daylight hours. Part of the nights beauty is the sky above. Bordered by coconut fronds and bamboo the Milky Way is awesome.

There is much to be seen within this single shot. In the top left corner the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud is just poking into the frame. Move a little further in and down to the coconut frond you will easily see the Lagoon Nebula and just above it but so very hard to recognize the Trifid Nebula. Next comes the eye-catching bright area known as the Milky Way. Moving towards the bottom right corner the bright clusters are Butterfly (on top) and Ptolemey's on the bottom. In the right corner the two bright stars are the tip of Scorpius' tail.

ISO 12800 ~ Shutter Speed Six s. ~ F/3.2 ~ Sony Alpha a58 ~ Tamron 90mm 272E




After James showed this shot I've been working on it. Certainly not perfected but it is coming along

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Living where we do, we don't see half those stars Brian.
Thanks for sharing them.

[JBW]

Living where we do, we don't see half those stars Brian.
Thanks for sharing them.

The camera captures more than the eye but it is a fair representation of what we can see through a 4.5" reflector. I'm enjoying this aspect of photography.

[JBW]

Nicely captured.

Creating a garden designed for day and night use ca make for some interesting shots

[James G]

I originally sent the post below to Brian as a private message, however he has asked me to post it into this thread.....

Brian, I apologise if you think I'm being a bit high handed 'reprocessing' your image.
I think you should be a bit more adventurous working your night skies. There are lots of subtle colours and detail that the 'digital' eye captures which is normally too faint for us to see.
Arguably there is always an element of 'false colour' to be managed, but I contend (in a legal fashion of course), that the results I present for your consideration reflect just how spectacular your night skies are...

And, all I've done is work your JPG.... you have the raw

I'm using PS CC and I know you use Gimp but all Idid was play around with layers modifying Levels, Brightness and Contrast, Hue and Saturation, Vibrance.

The second image is a 'softer' version of the first where I created a mask of the 'brighter' areas and then blurred them slightly and overlayed back onto the original. More natural maybe?

One other trick with night sky shots which is somewhat counter intuitive to 'normal' pp is to increase brightnes but then be quite agressive with reducing contrast....

Anyway.... your capture (imo) is way better than you presented....

#1



#2

[JBW]

I originally sent the post below to Brian as a private message, however he has asked me to post it into this thread.....

Brian, I apologise if you think I'm being a bit high handed 'reprocessing' your image.
I think you should be a bit more adventurous working your night skies. There are lots of subtle colours and detail that the 'digital' eye captures which is normally too faint for us to see.
Arguably there is always an element of 'false colour' to be managed, but I contend (in a legal fashion of course), that the results I present for your consideration reflect just how spectacular your night skies are...

And, all I've done is work your JPG.... you have the raw

I'm using PS CC and I know you use Gimp but all Idid was play around with layers modifying Levels, Brightness and Contrast, Hue and Saturation, Vibrance.

The second image is a 'softer' version of the first where I created a mask of the 'brighter' areas and then blurred them slightly and overlayed back onto the original. More natural maybe?

Anyway.... your capture (imo) is way better than you presented....

#1



#2

Thanks James, As I said to James I may have Robber Flies down pat but I know almost nothing about pp night skies. I need a lot of practice.

[James G]

but it is a fair representation of what we can see through a 4.5" reflector.

I agree totally, and one of the issues for people who take up astronomy as result of seeing great images from the Hubble Telescope, and 'good' night sky captures by people like us, is that they get disappointed and frustrated they can't 'see' the same images.

You do realise don't you that you can attach your camera to your telescope using a T mount. Although the field of view will be narrower, you should be able to some intersting captures of the Trifid. I'd stick to the high ISO's you have been using but start stacking multiple 'short' exposures... The Universe is your photographic playground

[Stagecoach]

I originally sent the post below to Brian as a private message, however he has asked me to post it into this thread.....

I'm pleased that he did because as someone that also intends to pursue night photography it is extremely useful to me to be able to see examples of what can be accomplished from the basic capture.

[JBW]

I agree totally, and one of the issues for people who take up astronomy as result of seeing great images from the Hubble Telescope, and 'good' night sky captures by people like us, is that they get disappointed and frustrated they can't 'see' the same images.

You do realise don't you that you can attach your camera to your telescope using a T mount. Although the field of view will be narrower, you should be able to some intersting captures of the Trifid. I'd stick to the high ISO's you have been using but start stacking multiple 'short' exposures... The Universe is your photographic playground

I do indeed. There is one major problem. I have no T mount (yet) I'll solve the problem in September when I order more gear.

[IzzieK]

Interesting, John and Brian. This is good teamwork to learn astrophotography.

[bnnrcn]

I would like to see more night photography shots too as it is one of my interests. Thanks for sharing Brian and James

[JBW]

I would like to see more night photography shots too as it is one of my interests. Thanks for sharing Brian and James

trust me you shall. James has been kind enough to fuel my interest with many suggestions. With his mentoring I'll be hopefully improving and in August / September if things work out I'll be taking the shooting to the next level with a bit of gear.
B.

[AndrewMcD]

I would be interested to know the lens and setting used for your night sky photography. This is an area I've begun to explore. This summer I will be traveling to Great Basin National Park in Nevada, USA where the night sky is alleged to be as clear as anyplace in the country.
My initial efforts are using my Canon 6D with a Rokinon 14mm f2.8 lens.

[JBW]

I would be interested to know the lens and setting used for your night sky photography. This is an area I've begun to explore. This summer I will be traveling to Great Basin National Park in Nevada, USA where the night sky is alleged to be as clear as anyplace in the country.
My initial efforts are using my Canon 6D with a Rokinon 14mm f2.8 lens.

ISO 12800 ~ shutter speed 6s. ~ F/3.2 ~ Tamron 90mm272E.

The Tamron is a 2.8 but it was suggested that a stop or two off maximum would work better.
Brian

[AndrewMcD]

Thank you Brian for the info on your settings as well as the link.....Typical of this forum, above and beyond.

[JBW]

Thank you Brian for the info on your settings as well as the link.....Typical of this forum, above and beyond.

how does one get above and beyond in deep space