Tonight’s Milky Way

[Ralph Turner]

A glorious, clear view of the night sky. The second image has the tops of our oak and the ash across the lane to give some context and also, unfortunately, the telephone line that I forgot about . The first image also shows a couple of perseids shooting across. Canon 6D, Sigma 24-105mm f4 A at 24mm, 3200 iso, 30 sec @ f4, dark frame noise reduction.

 

[Brian Moore]

These are excellent, Ralph. Thanks for including the exposure parameters as I've no idea how to shoot the night sky. I quite like the telephone line, by the way.

 

[Ralph Turner]

Many thanks for your kind words, Brian. The lens is not ideal for the purpose from what I gather (I’m certainly no expert astrophotographer by a long measure) in that it is rather slow. There are likely somewhat better options. Still, the inherent low noise of the 6D’s sensor does enable me to push the iso quite high to make up for it. With careful noise reduction and tonal adjustment in post, I was able to get quite a satisfying end result (that, and the wonderfully dark skies where we live). The shot with the telephone line in was taken with the camera laying on it’s back on a garden table (the other on a tripod a few steps down the lane) both with an approximate north-south alignment top to bottom of the frame.

 

[Ralph Turner]

I've yet to surpass the luck I had ten years ago with my first ever attempt in the Australian outback, in a little town called Blinman. I employed the same simple suck-it-and-see approach by placing the camera on it's back on top of a short wooden fence post. The Milky Way was particularly spectacular when we saw it 'Down Under', quite incredible. (Canon 350D, Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4.5, set to 17mm, f2.8, 30 seconds at 1600 iso)

 

[Ralph Turner]

Btw you can count on one hand how many times over the years that I've had a crack at shooting the Milky Way.

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

They look good! I've tried this a few times. Way back in 20...15? Sometime around then - I had a few attempts with my then quite new Sony A7s. That was my first fullframe camera. Actually bought for a family video project that didn't quite eventuate in the end.

Anyway, it's only 12MP fullframe and the ISO goes up to 100 000 or something slightly crazy. I got some quite good results with I think a 20sec exposure to minimize trailing, and quite high ISO. But I struggled a bit with noise, and gave up after a bit. I don't think I quite took it seriously somehow... anyway, yours look better!

 

[Ralph Turner]

Thanks @Stevenson Gawen

 

[Pete Askew]

What great results. A friend of mine in the UK is into astrophotography, but uses a specialised CCD on a large telescope and mostly photography distant galaxies. These wide-field star shots though are much more engaging though I find, especially when they contain local details too (like telephone lines! - which I also quite like). For some reason I have had never tried one. Maybe when I am back in the UK I should try as it is pretty dark where I like (especially compared with Babelsberg).

 

[Ralph Turner]

Many thanks, Pete. Indeed, folks that go in for this type of photography in a serious way produce some stunning imagery, in a whole different league to my decidedly more modest offerings. The images above are, as much as anything, a record of the experience I had on each occasion of just standing there, looking up in awe of the night sky.
One thing on my ever-lengthening (mostly film-based) photographic ‘to do’ list is to capture a long exposure of the night sky from our yard looking up at Polaris to get those concentric star trails. Nothing particularly original about it, but I just fancied seeing what might be achieved with a vintage camera, maybe even the Ensign Carbine I recently acquired if I mod it correctly and all else works on it ok. One day, maybe….

 

[Geoff Chaplin]

They look good! I've tried this a few times. Way back in 20...15? Sometime around then - I had a few attempts with my then quite new Sony A7s. That was my first fullframe camera. Actually bought for a family video project that didn't quite eventuate in the end.

Anyway, it's only 12MP fullframe and the ISO goes up to 100 000 or something slightly crazy. I got some quite good results with I think a 20sec exposure to minimize trailing, and quite high ISO. But I struggled a bit with noise, and gave up after a bit. I don't think I quite took it seriously somehow... anyway, yours look better!

You can minimise noise by taking multiple (short) images and stacking them. DeepSkyStacker is free and does this bit for you.

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

You can minimise noise by taking multiple (short) images and stacking them. DeepSkyStacker is free and does this bit for you.

Yep, I've actually done that, with DSS, more recently, when there was a comet visible from the Southern Hemisphere (forgotten what it was called). It came out quite good actually.

 

[Ralph Turner]

This was my decidedly modest attempt at Comet Neowise a few years back,looking over next door’s rooftop (when we were living in NorthYorkshire). (6D, 24-105 @ 105mm, f5.6 @ 4s, 800 iso). Once again pushing my luck shutter speed-wise. Luckily it looks ok at normal viewing distance.

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

Looks great! And a nice comet too.

 

[Pete Askew]

Another super result, Ralph.

 

[Ralph Turner]

Thanks chaps