Milky Way Photos

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rjhtamu
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12:49a, 8/18/15
AG
Got an equatorial sky tracker recently and took these from my backyard the other night.

Canon DSLR 6D F4 at 150 seconds on a sky tracker mount.



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labmansid
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9:59a, 8/18/15
Pretty cool! I've always had kind of a thing for astrophotos. Gotta love the 6D for those low light shots. I've used my 6D some for night shooting.

Curious what lens you are using and your ISO setting. I've thought about getting one of those trackers, but I can just crank the ISO up to 3200 or so on the 6D and keep the exposure down to a few seconds to minimize any star trails. It also helps if you want to include any foreground subjects in the photo and keep them sharp.

After much research, I recently got a couple of the Rokinon lenses for astrophotography. They are manual focus only, but that is not a big deal for astrophotos since you generally need to focus manually anyway. They are quite sharp even wide open and don't distort the stars around the edges like a lot of lenses do.

Last month I went out and found a remote old cemetery to shoot some Milky Way photos. This was shot using the Rokinon 24mm f1.4, using f2.8 at 20 seconds and ISO 3200.

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213 Grove
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10:02a, 8/18/15
agfan2013
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10:51a, 8/18/15
AG
Awesome photos guys
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dave99ag
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12:32p, 8/18/15
AG
I need to experiment with astro shots for my 365 project.
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mid90
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1:03p, 8/18/15
AG
Amazing
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Rutedown
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11:27p, 8/18/15
labmansid
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In reply to dave99ag • 11:53p, 8/18/15
quote:
I need to experiment with astro shots for my 365 project.
Let me know if you want to go out and do some. I'm wanting to find some other foreground subjects, if you have any ideas. I've got a couple of ideas, just need to find where they might be.
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cr0wbar
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12:03a, 8/19/15
AG
holy crap. Can yall post some more?
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rjhtamu
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12:10a, 8/19/15
AG
Love that cemetery shot!

I was using a canon 24-105mm lens for my shots.
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rjhtamu
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In reply to labmansid • 12:12a, 8/19/15
AG
quote:
quote:
I need to experiment with astro shots for my 365 project.
Let me know if you want to go out and do some. I'm wanting to find some other foreground subjects, if you have any ideas. I've got a couple of ideas, just need to find where they might be.


I realize it's been done before but I have an awesome print (not mine) of the Aggie Barn with the Milky Way in the background.
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labmansid
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In reply to rjhtamu • 12:31a, 8/19/15
quote:
quote:
quote:
I need to experiment with astro shots for my 365 project.
Let me know if you want to go out and do some. I'm wanting to find some other foreground subjects, if you have any ideas. I've got a couple of ideas, just need to find where they might be.


I realize it's been done before but I have an awesome print (not mine) of the Aggie Barn with the Milky Way in the background.
Yeah, I remember a couple of years or so ago someone posted a shot of that on here. It looked awesome. I actually contacted the owners after that about maybe getting a shot of a comet that was coming around with the barn in the foreground, but they seemed a little leery of letting just anyone run around on their property after dark, which I can understand. As it turned out the comet kind of fizzled anyway, so I didn't push it. It would be great if maybe we could get a group to try to recreate that ourselves.
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wee_ag
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In reply to cr0wbar • 2:37a, 8/19/15
AG
quote:
holy crap. Can yall post some more?
Well, since you asked...

I live in the Adirondack State Park in upstate New York (yes, New York City is indeed not the entire state)
I've got no sky tracker mount so these are all from a tripod. Shot with a Canon 5D Mk II - 30 sec. exposures for most, with a Rokinon 14mm F2.8. The 5D has a bit more noise than I would like for astrophotography, but until I can upgrade, it'll do.









And some aurora for good measure...



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AggieJ29
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5:27a, 8/19/15
AG
Damn the universe is the most incredible thing.
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Wildmen03
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9:26a, 8/19/15
AG
Not the best photo but not bad for a t2i and the thrifty fifty lens. Taken in Arizona this year.



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rjhtamu
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11:22p, 8/19/15
AG
I think those are all great. I'm still very much in the "practicing" phase of my night sky photography.
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Mr Gigem
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12:01p, 8/20/15
AG
I am utterly fascinated by space. I know it'll never happen, but I hope to be able to travel space in the future
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BlackGold
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12:34p, 8/20/15
AG
Too cool!! I love me some astro photos!
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Herne the Hunter
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In reply to wee_ag • 4:52p, 8/20/15
quote:

....
The 5D has a bit more noise than I would like for astrophotography, but until I can upgrade, it'll do.
Those are still pretty clean until you pixel peep. I've never tried it with a single frame image and not sure if it would even work, but have you tried stacking dark and bias frames with your light frame to help reduce the noise?
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Brian Earl Spilner
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5:49p, 8/20/15
AG
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txag2k
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5:54p, 8/20/15
AG
I have a camera (EOS 650D). How can I do this?
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MBAR
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6:46p, 8/20/15
AG
This is my best shot:



This was shot south of Santa Fe when I still lived in NM. Got lucky and a passing truck lit up the foreground.

This is one I took in Glacier NP on my honeymoon



Both were shot with my T3i and the kit lens. Don't remember the settings, but I'm pretty sure both were 30 second exposures with 3200 or 6400 speeds.
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MBAR
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In reply to txag2k • 6:56p, 8/20/15
AG
quote:
I have a camera (EOS 650D). How can I do this?

Its actually pretty easy. There are different methods depending on how good you want it to look, but you basically use your manual mode to take a 30 second or so exposure at a wide aperture and fast film speed. The quality of your photo depends on the how good your focus is, how much post processing you use, whether or not you stack multiple exposures, and whether or not you use a tracking mount. Also of course the quality of camera and lens you use will matter a lot.

My two photos above were both really simple. I simply had a tripod, took one exposure, and then did some simple work in lightroom. The hardest thing for me to learn was how to focus well. After that it was just point and shoot. Learning to work in lightroom is also a bit tedious but there's lots of stuff on the net for that.
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txag2k
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In reply to MBAR • 7:19p, 8/20/15
AG
I'll look into getting a proper mount to make it easier for me. Thanks for the info!
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wee_ag
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In reply to Herne the Hunter • 7:43p, 8/20/15
AG
quote:
quote:

....
The 5D has a bit more noise than I would like for astrophotography, but until I can upgrade, it'll do.
Those are still pretty clean until you pixel peep. I've never tried it with a single frame image and not sure if it would even work, but have you tried stacking dark and bias frames with your light frame to help reduce the noise?
I did a few times when I first started years ago but didn't notice a difference. I may give it another try now that I know more of what I'm doing. Thanks for the idea!
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labmansid
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7:45p, 8/20/15
Focusing at night can be a challenge. Some suggest focusing on a distant object during the day and marking that spot on your lens. Personally, I prefer to find the brightest star or object in the sky and use live view on the LCD screen zoomed in to fine tune the focus. I also use a Hoodman LCD viewer to magnify the screen and reduce distractions while viewing. Usually there is something bright enough to focus on.

To reduce trailing of the stars, you could use a tracking device like the OP did. That would be really useful for a particular region of the sky, or an object like a comet using a longer focal length. If you want an interesting foreground included, it's best to use shorter exposures and a wide angle lens. Longer focal lengths will show trailing pretty quickly. One formula to determine what exposure time to use is to divide 500 by the focal length of your intended lens, so a 50mm lens would probably require too short of an exposure at reasonably fast ISOs to get enough light. My 24mm lens will show trailing by about 20-25 seconds, so I use 20 seconds max. A 14mm could go nearly double that. This is all based on using a full frame camera, crop sensors should be adjusted accordingly.

Lastly, post processing is really important in Milky Way photos. It took me a while to find a combination that I liked, and I may still tweak things some. It isn't easy bringing out all the detail and contrast without losing a lot of stars in the pic. Research online is really helpful. There are lots of tutorials out there.
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MBAR
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7:55p, 8/20/15
AG
LIve view was how I first got a good focus. Then I just started zooming in on the brightest star on the LCD as you said. That's my go to method now.
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rjhtamu
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9:56p, 8/20/15
AG

That highway shot did turn out really well.
I want to eventually do some location shots, but have a 14 month old and full time job, so hard right now.





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MBAR
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11:25p, 8/20/15
AG
How much did your tracker mount cost? And where did you get it? I would love to be able to do exposures at 2+ minutes with my camera.
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labmansid
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1:10p, 8/22/15
My original intent with my cemetery photos was to do a timelapse. I finally got it all done, and loaded to Youtube.
You can see when cars would drive by and add some "supplemental" lighting to the scene, plus all the planes flying over and an occasional satellite.

Milky Way Cemetery

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Buck O Five
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3:01p, 8/22/15
AG
Great shots! Would love to learn more about photography.
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TexasAggie_02
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In reply to cr0wbar • 4:17p, 8/22/15
AG
quote:
holy crap. Can yall post some more?


I'll post one from near marfa when I get home Saturday
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labmansid
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In reply to TexasAggie_02 • 6:40p, 8/22/15
quote:
quote:
holy crap. Can yall post some more?


I'll post one from near marfa when I get home Saturday
I bet there were some nice dark skies out there. That's one thing I miss about West Texas.
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cr0wbar
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In reply to TexasAggie_02 • 4:51p, 8/24/15
AG
Let's see some Marfa lights! (or lack thereof)

please
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TexasAggie_02
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In reply to cr0wbar • 8:09p, 8/24/15
AG
quote:
Let's see some Marfa lights! (or lack thereof)

please



West Texas, between Marathon and Marfa. Taken last year with a Canon 6D and a Rokinon 14mm f2.8 lens.
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