Milky Way with a tripod

[chrisyo]

Hi!

Some of you are curious as to how such shots can be done, and what a shot from Singapore might look like. Here are some explanations and examples:

This is a 15 sec shot of the southern cross, taken under dark skies in Mersing.

Camera: Canon Ixus
Exposure: 15s
ISO: 400

Very noisy. DSLR sensors will achieve better results.

I took four exposures, and combined them using IRIS:

See! Easy star trails. Close-up, you'll see breaks in the star trails: _ _ _ _ but at this resolution you can't see it. If your camera has almost no lag between exposures, then you'll get an almost seamless trail.

Next, I aligned the stars using software, and added them together, and applied noise reduction:

 

[chrisyo]

Here's an example of a shot taken in Singapore.

Single shot. Canon Ixus 15s ISO 400.
This was taken at East Coast Park beach just beside the Changi Safra.

Notice that it is much brighter, noisy, and has an ugly reddish tinge due to the light from Singapore's street lamps. This was a particular clear night though, and surprisingly I captured a bit of the Milky Way.

Ok. Taking 3 shots and combining them together:

I get star trails, and a really bright red image. That's just the reality of light pollution in Singapore. A better camera sensor will have less noise.

And this is the final image after aligning, stacking, levels and curve adjustment, noise reduction, colour adjustment and cropping:

Not much. But hey, simple point and shoot camera, tripod, and a Singapore beach, so no complaints.

Have fun playing around!

Cheers.

 

[wildstallion]

Very interesting thread, the first pic is amazing! :thumbsup:

 

[cerebrus]

Really interesting stuff. :thumbsup: Thanks for sharing!

 

[valice]

Anyway, for those Scorpios out there, the last photograph which chrisyo showed, is how horoscope looks in the sky...

 

[perspectives-act]

Anyway, for those Scorpios out there, the last photograph which chrisyo showed, is how horoscope looks in the sky...

Very interesting thread discussion. I'm a scorpio :bsmilie:

 

[ngebor]

this thread is realy interesting indeed... :thumbsup:

I have tried IRIS.. but it looks like not kind of easy software to use.. :sweat: some of the menu are more like "astronomical" term than graphic processing one... is there any "easy" guideline to do "stack" and "rotate" pictures? or is there any easier software to use?

 

[ngebor]

this thread is realy interesting indeed... :thumbsup:

I have tried IRIS.. but it looks like not kind of easy software to use.. :sweat: some of the menu are more like "astronomical" term than graphic processing one... is there any "easy" guideline to do "stack" and "rotate" pictures? or is there any easier software to use?

I'm sorry my bad... I just saw step-by-step guidelines processing star trail pics from link posted by chrisyo (http://www.danheller.com/star-trails.html)

 

[djork]

Guys pls read carefully. The photo is a composite of 4x30s shot.
Its not a milky way. My guess is that those are clouds. Its like when u do HDRi for day shots, u get very dramatic clouds, so 18mm confirm no problem. As for the stars, we see so many because of the layering of the 4 shots together, hence giving more stars. I may be wrong with my assumptions. But it is indeed a very nice attempt. Thank you chrisyo for sharing it. Perhaps can share with us which free software u r using oso.

i'm sorry, those are not clouds, but the milky way.

 

[chrisyo]

this thread is realy interesting indeed... :thumbsup:

I have tried IRIS.. but it looks like not kind of easy software to use.. :sweat: some of the menu are more like "astronomical" term than graphic processing one... is there any "easy" guideline to do "stack" and "rotate" pictures? or is there any easier software to use?

Hi Ngebor,

If you are interested in a step-by-step guide in using IRIS, maybe I can try to write a simple one. Although there are a lot of other functions that are for astroimage processing the only ones that you need to know are registration and stacking, so it might be possible to follow the help file. Otherwise, just let me know and I'll write something.

Cheers,

 

[Francis247]

Hi Ngebor,

If you are interested in a step-by-step guide in using IRIS, maybe I can try to write a simple one. Although there are a lot of other functions that are for astroimage processing the only ones that you need to know are registration and stacking, so it might be possible to follow the help file. Otherwise, just let me know and I'll write something.

Cheers,

Hi Chris,

How about writing out the procedure and I will make it a sticky thread for all to view to learn more about it? Please advice. Thank you.

 

[ak6110]

Very interesting...... I got to try it myself....

 

[ngebor]

Hi Ngebor,

If you are interested in a step-by-step guide in using IRIS, maybe I can try to write a simple one. Although there are a lot of other functions that are for astroimage processing the only ones that you need to know are registration and stacking, so it might be possible to follow the help file. Otherwise, just let me know and I'll write something.

Cheers,

Hi Chris,

Wow... that will be useful.. :thumbsup: at least we can have simple straight forward mehod that utilize one of IRIS feature... good as start for newbe like me... and a long with time, as we familiar with software, we can explore other features of software...

I agree with Francis.. You may create one thread and make it sticky on this sub-forum for benefit of everybody...

Thanks!

 

[Drudkh]

my take in Darwin just last month. no tripod, placed my cam on the floor with fisheye lens.

 

[Will03]

oooooooooooh.......... austtralia sky.. nice...

 

[Will03]

1st pic is really good..

 

[Reno]

It is so nice...... !!

 

[ngebor]

wow...nice shot... how many exposure did u take? any aligning process?

 

[optimage]

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[PnS]

Amazing, thanks for sharing!