The evening of August 31 at Big Hill Springs was totally cloud free and very clear. Maybe not totally ideal for astro-photography due to a slight haze in the upper atmosphere. It was good enough to capture some photos of the Andromeda Galaxy with my R5 camera fitted with a 70 to 200 mm zoom lens. The camera was mounted piggyback on a motorized telescope to minimize star trails. In any case the three of us enjoyed an enjoyable evening star gazing through the telescope.
This image of the Andromeda Galaxy was taken with my Canon R5 fitted with a 70-200mm Zoom. It was riding piggyback on a telescope mounted on a motorized German equatorial mount. This machine tracks the stars as they slowly move across the sky. This minimizes the star trails that otherwise show up on static tripod mounted telephoto images. The image was cropped about 50% and enhanced in Photoshop with the levels tool and B&W colour channel sliders. 2 sec, f/2.8, ISO 12800. Telephoto 142 mm.
Here is an annotated image.
Very cool! Thanks for the outing Henri – fun to see the celestial sights through your telescope!
This is an attempt to capture part of the Milky Way with an ordinary camera and zoom lens. The top and bottom of the image were cropped out because of annoying satellite trails. Enhanced in Lightroom with the “whites”, “blacks”, “clarity” and “dehaze” sliders. 2 sec, f/2.8, ISO 12800, Zoom at 70mm.
I was not happy with the “banding” due to the Lightroom” processing. This image was processed in Photoshop B&W with mainly the “Blue” color channel.
We experienced a gorgeous sunset against a rim of tree silhouettes. In this image you can see a faint reflection from the haze in the upper atmosphere. Still it was a great experience under the starry dome later that night.
Although the aurora were not as good as on our previous outing, by slightly increasing the white balance temperature, and adjusting the luminance slider in Apple Photos, I was able to bring out some colours. ISO 1600, f/5.6, 20.5. Star trails from the long exposure.
Wow, I love the colour. This must be the solar wind activating the atmosphere. I love how the starfield continues into the green.
More or less the same settings for this one, but taken more towards the NE, so maybe that reduced the star trails a bit.
Perhaps Henri can identify the bright star in this one.
Not sure, can’t recognize any constellation. Love the colour though!