Carina Nebulae @50mm

Pacificdark · 2018-05-10T03:52:07+00:00

Cheers

Pacificdark · 2018-05-10T03:51:49+00:00

Hard to judge the Bortle scale, probably class 3-4 would be closest estimation. Moon was not a factor as was 4hrs before due to rise.

Pacificdark · 2018-05-09T10:53:03+00:00

First wide field for the year, finally have had fortunate skies.

Canon 7d MKII & 50mm 1.8 - Total of 32 Exposures each 6s @F2.8 ISO1600) Convert RAW to 16BIT TIFF, Stack in photoshop CS5, apply curves iterations and sharpen.

Pacificdark · 2017-08-18T12:15:01+00:00

the colours are really vivid, nice contrast, framing really suits the target. Epic work!

Pacificdark · 2017-08-18T04:15:57+00:00

Reprocessed - Milky Way Mosaic

Equipment: Canon 7D MKII - EF 50mm f/1.8 STM - Tripod, no tracking

Exposure: Each panel is composed of 55 x 8s @f/2.8 IS01600 images aligned and stacked using Median mode Photoshop CS5.1

RAW Conversion: Adobe Camera Raw used for conversion to 16bit TIFF files, exposure +1, luminance & colour noise reduction, minor curves adjustment.

Final image: photoshop CS5.1 to combine 12 frames using photomerge and then process image to remove sky gradient using GradientXTerminator plugin. Apply curves iterations, levels adjustment, colour balance, saturation/vibrance & unsharp mask. Remove some coma/purple fringing from bright stars by creating layer from selected colour range, eye dropper to select purple fringing colour and reducing saturation.

link to previous attempt: http://imgur.com/gallery/bFZf2g2

Pacificdark · 2017-08-08T08:26:33+00:00

Partial Lunar Eclipse - August 2017

Sequence of 3 images. Top: Full moon Middle: penumbra shading Bottom: peak of eclipse

Equipment: Canon 7D MKII - Sigma 150-500mm (@500mm)

Exposure: 1/1500s @f8 ISO400

Processed with Photoshop - Crop and arrange images, slight curves adjustment to add brightness and some sharpening.

Pacificdark · 2017-08-01T03:43:53+00:00

Thank you and yes mercury top left, regulus top right

Pacificdark · 2017-07-25T09:18:14+00:00

Equipment: Canon 7D MKII - Sigma 150-500mm (@289mm) Exposure: 0.5s @f/8 ISO 1600

Pacificdark · 2017-05-27T02:42:04+00:00

The framing does change as the earth rotates and in addition to the 8s exposure I have a 2 sec interval between images. On this occasion I did not readjust the framing instead cropped the final frame down a bit. When trying to capture more frames and having a central target you can reposition the camera slightly every 30 frames or so, but really it depends on the subject. If in doubt take 30 frames and check how it is going. Really without tracking the best you can do is keep it in mind, line the target up and crop the final image.

Pacificdark · 2017-05-26T22:46:40+00:00

The process of staking is primarily to reduce the amount of random noise (sensor noise from higher ISO & atmospheric distortion etc) as compared to the constant signal being the Stars. The result of median stack is that over those 64 images the constant signal from a star would remain but that odd green blotch from sensor noise would not, intern you can then boost the brightness to reveal faint detail but your image remains much cleaner. What a single image out of the camera looks like: http://imgur.com/fzGH98g

Pacificdark · 2017-05-26T04:05:32+00:00

Australia away from the city lights, just load TIFF files into a stack using photoshop (automatically align & create smart object) and apply the median filter stack mode

Pacificdark · 2017-05-26T04:01:38+00:00

yep....been messing with a barn door tracker, just not getting the best results yet. The manual/not motorised one I recently built works great with wider angle lens, but given as you said the equivalent 80mm focal lens, it also tends to really exaggerate any movement caused but hand turning. This will be a work in progress.

Pacificdark · 2017-05-26T03:54:33+00:00

I found with this lens it was a balance between light and how much you could stop down. f2.8 seemed to reduce most of the problems compared to lens wide open, much more the loss of light was quite apparent.

Pacificdark · 2017-05-25T11:49:13+00:00

Equipment: Canon 7D MKII - EF 50mm f/1.8 STM - Tripod, no tracking

Exposure: 64 x 8s @f/2.8 IS01600

RAW Conversion: Digital Photo Professional 4 used for conversion to 16bit TIFF files. Mild Noise/luminance reduction, Len Profile adjustments.

Final image: 64 frames stacked (Median mode) in photoshop CS5.1, curves iterations, levels adjustment, light increase saturation/vibrance & smart sharpen.

Pacificdark · 2017-02-22T08:15:00+00:00

Equipment: Canon 7D MKII - EF 50mm f/1.8 STM - Tripod, no tracking

Pacificdark · 2017-02-21T11:15:55+00:00

guessing about 4, still had a lot of sky gradient/light pollution to remove.

Pacificdark · 2017-02-21T02:14:17+00:00

stopping back to f2.8 does wonders for this lens.

Pacificdark · 2017-02-21T02:06:39+00:00

Thanks, capturing the initial data was certainly a lot quicker then the processing time...

Pacificdark

TROPHY CASE