Memorial Day Milky Way
I am very proud of how this image turned out. The idea was to capture both the Milky-way core rising up around midnight on the 30th between the trees and the am...
Read more
I am very proud of how this image turned out. The idea was to capture both the Milky-way core rising up around midnight on the 30th between the trees and the ambient light cast upon the Coreopsis flower thicket in the foreground. It worked perfectly! Still learning, but results like this are why I love this hobby!
::Info::
Rebel EOS T6
Rokinon 8mm Fisheye Lens.
f-3.5.
ISO set to 3200.
Exposures 38 seconds each.
180 images were taken to create the composition.
Stacked in Sequator.
Post processed in Adobe Lightroom, Topaz DeNoise, and Snapseed.
Read less
::Info::
Rebel EOS T6
Rokinon 8mm Fisheye Lens.
f-3.5.
ISO set to 3200.
Exposures 38 seconds each.
180 images were taken to create the composition.
Stacked in Sequator.
Post processed in Adobe Lightroom, Topaz DeNoise, and Snapseed.
Read less
Jun, 2022Views
1860
Likes
Awards
Action Award
Chatter Award
Winner in the night sky Photo Challenge
Winner in Your favorite photo in 2022 Photo Challenge
Achievement in Originality
Zenith Award
People's Choice in Astronomical Objects Stars and/or Nebulas Photo Challenge
Top Pick Award
Staff Favorite
People's Choice in A photo that should have gotten more attention Photo Challenge
Peer Award
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Superb Composition
Outstanding Creativity
Superior Skill
All Star
Virtuoso
Emotions
Impressed
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 20 rank week 1
Top 30 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Categories
Ultimate
Ultimate
terrymccollum
July 28, 2022
Congratulations on the People's Choice award. Impressive accomplishment since there were over 3,000 entries.
PRO+
Craig-Sheffield
July 28, 2022
Congratulations on the People's Choice Award. This is a very striking photo.
Platinum
Platinum
PRO
PRO
JPennPhotos
February 11, 2023
Thank you!! Everyone can do this, and with a little prep and even modest gear-->you can make it happen! 😊
Platinum
PRO
JPennPhotos
February 11, 2023
Thank you, Patti!!! I am looking forward to Milkyway Season this year to capture more just like it.
PRO
PRO
PRO+
PRO
Platinum
PRO
Platinum
PRO
Platinum
Xbizdean
February 13, 2023
Leon, nice to see a fellow West Virginian on the podium. Congratulations. Where are you in the state? Bruce
Platinum
Platinum
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
I took the images stacked in this photo from my parents home in Mason County, West Virginia. I’ve only recently begun trying my skills with Astrophotography and after seeing some of the amazing Milkyway compositions out there, I thought “I can do this!”. I choose an area on the property where wildflowers were planted in a thicket section for beautiful mass color, and it happened to be facing the sky I needed, according to the extremely helpful app called Photopills. I wanted the ambient light to be cast upon the yellow flowers in the foreground as though coming from the rising core of the Milky-way in a spectacular display. One hundred and eighty images were used to create the composition, which turned out better than I imagined for a first try. I am very proud of the work and effort I put in to planning and executing to create this awesome image.Time
I began shooting from a static alt-azm tripod shortly after 10:00pm on Memorial Day and went until just before 2:00am in the morning. The timing was spot on thanks to the informative photo pills app showing exactly when to start.Lighting
Shooting this image during the New Moon phase was critical to capturing the great data used and not battling the influence of a moonlit night where the kind of data you want to capture, just isn’t attainable. The conditions that night were spectacular all around, and showcased the rural bortle 3-to-4 scale sky that much of Mason and nearby Jackson County enjoys on a clear night. Though not unwelcome despite being clipped out in the stacking process, the lightning bugs that night added a challenge creating green streaky trails on many of the images that in and of themselves were very cool to see like that.Equipment
After researching many knowledgeable outlets from Lonely Speck to Trevor Jones of AstroBackyard.. I chose to use my Rokinon FE8M-C 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens w/ my Canon Rebel T6 on a static Alt-Azm tripod using a weight bag to prevent wind vibration. I used a Neweer Intervalometer to control the camera function and utilized a GOLABS R300 Portable Power Station to provide plenty of power to the camera without any battery concerns and to the USB lens warmer preventing any condensation. Camera settings were: ISO 3200, aperture set to minimum 3.5, exposures set to 38 seconds each with camera in BULB MODE with I believe a 12 second delay between exposures.Inspiration
I recently got into Astrophotography which was inspired by a wonderful and unexpected Christmas gift from my parents that set me on this path of appreciating the night sky that much more. I was gifted an Orion Dobsonian XT-10i Telescope with onboard computer to aid in manually slewing to nearly any target in the night sky. Once I began using it, I was hooked and immediately started trying to get pics with my cellphone, which were pretty far from James Webb quality but I loved it regardless. This led to the eventual graduation to using the DSLR, Orion Star Tracker, and Rokinon Lenses I use today. The inspiration was invaluably supplemented by guys like Trevor Jones, Peter Zelinka, Nico Carver, and others who produce amazing work, but also share tips and tutorials to get the most of of whatever your skill level, or equipment being used. Without the lessons and knowledge they share on their YouTube channels, newcomers like myself would still be trying to figure out what right ascension means, let alone who Orion is. In photography, and especially the Astro side of it, you never stop learning new things and that makes it fun!Editing
Yes. I used Sequator (freeware) to stack the 180 photos used along with 32 “Dark Images” which are used to identify the camera’s inherent pixel noise and then eliminate it from the stack. I then used Adobe Lightroom to enhance the lighting and colorations, and then finished by using Topaz DeNoise AI software to fine tune and clean the image further. DeNoise is an excellent finishing program that catches noisy pixels that other software may or may not pick up on, so you’ve got another club in your bag to handle that issue if it becomes one.In my camera bag
I normally use a Canon Rebel T6 with several kit zoom lenses and my go to for Astrophotography, the Rokinon 135mm f/2 lens.Feedback
Take your time, do your research and don’t get frustrated by what you don’t know starting out. We all start there and have to learn as we go. As I said above, you never stop learning in this hobby. Milky-way photography is best during the summer months and particularly during New Moon phase. It might not seem like it, but any light phase of the moon washes out detail you only get during the darkness phase. I would recommend visiting Lonely Speck and AstroBackyard on YouTube to get you started when it comes to Milk-way or Astrophotography in general.
