The Milky Way from the southern Sierra


Posted by Diane Miller on Sun Sep 06, 2015 8:50 pm

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I've made another baby step in processing Milky Way images from a single exposure.  (Working on stacking many tracked exposures and processing with PixInsight...)  But this is a composite of two exposures, with the foreground being shot separately.  From the best vantage point I've found for a clean Milky Way shot, the foreground is far away and lost in haze and smoke.  But it gives me a view of the interesting part near the horizon. 

The foreground here was in the same general direction but from down in the valley floor well below.  The light on the foreground is pre-dawn. 

The Milky Way was shot a year ago from the Patriarch Grove in the White Mountains at 11,0000 ft. The lovely gradient in the sky is smoke from a forest fire burning well to the west with illumination provided by Bishop, CA far below.  

The Milky Way is with the Canon 17mm TS-E, ISO 1600, f/4, Canon 5D3, a 90-second exposure, tracked with an AstroTrac. The mountains are same camera, Canon 100-400 at 100, ISO 800, 1/13 at f/6.3.

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by crw816 on Sun Sep 06, 2015 10:37 pm
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Nice Diane! I like this presentation here, and a clever way to get to it by using two different lenses.

I can just make out the Lagoon and Trifid and the Dark River in Ophiuchus also shows up nicely. Well done!
Chris White
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by Diane Miller on Sun Sep 06, 2015 10:48 pm
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Thanks, Chris! I'm heading back to the eastern Sierra for the new moon to try for some even better shots and some longer focal lengths. Might even try to manage the 600.
 

by John Labrenz on Mon Sep 07, 2015 12:43 am
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This is amazing Diane....I like what you have done using the two different lenses....and that AstroTrac seems to work nicely too!
Having said that, the fact that 2 different lenses were used, from two different locations would probably make this a better candidate for the P&DA gallery.
 

by stevenmajor on Mon Sep 07, 2015 6:00 am
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Bravo. Great image making.
 

by Robert on Mon Sep 07, 2015 9:31 am
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Stunningly beautiful.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Mon Sep 07, 2015 12:50 pm
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An amazing composite photo. Totally natural looking technique.
 

by Gary Briney on Mon Sep 07, 2015 5:19 pm
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[moved to PD&A for the reason John mentioned (composite of different views)]

Lovely work!
G. Briney
 

by Cynthia Crawford on Tue Sep 08, 2015 2:50 pm
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A striking piece of work- great idea to put these together!
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by Diane Miller on Tue Sep 08, 2015 5:26 pm
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Thanks everyone! And thanks for moving it to the proper forum, Gary. I obviously didn't read the fine print.
 

by Gary Briney on Wed Sep 09, 2015 6:47 pm
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Diane Miller wrote:Thanks everyone!  And thanks for moving it to the proper forum, Gary.  I obviously didn't read the fine print.
No problem -- thanks for taking a creative approach to get an excellent image!
G. Briney
 

by jerryb on Thu Sep 24, 2015 5:18 pm
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I'm envious of your tracking. I have to take exposures of 10 sec to get pinpoint stars. Very nice blending.
Larger sized samples of my work can be seen on Google Plus at https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JerryBarnettPhoto
 

by Diane Miller on Thu Sep 24, 2015 6:10 pm
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Tracking is a really big investment in equipment and learning, but the results, which I'm just learning to get, both in captures and software, are so exciting.
 

by Clive on Mon Sep 28, 2015 12:21 pm
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Stunning image Diane. Those muted shades work really well.
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