p.2 #1 · Milky Way and Comet NEOWISE, from Crested Butte, CO (this one was a s-t-r-e-t-c-h...)
Jeff wrote:
Thanks Milan! Sorry for your being latitude-challenged, Rho Ophiuchi is my favorite part of the galaxy to sit and ponder. Although I don't own a tracker I always marvel at the tracked images of this region of the sky (especially fond of Roger Clark's interpretation). I typically use the visibility of the dust lanes streaming toward the Pipe Nebula to roughly gage how clear the sky is on any given night, both while shooting and when post-processing.
Forget the filter, change your latitude!
-Jeff
And give up our 12ft diameter dome we built together with my father?
I've seen Roger Clark's version and he has a certain taste for processing, which I don't like that much. He certainly is very lucky to be living in a very dark region. There is a beautiful capture of the region on Wikipedia with some serious integration time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rho_Ophiuchi_cloud_complex#Gallery (6 hours for each RGB channel according to author's website).
We have had our dome for 8 years now, but we only got the Skywatcher EQ6 Pro in December 2019. Since then I've been trying my hand in proper astrophotography, but it's such a challenge and there are still some pieces of equipment that have to be added soon to produce better results. To quote the gentleman who put us on the track "Ultimately, you will be shooting with a dedicated monochrome camera, you'll see..."...
p.2 #2 · Milky Way and Comet NEOWISE, from Crested Butte, CO (this one was a s-t-r-e-t-c-h...)
Jeff wrote:
I have not, but I initially agonized over the decision to default to a 5Ds due to the 'r' version's widespread lack of availability (I needed it quickly for a large client project). So many things can get in the way of eeking out that last 10% of performance that the 'r' potentially provides, I personally think it gets overthunk a lot of the time (but I may be rationalizing, lol).
EF16-35/4L is a great, [I]great[/I] daytime lens; it has stood the test of time, and it's my default for architectural/interior work and daytime landscapes with filters (small, light, little distortion, sharp!). Pining for an 85/1.4 that is usable at 1.8 at night, probably my next purchase (though its use will inevitably confound my 5-year old 5k iMac computer's increasing inability to deal with these pano files... starting to wonder how it would like a baseball bat through the screen).
Thanks again Jeff
As a Mac tech also I know how it is with with files of that size and a 2015 iMac. The 5ds was way ahead of its time in terms of files size for sure. If you need any advice in trying to possibly speed your existing iMac up a little shoot me a pm. Maybe I can keep you from murdering it! Lol
p.2 #3 · Milky Way and Comet NEOWISE, from Crested Butte, CO (this one was a s-t-r-e-t-c-h...)
Milan Hutera wrote:
And give up our 12ft diameter dome we built together with my father?
I've seen Roger Clark's version and he has a certain taste for processing, which I don't like that much. He certainly is very lucky to be living in a very dark region. There is a beautiful capture of the region on Wikipedia with some serious integration time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rho_Ophiuchi_cloud_complex#Gallery (6 hours for each RGB channel according to author's website).
We have had our dome for 8 years now, but we only got the Skywatcher EQ6 Pro in December 2019. Since then I've been trying my hand in proper astrophotography, but it's such a challenge and there are still some pieces of equipment that have to be added soon to produce better results. To quote the gentleman who put us on the track "Ultimately, you will be shooting with a dedicated monochrome camera, you'll see..."... ...Show more →
Nice, super-cool to have a dome!
Astro is a huge rabbit-hole, and although I'd love to shoot images like we are discussing, I know it would lead to a cascade of equipment that would only get used infrequently. Some other life, perhaps...
p.2 #4 · Milky Way and Comet NEOWISE, from Crested Butte, CO (this one was a s-t-r-e-t-c-h...)
JohnMagee wrote:
Thanks again Jeff
As a Mac tech also I know how it is with with files of that size and a 2015 iMac. The 5ds was way ahead of its time in terms of files size for sure. If you need any advice in trying to possibly speed your existing iMac up a little shoot me a pm. Maybe I can keep you from murdering it! Lol
I just may do that, thanks for the offer! Down in New Orleans at the moment, dropping our son off at college, once we return home we'll be empty-nesters. Woo-hoo!!!
p.2 #8 · Milky Way and Comet NEOWISE, from Crested Butte, CO (this one was a s-t-r-e-t-c-h...)
Jeff wrote:
I'm finally getting through my plethora of images, and have spent hours with PTgui getting some of the last panos assembled. This image was captured on the night of 7/18/20 and was a challenge on several fronts, as I wanted to try and capture the sheer immensity of NEOWISE's tail with some perspective, in this case, the ubiquitous Milky Way (which was 180° in the wrong direction!).
20-image pano using the 5Ds and Tamron 35/1.4; the foreground layer is comprised of 3 focus stacks, both foreground and sky are daylight WB. Location is Gunnison National Forest near Crested Butte at 10,843' MSL, looking down upon Slate River Road, Paradise Divide on right horizon. Resulting image is 602MP, and can be printed quite large (cough!). Data took 45 minutes to capture, 5.5 hours to process. Seems crazy, I know, but it's one of the ways I've adapted to the 5Ds' high ISO noise characteristics (COUGH!!!)....
If you're interested, you can find more details here, including an annotated 'guide' image showing pertinent locations and features of the night sky shown in the image.
p.2 #9 · Milky Way and Comet NEOWISE, from Crested Butte, CO (this one was a s-t-r-e-t-c-h...)
gbinoz wrote:
Fantastic shot.
Pity the comet's head is not higher in the sky though.
Thanks! I had to wait ~2 minutes for a car to descend far enough down Washington Gulch Rd. that the lights weren't obvious, otherwise there would have been a bit more space between the coma and the horizon. At least it was still above it, another 25 seconds or so and I would have lost it.
p.2 #10 · Milky Way and Comet NEOWISE, from Crested Butte, CO (this one was a s-t-r-e-t-c-h...)
bmike-vt wrote:
...And thanks for keeping things 'real'... I'm a big fan of natural color night sky images...
Me too... unless the moon is out! lol
I really like being able to see the changes in the sky from night to night (typically color changes from differing airglow). 'Processing out' the airglow to either a blue or grey-ish sky seems kind of bland, although I do also enjoy the occasional MW image when there is a crescent moon providing enough illumination to turn the sky blue.
