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Archive 2022 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes

  
 
jabong
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


I photographed a similar composition last year but earlier this June had a chance to re-capture the Milky Way in Sedona rising over Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock.



Disclosure: The sky was shot as a tracked panorama with a 35mm Sigma Art lens, but the ground was shot (the same night) with a 20mm lens. I find that panoramas with 35mm and longer get more detail and color in the stars and sky, but the 35mm view isn't great for wide foregrounds, so I combine the two to get a good view of both. Despite these being separate shots, the Milky Way was properly lined up where it would be naturally.



Dec 23, 2022 at 02:03 AM
bmike-vt
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


That is a lovely image.

I like the idea of the wide lens for the landscape. I have done a few MW mosaics and the landscape capture and then process / stitch and align is always the part I feel I don’t have a good handle on. I might have to try it, although I have a planned image coming up that will feature Orion between two prominent local peaks - but it will be just a 3x3 stacked and stitched 20mm mosaic. But maybe I’ll try 40mm on Orion and then switch to 20 on landscape. Fingers crossed weather cooperates.



Dec 23, 2022 at 06:59 AM
Starfire8
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


One amazing and beautiful composite image. Excellent work!

David



Dec 23, 2022 at 01:03 PM
nugeny
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


great vision and job


Dec 23, 2022 at 01:08 PM
steve g
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


Wonderful work


Dec 24, 2022 at 05:52 AM
douter
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


In a word...magnificent!
Douglas



Dec 24, 2022 at 09:04 AM
01Ryan10
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


Very nice!


Dec 26, 2022 at 10:30 AM
DaleBerlin
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


I really like this, nice work. You got to do what you got to do.


Dec 26, 2022 at 04:01 PM
chez
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


A definite wall hanger. Great work.


Dec 26, 2022 at 04:16 PM
Hathaway
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


Great idea and execution on the MW Arch and foreground blend. I might have to get a tracker as I have a great MW arch location for spring/early summer that I have shot and stitched at 14 mm but it gets quite distorted. I need the tracker if I am to shoot at 35 mm without significant star movement.

Now to look for a used tracker on the buy and sell forum!

Bob



Dec 27, 2022 at 09:32 AM
Lken
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


Really nice capture.


Dec 27, 2022 at 06:08 PM
jabong
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · June Milky Way arch over iconic Sedona buttes


Thanks everyone for the kind words

bmike-vt wrote:
That is a lovely image.

I like the idea of the wide lens for the landscape. I have done a few MW mosaics and the landscape capture and then process / stitch and align is always the part I feel I don’t have a good handle on. I might have to try it, although I have a planned image coming up that will feature Orion between two prominent local peaks - but it will be just a 3x3 stacked and stitched 20mm mosaic. But maybe I’ll try 40mm on Orion and then switch to 20 on landscape. Fingers crossed weather cooperates.
...Show more


Go for it! You can try both focal lengths as well for the foreground. Once I realized this method with combining focal lengths, I could get a lot more flexible with compositions. In addition, having two cameras really speeds things up as I can capture the stars and foreground at the same time instead of relying on one after the other and wasting precious minutes for the stars. Good luck!

---------------------------------------------

Hathaway wrote:
Great idea and execution on the MW Arch and foreground blend. I might have to get a tracker as I have a great MW arch location for spring/early summer that I have shot and stitched at 14 mm but it gets quite distorted. I need the tracker if I am to shoot at 35 mm without significant star movement.

Now to look for a used tracker on the buy and sell forum!

Bob


If you are at all serious about Milky Way photography, I think getting a tracker is the way to go. It turns almost any lens into a viable lens for landscape astrophotography and you can be less worried about having a lens with the largest aperture. Plus being able to stop down to correct lens aberrations is a giant plus.

It is also possible to shoot a Milky Way panorama with a 35mm lens without a tracker (I've done it before with a 58mm f/1.4) and I never had any issues stitching, you just need to keep your exposures short; I think I was shooting at f/1.4, ISO 3200, and like 5 seconds or so. Obviously with a tracker you will be able to stop down and get longer exposures for a better signal to noise ratio, but the result without the tracker was still fairly good in my opinion and you still benefit from the detail from using a longer focal length. Here is an example with this technique; coincidentally the subject in the foreground is also the same in the original post, Courthouse Butte in Sedona.



Dec 28, 2022 at 04:12 PM





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