POTW 226: 13/9/14 - 19/9/14

Myksyk

This week's POTW goes to:

thatsnotmyname




Honourable Mentions to:

MysticalRain


FlipperThePriest


CosmoK


swingking


Congratulations to 'thatsnotmyname' ... a great win in the most competitive POTW I've done. Well done to all the HMs too ... and commiserations to those guys who did not even get a HM with 42 thanks ... mad!!

dnme

I love the canal shot by MysticalRain.
I am fascinated as always by anything in the night sky and so I also love the shot by zippy8. Is this Andromeda? We're looking at something there that happened over 2 million years ago (that's how long it takes the light from it to get to us) so what we're seeing there now, predates humanity etc. Its all so mind blowing and wonderful.

FlipperThePriest

dnme wrote: »

I love the canal shot by MysticalRain.
I am fascinated as always by anything in the night sky and so I also love the shot by zippy8. Is this Andromeda? We're looking at something there that happened over 2 million years ago (that's how long it takes the light from it to get to us) so what we're seeing there now, predates humanity etc. Its all so mind blowing and wonderful.

It is Andromeda. It certainly is mind-boggling.... 1 galaxy with around a trillion stars!! A 1c coin covers this area of the sky when held at arms length. That's 1 trillion stars covered by a 1c coin held at arms length.. Imagine how many 1c coins it takes to cover the entire sky?! The galaxy itself is bigger than the surface area of the moon when compared in our night sky, but the light reaching us is that feint that I wouldn't have captured it all. I took 480 shots at about 2 second exposures (I think), manually tracking every 20 or 30 shots. And about 20 dark shots and 20 bias shots to reduce noise. Took about 40 mins to shoot and about 3 or 4 hours to stack and process.

I've been slowly getting into this stuff the last few months.. always been interested but never tried shooting. Some of the guys in the Astrophotography forum have truly amazing shots. Having tried it myself only a handful of times.. really gives an appreciation for the experience and patience some guys must have accumulated behind their images... not to mention the gear they must have!!

OldGoat

FlipperThePriest wrote: »

I took 480 shots at about 2 second exposures (I think), manually tracking every 20 or 30 shots. And about 20 dark shots and 20 bias shots to reduce noise. Took about 40 mins to shoot and about 3 or 4 hours to stack and process.

I've not tried manual tracking hence always end up with star trails. How do you work that? Is there a set distance to move or are you just winging it?

FlipperThePriest

OldGoat wrote: »

I've not tried manual tracking hence always end up with star trails. How do you work that? Is there a set distance to move or are you just winging it?

Basically just winging it. I use a remote release, click away, then after about 20 shots take a look at the preview and see if the subject is close to the center of the shot or has moved off much. I then adjust accordingly, very minute movements, best not tighten the tripod at all as simply loosening a tight mechanism can throw the subject out of the frame. I kind of just got used to how little I need to move it, then take a shot, preview it and move on.

Are you getting trails on individual shots? If so this is not a tracking issue, it's just leaving the shutter open too long. People use the '500' rule. Divide 500 by your focal length. I was shooting at 135mm which should give me around 3.7 secs. I was noticing trail still, but it depends on other factors such as your longitude, whether your using a full frame. Also the stars rotate around Polaris in the sky so how far away from Polaris you shoot (e.g. toward horizon), the more chance of trail... a lot of trial an error. Even trying to get a sharp focus proved a big challenge for me for a while.

This is a useful tool for estimating your max exposure.. still, not 100% accurate, but will get you close.

OldGoat

My star trails were intentional. I'd always assumed that I'd need a motor drive for tracking the start and so I never bothered simply winging it. Mia culpa.

What we need is an Boards astrophotography photonight meetup complete with designated drivers and hipflasks.

FlipperThePriest

OldGoat wrote: »

My star trails were intentional. I'd always assumed that I'd need a motor drive for tracking the start and so I never bothered simply winging it. Mia culpa.

What we need is an Boards astrophotography photonight meetup complete with designated drivers and hipflasks.

The intentional star trail effect can be very nice though, one I've yet to attempt.

For sure, meetups with experienced astrophotographers would be great! The forum itself doesn't seem that busy in my experience, maybe it's early in the season? I suppose in this country it's a past-time that's seriously weather dependent, hence the lack of activity.

Myksyk

Such a great shot <snip>. As well as the mind-boggling time factor, the idea that we can be so far from a spiralling group of a trillion suns that we can cover them all with the tip of our finger is head-shakingly awesome. I immediately contemplate the billions and billions of likely planets whizzing away in that picture and wonder "what's going on in there?".

FlipperThePriest

Myksyk wrote: »

Such a great shot <snip>. As well as the mind-boggling time factor, the idea that we can be so far from a spiralling group of a trillion suns that we can cover them all with the tip of our finger is head-shakingly awesome. I immediately contemplate the billions and billions of likely planets whizzing away in that picture and wonder "what's going on in there?".

What I really find fascinating is that almost all of the objects in that shot are invisible to the naked eye, so the camera basically serves as a time machine. We are constrained by time almost as much as by space in the attempt of discovering other life - in that what are the chances of two intelligent species existing at the same time?! Andromeda is in our local group, yet if we were able to travel at the speed of light, it would take 2.5 million years to get there. The sheer scale of things makes my brain hurt, as do some of the threads in the Astronomy forum.

I missed Brian Cox's new show last night, I'd say it was worth a watch.

Myksyk

Yes, the Cox programme was excellent. Headache-inducing tho' as you spend most of your time shaking your head in disbelief and wonder.

keps

And thanks Myksyk for taking the time to do the POTW- I'm sure it takes up a good bit of free-time.

It's a great feature of the overall forum and I look forward to seeing it each time.

The quality of the photos never fails to amaze.

(Havn't featured there for a long while- must try harder:))