Milky Way in Crux and Carina
Here is a shot of the Milky Way in the region of the constellations of Crux and Carina. You can see the Southern Cross over on the right hand side (upside down). Above it is a dark cloud of dust called the Coalsack Nebula. The bright red cloud on the left hand side is the Carina Nebula, a hydrogen emission nebula containing the massive star Eta Carinae. South is up in this image. There are approximately 440,000 stars in this image.
Technical details – Canon 40Dh with EF-S 60mm macro lens at f/4, 11×300 second exposures @ ISO500. Dark subtraction, flat field application, registration, stacking and processing in IRIS. Total exposure time 55 minutes on 8 February 2008. The colours are natural.
Here are some examples of my astrophotos as laminated prints
Milky Way in Crux and Carina belongs to the following groups:
Astronomy and Night Photography Available for sale asGreeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints, Framed Prints and Posters
Travis Easton
This makes me feel very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very small.
John Arkleton replied
Doesn’t it just. And this is a tiny, tiny part of the sky. And all these stars are in our galaxy, never mind the billions of other galaxies beyond.
Travis Easton
I don’t know anything about this sort of photograhy. What’s with the macro lens and why after a 55 minute exposure are there no star trails?
John Arkleton replied
Yes it was a macro lens but it was focused at infinity. I used it because it’s sharper than my Tamron zoom lens. No stars trails because the camera was on a mount with a motor. Take care.
sweetscent62
Now this is why I love space…sigh… beautiful image : ) Wendy
Ern Mainka
Awesome.
Marko Palm
Brilliant! Is hard to say more than brilliant !
kevsphotos2008
FAN DABBY DOZZY,this tells me we are not alone…...............
amarica
Great capture…
igotmeacanon
wooooooooow stunning work i need to get me one of these motor thingys, how much are they
SMOKEYDOGSOCKS
WOW!!!!!!!!,,,,,,DID I SAY,,,,WOW!!!!!!!!?,,,,,,,I MEAN,,,,,WOW!!!!!!!!! THIS IS THE KIND OF STUFF I DREAMED OF BEING ABLE TO SHOOT EVER SINCE I GOT INTO PHOTOGRAPHY. I HAVE A MEADE ATX 60 TELESCOPE WITH AN EQUITORIAL MOTOR DRIVE ON IT, BUT I DON’T HAVE THE ATTACHMENTS TO PUT MY CANON EOS 300D REBEL ON IT. NOT TO MENTION, THE LIGHT CONTAMINATION IN MY AREA IS HORRIBLE. I WOULD HAVE TO DRIVE ABOUT 4 HOURS NORTH TO GET INTO ANY GOOD AREA FOR THAT KIND OF SHOOTING. BEAUTIFULLY DONE, IT WENT STRAIGHT INTO MY FAVORITES. I’VE BEEN ABLE TO MAKE SOME DIGITAL GALLAXIES, BUT NOTHING LIKE THIS. BOB
John Arkleton replied
Ha ha thanks Bob! I’m still in shock about what you can do without a telescope too. I always expected to need a telescope for astrophotography but you don’t – not for big objects and widefield shots anyway. If you have a look at the free software package IRIS you’ll see that it has methods of removing background gradients. You’d be surprised what you can manage even from a polluted sky. And you don’t have to have a tracking mount – at 60mm you can take 30 second subexposures without much drift. IRIS rotates, translates and lines the images up (registers) for stacking.
SMOKEYDOGSOCKS
THANKS, SO WHERE DO I FIND THIS IRIS?
John Arkleton replied
IRIS is here
http://www.astrosurf.org/buil/us/iris/iris.htm
and here is a tutorial on how to use it
http://www.saratogaskies.com/articles/cookbook/index.html
There is a more general tutorial on astrophotography here
http://www.singastro.org/web/mediawiki/index.php/Simple_astrophotography_with_a_digital_camera
retepk
Wonderful capture.
Dean Warwick
Amazing work! You know your stuff!
John Arkleton
Thanks guys =O)
Shoaib .
this is just unbelievable … i am in awe
great shot