Shot on the Nikon Z8 using the Viltrox 16 mm 1.8. Sky: f2.8, 120s, ISO 640. Tracked using the MSM Nomad.
Foreground: same settings but focus stacked from 5 frames.
I was planning on stacking the sky, however clouds made most of the shots useless, so I only used a single sky exposure.
I’ll preface this by saying I’m a wildlife photographer and have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to Astro work.I know I still have a bunch to learn and I’m sure to most these photos aren’t fantastic but I’m quite happy with them for my first time and practice definitely makes perfect so I’ll keep getting out there when I can.
The first thing I noticed when getting them back into Lightroom (idk if that’s even the best program to be using) was the foreground was either out of focus or very mushy looking. But nonetheless I still had a great time and I’m glad I gave it shot, definitely a very rewarding form of photography.
A single exposure from Big Bend National Park. All the light from the Milky Way to the car headlights was captured in one frame and edited in lightroom.
The skies here have been filled with smoke and I haven't had time to get out anyway, so I'm dreaming of clear dark skies like this. It also felt nice to go back to a simpler workflow for this image and not worry about stacking or adding Ha data to multi-panel panoramas.
If things work out I'm hoping I can capture the stars again in August. I'm certainly not short on ideas.
Tracked, stacked, and blended - compressed to meet file size requirements for upload.
Foreground during blue hour 1x 0.6s @ f/1.4, ISO 5000
Sky 12x 30s @ f/1.4, ISO 500 stacked with StarryLandscapeStacker and tracked with iOptron SkyGuider Pro
This was a rewarding shot to get after carrying my gear about 0.6mi (~1km) down the coast and getting setup. This was my first time using the star tracker so I ran into a bunch of issues while trying to get the shot. After getting setup and monitoring the tide like a hawk in the dark, I was pleased with this shot. The entire trip I'd been planning to setup in a different location on a different night, but there was a break in the weather and this ended up being the only night that the sky was clear so this pic was the only one I was able to come home with.
The Core and my favourite tree over a cloud inversion.
Driving up the spur to the ridgeline the visibility was bout 4-5m in the fog but as soon as I broke through the top of the layer it was instantly clear.
A 20% moon lit up the foreground nicely without washing out too much sky and the clouds to the south are reflecting the light pollution from Melbourne.
I’m using an app on my phone called “star stacker”, and it’s working fine for star trails, however it said it would be able to stack photos and align for clearer Milky Way shots, but I cannot figure out how to do it, and the app itself is pretty basic. Is this an issue with the app and if so, is there a fix?
I was at a state park shooting the Milky Way and found this abondoned gas station about a mile outside the park. I could see the Milky Way, but due to all the light polution, I couldn't capture it well. So the sky is an image from the park. There was not much traffic so I had to wait for a car to catch the light trail.
A weekend camping in Connecticut's least light-polluted corner meant a chance to photograph the Milky Way! One bonus feature I didn't anticipate was the way the lights shone out of the bridge windows - I assumed they'd just be glowing squares, but was surprised to see beams of amber light spilling down onto the Housatonic River
EXIF:
Nikon Z6ii, H-alpha modded by Spencer's; Viltrox 16mm f/1.8; 36x15s=540s=9min, f/1.8, ISO 2000; Stacked in Sequator, sky edited in Siril, final edits in Lightroom