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Photographing the Milky Way with the T


Jkulin

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I'm off next month to stay with friends in the Alpujarra mountain range in Southern Spain.

 

I've been there a number of times and each time I am amazed with the quality of the air and how you can see the Milky Way with your own eyes every night.

 

I've been researching a great deal as I want to capture it perfectly and realise that I will have to stack the images.

 

Because of weight I can't take my EQ Mount so will have to rely on multiple shots of around 11-15 seconds so that I don't get star trails.

 

Even if I did have a portable mount the problem would be that the T doesn't allow bulb settings longer than 30 secs.

 

Has anyone tried it with the T and what settings were a must for taking sky images, I know I'll be shooting in raw and I'll use my 11/23 lens.

 

Any comments would be welcome.

 

I have attached an image of my current Sky setup and may even try this with the T in the UK as I have a Nikon>T adapter

 

 

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not as elaborate as your set-up, just T with 11-23 on a boulder, not stacked, in a trip up Mt Sinai, image was underexposed, hence gainy, as there were star trails 15secs, ISO 1600,

 

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Thanks Aseancat, so I reckon if I do it at say ISO3200 F3.5 stacked then it should bring even greater detail out :-)

 

BTW you have really captured that very well indeed considering not stacked.

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I copied the image down to PS and there is relatively little grain on the rocks and light beam, so I'm fairly sure that what you think is graininess is actually stars as most of the images I have looked at elsewhere are very similar.

 

The sensitivity of the T is absolutely fantastic, I've seen 100's of images taken and they have had to be stacked to be anywhere near as good as what you have taken with a single shot.

 

BTW I might have some nice gear but it is the old adage "All the gear and no idea" :-)

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well, an artist can imagine all he wants but what can he do without the proper tools? :D

 

i envy those who have an eye for captivating images in everyday scene; like those who post frequently in this forum. also there are many very captivating milky way images on the web.

 

the 11-23 is a fantastic lens; just couldn't decide if i want the trails or the grains, still wish i had done better.

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Cheers Gary,

 

I have thought about this, but in order to get a good one they cost around £300GBP and as I have a rather nice HEQ5 Pro Mount at home it would just be a waste as unfortunately light pollution is not good where I live, thus the reason why visiting a friend I will get an excellent opportunity to capture the MW, and I also have to travel light, my HEQ5 Pro would be very impractical.

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Why not try some of the portable tracking mounts that are now available?

I found 30 secs adequate just for guided exposures. Eventually went back to my Fuji.

Gary

 

What mount, that is light weight enough for air transport, would you propose?

Vixen for instance offers with its Advanced Polaris a nice construction set for different solutions. But perhaps the Polarie mount also is suitable for the T.

Costs will not be under 300 GBP, I fear.

Jan

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I know the Vixen would be perfect but at $399 I cannot justify it especially as the Leice T will be used infrequently and as it doesn't have a bulb setting, it would be somewhat a waste of money: -

 

http://www.vixenoptics.com/Vixen-Polarie-Star-Tracker-p/35505.htm

 

Now if it had a bulb setting then I would be seriously considering it as the CCD I feel is more sensitive than my Nikon.

 

Why didn't Leica allow the T to have a bulb setting??? Totally mad that it doesn't :-(

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the largest i can get on 11-23, f/3.5

 

Thanks Aseancat, I must going round the bend asking the aperture and fstop as they are the same thing.

 

So at 15secs and F3.5 and ISO 1500 you were probably at the max before you got any star trails, so an excellent result.

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This is a great topic!

I've recently acquired a T and I think as soon as I find myself out in a dark enough place, I'm going to experiment with shooting starry nights.

I'm attaching a photo I took with my D-Lux 6 back in 2014. I was in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the nights were incredible. As I never travel with a tripod, I put the camera on a chair and set the self-timer.

I had to postprocess in Lightroom to get the details.

According to Lightroom, the settings were 24mm, f1.4 and an exposure of 30 seconds. ISO was 80.

As this was my first time taking photos of the starry night, should I have used a higher ISO?

I took a bunch of pics, as I wanted to test out the capabilities of the D-Lux 6. I probably won't win awards, but I was pleased with the results. I'll bet with the T the details will be better.

—Santiago

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I'm an M240- not a T-owner, but I will be using the M for something similar next month.

Can anyone recommend image stacking software for astro shots that works well, preferably with raw files and as an plug in to PS or LR?

I'm happy to pay for something that works well, but OTOH this isn't my life's work so I don't need all singing all dancing.

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Hi Paul,

 

You'll need Nebulosity http://www.stark-labs.com/nebulosity.html it was $95 http://www.stark-labs.com/downloads.html

 

You can stack in PS, but Nebulosity is really quite clever and easy to use for stretching and manipulating and it works with NEF (Raw Files)

Thanks - will it work with DNG?

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