Milky Way Reflection

[Roger Clark]

The Milky Way stands vertically in the northern hemisphere in the early evening in September. This orientation allows for some beautiful scenes, like this scene at Echo Lake, Colorado. In the distance is 14,265 foot (4,348 m) Mount Evans. The center of the Milky Way galaxy is located just above Mt Evans and its reflection is seen in the lake. The sky is slightly brightened and reddened by smoke from forest fires in the western U.S.


This image is a small version. A 1699 pixel high image is here:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.night/web/night.sky.echo.lake.reflection.c09.18.2012.C45I110 3-09.g-bin6x6-1699v.html

This image is a 7-frame mosaic. Canon 1D Mark IV, 24 mm f/1.4 L lens at f/2, 30 second exposures at ISO 1600. With 30-second exposure, the stars would trail. The exposures on the sky were made with a home made "barn-door" tracking mount using a hand operated crank to follow the stars. Images of the terrestrial scene were made without tracking and the tracked and untracked scenes combined into the mosaic. The full mosaic is 4610 pixels wide and 10195 pixels high, covering approximately 60 x 140 degrees.

Question: should I crop out some of the rocks at the bottom of the frame?

Roger

[Maureen Allen]

That's a very amazing image.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I love it Roger...but I would encourage everyone to view the high-res image on your website to truly appreciate the detail you captured here. I particularly love the detail you managed to retain in the lake reflection, the trees across the water and the mountains. :5

2 things:
1. crop out the FG bottom rocks...IMHO
2. are the myriad of purple dots in the sky stars or some form of noise/hot pixels? the reason I ask is I haven't really seen those in my night shooting - is it a NH thing? :e3

[John Chardine]

This is absolutely stunning Roger- a technical tour-de-force. The colours are stunning. I love the aspect ratio. Incredible that you have the MW reflection in the lake. I don't think the rocks add much but I don't find them distracting either. Are the magenta points in the sky from chromatic aberration?

[Jerry van Dijk]

This is amazing Roger! Especially that reflection is stunning. I always wonder how much of this is visible to the naked eye and how much is captured extra because of the long exposure.
I would crop from the bottom to eliminate the centred lighter rock. I think the rocks add a little more sense of depth to the image, but the lighter rock distracts a little.
Very well done!

[Roger Clark]

Sorry I haven't replied--had another trip (unplanned). To answer some questions.

I was kind of negative on the rocks, but wanted to know what others thought. I'll crop them out in my final version.


Regarding the magenta stars, that I thought was a weird optical effect.. But on investigating, it appears to be a problem with Adobe ACR in CS5: the green channel on certain overexposed stars has a black ring around the star with values equal to zero. The red and blue channels look fine. I turned off all sharpening and noise reduction in ACR and it didn't help. So, at present, it is a mystery. I'll try different raw converters. I never used to have this problem, I also checked the in-camera generated jpegs, and they show the effect of a dark ring around bright stars in only the green channel too, but to a much lesser extent than the raw-converted data.

Regarding the reflection of the Milky Way in the Lake, yes, I could see it with my eyes. A lot of the detail seen in the image, like the dark dust lanes, are easily seen with the unaided eye from a dark site. But the image does reach deeper than can be seen with the eye.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Roger

[Roger Clark]

I've tested the settings in ACR and the magenta star problem appears to be on the camera calibration tab: Camera profile defaults (on my machine at least--I've never changed this) to Adobe standard. Changing it to "Camera Faithful" largely solves the Magenta star problem.

Roger

[Bill Jobes]

Simply breath-taking, Roger. I also urge folks to follow the link to the high resolution version on your web site.

Question: Is the bright sky that you mention is caused by smoke from the Western wildfires illuminated by the sun below the horizon, or perhaps a distant metropolitan area?

Comment: On your web site, you mention the multiple exposures and the home-made barn door device used to mitigate the effect of star trails at 1/30 second exposures. Would you mind elaborating a bit on that device you crafted, and perhaps post a photo of the setup ?

[Roger Clark]

Simply breath-taking, Roger. I also urge folks to follow the link to the high resolution version on your web site.

Question: Is the bright sky that you mention is caused by smoke from the Western wildfires illuminated by the sun below the horizon, or perhaps a distant metropolitan area?

Hi Bill,
The sky was illuminated by the Denver Metro area. This site is at about 10,000 feet about a 45 minute drive from my house. I live on the western edge of the Denver metro area, so the skies are pretty good, but still influenced by Denver light pollution.




Comment: On your web site, you mention the multiple exposures and the home-made barn door device used to mitigate the effect of star trails at 1/30 second exposures. Would you mind elaborating a bit on that device you crafted, and perhaps post a photo of the setup ?

Here is a link to the basic design: http://www.astropix.com/BGDA/SAMPLE2/SAMPLE2.HTM
I mounted mine on my Wimerly version 1 head. I used pieces of oak about 3 inches wide. Next time I have it set up, I'll take some pictures and post them. The exposures were 30 seconds, not 1/30.

Roger

[Bill Jobes]

Thanks for the great info, Roger !

That erroneous 1/30 citation was an early morning goof on my part ! I really did know it was 30 seconds ! :e3

[Mitch Carucci]

Great pic - Leave the rocks!