Algonquin Night Sky

[Andrew McLachlan]

Last week I was fortunate enough to be able to spend several days at the Algonquin Radio Observatory in Ontario's Algonquin Provincial Park. I will post a few images over the coming weeks from this location. There is a massive satellite dish on the site which is used to collect data from pulsars way off in outer space...quite fascinating...the parents of one of my daughter's friends run the observatory. While staying there I decided to make a first attempt at photographing the night sky and this location was a good spot to give it a whirl due to the complete absence of light pollution.

I am thinking that I should have used f2.8 and a lower ISO...will try this again next week while I am in northern Ontario again.

Nikon D800
Sigma 15mm Fisheye Lens
ISO 6400
f4.5 @ 30 seconds

Look forward to comments.

154571

[Don Lacy]

Hi Andrew, Wonderful skies here I don't think I have ever seen that many stars before. I have done a lot of reading on creating Milky Way images and a good starting point for exposure seems to be f/2.8 at 20s and ISO 6400. If you can get your shutter speeds with an ultra WA under 30s you can print larger without stars starting to trail. Here is the tutorial I downloaded and read its full of very useful information on these type of images. http://intothenightphoto.blogspot.com/2015/01/milky-way-nightscapes-ebook-preview.html

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks very much Don and thanks for the link I will give it read before heading north at the end of the week so I can try more night scenes next week :S3:

[Don Lacy]

Thanks very much Don and thanks for the link I will give it read before heading north at the end of the week so I can try more night scenes next week :S3:
I am heading to the Everglades this Friday to try out some of the techniques hopefully I will have a few images to post as well.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andrew - That's certainly a ton of stars and I like that it shows the Milky Way. I think it might be more effective to have all black in the trees at the bottom of the frame. Don- thanks for the link to the article. Looking forward to more night sky shots from both of you. It is something I still struggle with as well.

TFS,
Rachel

[Diane Miller]

Interesting shot. Widefield night skies are a challenge because noise (both luminance and color) blends in with tiny stars. I'd definitely go with the widest aperture and lowest ISO you can manage. Royce Bair is an excellent source.

The camera records colors in the dim night sky that we can't see, but the purples here are a bit out of the box. I'd experiment with color temp -- the most accurate star colors are obtained with daylight WB.

The oblong object just LL of the center is the Andromeda galaxy.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Thanks for the additional comments...downloaded Royce's eBook already and will apply some of his processing techniques to a re-do of this one...and will use the fisheye at f2.8 next time too...my WB is permanently set to Daylight...another learning curve :)

[Don Lacy]

[QUOTE]my WB is permanently set to Daylight...another learning curve :)/QUOTE]
I like the cooler look from setting the WB around 3200 to 4000 for nightscapes you might want to try that also. WB is one of the artistic choices that we get to flavor our images with no one setting is right for everyone.