My first proper attempt at the Milky Way

D

Dogwatch

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Name
Graham
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This image was created from 75 stacked shots taken at Chillingham in Northumberland last Spring. The light in the bottom corner is Alnwick. I was using a Pentax K50 with a Samsung 16mm f2 lens, the whole lot being mounted on my home built barn door tracker. The tracker is powered by a stepper motor controlled by a Raspberry Pi. In use, a 5v power bank is gaffer-taped to one of the tripod legs and an electric lens warmer is used to prevent dew formation. The power bank can keep things running for about 4-hours, the camera having its own in-built intervalometer. Start it up, go to bed.

Although the post-processing may need some work, I reckon I may have got away with it!




Pi. In use, a 5Milky Way 1048.jpgIMG_1338.jpgIMG_1337.jpgIMG_1340.jpg
 
LeeRatters said:
Nice one :)

75 images though! I've never shot that many to stack personally!

And, impressive work on the barn door too. I just bought a tracker :)
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I chose a high number just to see how accurately the tracker was following the sky, and since I had them, I stacked them!
 
How impressive is that!

Excellent work;)
 
LeeRatters said:
A longer shutter speed will check the tracking accuracy (y)

You could shot those settings without a tracker tbh.
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Yes, I agree, and have done so before, but I was in a dark-sky area in Northumberland and it was the first time out with the Heath Robinson tracker, so I just set it and left it.
 
Love your image and your barn door tracker is brilliant. I must make myself one. I used to have a star adventurer 2i but sold it as I only used once. Sellers, regret now. But I like the simplicity of no power setup and plonk and place, if you know what I mean.
Lee
 
Well done Graham, both for the engineering and the picture :D
 
Very well done. That's a fantastic piece of kit you have there.
 
Very impressive bit of kit and the skill to build it, well worth the effort for a very nice image.
 
Very impressive, photo and kit. Astro photography is waaay beyond me. Would you get better results (ie no light from Alnwick) if you went a bit further west?
 
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