Night Sky Adventures - On Going........

LeeRatters

LeeRatters

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Okay, so I an turning back the clock a bit here.....

I named this 'adventures' but it started out as quick local trips out at night. As usual though, the bug bites hard & this has progressed further & further........

I'll start at the beginning.... And I'll blame my boy too! I bought him a telescope for Christmas a few years ago, nothing fancy obviously, just something he could look at the moon through & take some photos through it on his phone. Then he started paying a bit more attention through Instagram & mentioned to me about the Milky Way. From that I bought him an A6000 & Samyang 12/2 lens [used] & a Manfrotto tripod [from here!] Then an intervalometer, and he had one of my old Lowepro backpacks, and my Samyang 35/2.8, and my A7 kit zoom lens.... Not bad for a 14 year old!!

Anyway.....

I didn't really have anything super suitable for night skies so my first image was from the garden with the A7 & Voigtlander 40/1.2 whilst he was looking at the moon.....


*** by Lee, on Flickr

From there I progressed to Chew Valley Lake with the A7 & Voigtlander 21mm f/3.5!! - see, I said I didn't start off with decent lenses!


*** by Lee, on Flickr

A month or so later, with plenty of research into settings, capture, editing and which direction to face I either picked him up or he stayed at mine & we went out early hours over Easter half term whilst he wasn't at school. I will always remember this night, 2:45 alarm call, we shot for a few hours, I dropped him back to his mum's and then as it was about 5am I went straight to work :sleep: as I thought it's pointless going home to try for an hours sleep before the work alarm!

Do I like this image now? Not really. Look at those colours! Where's the foreground detail! Where's the foreground light! What I like the most about this image is the sunstar from the Voigtlander 21mm on Jupiter & the memories of my [our!] first Milky Way image AND the fun, frustration & adventures since then!


*** by Lee, on Flickr

Being the person I am, and being out shooting my first ever Milky Way, I for some reason decided to try a panorama too - Nothing like the deep end, eh?


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Too dark. Too patchy. But all part of the learning curve & the journey!

tbc
 
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Personally I think you are being to hard on yourself - the adventures with your son are the memory and the pictures are the “record” of those adventures. I would be well chuffed to get pictures anywhere near that quality.

Hope you both build some fantastic core memories!

Regards,


Paul
 
I like seeing your progression Lee, and a great back story.
 
I'm envious of a great set, keep going ;)
 
Absolutely fantastic set of images. The last two just show what's possible.
But even the first one from your garden is excellent no star trails.
 
Our next night out was this one! Again local, couple of locations in a single morning. This little pool is next to my favourite woodland so it's pretty popular in all honesty. This was another panorama hence only part of the scene lit by a passing car. This was also when still shooting 15ish second images & not shooting separate foregrounds so although the sky is nicer in this one, it could still be improved overall. I did actually shoot this a few months ago with Orion but lots of low cloud so I'm not too sure on it yet.... That has a full light trail all around the road through the scene though :)

Oh, I bought a Samyang 24/1.4 for the following images. Canon mount but adapted to use on the old A7 :)


*** by Lee, on Flickr

This, is locally known in my circle of photography friends as "the Astro tree" it's behind you as the above pond image is taken :) Not far to walk :) I've shot this several times since :)


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Chew Valley Lake :) Again, on the same night! This is still single images - stacked in Sequator.


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Excellent set;)
 
Norkie said:
Excellent set;)
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dekeyboy said:
Great set.
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Thank you both.

I'd like to add, that these images back then were all taken fairly wide open, shutter speed of around 13-15 seconds & an ISO to suit. I used to be scared of higher ISO usage so these images are a good 4-6 of them stacked in Sequator for noise reduction. Also being scared, I really kept the ISO too low still & had to boost exposures a little in PP.

If you are thinking of this type of photography, capture as much light as you can!!
 
These two were later in the year (August) with the Milky Way more vertical in the sky. Not perfect conditions but sometimes a bit of mist can help to add to the image :) No story to tell with these, literally just popped out for an hour for some local shots & back in bed by a reasonable hour I expect.

A7 - Samyang 24/1.4


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Fantastic shots Lee , Night photography is not something that I`ve really gotten to grips with although I`ve tried in the past with very average City scape results, but i`m really liking those a lot , the lone tree with Milky Way is my favourite .. well done :clap:


Coho - Blue
 
Coho-Blue said:
Fantastic shots Lee , Night photography is not something that I`ve really gotten to grips with although I`ve tried in the past with very average City scape results, but i`m really liking those a lot , the lone tree with Milky Way is my favourite .. well done :clap:


Coho - Blue
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Thanks. I'm tempted to go there tonight for a panorama but I left home at 8pm last night for Lulworth/Durdle Door & got back at 9:30 this morning.... :sleep:
 
We for some reason had a bit of a break after the above local images.... I don't know why. But it wasn't until the following July that we caught Neowise on one of it's last few days in our skies.....

Both with the Voigtlander 40/1.2 on the A7 - again probably a few stacked images for noise reduction.

*** by Lee, on Flickr

*** by Lee, on Flickr
 
Somehow I missed this thread Lee so I'm glad I found it :D All beautiful, all well done. So well done :D
 
You`ve posted both those shots of the lighthouse for 2 reasons

1) To show off and 2) to pi$$ me off

congratularions you succeeded in both :LOL:

2 fantastic shots Lee well done and thanks for sharing them :ty:


Coho-Blue
 
Coho-Blue said:
You`ve posted both those shots of the lighthouse for 2 reasons

1) To show off and 2) to pi$$ me off

congratularions you succeeded in both :LOL:

2 fantastic shots Lee well done and thanks for sharing them :ty:


Coho-Blue
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Thanks. But not at all.

Posts pop up on here (and other places) from time to time with people who want to try it or show an interest and I just thought it would be good to show my journey as such. It's about helping people to learn from how I've developed over time.
 
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Right, I'm posting these against my will really!! This was our first 'proper' location, we were actually down at Weymouth on holiday so shot sunset & hung around for the Milky Way.

I mean, at the time, I was quite chuffed with them. But now I don't like them one single bit!

But hey, firstly, they are part of that journey. Secondly, I went back last Friday overnight & absolutely blew these away... ;)

I also went back to the Dorset coast on Tuesday night..... :rolleyes::p

Anyway....


*** by Lee, on Flickr


*** by Lee, on Flickr

I can't quite put my finger on it. I think they are too contrasty and blue in all honesty but I remember re-editing them a year or so ago & still not being happy. Maybe there is a lot more to do with the actual capture & you can't polish a turd!

This one is embarrassing....

*** by Lee, on Flickr
 
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I wish I could take such terrible photos!

They are just superb.

PS
can you please share what camera, lens (tracking mount - if any) and settings you used so we novices can learn?
 
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Nice shots again Lee. I live about an hour from Portland. Always enjoy going there.
 
wornish said:
I wish I could take such terrible photos!

They are just superb.

PS
can you please share what camera, lens (tracking mount - if any) and settings you used so we novices can learn?
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dekeyboy said:
Nice shots again Lee. I live about an hour from Portland. Always enjoy going there.
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Coho-Blue said:
That 3rd one Lee is excellent, once again we’ll done and thanks for sharing…

coho - Blue
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Thanks All. I'm happy to say, I went back to Portland recently & absolutely blew those images above away :) I actually spent two nights down on the Dorset Coast in less than a week!

Anyway.... The images I'm posting now were pretty much single untracked exposures but a good 5-6 of them to stack for noise reduction.

Shutter speed as long as possible before star trailing - This is around 15-20 seconds imo but does vary a little depending on the camera & focal length used.
Aperture - wide open or as close to depending on IQ
ISO - as high as it needs to be - I found around 800-1600 the average & the limit for the A7 really but as said, stacking does help with a cleaner image.
 
Okay, so about a year ago, the spending kicked in a bit more.

Move Shoot Move tracker & a 20/1.8G lens.....

This was also a bit of an extra lesson in PP with taking & blending separate sky & foreground images which is obviously essential from here onwards!

I tend to shoot around 60 seconds with the tracker as a general rule. My teenage son was using his tracker for the first time this night - laser aligned with a ballhead & went straight in with 2 minute exposures!


*** by Lee, on Flickr
 
Okay.... SO lets do a little thread revival!!

I actually forgot I started this...... :) :ROFLMAO:

Anyway... The next outing was Stonehenge. Everyone wants to do places like Stonehenge right! I think it was just me & my boy who went here for the night. Obviously there were other people there though as standard for a clear warm night. This was also a few days before summer solstice so don't let the ole "we don't have full darkness" thing put you off from trying!!!


*** by Lee, on Flickr

Nearly 2 years ago. And no, I still haven't got it vertical later in the season yet!
 
And then... for some strange reason we decided to try a local beach at Burnham on Sea for the lighthouse. Crazy really because there's Bridgwater to the left & the huge Hinkley Point power station construction to the right but with a lot of editing there was something to be pulled from it!!


*** by Lee, on Flickr


*** by Lee, on Flickr


*** by Lee, on Flickr
 
Beautiful sets of images Lee. Love all the foreground choices, you are certainly spoiled there. It was wonderful to watch your progression from the start of the thread to now.
Your son for starting off his equipment is amazing and far better than anything I have.
Keep going as your images prove you are doing magnificent.
I find dslr astrophotography much harder than my usual of telescope and deep sky imaging haha. But a lot easier to take the tripod out, Canon 600D and Samyang 14mm and capture the milky-way and all sorts of Widefield astrophotography.
Noctilucent cloud season is nearly upon us, so with the no astro dark now that's my goal to capture the elusive.
Lee
 
Wow! thats all I can say. I really do know how much work is involved in creating these. Just superb.
 
AstroNebulee said:
Beautiful sets of images Lee. Love all the foreground choices, you are certainly spoiled there. It was wonderful to watch your progression from the start of the thread to now.
Your son for starting off his equipment is amazing and far better than anything I have.
Keep going as your images prove you are doing magnificent.
I find dslr astrophotography much harder than my usual of telescope and deep sky imaging haha. But a lot easier to take the tripod out, Canon 600D and Samyang 14mm and capture the milky-way and all sorts of Widefield astrophotography.
Noctilucent cloud season is nearly upon us, so with the no astro dark now that's my goal to capture the elusive.
Lee
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Thanks Lee.

It's only luck that I've found some local spots from landscape and photography walks. There's been plenty of all night trips before and visits to Wales and the Dorset coast.

And still plenty of places to visit too!
 
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