(click the photo to enlarge)
Here is Jupiter in the Milky Way, looking south into the Sagittarius region of our galaxy, into the galactic center.Jupiter is the bright, big object left-center in the image.
The final image is a composite, composed of fifty 1/10 second exposures at ISO 1600 on the Canon 20D using the 50mm f/1.18 EF lens. These are combined with 10 1/10 second "dark frames", shot at the same time with the lens covered. The light (normal image) frames are combined with the dark frames for noise reduction. The stack is then aligned with a program called Nebulosity, and additional noise reduction, contrast enhancement, and color balancing are done. The processed frames from Nebulosity are then flattened and saved as a TIF image for completion in Photoshop Elements 6.0, using plug-ins from Noel Carboni's "Astronomy Tools" suite, sharpening, additional color balancing, and finally contrast adjustment with Topaz.
The raw images were shot on the 15th of September, unguided using the tripod, with camera movement every ten frames to accommodate the movement of Jupiter and the stars in the visual field. The 1/10 second exposure limit comes from the maximum that can be obtained before star drift becomes apparent. The manual movement on the tripod every ten frames covers rough drift and alignment issues, while the alignment routines in Nebulosity take care of final precision alignment of all the images in the stack.
You can see CG's other guest post HERE.
Technical details not withstanding, La Lomita is an astrophotographer/astronomer's paradise. It lies on the border of a Bortle Class 3-Class 2 dark sky boundary, meaning there is very little light pollution here.
ReplyDeleteThis lets the light from the Milky Way cast shadows during the New Moon, and creates "seeing conditions" that are very nearly perfect during cool, cloud-free nights.
In this shot, the Great Rift is clearly visible running nearly vertical through the shot. This is a dark, non-luminous dust cloud that runs through the galaxy's central horizon. A dark-adapted eye in this environment can see many of the so-called faint fuzzies, including star clusters, galaxies and nebulas.