braxx
New Member
Posts: 45
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Post by braxx on Nov 20, 2011 10:24:31 GMT -5
This is my attempt at capturing the MilkyWay. Neil and I has been speaking about this. The exposure is a bit long as evidenced by the star movement. We were on the boardwalk in Providence Bay on Manitoulin Is. Not much light pollution and lots of stars Terry Attachments:
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Post by aurele on Nov 20, 2011 17:05:53 GMT -5
Nice capture I like that, cant wait for our first Astro outing.
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Post by Neil J. on Nov 20, 2011 17:57:26 GMT -5
Thanks for starting this thread Terry and nice pic of the milky way. I have quite a bit to post on here but I'll start with some links that I think many of you will find useful and interesting. This is a program that I downloaded just a few days ago called Stellarium and it is free and amazingly fun! Just make sure you click on Windows or Mac to get the right version for your computer. It is so cool playing around with the settings, location, etc.. I believe it works even without an Internet connection. www.stellarium.org/I also use some online sky maps found at these websites: Sky-Map www.sky-map.org/Google Sky www.google.com/sky/If you want to know the moon phases, moonrise and moonset times for Timmins: (around the New Moon is best) www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?obj=moon&n=1201To find out about the level of light pollution I recommend using all of these sites: (there are actually colour codes for each level) This is my favourite because it uses an overlay (Bortle Dark Sky Scale) on Google Maps for much of North America. You can zoom in nicely to a street level, bush road or a lake that you may be on. Don't forget that light pollution plays a HUGE, usually negative role in astrophotography! www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/This is the Wikipedia page that explains the Bortle Dark Sky Scale and what you should expect to see under each colour code on the map. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bortle_Dark-Sky_ScaleAurora Borealis (Northern Lights) I recommend reading about the Aurora and what causes (coming from the sun) them if you are interested in taking photos of them. It will also help you know how the Magnetic North Pole is important in regards to them and why they occur where they do. I use two different websites. They show the level of intensity. (From 0 to 10) The satellite view of the current auroral oval (around the magnetic North Pole) is really cool as it shows how far South they are currently reaching. If it is orange or red then it means that the Northern Lights are visible. There is also a forecast map that you can use. If the intensity is 4 or greater then it will often be good in Timmins. www.softservenews.com/aurora.htmwww.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecastI know that is a lot to post at once but I thought it might be easier having the links shown together. Next I'll post some links dealing more with photography and then post some I took during the Summer.
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Post by Neil J. on Nov 20, 2011 18:20:42 GMT -5
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Post by Neil J. on Nov 21, 2011 3:12:07 GMT -5
I have not used Lightroom or any similar program yet for most of my photos. This one is a 45 second exposure at Ivanhoe Lake near Foleyet on July 3, 2011 at 1:15am. The brightest part of the Milky Way is shown which is located within the constellation Sagittarius.
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Post by Neil J. on Nov 21, 2011 3:21:58 GMT -5
And at 60 seconds exposure:
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Post by Neil J. on Nov 21, 2011 3:25:43 GMT -5
I really don't know how to use Lightroom but here is what one of my Milky Way photos looks like after playing around in the program. I've only had the program for a couple of weeks so any advice or pointers would be appreciated.
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braxx
New Member
Posts: 45
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Post by braxx on Nov 23, 2011 13:21:14 GMT -5
Nice stuff Neil. Lots of info in the links. I usually tell my kids I don't want anything for xmas but I'm getting that telescope feeling again........
Terry
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Post by Neil J. on Nov 24, 2011 1:39:37 GMT -5
There are many telescopes out there these days and many of them have built-in programs that move automatically to a specified star, planet, etc. and even move with the Earth's rotation. I still have an old one but love to use it.
The next five days should be good for stargazing if the clouds go away as it is around the time of the new moon.
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