Hi all

On Saturday night, I headed out to the Mangrove Mountain Pony Club for the first time since January, to do some social observing with friends, and some widefield photography away from home.

The image below is the outcome from the night – a widefield Milkyway image taken with my Canon 350D and 28mm f/2.8 lens, piggybacked on my ED80/EQ6.

Given it was my first image in so long, I’m quite happy with how it turned out. Drift aligning went smoothly and quickly, I didn’t forget to take anything, and generally it all went as well as I could’ve hoped. I just had to remember how to process as well!

Unfortunately the 28mm lens isn't a good performer, and I didn't stop it down far enough to get rid of the large amounts of field curvature/coma in the corners (some of it is cropped out but there's still heaps).

A small 600px wide version is attached (to get it under 100kb). You can read more and view a 1200px wide less compressed version here:
The Milkyway from Mangrove Mountain Pony Club

Thanks for looking.

Attached Images

20090912-milkyway-600px.jpg (96.2 KB, 56 views)

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Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery

THAT IS AWESOME!

Beautiful Picture! Oh man I wish I could take snap shots like that..

Aah...what a beauty, Mike!

Lovely animation of the Milky Way and the stars.
Henceforth when it rains, I shall remember this animation and wonder and be awed again in my mind.

Thanks for sharing your evening and all

best regards

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clear skies

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. CARL SAGAN

Mak: Pass the pepperoni please.
Fazor: "Hail, Bautainia! We pledge our hearts to thee! Science and woo, some babbling too, and astron-oh-meee!"
slang: And it made ash out of yew and tree.

That is so beautiful.. I wish I knew how to take my own like that.

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I can't help but look at the quiet majesty of the night sky and think about the hugeness; the strangeness; the pure unknowable grandeur of the universe. - Staiduk

Beautiful. Nice having the center of the Milky Way overhead not on the horizon as here. Stars look good to me.

$50 wide angle lenses in the 50's through 70's gave far worse stars. $50 was a lot of money in those days as well, about $500 in gasoline dollars. So even $50 was too much for me at that time but I spent it anyway and got far worse stars even at f/8. I'd have been thrilled with the stars in your image.

Rick

Stunning Milky Way image. Wow.

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Observatorio de la Ballona

Wow a really superb sublime dazzling shot, pretty awesome!

It seems very good to me, I can't see the comma aberration you mention at least at the resolution you posted the image.

That makes me want to travel the universe ....... Wow