I’d like to start out by stating that there is no way the human eye can see the night sky exactly like this. We as people persons cannot replicate the long exposure techniques used here. With that said, I figured I would take advantage of how cameras capture the night sky by implementing a common imaging technique known in the astrophotography world.
If you like this shot, you can check meowt on Instagram: @danieljstein to see more of my Milky Way stuff!
I also have a website here if you want to see even more of my photography!
I was so happy to find out the skies would finally be clear in upstate NY last Friday. For folks who are familiar with this region, that is rare this time of year. Despite a 9 hour round trip drive from my home, I decided to go for it as I was having a bad itch to see some juicy Milky Way goodness.
I was going to do a hike, but given the absolute freezing conditions (around -10ºF in some locations when you factor in wind chill), I wanted to keep it short and sweet. With Algonquin Peak seemingly tempting, I ultimately decided an 8 mile hike in balls cold weather after a long drive was not too healthy. Instead, I opted for the much shorter yet still very beautiful Mt. Jo. Armed with microspikes and trekking poles, I hit the trail in the hopes that the sky would remain clear. Should you choose to venture to the Adirondacks for any reason, please remember to be respectful of any rules, regulations, and leave no trace on site.
With that all said, go out to a dark sky near you in the summertime and experience the awe inspiring Milky Way for yourself!
I used a device called a star tracker here is to create a cleaner and more detailed shot of the Milky Way. A tracker is a unit which when aligned will follow the rotation of the Earth, thus allowing me to shoot longer exposures of the sky. The longer the shutter is open, the less ISO sensitivity is needed and as a result will output a cleaner image. Given I was shooting this as a pano, my combined exposure time for the entire image was 15 minutes!
An issue with tracking is that it creates a blurry foreground, so another exposure is needed for the foreground, albeit with the tracker switched to the off position. This is exactly what I did. Without moving the camera, tripod, or tracker, I turned the tracker off and exposed for the foreground prior to initiating the tilting for shooting the pano. With incoming twilight there foreground exposures were a lot quicker to do than in the dead of night.
I used my Nikon D850 and Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART to take this shot. The six star images were taken at f/2.8, ISO 800, 120 seconds each. The foreground shots were at f/2.8, ISO 800, 30 seconds each during twilight. I did initial adjustments in LR on each image, then sent the star pano layers into PTGui to perform the stitching. After stitching the star layers, I did the foreground mosaic. From there, I brought the star pano into Pixinisght where I performed adjustments to reduce the noise, some stars, as well as bring out more data in the Milky Way Core. After this, I brought the output file and the foreground into Photoshop where I stitched the layers together manually using masking to correct for a small discrepancy between the foreground layer and stars while performing additional adjustments to my liking to yield this final result.
If you have any questions about this shot, astrophotography, or astronomy in the Adirondacks in general, feel free to ask below!
EDIT: Full resolution of the pano is 238 MP!
EDIT 2: Here is a setup picture for those wondering
DanielJStein on March 17th, 2019 at 00:05 UTC »
I’d like to start out by stating that there is no way the human eye can see the night sky exactly like this. We as people persons cannot replicate the long exposure techniques used here. With that said, I figured I would take advantage of how cameras capture the night sky by implementing a common imaging technique known in the astrophotography world.
If you like this shot, you can check meowt on Instagram: @danieljstein to see more of my Milky Way stuff!
I also have a website here if you want to see even more of my photography!
I was so happy to find out the skies would finally be clear in upstate NY last Friday. For folks who are familiar with this region, that is rare this time of year. Despite a 9 hour round trip drive from my home, I decided to go for it as I was having a bad itch to see some juicy Milky Way goodness.
I was going to do a hike, but given the absolute freezing conditions (around -10ºF in some locations when you factor in wind chill), I wanted to keep it short and sweet. With Algonquin Peak seemingly tempting, I ultimately decided an 8 mile hike in balls cold weather after a long drive was not too healthy. Instead, I opted for the much shorter yet still very beautiful Mt. Jo. Armed with microspikes and trekking poles, I hit the trail in the hopes that the sky would remain clear. Should you choose to venture to the Adirondacks for any reason, please remember to be respectful of any rules, regulations, and leave no trace on site.
With that all said, go out to a dark sky near you in the summertime and experience the awe inspiring Milky Way for yourself!
I used a device called a star tracker here is to create a cleaner and more detailed shot of the Milky Way. A tracker is a unit which when aligned will follow the rotation of the Earth, thus allowing me to shoot longer exposures of the sky. The longer the shutter is open, the less ISO sensitivity is needed and as a result will output a cleaner image. Given I was shooting this as a pano, my combined exposure time for the entire image was 15 minutes!
An issue with tracking is that it creates a blurry foreground, so another exposure is needed for the foreground, albeit with the tracker switched to the off position. This is exactly what I did. Without moving the camera, tripod, or tracker, I turned the tracker off and exposed for the foreground prior to initiating the tilting for shooting the pano. With incoming twilight there foreground exposures were a lot quicker to do than in the dead of night.
I used my Nikon D850 and Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART to take this shot. The six star images were taken at f/2.8, ISO 800, 120 seconds each. The foreground shots were at f/2.8, ISO 800, 30 seconds each during twilight. I did initial adjustments in LR on each image, then sent the star pano layers into PTGui to perform the stitching. After stitching the star layers, I did the foreground mosaic. From there, I brought the star pano into Pixinisght where I performed adjustments to reduce the noise, some stars, as well as bring out more data in the Milky Way Core. After this, I brought the output file and the foreground into Photoshop where I stitched the layers together manually using masking to correct for a small discrepancy between the foreground layer and stars while performing additional adjustments to my liking to yield this final result.
If you have any questions about this shot, astrophotography, or astronomy in the Adirondacks in general, feel free to ask below!
EDIT: Full resolution of the pano is 238 MP!
EDIT 2: Here is a setup picture for those wondering
Shatterstar23 on March 17th, 2019 at 00:23 UTC »
Is that fire in the bottom right or just lights reflecting weirdly?
ErixKanji on March 17th, 2019 at 00:38 UTC »
Thank you for this picture! This is breathtaking!