SingAstro

Hi George. Thanks for your PM reply! Here it is. My amateurish attempt at post processing it.

Definitely the best shot of the milky way taken in Singapore that I have seen. Marina Barrage and other southern spots such as labrador park are excellent locations.

Hi George

Thumbs up for your milkyway......it was marvellous to have such a pix of milkyway in sin.......good jobs.

Dont mind sharing your equipments for capturing this shots. Weeks back I try to capture night sky too but the images I took with my 650D seems noisy with little stars. Used fisheye and shutter of 20sec per shot. Havent done the stacking yet but the noise really put me off.....

Gavin. depardeuz, acc -> Thanks! I hope to see even better MW photos in Singapore taken by others. For me, it was really pure luck as I never expect the MW to turn up in the photos. I will definitely try again if time and conditions permit.

ggodetucsamoht -> Thanks! No problem with sharing my equipment and settings:

Camera: Pentax K-30
Lens: DA 12-24mm, shot at 12mm, focus manually set to infinity
Aperture: f4 (this is lowest f-stop I can go for this lens)
Exposure: 10 sec
ISO: 640
Metering: Center average
Tripod: Yes
Tracking mount: No

What were your aperture and ISO settings? I think noise is unavoidable if you using high ISO. But you shouldn't be too bother by the noise as this can be post-processed. Stacking a number of photos helps a lot by averaging the luminance value of each pixel across the frame and reduce noise. You should try stacking it.

I also think 20 secs is abit too long unless it is an absolute dark sky not affected by any nearby light sources. Depending on iso/aperture, I don't think that exposure can go beyond 12-15 seconds in Singapore without wash out by LP. To get a proper exposure, it is really about experimenting on the spot - use widest aperture, shoot iso range 400-1000, varying exposure timing.

I always noticed that the lower part of my night sky photos (be it landscape or portrait) will be wash out by LP based on my previous tries to shoot night sky. This is consistent with what Gary had said in another forum that LP doesn't brighten the whole sky evenly from horizon to zenith. So it does make sense to plan to shoot at the zenith or near-zenith area and wait for interesting objects to rise into that area. It helps a lot when the night sky is clear of clouds and moonless.

Photo below is the original uncropped stacked version. Even at 10 sec short exposure, you can see the washout on the right by the lights from the construction site just beside Marina Barrage. At least the left side is still not that badly affected by the LP and luckily MW is in that area.

Wow !! Very beautifully done Milky way from SG, the best seen so far, at least 12 dB to 16 dB ( refuse to express in ratio) better than the one that i took at Tampines approx a year ago Thanks for sharing.

Loyola: interesting workflow...I should try it at East coast beach on a night as clear as 19th that kind of sky ;)

Hope you guys have fun doing stargazing or astrophotography as yesterday night sky was very clear.

I was out with friends till midnight yesterday but just can't help noticing that the sky was still clear. So I grabbed my camera and went to the dark big open field area outside Woodleigh MRT station for a go at shooting the Milky Way. After post-processing....I see these...





Stacked 16 x 13 sec using DSS. PP using PS/LR.

Equipment and settings are similar to the one I used for Marina Barrage shoots except that iso is now increased to 800 and exposure increased to 13 seconds.

As you can see with these photos, it is still possible to image the Milky way in Singapore.

Thanks for viewing
George

Woodleigh MRT station will never be the same again!

looyaa: nice shots again!

Yup was observing at ECP with wife and friends, Gary also deployed outside Toa Payoh Library that evening .

Its a rare night for singapore , mustnt let it go to waste

Regards,
Junwei

Summer Triangle by George.



"Details:
Pentax K30 & DA12-24
Shot at 12mm, ISO640
12 x 15 seconds
Stacked using DSS
Taken on July 2, 2013 01:51AM
Tripod: Yes
Equatorial Mount: No" (NO!)

Go to the original source to see the high resolution versions: http://www.flickr.com/photos/58196275@N04/9194852914/

Can see Clifford's favourite object in the triangle - Al Sufi's Cluster!


This thread still haven't moved to the Astrophotography section?