My astrophotography 2022

[hhzhang]

Just back from a trip to Sumba, Indonesia. Bortle 1 skies OMG!

Any location in Sumba you would recommend for star gazing?

Any hilltop location will do the best to provide 360 degree unblocked view. We went up to the few locations for sunrise and sunset shooting.

Lendongara Hill

Wairinding Hill

Tenau hill

On this large island of 11,000+ km2, You will actually find it super easy to find a nice place for 360degree open view. Thanks to the terrain and the vegatation (think about savanna).

[hhzhang]

NIL

[hhzhang]

Another set of 20mm frames stacked. Better visual of the milkyway section and the two Magellanic clouds.

[hhzhang]

Another single exposure. 61s, F2.8, ISO400.

[hhzhang]

woow those shots are so nice!!!

Thanks for the compliment.

At the time, I need to resolve the problem with the lens abberations. The 14mm and the 20mm lenses are both suffering from poor star images in the corners or near the edges -- quite annoying when put up on my 4K display (small 1920p display is ok).

So I am left with two choices: spend a couple thousand on new lenses (almost settled on the new Sigma 20mmF1.4 E mount, but undecided on the 14mm choice); or simply go stitching (bye-bye to EZPZ single exposures) with the existing 35mm or 20mm lens. Hmm, maybe the latter, as we are after superior image quality.

[hhzhang]

Milky Way goes vertical over the dancing tree. From the same trip to Sumba.



The sky was a tracked shot with Rokinon 14mmF2.8 @ ISO400 and 60s. With a soft focus filter.

[hhzhang]

The Harvest Moon is a familiar and beautiful sight to enjoy despite the presence of clouds.

[hhzhang]

Mobilephone astrophotography

On my trip to northern Thailand, I experimented mobilephone astrophotography using my new mobile phone. Thanks to the 1/1.22" sensor size and F1.7 fast lens, it is a handy tool for non deep sky wide field pictures of the night sky.

[hhzhang]

In northern Thai, the M31 galaxy is super high in the night sky. Adding to that is the advantage of low light pollution. For the first time I used the polar scope to do the polar alignment. Super easy.

I let my mirrorless cam shoot M31 using the 200mm F2.8 lens (stepdown to 58mm). But this cropped close-up picture shows that the star sizes are quite bloated. Astrograph scopes are out of the question -- and I do hope Sony or third party can produce new-generation telephoto optics like Nikon's 400mmF4.5 Z.