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My budget attempt on The Milky Way Galaxy
Lens: smc Pentax-DAL 18-55mm Camera: K-x Photo Location: Pulau Redang, Malaysia ISO: 1600 Shutter Speed: >6s Aperture: F3.5 
Posted By: learnphotography, 05-22-2010, 08:20 AM

I am an astronomy as well as photography hobbyist. Consequently, I had always wanted to do a milky way shot. I just got my K-x not long ago and took it on a short getaway to P.Redang Malaysia.
I took this shot at P.Redang and was quite happy with the result considering that i was using only a kit lens and a budget DSLR. I thought that i wld only see a faint streak of stars.

20shots and 10 dark frames

15secs @1600
18mm f/3.5
Remote Shutter Release
Velbon Ultra LUXi II M Tripod
0100hrs
Windless night
Stacked using DeepSky Stacker and edited using Photoshop



K-x and kit lens package rock!
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05-22-2010, 08:54 AM   #2
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That's looks like a great shot to me. How does that work? Is the camera on something that automatically tracks, so you don get movement?
05-22-2010, 08:56 AM   #3
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QuoteOriginally posted by 7.62lew Quote
That's looks like a great shot to me. How does that work? Is the camera on something that automatically tracks, so you don get movement?
Hi,

20shots and 10 dark frames of 15secs @1600. And then stack all of them with deep sky stacker.
05-22-2010, 12:18 PM   #4
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That's amazing! Very nice shot. I can't wait to be in a place where I can truly see the Milky Way in its entirety.

05-22-2010, 12:37 PM   #5
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A great image - especially for such a standard equipment and untracked! I would adjust colour balance, though, as this is way too red. The Milky Way has just a faint yellowish glow (just like our sun) as the general colour.

Ben
05-22-2010, 02:57 PM   #6
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It looks top notch to me - in fact, I'm ready to beam up to the Enterprise.

Wonderful job.

Jer
05-22-2010, 03:38 PM   #7
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Excellent image here.
Great detail for a kit lens series, wide open too!

05-22-2010, 06:30 PM   #8
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Excellent, regardless of the lens! Impressive considering it was the kit...

Adam
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05-22-2010, 10:16 PM   #9
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Oh, very nice!
05-23-2010, 03:03 AM   #10
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Impressive for the kit lens.

wonder what this would have been like with the kit lens stopped down a bit though.
Also agree it is a bit too red as well ... as the Milky Way in my nightsky is nowhere near that colour.
06-07-2012, 04:27 PM   #11
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quick question..... how to you get dark frames? cover the lens with lens cap and take pictures?
06-12-2012, 11:59 PM   #12
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Very cool shot!
06-13-2012, 12:08 AM   #13
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It's beautiful. I would love to see what you could do with a nice wide prime lens. I hope you have a giant print made and put in on your wall.
06-13-2012, 12:10 AM   #14
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What do you mean by dark frames?
06-13-2012, 12:57 PM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by Scootatheschool1990 Quote
What do you mean by dark frames?
A dark frame is exactly that. You take an image in complete darkness (say with the lens cap on the lens), with the exact same exposure time as the real shot and at the same ambient temperature. This dar frame will only contain noise. If you take several dark frames and average them, you get a "mean noise image" of your individual camera. You can substract this dark frame from the real images during post-processing, thus reducing the apparent noise in the image.

You can go one step further, by also taking "flat fields", images of a completely evenly illuminated surface or special light source (available through astronomy dealers). If you use the same lens at the same aperture setting as you use for the real image, the flat field will show the exact vignetting and uneven brightness produced by that very lens (and maybe the sensor). YOu can then also substract that flat field from your real image in post processing, generating a final image with reduced (or eliminated) vignetting.

Both techniques are used routinely by astro imagers and you'll find a lot of info on the usual websites (skyandtel.com, cloudynights etc.)

Ben
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