Utah Astrophotography
Silver Lake Milky Way 2016
Decided to go up to Silver Lake near Brighton, Utah and retake a shot I had done last year at this same spot (now that I kinda have a handle on this whole Milky Way photography thing). I only had 30 minutes to take sky shots once it got dark before the moon came up so I couldn't get the whole arch in frame, it's getting late in the Milky Way season which makes the big sweeping arch pano's difficult to get done.
This is a tough place to shoot the Milky Way, lots and lots of people with flashlights/cars/annoyances make it challenging to get clean shots without being apparent. Plus this is a bortle 6 zone with LOTS of light pollution, Salt Lake/Ogden is to the far left, Provo/Orem is to the far right, Park City is in the middle on the other side of the Mountain and Heber is below the core in this shot. Makes for very uneven illumination across the sky and color balance is extremely difficult.
While I was taking one of the foreground shots the slowest meteor I've ever seen zipped down to the horizon. It was so slow I could even clearly see it rotating as it burned up. I stopped my exposure 30 seconds short to make sure I got it, luckily I did both in the sky AND the reflection! I had to work that back into the image since it was lost during the stitching.
Altogether this is 12 shots, 5 for the sky, 5 for the foreground, and 2 extra reflection shots. Each taken with my Nikon D600 and Rokinon 24mm f1.4 lens on my Star Adventurer tracking mount. Sky/reflection shots are 2.5 minute exposures at ISO 400 and f2.5. Foreground shots are 2 minute exposures at ISO 800 and f2.5.
Silver Lake Milky Way 2016
Decided to go up to Silver Lake near Brighton, Utah and retake a shot I had done last year at this same spot (now that I kinda have a handle on this whole Milky Way photography thing). I only had 30 minutes to take sky shots once it got dark before the moon came up so I couldn't get the whole arch in frame, it's getting late in the Milky Way season which makes the big sweeping arch pano's difficult to get done.
This is a tough place to shoot the Milky Way, lots and lots of people with flashlights/cars/annoyances make it challenging to get clean shots without being apparent. Plus this is a bortle 6 zone with LOTS of light pollution, Salt Lake/Ogden is to the far left, Provo/Orem is to the far right, Park City is in the middle on the other side of the Mountain and Heber is below the core in this shot. Makes for very uneven illumination across the sky and color balance is extremely difficult.
While I was taking one of the foreground shots the slowest meteor I've ever seen zipped down to the horizon. It was so slow I could even clearly see it rotating as it burned up. I stopped my exposure 30 seconds short to make sure I got it, luckily I did both in the sky AND the reflection! I had to work that back into the image since it was lost during the stitching.
Altogether this is 12 shots, 5 for the sky, 5 for the foreground, and 2 extra reflection shots. Each taken with my Nikon D600 and Rokinon 24mm f1.4 lens on my Star Adventurer tracking mount. Sky/reflection shots are 2.5 minute exposures at ISO 400 and f2.5. Foreground shots are 2 minute exposures at ISO 800 and f2.5.