Utah Astrophotography
Smith and Morehouse 135mm upload
A lesson on how to make 10,500 foot mountains look small: image the Milky Way core behind them with a 135mm lens. I've been wanting to get back to my high-res MW core project using a 135mm lens, but a combo of life and clouds have prevented me from jumping back on that train. Tried to get out Friday night and put some work into it, but....clouds. Saturday night I decided to drive up to Smith and Morehouse Reservoir, with the moon setting around 1am and clouds coming in around 2:30am I didn't have a lot of time, so I just decided to try the 135mm as a nightscape lens. Some decently sized mountains surround the reservoir, when you shoot the Milky Way behind them...well, they end up looking pretty small. I love the detail in the sky you can get from this lens though, makes using it as a nightscape lens a lot of fun.
16 shots stitched together as a pano for this one, 12 for the sky (3 minutes, ISO 800, f2.8) and 4 for the foreground (3 minutes, ISO 1600, f2.5) all taken with my Nikon D800E and Samyang 135mm lens on a Sky Watcher Star Adventurer tracking mount.
Smith and Morehouse 135mm upload
A lesson on how to make 10,500 foot mountains look small: image the Milky Way core behind them with a 135mm lens. I've been wanting to get back to my high-res MW core project using a 135mm lens, but a combo of life and clouds have prevented me from jumping back on that train. Tried to get out Friday night and put some work into it, but....clouds. Saturday night I decided to drive up to Smith and Morehouse Reservoir, with the moon setting around 1am and clouds coming in around 2:30am I didn't have a lot of time, so I just decided to try the 135mm as a nightscape lens. Some decently sized mountains surround the reservoir, when you shoot the Milky Way behind them...well, they end up looking pretty small. I love the detail in the sky you can get from this lens though, makes using it as a nightscape lens a lot of fun.
16 shots stitched together as a pano for this one, 12 for the sky (3 minutes, ISO 800, f2.8) and 4 for the foreground (3 minutes, ISO 1600, f2.5) all taken with my Nikon D800E and Samyang 135mm lens on a Sky Watcher Star Adventurer tracking mount.