Milky Way and Mars above Pagham Harbour
This is my second go at capturing the Milky Way in a Photograph. The last one was 2 years ago. This was taken with a fisheye lens which causes the curve up in the foreground. This shot was taken on a clear night last Tuesday evening coinciding with a few days after the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower. I saw some quite good ones but none coinciding with when I was taking a picture. This part of the South Coast of England is far from ideal for taking the Milky Way. Pagham Harbour is a nature reserve a mile from home and a small gap in the coastal sprawl of light pollution. Light glow from Bognor Regis is just a few miles to the east while to the West there are coastal towns such as Selsey and the strong light glow from the City of Portsmouth about 17 miles away as the crow flys. Luckily from my location at the Harbour Mouth the Milky Way was in the gap between glows. The Milky Way is the brightest central part of our Galaxy. The best parts can only be seen in the summer because the sun is in that area in the winter. The best times are April through to September.
The other major feature in the picture is Mars. The Planet is at its closest to us since 2003 and is 10 times brighter than normal. It can be seen in the picture in the middle bottom and is bright enough to create a reflection in the water. It was at its closest at the end of July but will remain very bright for several months yet. In the UK Mars rises this month after sunset and is visible most of the night low in the southern sky
I checked on suitable settings for the image. These are not accurate in Exif as the Fisheye is a manual lens. I used my widest aperture of f3.5, 30 seconds and ISO of 2000. Most wide angle lens require 20-25 seconds to avoid movement showing in the stars. With the Fisheye I was able to go to 30 seconds. The image was taken at 10.46 just a minute after the end of Astronomical Twilight when the sky will be at the darkest it will get. The moon had set 30 minutes earlier. The foreground was lit by surrounding skyglow from light pollution. I took shots until 11.30. I used the in camera Noise Reduction and a remote trigger device. It was quite warm at 17C and no problem with condensation.I used a Sony A700 with a Samyang Fisheye lens at 8m. Taken with a Tripod looking south over from the Harbour Mouth looking over the shingle spit at mid tide.
A lot of steps were taken in the processing to bring out the milky way starting with Raw adjustments. This was followed by Topaz DeNoise which removed quite a large amount of Noise. Then Topaz Clarity to bring up more detail. I used various Brightness contrast adjustment layers with masks to brighten and darken various parts of the image including darkening the light pollution and brightening the Milky Way and foreground. A Photoshop Action was used from Astronomy Tools to select and brighten the stars..
For my Photography books see My Author Page USA or My Author Page UK
Please visit my â Facebook Page
For Galleries, Prints and Licences see Edwin Jones Photography
Milky Way and Mars above Pagham Harbour
This is my second go at capturing the Milky Way in a Photograph. The last one was 2 years ago. This was taken with a fisheye lens which causes the curve up in the foreground. This shot was taken on a clear night last Tuesday evening coinciding with a few days after the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower. I saw some quite good ones but none coinciding with when I was taking a picture. This part of the South Coast of England is far from ideal for taking the Milky Way. Pagham Harbour is a nature reserve a mile from home and a small gap in the coastal sprawl of light pollution. Light glow from Bognor Regis is just a few miles to the east while to the West there are coastal towns such as Selsey and the strong light glow from the City of Portsmouth about 17 miles away as the crow flys. Luckily from my location at the Harbour Mouth the Milky Way was in the gap between glows. The Milky Way is the brightest central part of our Galaxy. The best parts can only be seen in the summer because the sun is in that area in the winter. The best times are April through to September.
The other major feature in the picture is Mars. The Planet is at its closest to us since 2003 and is 10 times brighter than normal. It can be seen in the picture in the middle bottom and is bright enough to create a reflection in the water. It was at its closest at the end of July but will remain very bright for several months yet. In the UK Mars rises this month after sunset and is visible most of the night low in the southern sky
I checked on suitable settings for the image. These are not accurate in Exif as the Fisheye is a manual lens. I used my widest aperture of f3.5, 30 seconds and ISO of 2000. Most wide angle lens require 20-25 seconds to avoid movement showing in the stars. With the Fisheye I was able to go to 30 seconds. The image was taken at 10.46 just a minute after the end of Astronomical Twilight when the sky will be at the darkest it will get. The moon had set 30 minutes earlier. The foreground was lit by surrounding skyglow from light pollution. I took shots until 11.30. I used the in camera Noise Reduction and a remote trigger device. It was quite warm at 17C and no problem with condensation.I used a Sony A700 with a Samyang Fisheye lens at 8m. Taken with a Tripod looking south over from the Harbour Mouth looking over the shingle spit at mid tide.
A lot of steps were taken in the processing to bring out the milky way starting with Raw adjustments. This was followed by Topaz DeNoise which removed quite a large amount of Noise. Then Topaz Clarity to bring up more detail. I used various Brightness contrast adjustment layers with masks to brighten and darken various parts of the image including darkening the light pollution and brightening the Milky Way and foreground. A Photoshop Action was used from Astronomy Tools to select and brighten the stars..
For my Photography books see My Author Page USA or My Author Page UK
Please visit my â Facebook Page
For Galleries, Prints and Licences see Edwin Jones Photography