Driveway Milky Way

On Aug 2 2018, I created this photo from 60 exposures taken from my driveway (neighbor's trees at the bottom). The technique I use is somewhat similar to what the big boys do. The creation and edit of such a photo is not simple so I won't bore you with all of the details but you get a few. By using many shots of the same area of sky, software can determine what are actual stars versus noise in the sensor. By using the equivalent of a long exposure, we can see more light. Once I have the star-points, I can edit the contrast and colors a bit to fully enhance the vision. I am not changing the base data or colors - just the presentation. All of that information really is coming from the camera.

The very bright dot at the lower left of the Milky Way is Mars. Saturn is one of the two bright spots in the Milky Way just above the largest bright spot. The wisps are thin clouds that were present that night. I REALLY want to do some of this work in a truly dark sky. It is on my bucket list.

I have included one of the unedited 60 exposures below that represents what I actually saw that night with my unaided eyes. Each shot was a 20 second exposure in order to minimize the star trails like I showed in the photo yesterday. From the first shot to the last shot, the stars all moved in the sky. The software has to compensate for this movement and line up all 60 shots so the total light recorded can be seen. We live in amazing times where a novice can do this using self-instruction off of YouTube and a few other sources. We are limited by our time and desire to learn and experiment. 

Never stop learning.

Thanks,

Doug White

https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/