Last night's Milky Way images from Anza-Borrego

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Dave_W

The Dude
I got a wild hair and drove out to Anza-Borrego desert this morning (if you call 1 AM "morning") so that I would get there just after the moon went down. Yeah, a little crazy, no doubt, but I ended up with some pretty cool images of the Milky Way. And even out in the middle of the desert I was still picking up some light pollution.


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_DW26986-pan-4SharpDefine-No-postSharp.jpg
 
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Moab Man

Senior Member
Spectacular!

Setting, focal length, lens, blah blah blah... you know the drill.

You must have one of those nice cameras :glee:
 
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Dave_W

The Dude
Moab Man said:
Spectacular!

Setting, focal length, lens, blah blah blah... you know the drill.

You must have one of those nice cameras :glee:
Click to expand...

Ah, you're right. I'm a little punch drunk from staying up all night. I used my 14-24mm and bounced between ISO-800 and 1600 and put the pano's (the 1st image is not a pano but the others are) using Photoshop.

Btw - I did the LR test and came up with the same conclusion that you found.
 
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Moab Man

Senior Member
Dave_W said:
Ah, you're right. I'm a little punch drunk from staying up all night. I used my 14-24mm and bounced between ISO-800 and 1600 and put the pano's (the second image is not a pano but the others are) using Photoshop.

Btw - I did the LR test and came up with the same conclusion that you found.
Click to expand...

I still have to look again pertaining to the question you asked. Will follow up - we'll get there eventually. I think it's a very worthwhile write-up.

Back on topic... exposure time my punch drunk friend.
 
D

Dave_W

The Dude
Moab Man said:
I still have to look again pertaining to the question you asked. Will follow up - we'll get there eventually. I think it's a very worthwhile write-up.

Back on topic... exposure time my punch drunk friend.
Click to expand...

I tried to keep it no longer than 20 sec in an attempt to keep the stars from sliding as much as possible, hence the reason for the higher ISO's. I did take a few at longer time periods and lower ISO's but I think the ~20 sec exposures worked best.
 
R

Rexer John

Senior Member
AWESOME!
Sorry, had to be big and bold with an exclamation mark, so cool.
Dave_W said:
...so that I would get there just after the moon went down....
I was still picking up some light pollution.
Click to expand...


Do you think it's man made light pollution or air pollution picked up from the moon being not too far below the horizon?
I read somewhere once that we will never see the sky as our ancestors did, even on the middle of the Pacific due to the pollutants in the air.
 
Watoh

Watoh

Senior Member
Rexer John said:
I read somewhere once that we will never see the sky as our ancestors did, even on the middle of the Pacific due to the pollutants in the air.
Click to expand...

That is true to a certain extent, but we are far from being the only source that has put particulates in the atmosphere... those persky volcanoes etc put a hell of a lot of dust & other pollutants up there over millenia.. Often cited as the cause of ice ages, some of our distance ancestors would have seen very little! :)

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Spectacular, Dave. That was on my list of things to perhaps try on my trip out there next week, had it happened. Now I'm not just pissed but jealous as all get-out.
 
D

Dave_W

The Dude
crycocyon said:
I don't use the word "fantastic" very often but those are fantastic. What focal length on the zoom did you use?
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I used 14mm on all of them. What's really cool about shooting in the desert is the lack of moisture in the air. Between the dry air and the moon going below the horizon just lights the entire sky with stars.
 
D

Dave_W

The Dude
Rexer John said:
AWESOME!
Sorry, had to be big and bold with an exclamation mark, so cool.



Do you think it's man made light pollution or air pollution picked up from the moon being not too far below the horizon?
I read somewhere once that we will never see the sky as our ancestors did, even on the middle of the Pacific due to the pollutants in the air.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the skies we see are not nearly as bright as the were before industrialization but the pollution I was referring to was the orange colored light pollution you see near the horizon presumably coming from as far away as San Diego or maybe some of the smaller towns in the hills between Anza and San Diego. I'm thinking the only way to completely avoid light pollution is to set up somewhere in the middle of Nevada or maybe the north western part of Utah.
 
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