Picture of the Day

**supermodel159** · 12-02-2014, 10:31 AM

^^ very cool shot!

**From_the_NEK** · 12-05-2014, 10:37 AM

Originally Posted by supermodel159

^^ very cool shot!

Agreed. I keep waiting for a decent Aurora here in the NE. The event we had this Fall was too cloudy in my area.
I guess I should get a lens that is capable of getting a good shot so that I'm prepared

.

BendtoBridge by Tim_NEK, on Flickr

**From_the_NEK** · 12-05-2014, 03:52 PM

Under the Bridge Short Lens by Tim_NEK, on Flickr

**mtcham** · 12-06-2014, 02:08 AM

Bird hunting with my padre.

Bird Hunting 1-1766 by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

Bird Hunting 1-1676 by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

Bird Hunting 1-1687 by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

Bird Hunting 1-1627 by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

**Supermoon** · 12-06-2014, 08:55 PM

From the MPC. Took a couple shots at the climbing gym today:

Indoor Climbing by Phil Herbert, on Flickr

**mtcham** · 12-08-2014, 03:33 PM

Undine Falls beginning to ice up. Yellowstone

Yellowstone1--2 by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

One of the largest Rams I've run across. Yellowstone

Yellowstone1--3 by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

Yellowstone1-1937 by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

**shroom** · 12-09-2014, 11:25 PM

i spent a week on the east coast over thanksgiving and got see some cool things. i hadn't managed to take any pictures since my last trip over there back in march.

couldn't decide how i wanted to process this; i'll probably try going B&W at some point.

**The AD** · 12-10-2014, 10:37 AM

I was down in San Diego over the weekend visiting my parents. Got some good seal shots in La Jolla!

La Jolla Seal by kirknelson, on Flickr

**sal the salmon** · 12-15-2014, 11:10 PM

**The AD** · 12-16-2014, 08:52 AM

^ Nice one!

**BaNosser** · 12-16-2014, 10:34 PM

Originally Posted by mtcham

Bird hunting with my padre.

Bird Hunting 1-1766 by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

Bird Hunting 1-1676 by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

Bird Hunting 1-1687 by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

Bird Hunting 1-1627 by jrmorris-mt, on Flickr

that brings back some South Dakota memories...

**From_the_NEK** · 12-17-2014, 02:41 PM

Damp day here in these parts. Some of the pictures I took are really making me want the 70-200 2.8 lens.

Winter Birches by Tim_NEK, on Flickr

Farm in the Fog by Tim_NEK, on Flickr

**Dromond** · 12-17-2014, 03:33 PM

Originally Posted by sal the salmon

I love this.

**Fuzz** · 12-17-2014, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by sal the salmon

Great shot indeed! Love the colours, and all the details in the foreground -- the sharp hill on the left, the trees in the middle, and the hazy hill on the right.

**sal the salmon** · 12-17-2014, 07:02 PM

thanks, i forgot to share the story, so here it goes.

Wow. Breathtaking! There were hundereds of geese on the ice between myself and the island, and my arrival promted them all to greet me/sound the alarm. It was truely one of my greatest sounds I have heard in nature. The geese combined with the ice's mysterious reverb and echo, cracking under the flutter of there wings was so amazing. I wish I had been recording audio. I only took one image, and I then left the birds to rest. I am not to sure what is going on with the atmosphere and ambient human lighting, but it created an somewhat surreal effect.

and upon closer thinking, the blue haze on the right is the formation of lake effect fog, and the warmer light on the left is the arrival of a cold front the the area, lit primarly my local residents housing and the small town located behind the island in the center.

**sal the salmon** · 12-17-2014, 07:06 PM

wow fuzz. i just checked out ur portfolio. it means a lot coming from you! your astro work is stunning. It is something i desperatly want to get better at. are you using equitorial mounts for your deep space images, or are you adjusting camera postion and stacking multiple shots? fantastic work. also, if you dont mind me asking, what is your prefered lens for the deep space imagining?

**BeardedClam** · 12-17-2014, 08:32 PM

**Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer** · 12-18-2014, 05:53 PM

jckstein - that is an awesome shot of the Northern Lights.

**Fuzz** · 12-19-2014, 08:12 PM

Originally Posted by sal the salmon

wow fuzz. i just checked out ur portfolio. it means a lot coming from you! your astro work is stunning. It is something i desperatly want to get better at. are you using equitorial mounts for your deep space images, or are you adjusting camera postion and stacking multiple shots? fantastic work. also, if you dont mind me asking, what is your prefered lens for the deep space imagining?

Thanks. For the deep-space objects, yes, I was using a heavy-duty equatorial mount (Sirius EQ-G). For DSOs, you need long exposures to capture enough light (e.g. say a galaxy that generates one photon once a minute) with a long focal length (so it'll show up a decent size). Shooting anywhere from 200mm - 1000mm (telescope) means you must track for long enough to get enough light. My DSO images were a mix -- some with regular lenses (e.g. this and this) and some with a telescope (e.g. this and this).

However, I've seen great results using the smaller/lighter options for a camera (as opposed to for a telescope), e.g. the iOptron Skytracker and AstroTrac. I sold my mounts and telescopes when I moved to London, but if I were to get back into serious astrophotography, I'd go for either the iOptron or AstroTrac over a proper telescope mount -- they're much lighter and more portable = easier to take and use in dark locations.

My Milky Way shots are all shot with just a static tripod (even this one).

Regardless of whether you use a tracking mount or a static tripod, it's always useful to stack multiple images. Despite what many people think, stacking is not used to make fainter objects appear; stacking is used to reduce noise. Stacking is a much better way of reducing high-ISO noise because it averages all the frames (thus noise, which does not show up in the same place in all frames, gets averaged out).

As to lens, the key is something with a wide aperture and not much aberration. For widefield/Milky Way shots I use my Canon 16-35/2.8 and Sigma 15/2.8 fisheye. Both are pretty good wide open and I usually stop down to ~f/3.5. There is a Samyang 14mm manual-focus lens that is also supposed to be fantastic for wide starscapes. On the longer side, I shot Andromeda with my Canon 70-200/2.8 II -- superb at any aperture. Most of other DSOs I shot with my DSLR attached to my AstroTech AT6-RC (a 6" Ritchey-Cretien) telescope.

Just be warned. Astrophotography is a rabbit-hole that goes way, WAY, down. Once you start, you always must have that next piece of gear...and the next...and the next. As you probably already know, the best results are obtained under dark skies. So if you have to travel somewhere to get away from light pollution, make sure your gear is portable.

**abraham** · 12-19-2014, 08:58 PM

And eventually you turn into that guy who took the photo of the youngest moon possible.
http://earthsky.org/space/young-moon-visibility

**supermodel159** · 12-23-2014, 03:36 PM

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Thanks. For the deep-space objects, yes, I was using a heavy-duty equatorial mount (Sirius EQ-G). For DSOs, you need long exposures to capture enough light (e.g. say a galaxy that generates one photon once a minute) with a long focal length (so it'll show up a decent size). Shooting anywhere from 200mm - 1000mm (telescope) means you must track for long enough to get enough light. My DSO images were a mix -- some with regular lenses (e.g. this and this) and some with a telescope (e.g. this and this).

However, I've seen great results using the smaller/lighter options for a camera (as opposed to for a telescope), e.g. the iOptron Skytracker and AstroTrac. I sold my mounts and telescopes when I moved to London, but if I were to get back into serious astrophotography, I'd go for either the iOptron or AstroTrac over a proper telescope mount -- they're much lighter and more portable = easier to take and use in dark locations.

My Milky Way shots are all shot with just a static tripod (even this one).

Regardless of whether you use a tracking mount or a static tripod, it's always useful to stack multiple images. Despite what many people think, stacking is not used to make fainter objects appear; stacking is used to reduce noise. Stacking is a much better way of reducing high-ISO noise because it averages all the frames (thus noise, which does not show up in the same place in all frames, gets averaged out).

As to lens, the key is something with a wide aperture and not much aberration. For widefield/Milky Way shots I use my Canon 16-35/2.8 and Sigma 15/2.8 fisheye. Both are pretty good wide open and I usually stop down to ~f/3.5. There is a Samyang 14mm manual-focus lens that is also supposed to be fantastic for wide starscapes. On the longer side, I shot Andromeda with my Canon 70-200/2.8 II -- superb at any aperture. Most of other DSOs I shot with my DSLR attached to my AstroTech AT6-RC (a 6" Ritchey-Cretien) telescope.

Just be warned. Astrophotography is a rabbit-hole that goes way, WAY, down. Once you start, you always must have that next piece of gear...and the next...and the next. As you probably already know, the best results are obtained under dark skies. So if you have to travel somewhere to get away from light pollution, make sure your gear is portable.

Great stuff in there!