First attempt

[Basil]

Me and SWMBO went with some friends to the Gran Quivira Pueblo Mission last night and I tried some night sky photography for the first time (they were open till 10PM for a special autonomy event). I bought a Rokinon 14mm lens to use on my 6D just for the occasion. I had the camera on a sturdy tripod and tried to pre-focus before taking long exposures. The sults were “ok” but not as spectacular as I was hoping. Here are a few of the shots that were taken looking due south at where the Milky Way comes up above horizon. The shot were the walls look red was my attempt at light painting with a red-lens penlight. In the second picture you can see where an airplane in the distance trekked across the frame. In the last picture there are some vertical streaks that I think were meteors or possibly satellites? Click the thumbnails to open larger version.

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[DrEntropy]

Very neat, sir! Especially the last one.

[Gliderman8]

Wow, out of this world shots.

[DavidApp]

Those are great shots. A clear night away from light pollution.

Would make a nice series of prints.

David

[Boink]

That last one is AMAZING... and I'd think there might be motion artifact with a long exposure. No?

[Basil]

Those are great shots. A clear night away from light pollution.

Would make a nice series of prints.

David

Thanks. One problem was the fact that there was a lot of smoke on the horizon from some fires in our state, which is evident in the orange-is glow on the horizon. That glow was not evident with the naked eye.

[Bob McElwee]

Wow, i haven't seen that many stars in the sky in a long, long time around here. Great pics.

[Basil]

That last one is AMAZING... and I'd think there might be motion artifact with a long exposure. No?

I have an App called "Dark Skys" that allows you to select the focal length of the lens you are using for star photography and it tells you how many seconds you can expose before star motion will become apparent. In this case, I was using a 14mm lens soon a full frame camera and the max time of exposure before I should see any star-motion is 42.17 seconds. My exposures were all between 20 and 30 seconds (most at 25 seconds) so I don't think star motion would have been an issue.

[65_BRG_Sprite]

Oh wow!

[waltesefalcon]

Great photos. In that last photo is that a falling star in the center of the frame? I like how the plane in the second shot is a series of dots as the lights moved along.

[Basil]

Great photos. In that last photo is that a falling star in the center of the frame? I like how the plane in the second shot is a series of dots as the lights moved along.

Thanks Walt. Yes there was a plane going across the scene in one of the pictures. As for the streaks in the last picture (there are actually a couple if you look closely), I suspect satellites. The shutter was open approximately 25 seconds and a shooting star I think would have left a much longer trail. I'm not positive, but satellites would be my guess. The ISS did fly overheard earlier in the evening (while still dusk) and we saw it but didn't get any pictures.

[waltesefalcon]

Satellites make sense. You were able to track the ISS? That is awesome.

[Basil]

Satellites make sense. You were able to track the ISS? That is awesome.

Well, not "track" exactly - we just saw it go across the sky. There were some amateur astronomers there who happened to know exactly when and where it would be visible. This is a web site where you can determine when ISS will be visible from different locations: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/home.cfm

This is the info for where we were located last Saturday:

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[waltesefalcon]

Ahha.

[Popeye]

Really cool. And beautiful photos!!