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Bill Schone

Bill Schone

Well-known member
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A 4,200 mile road trip from Kansas through Idaho this fall was an absolute trip to remember! Unbelievable state, as they all are. This photo was one that I actually planned (& hoped) to get. Two nights in Stanley, fortunately the first night was clear and yielded this shot. Many thanks to countless individuals on the forum helping me on my continuing quest to improve my skills!
 

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Bill Schone said:
A 4,200 mile road trip from Kansas through Idaho this fall was an absolute trip to remember! Unbelievable state, as they all are. This photo was one that I actually planned (& hoped) to get. Two nights in Stanley, fortunately the first night was clear and yielded this shot. Many thanks to countless individuals on the forum helping me on my continuing quest to improve my skills!
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Beautiful picture Bill👍👍👍
 
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MikeJ said:
Bill that is phenomenal! Is that a single image, or stacked? I've been trying to get a decent MW shot for a couple years, mine sure don't compare!
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Mike, thank you sincerely. It is a single exposure, 30 seconds @ f/2.8, I believe, I’ll double the settings & let you know. I had taken multiple exposures to stack, but didn’t like the results that I got from that. Keep after it. It’s a lot of fun.
 
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Thanks, Bill, I'd appreciate the info. I have a few from a few years ago, single exposures, that turned out OK. Then I bought a star tracker. First year I tried it, I actually was pretty happy with my results. I'm still struggling with the one from this year...
 
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MikeJ said:
Thanks, Bill, I'd appreciate the info. I have a few from a few years ago, single exposures, that turned out OK. Then I bought a star tracker. First year I tried it, I actually was pretty happy with my results. I'm still struggling with the one from this year...
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D75_1195-NEO DeNoise High.jpg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.


Mike, attached is the photo with the EXIF info included (I think). I shot this at 6400 ISO expecting to stack multiple images to help reduce the noise but was unhappy with the results. However I'm going to retry the stacking to see if I can't get something better. I also would normally shoot at 15-20 second exposure if not stacking. So given the thought process that I had, I'm actually pleasantly surprised with this result.
While I had somewhat puffed myself up with the "my planning aspect" of the shoot, I didn't prepare well enough to charge the battery in my tracker, so no tracked images. All in all, it may have actually turned out as well as possible.
 
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Charles Loy said:
Very nice! But was this recent?
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Charles, thank you. Recent is a relative term, but it was taken on September 9, 2023 (this past fall). You might be questioning the lack of smoke in the photo. At your location you may have suffered the same fate of ours in NE Kansas with the Canadian wildfire smoke. Locally I had maybe one other evening that I was able to shot nightscapes because of how bad we had the smoke haze.
For the Idaho pictures, I guess we were far enough west and after the worst of the west coast fires, so that smoke wasn't an issue. Traveling west of Laramie on I-80 on morning there was a massive wall of smoke coming down the mountains, & we're thinking "oh boy there goes the clear nights (and days)" but it stayed to the east of us for the entire trip.
I have a fairly significant allergy to smoke of any kind, so I was really concerned. On the night of this picture we originally set up right next to the campground at Stanley Lake, but the campfire smoke was so bad, we had to change locations or I wouldn't have been able to take any pictures. Moving on down the lake did the trick, and actually may have provided a better composition.
Sorry to ramble, but thanks again for the compliment. Bill
 
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Bill Schone said:
Charles, thank you. Recent is a relative term, but it was taken on September 9, 2023 (this past fall). You might be questioning the lack of smoke in the photo. At your location you may have suffered the same fate of ours in NE Kansas with the Canadian wildfire smoke. Locally I had maybe one other evening that I was able to shot nightscapes because of how bad we had the smoke haze.
For the Idaho pictures, I guess we were far enough west and after the worst of the west coast fires, so that smoke wasn't an issue. Traveling west of Laramie on I-80 on morning there was a massive wall of smoke coming down the mountains, & we're thinking "oh boy there goes the clear nights (and days)" but it stayed to the east of us for the entire trip.
I have a fairly significant allergy to smoke of any kind, so I was really concerned. On the night of this picture we originally set up right next to the campground at Stanley Lake, but the campfire smoke was so bad, we had to change locations or I wouldn't have been able to take any pictures. Moving on down the lake did the trick, and actually may have provided a better composition.
Sorry to ramble, but thanks again for the compliment. Bill
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Nope, I was not questioning any of your explanation. I know the full Milky is not in our view at this time.. simple as that. My question should have been, when was this taken - or better yet I should not have questioned it at all.
Merry Christmas.
 
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Charles Loy said:
Nope, I was not questioning any of your explanation. I know the full Milky is not in our view at this time.. simple as that. My question should have been, when was this taken - or better yet I should not have questioned it at all.
Merry Christmas.
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No problems asking, not offended in the least. Technically the Milky Way is in our view, but the core is below the horizon now. But no offense taken. Merry Christmas to you also!
 
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