Stars above the forest

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brachypelma44

brachypelma44

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This past Saturday, I decided to give night sky photography a try for the first time. I live in an area with so-so star visibility due to light pollution (Bortle 4.) It is certainly more challenging doing everything in the dark (and cold!) Here is my best image from that night:

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(Nikon D850 + 20mm f1.8G) 10 seconds, f2.8, ISO 800
 
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R.Philip said:
What light pollution? ;) Nice image.
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Thank you.

It is remarkable that the camera can see so many stars compared to the naked eye! I could barely see any of the ones in this frame...maybe a few dozen of the brightest stars across the entire sky. I could make out Orion and The Big Dipper, but little else.

I'm a bit North of Baltimore, so unfortunately, there aren't really nice dark skies anywhere nearby.

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brachypelma44 said:
Thank you.

It is remarkable that the camera can see so many stars compared to the naked eye! I could barely see any of the ones in this frame...maybe a few dozen of the brightest stars across the entire sky. I could make out Orion and The Big Dipper, but little else.

I'm a bit North of Baltimore, so unfortunately, there aren't really nice dark skies anywhere nearby.

View attachment 15924
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. I'm 25 miles from Chicago and its amazing how much light noise comes from there.
 
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Thanks for the kind words, folks. I'll have to think hard about how to get decent night sky shots around here, and what other natural objects I can put in the frame along with the stars.
 
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Lights certainly don’t help, there are filters that can help cut down on the light pollution, but being in Kansas I’ve not needed to use them so I don’t know much about them. Additionally you can take multiple exposures & stack them in a product like Sequator, free software that runs on the Windows platform. I think the iOS comparable product is Starry Sky Stacker, there is a cost to it, but I think it’s under $50.00.
other editing software also offer stacking, such as Affinity & I would be reasonably sure PhotoShop would also, but I don’t use PS, so not sure.
I normally shoot 5-15 raw exposures, apply DeepPrime in DxO PhotoLab4, & then stack in Sequator. Sequator also aligns the stars if shot from a static tripod. Then edit further.
I also use a star tracker that rotates with the earth, thus staying “tracked” on the stationary stars, however the foreground becomes a different issue, because it’s then blurry because the mounted camera is moving. Then I normally take a separate exposure (or more to stack) normally late blue hour & then blend the foreground & Sky shot together.

It’s a learning process, but stacking to reduce noise might help.
But keep after it, very good start!
 
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