The Astro Milky Way

[JimFox]

@Bill Richards has been so generous to allow me to go with him to the dark sky site for the San Diego Astronomy Association. My goal there was to set up for the first time my new Astro camera, the ASI2600mc Pro. But... I had also gotten a new lens, well this was the 3rd copy of the new lens, the Samyang 14mm f2.8 mk2. I had gotten it for both backup purposes and to have as a 3rd 14mm fast lens when needed. So the first 2 copies were decentered, the first was out of focus on the left side really badly, the second, wasn't as bad but was still out of focus but this time on the right side. This 3rd copy tested pretty good, but I wasn't 100% certain on it. In the house tests with test sheets are one thing, but what I needed was a real world test. So I had it with me on this night.

Once I got my Deep Space Astro rig working, it took a while and I needed Bills help. It was well after midnight and the Milky Way was up. So I pulled out my D850 and the Samyang 14mm, pointed it at the Milky Way getting some of the other astro gear of other guys that were set up in the row behind Bill and I. My intention was really just to test it, but when I viewed the images today to see how they looked, I decided to process one, and also give a little look at the Dark Sky Site.

Nikon D850
Samyang 14mm f2.8
ISO 3200
f2.8
25 secs

All comments are welcome,

Jim

PS. I decided to keep the colorful light pollution on the horizon since I thought it worked well with the reds and blues of the astro equipment on the ground.

 

[AlanLichty]

Interesting result with the astro photographers out playing around.

 

[TimMc]

Very nice

 

[Ben Egbert]

Jim, the MW is really great, looks like this copy works and wide open at that.

Also, for a dark sky site, the horizon is brighter than expected. but that probably does not matter for astro work. Looks like they have a pretty nice set up, are those toilets?

 

[JimFox]

Interesting result with the astro photographers out playing around.

Thanks so much Alan!

 

[JimFox]

Very nice

I appreciate that Tim!

 

[JimFox]

Jim, the MW is really great, looks like this copy works and wide open at that.

Also, for a dark sky site, the horizon is brighter than expected. but that probably does not matter for astro work. Looks like they have a pretty nice set up, are those toilets?

Thanks Ben. Yeah, this copy will be worth keeping. One nice thing with the MK2 version is the focus lock. It’s nice to be able to lock the focus in and not worry about it accidentally being bumped.

The location was set up about 40 or 50 years ago, so the skies were much darker there, and the light pollution on the horizon didn’t exist. The view to the west is worse then that with a large light dome coming from San Diego. The thing I have learned about dark sky sites is they don’t really consider light pollution along the horizon. Arches is a dark sky site I think, and you saw the light pollution from Moab is pretty bad on the horizon. I have concluded that the dark sky site designation is concerned mainly with looking up for Deep Space. It’s not thinking about those of us who shoot wide angle Milky Way images.

So this spot is pretty dark for looking up. And it does have concrete pads to set up. It has electricity, water, a bathroom, a place to eat, etc. and it has other astrophotographers!