Milky Way Over Capital Reef National Park

The Milky Way Galaxy stretches out from the mountains of Capital Reef National Park, Utah

On one of my last nights out on the trip, I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom while camping in Capital Reef National Park and on the way back to my tent, I looked up and saw the brightest Milky Way display I have ever seen with my own eyes. It was right there shooting up from the mountains and reaching up into a completely dark night sky. I all of a sudden realized that this was the reason I never could get the night shots I had always been wanting to get. I had always been taking shots relatively too quickly after the sun had gone down and thus not allowing the skies to become dark enough to really see how bright a completely dark sky really could be. Naturally it helped quite a bit that Capital Reef National Park has very little light pollution around it. That’s just one of many factors that keeps me going back to southern Utah.

I of course stayed up for a few minutes seeing what kind of shots I could get of it. For this shot, I tried a technique I had only read about but not actually tried yet that astrophotographers use all the time called ‘stacking.’ I used a free program called DeepSkyStacker and began seeing what I could do with it at camp the next day. The program has a bit of a learning curve if you’ve never used anything like it before but I was able to get the hang of it quickly enough. This shot uses eight different shots that were ‘stacked’ together to create more intensity without creating star trails.

Do you have any experience with stacking night or astrophotography images? How’d I do for my first try?

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Posted on April 26, 2010.
Posted in Landscape. Tags: Capital Reef National Park, Milky Way Galaxy, Mountains, Night.
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http://sweffling.wordpress.com sweffling

You did fabulously well for a first try. No one would think you were not used to 'stacking': leaves me gasping with admiration.
http://www.cavaroc.com Mike Cavaroc

Thanks again!
http://www.cavaroc.com Mike Cavaroc

Thanks again!
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qtluong

This looks amazing as a web image, and immediately caught my attention. However, I am wondering if the stacking blurred the terrestrial features on the high-res. What lens and ISO did you use for the source images ?
http://www.cavaroc.com Mike Cavaroc

Thanks for the comment Quang-Tuan! In this particular version the mountains are a bit distorted as a result of the stacking. It was the original version that I uploaded quickly because of how excited I was with it, knowing I would upload a reworked version a bit later. However I've uploaded the new version (I had thought in its place) with the ground reworked as well as a few other things tweaked a bit more here: http://bit.ly/b78nJ3

The lens I was using was my Canon 17-40 and I stacked eight 30 second exposures at ISO 3200 so that it would absorb as much light as possible in those 30 seconds each.
qtluong

Thanks for the precisions, Mike. So the automated stacking does blur terrestrial features, but you then fix it (easily ?) in Photoshop. I have also the 17-40, but I found the aperture is just too small to capture enough of the night sky. The Milky Way needs 3min at f4, ISO 3200 (see http://web.me.com/jrichardson4754/Photography/B…). I was looking at the 16-35, and even 24/1.4 and Zeiss lenses, but this technique could provide a low-cost alternative. I'll have to see how much time is spent in post-production.
http://www.cavaroc.com Mike Cavaroc

Thanks for the link! Definitely very helpful. Unfortunately the 17-40 is the only wide angle I have, but given the thrill I got from shooting the Milky Way I may start to look at some new ones as well. This summer I'm also hoping to pick up a Canon 7D which will have a smaller sensor (primary use will be for wildlife), but the extra ISO sensitivity could prove to be very helpful for something like that.

As for fixing it in Photoshop, as long as you're comfortable working with a layer mask, it is easy. For a solid ground shot I used a longer exposure that I had taken after the eight shots so that there would be at least a bit of light on the mountains. Then used the mountains from that shot and essentially just overlayed it over the original so I'd have crisp, lighted mountains as opposed to black and blurry.
qtluong

I wouldn't count on improved high ISO from the 7D. That it has high numbers do not mean they are usable for good quality images.
http://www.cavaroc.com Mike Cavaroc

That unfortunate. I wasn't sure if I would be using it too much for night shots or not so I hadn't looked into the quality of it yet. However I did come across this lens which seems to be a good, low-cost solution for night photography: http://bit.ly/9tbC8e
That may help out my current situation.

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