June 26, 2017
Yesterday I moved to the Reva Gap Campground. I wanted to try doing a mosaic of the Milky Way over Reva Gap. I was surprised to find three other guys there with the same plan. Well, not exactly the same plan, but they were doing something with the night sky. Anyway, it worked out well for me, their light gave my image a little added touch. The glow from their lights is below the butte. I suppose I could remove it but I kind of like it. I used a Sigma 35mm f1.2 lens on an iOptron Skytracker to do this. This is 16 frames (30 second exposures at f2.8 and ISO 1600 with a Canon 6D) merged into one panorama using Lightroom. It came out pretty good, I think. I usually expect something to go wrong and it did. I didn't take enough space at the bottom of the image, so had to add some to it. Otherwise, it is pretty much as it came out of the processing. The Andromeda Galaxy is visible in the lower left below the Milky Way and the bright star at the top is Vega. I think the right side is a little lighter than the left due to the night getting darker as I worked my way from south to north. The final image is nearly a gigabyte in size! I might have to see how it would look as a poster.
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