Learning Curve

[BobSapey]

http://5693 with names by Bob Sapey, on Flickr

My first photo of 2021. It was an almost clear sky yesterday and before the moonrise a lot of stars were visible.

I was experimenting with my mini tracker, a clockwork machine that takes a bit of guesswork to get right. This is a 61 second exposure at 17mm (1.6 crop factor) and f/2.8. While there's a little trailing, I think the tracker settings were fairly good for this one. Without it I wouldn't have managed any more than 20 seconds.

I was able to keep the ISO down to 320, though I do think it is a bit under-exposed. Next time I'll try 640.

Once I'd done a bit of fiddling in LR, I realised I only really recognised Pleiades, so with the help of Stellarium I have done a bit of labelling. So a mediocre photo, but good for learning.

[ST-EOS]

An interesting experiment Bob I must resurrect Stellarium on a PC and give this a try. How did you overlay the names on to your image?

[colin C]

Well done Bob. Something I would like to do, but a little too much light pollution in my area

[BobSapey]

An interesting experiment Bob I must resurrect Stellarium on a PC and give this a try. How did you overlay the names on to your image?

I used a vector graphics program called Xara. I've had this since it was Artworks on Acorn RISC PC, and I find it simpler than PS for drawing.

[BobSapey]

Well done Bob. Something I would like to do, but a little too much light pollution in my area

I use a Cokin Clearsky light pollution filter. There’s a fair level of light pollution here, but I find the higher I aim the darker it gets.