Amazing Sky by Alan Dyer

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Southern Milky Way Panorama (Fish-eye 2014) - B&W Naked Eye View.jpg

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A 360° x 220° fish-eye panorama of the southern night sky, showing the Milky Way all the way across the sky with the centre of the Galaxy directly overhead. The Dark Emu extends from the Coal Sack at upper left to the dark lanes in Scutum at lower right. Venus is rising at right amid the zodical light and some cloud. Mars, at opposition, is just setting behind the trees at left.

I shot this at 4:30 a.m. April 11, 2014 from the Two Styx Cabins just outside the boundary of New England National Park, NSW, Australia. This is a stitched panorama composed of 6 segments, each taken with an 8mm fish-eye lens on the Canon 5D Mark II. So while one image with this lens aimed straight up would have recorded a similar scene. taking a panorama of 6 images, at 60° spacings, and stitching them allows the image to extend below the horizon to take in more of the ground, creating a scene that takes in a full 360° in azimuth but more than 180° in altitude.

Each segment is a 1-minute untracked exposure at f/3.5 and ISO 4000. So the stars are slightly trailed. The images were stitched in PTGui using the spherical projection mode. Finishing was in Photoshop. This version of the image has been processed to make the view better resemble what you see with the unaided eye, in a largely monochrome and softer view than the colourful and high-contrast views commonly presented in astrophotos. Even at that there is more fine structure present in the Milky Way than the unaided eye usually sees, though binoculars beging to reveal that smaller detail. I have left some colours in some stars and in the foreground of landscape scenes.
Copyright
© 2014 Alan Dyer
Image Size
6900x4194 / 6.0MB
Contained in galleries
Simulated Naked-Eye and Eyepiece Views
A 360° x 220° fish-eye panorama of the southern night sky, showing the Milky Way all the way across the sky with the centre of the Galaxy directly overhead. The Dark Emu extends from the Coal Sack at upper left to the dark lanes in Scutum at lower right. Venus is rising at right amid the zodical light and some cloud. Mars, at opposition, is just setting behind the trees at left. <br /> <br /> I shot this at 4:30 a.m. April 11, 2014 from the Two Styx Cabins just outside the boundary of New England National Park, NSW, Australia. This is a stitched panorama composed of 6 segments, each taken with an 8mm fish-eye lens on the Canon 5D Mark II. So while one image with this lens aimed straight up would have recorded a similar scene. taking a panorama of 6 images, at 60° spacings, and stitching them allows the image to extend below the horizon to take in more of the ground, creating a scene that takes in a full 360° in azimuth but more than 180° in altitude.<br /> <br /> Each segment is a 1-minute untracked exposure at f/3.5 and ISO 4000. So the stars are slightly trailed. The images were stitched in PTGui using the spherical projection mode. Finishing was in Photoshop. This version of the image has been processed to make the view better resemble what you see with the unaided eye, in a largely monochrome and softer view than the colourful and high-contrast views commonly presented in astrophotos. Even at that there is more fine structure present in the Milky Way than the unaided eye usually sees, though binoculars beging to reveal that smaller detail. I have left some colours in some stars and in the foreground of landscape scenes.