===== Night Sky Images - 21/09/2021 =====

Mostly clear. Very bright Jupiter just visible over the horizon at our location.

Gear:
  * Canon EOS 200D
  * Tokina AT-X Pro SD 11-16mm f/2.8 (IF) DX
  * Sigma F2.8 105mm EX DG HSM OS
  * Tripod

Weather:
  * Mostly clear

Location:
  * Garden

Software
  * [[https://www.rawtherapee.com/|Rawtherapee]] - RAW file importing, optical correction & image processing
  * GIMP - RAW/TIF to JPEG, cropping

==== Images ====

The first two images are the closest I've been able to get of the Milky Way - at my latitude and this time of year it's not greatly visible as you only get the tail edge drifting above the horizon. At ISO 3200 I can just start to make out some of the denser areas in the middle of the image. Longer exposures and/or stacking would definitely help here.

<imgcaption 1|Tokina F2.8 11mm, ISO3200 20s, processed from RAW>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_09_21:img_3233.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption> <imgcaption 2|Tokina F2.8 11mm, ISO3200 20s, unprocessed JPEG>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_09_21:img_3233_raw.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption>

<imgcaption 3|Tokina F2.8 11mm, ISO1600 20s, processed from RAW>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_09_21:img_3234.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption>  <imgcaption 4|Tokina F2.8 11mm, ISO1600 20s, unprocessed JPEG>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_09_21:img_3234_raw.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption>

Jupiter was just visible above the tops of the trees in our garden, and I tried a few variations of exposures and ISO speeds. The one below (ISO 3200, 15 seconds) was probably the best of the bunch:

<imgcaption 5|Tokina F2.8 11mm, ISO3200 15s, processed from RAW>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_09_21:img_3239.jpg?400|}}</imgcaption> <imgcaption 6|Tokina F2.8 11mm, ISO3200 15s, unprocessed JPEG>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_09_21:img_3239_raw.jpg?400|}}</imgcaption>

I also tried out a longer lens, my Sigma 105mm, I definitely need some more practice with this one at night. 3 second exposures is just beyond what you can do at 105mm, so it really should have been 2.5s. The below image is the best of the few shots I took with it. Clearer image of Jupiter, but not as good imaging of the general starfield background:

<imgcaption 7|Sigma F2.8 105mm, ISO3200 3s, processed from RAW>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_09_21:img_3243.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption> <imgcaption 8|Sigma F2.8 105mm, ISO3200 3s, unprocessed JPEG>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_09_21:img_3243_raw.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption>