===== Night Sky Images - 03/10/2021 =====

Very clear. This was a short session to test that I was able to set up my recently acquired [[https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/reviews/mounts/sky-watcher-star-adventurer-2i-pro-pack-camera-tracking-mount-review/|Sky Watcher Star Adventurer 2i successfully]], //which I was//.

Gear:
  * Canon EOS 200D
  * Tokina AT-X Pro SD 11-16mm f/2.8 (IF) DX
  * Tripod
  * Star Adventurer 2i tracking mount

Weather:
  * Clear (less than 5% cloud)

Location:
  * Garden

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

==== Images ====

Just a couple of images to prove to myself that everything was working. The first image was using the maximum timed exposure of my EOS 200D, which was 30 seconds - anything from 25 seconds and over would leave slight trails even with my 11mm lens, so that fact that they all disappeared was great:

<imgcaption 1|EOS 200D, Tokina f/2.8, 11mm, ISO3200, 1 x 30 seconds, processed from RAW>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_10_03:img_3497.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption> <imgcaption 2|EOS 200D, Tokina f/2.8, 11mm, ISO3200, 1 x 30 seconds, unprocessed JPEG>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_10_03:img_3497_raw.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption>

Using the bulb function of the camera, I timed a single 60 second exposure (that turned out to be ~64 seconds in reality!) picking up far more detail than I'd ever been able to see previously:

<imgcaption 1|EOS 200D, Tokina f/2.8, 11mm, ISO3200, 1 x 64 seconds, processed from RAW>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_10_03:img_3499.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption> <imgcaption 1|EOS 200D, Tokina f/2.8, 11mm, ISO3200, 1 x 64 seconds, unprocessed JPEG>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_10_03:img_3499_raw.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption>

//Next up is to connect the tracking mount to the camera so that I can control the exposures using the WiFi-connected smartphone application... and try my hand at stacking images. I'll also have to find somewhere reasonably local that I can walk to with a bit less streetlight pollution, as the bleed-through at the bottom of the image was from the street some ~50 metres away from our garden.//