===== Night Sky Images - 04/11/2021 =====



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

Weather:
  * Light cloud (~10%)

Location:
  * Garden

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

==== Images ====

Not a great image, looking South/West - You can just about make out Deneb (Cygnus) descending below the tree line here. Quite a noisy image - not the best, though looking very closely you can barely make out the tiny form of the Andromeda galaxy at the upper left corner.

<imgcaption 1|EOS 200D, Tokina f/2.8 11-16mm. F4.0, 16mm, ISO800, 5x180s>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_11_04:out_a_1.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption> <imgcaption 2|Single 180s, ISO800 frame taken from unaltered RAW sequence>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_11_04:img_3804_raw.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption>

Looking East, with Capella (Auriga constellation), Mirfak (Persus) and the Pleaides cluster visible in the centre of the image.

<imgcaption 3|EOS 200D, Tokina f/2.8 11-16mm. F4.0, 11mm, ISO800, 5x180s>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_11_04:final_d_1_.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption> <imgcaption 4|Single 180s, ISO800 frame taken from unaltered RAW sequence>{{:blog:photography:night:2021_11_04:img_3811_raw.jpg?550|}}</imgcaption>

=== Conclusion ===

Reducing ISO to 800 and increasing exposure didn't work too well; also the sky wasn't as clear as I thought, with the main tree-line sequence particularly plagued by thin cloud. Next time I'll increase the ISO back up again and reduce the exposures back to 60-120 seconds, with more exposures if possible.

I have a possible location that I can take images from that is within 10 minutes walking distance from the house... it //should// be subject to less light polution - which, along with the very high angle I need to image from in the garden, is one of the biggest problems here. I'm aiming to try it out the next available (clear skies, dry ground [Ha! In Winter, in the UK?] weekend.