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Aeons and years of light
Aeons and years of light
fmalan


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Something Old III (Basic Editing)
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D
Location: Sutherland, South Africa
Date: Oct 27, 2007
Aperture: f/1.8
ISO: 1600
Shutter: 15sec
Galleries: Sky, Astrophotography
Date Uploaded: Oct 30, 2007

 I went roadtripping with three friends to Sutherland over the weekend - home to the South African Observatory and the SALT telescope (www.salt.ac.za)
Sutherland is famous for its clear skies and bright starlight (1800m asl in a very arid and remote area). There were some clouds, and since it was full moon, I had to take my photographs after sunset and before moonrise.

This photo was taken from a tripod with a normal 50mm lens looking upward at the sky. It shows the centre of our (spiral) galaxy (part of the milky way) containing the 'tail' of the constellation Scorpio. No telescopes or special equipment were involved. Even at 15sec the Earth's rotation starts to streak the stars, so I could not go for a longer exposure and had to treasure every photon from my F1.8 lens at ISO1600. Overall I'm very happy with the result. (I'd love a star tracker for next time, though)

The colours are genuine, and seem to match the M7 cluster's surrounding colouration as seen at //antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050406.html (central-left in my picture).

Almost no editing. Convert from RAW, slight contrast boost, resize, sharpen.

Statistics
Place: 81 out of 249
Avg (all users): 5.5755
Avg (commenters): 6.6667
Avg (participants): 5.5577
Avg (non-participants): 5.5926
Views since voting: 1052
Views during voting: 163
Votes: 106
Comments: 4
Favorites: 1 (view)

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AuthorThread
 Comments Made During the Challenge
11/06/2007 06:44:56 PM
amazing, any tips?
 11/02/2007 02:45:50 PM
Nice take on the theme. Great exposure.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2007 08:52:17 PM
good idea for the challenge, and nicely taken, this is for a science book 7
 10/31/2007 05:14:41 PM
Yes, well, that's old.


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