Title: Saturn and Jupiter Bracket the Milky Way
Date: Imaged 8 June 2019 (1:38 am)
Location: Hatchet Lake, NS
Equipment: Canon Rebel T3 DSLR at ISO-1600 with kit lens at 18mm f/3.5, mounted on a Sky-Watcher EQ6-R motorized equatorial mount; 30 sec exposures.
Processing: A series of 5 subs (30 sec each) were captured in RAW16 format and converted to TIFF format using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional, then stacked using Sequator that has a “freeze ground” feature. Photoshop CS2 was used for to adjust levels and color balance/saturation, as well as for noise removal. Microsoft Photo was used to tweak clarity, contrast, highlights, shadows, and exposure of the final jpg image.
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Comments: This was my first attempt at imaging the Milky Way with a DSLR. A motorized equatorial mount was used to prevent star trailing in the 30 sec exposures. Saturn and Jupiter are prominent to the left and right, respectively, of the Milky Way. The Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24) and the Lagoon Nebula (M8) are also visible in the image. This was my first attempt at imaging the Milky Way.