RIDICUGIANT MILKY WAY - a photo on Flickriver

I've had the idea for this photo for quite a while. This is a single image, with no compositing. The telescopes are illuminated by a setting moon, and Keck I is using its adaptive optics laser.

Most images of the Milky Way are taken with wide lenses, and it looks fairly small, but I wanted to do something different. I wanted to get a giant Milky Way rising behind the Mauna Kea telescopes. However, the blur in the stars due to Earth's rotation increases with longer focal lengths, so I needed shorter exposure times than I normally use in order to compensate. I ended up buying a Samyang 85mm f/1.4 with this shot (and one other that I haven't done yet) in mind. I shot this at f/2, ISO 10,000, and 10 second exposures in order to minimize the star blur. The 6D produces quite usable images up to ISO 12,800, I've found.

I used Google Earth to figure out where I needed to go to catch the Milky Way rising behind the telescopes. I ended up setting up the camera near the site of the future Thirty Meter Telescope. Because I was tied up with the Keck sponsored shoot, I needed to set out the camera during the day. Armed with the Google Earth-derived GPS coordinates, I wandered through the boulder fields until my I arrived at the spot. I set up the camera and put a several-hour delay on it. I returned the AM hours of the morning to a timelapse sequence which contained this shot. The timelapse video will be released this fall.

Taken in: United States / Hawaii / Hilo / Humuula Ahupua`a (show map)

Taken on: June 3, 2014

Tags:

milky way

mauna kea

astronomy

observatory

observatories

telescope

telescopes

night

adaptive optics

lasers

keck

subaru

CFHT

IRTF

nasa « less

Sets appears in: • Mauna Kea • Favorite Night Photos

Groups appears in: • Observatories • We love Mauna Kea more » • Hawaii Photographs • Hawaii Paradise • Landscape Astrophotography • Astronomical Observatories • Explore The Beautiful...探索美麗(invite) • Into the Night Photography « less

Camera: Canon EOS 6D, 10 sec, ISO 10000 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 6D
Exposure Time:	10
ISO:	10000
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
Show full info

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