{"id":521,"date":"2010-01-29T12:28:11","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T12:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2010\/01\/29\/starset_at_suns\/"},"modified":"2010-01-29T12:28:11","modified_gmt":"2010-01-29T12:28:11","slug":"starset_at_suns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2010\/01\/29\/starset_at_suns\/","title":{"rendered":"Starset at Sunset Crater National Monument – JAN 15, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Orion and Canis Major setting over Sunset Crater<\/p>\n

Click for larger image<\/i>
\nJAN 15, 2010 – 03:00 AM MST
\nCanon EOS 300D + Kit Lens @ 21 mm • ISO 200 • f\/4.5
\nComposite: 5 x 30 sec. aligned and stacked for sky + 5 min. foreground<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While observing at Sunset Crater a couple weeks ago, I was struck by the beauty of Orion and Canis Major setting over the snow-covered volcano. So I took a break at about 3 AM to take some photos. It was a spur of the moment decision, so I didn’t get everything right. The photo above is a combination of 5 30-second shots aligned and stacked for the sky, and a 5 minute exposure of the foreground. I adjusted exposure on both sky and foreground to try and convey the relative brightness of both as naturally as possible. The moon wasn’t out, so the snow is lit by starlight.<\/p>\n

A couple of the things that went wrong–
\nI was in a hurry to get the shot before the bright stars in Canis Major’s legs dipped behind the peak, so I rushed through focus, and think I could have done better there. I also goofed up and didn’t check my ISO setting…which was set to 200. D’oh! If I had set to ISO 800, I think I could have pulled the Milky Way out nicely. As it is, the Milky Way barely breaks through some severe horizontal banding noise, so I had to leave it alone. It’s all about signal to noise, and I didn’t grab enough signal. I did have the foresight to shoot in RAW, so I had otherwise decent data to play with. I could probably do better with the processing, but astro photos are really hard to process–especially when sensor noise wants to demolish the sky with every tiny curve move. So I called it good where it’s at.<\/p>\n

I do have plans to shoot this again when I head back out there in a couple weeks to work on a sketch for the May column. There should still be plenty of snow up there to catch the starlight. Also: ISO 800…ISO 800…ISO 800…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orion and Canis Major setting over Sunset Crater Click for larger image JAN 15, 2010 – 03:00 AM MST Canon EOS 300D + Kit Lens @ 21 mm • ISO 200 • f\/4.5 Composite: 5 x 30 sec. aligned and stacked for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astro-photography"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":526,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2010\/02\/22\/starscapes_at_s\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":0},"title":"Starscapes at Sunset Crater National Monument – FEB 13, 2010","author":"jperez1690","date":"February 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Orion, Canis Major, and the Winter Milky Way soar over Sunset Crater Click for larger image FEB 13, 2010 - 01:00 AM MST Canon EOS 300D + Kit Lens @ 21 mm \u2022 ISO 800 \u2022 f\/4.5 Composite: 11 x 30 sec. aligned, stacked, and composited separately for sky and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astro Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Astro Photography","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/astro-photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":515,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2009\/12\/11\/winter_milky_wa\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":1},"title":"Winter Milky Way – Auriga to Canis Major","author":"jperez1690","date":"December 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Winter Milky Way","rel":"","context":"In "Constellation"","block_context":{"text":"Constellation","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/constellation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":523,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2010\/02\/11\/cinder_hills_ov\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":2},"title":"Cinder Hills Overlook","author":"jperez1690","date":"February 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Orion, Canis Major and the Winter Milky Way soar over Sunset Crater as seen from Cinder Hills Overlook Cinder Hills Overlook is a cul-de-sac at the top of a small hill on the eastern edge of Sunset Crater National Monument. The site is situated amid a stunning volcanic landscape with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":547,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2010\/10\/03\/destinations_al\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":3},"title":"Destinations Along the Winter Milky Way","author":"jperez1690","date":"October 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Photograph of Winter Milky Way over Sunset Crater with sketches of deep sky objects in the area. Move mouse over sketch above to see where each deep sky object resides. Click image for larger version. Click here for larger version without call-out lines. . . . . . Other Print\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astro Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Astro Photography","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/astro-photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":248,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2006\/04\/28\/wide_field_cani\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":4},"title":"Wide Field Canis Major Milky Way – November 6, 2005","author":"jperez1690","date":"April 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"20060428","rel":"","context":"In "Astro Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Astro Photography","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/astro-photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":619,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2014\/02\/27\/night_shots_wit\/","url_meta":{"origin":521,"position":5},"title":"Night Shots with a New Camera","author":"jperez1690","date":"February 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"After ten years with my Canon EOS Rebel-S\/300D, I just upgraded to a new Canon T3i. First light last week consisted of a series of night shots down my street featuring Orion and a moonlit sky. Going from 6 Mexapixels to 18 is kind of startling, but one of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Astro Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Astro Photography","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/astro-photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/img20140224_img20140224_IMG_0066_PanoramaMD_lg-e1703402584399.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/img20140224_img20140224_IMG_0066_PanoramaMD_lg-e1703402584399.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/img20140224_img20140224_IMG_0066_PanoramaMD_lg-e1703402584399.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/img20140224_img20140224_IMG_0066_PanoramaMD_lg-e1703402584399.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}