This picture of a star party caught my attention.
This amazing image combines the activity of a star party on Earth with the Milky Way arching above it.
Credit: Giovanni Tumino
Longtime imager and Astronomy magazine contributor Giovanni Tumino just sent me his latest image, and I’m gagging. He was attending a star party at Palazzolo Acreide in Sicily on June 21 and decided to combine the goings-on at the event with the gorgeous Milky Way above.
For the landscape, he used a Canon EOS R camera with a 7 Artisans 14mm lens set at f/5.6. He captured and stacked twenty-one 40-second exposures at ISO 6400.
The technique he used to obtain this image was to photograph the same area of the sky at the same time with two cameras (one of which was modified for astronomy and mounted on an iOptron Sky Guider Pro astro-tracker) with the same focal length lens on each camera.
For the Milky Way, he used Canon EOS RA cameras with a SIGMA DG 14mm f/1.8 lens set at f/4 on each. He took and stacked ninety-six 40-second exposures at ISO 6400. He also shot through an Optolong L-eNhance filter.
Once he had obtained the data, he processed the exposures using various software, including PixInsight, Starnet V2, Lightroom, and Photoshop.
Great image, Giovanni! I wish I could have been there for the fun.
