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ljf5000

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Hello,

I'm learning how to take pictures of stars, but I'm wondering why my skies turn out orange/purple? Is it something I should be correcting afterwards (white balance, saturation, etc), is it related to haziness, or is it related to the exposure?





Thanks for the help,
John
 
I'm wondering if youre too close to a town in this shot? I agree that you can adjust the white balance but in this pic I'm inclined to believe that your not far from city/town lights.

Rich
http://www.richardcleis.com
 
It's known as light pollution, the big time astro guys hate it and often portray they're disdain for it in some of their work.

I've noticed a minimum of 40 miles outside of town (away from the lights) usually gives good results.

Also, correct your white balance for the appropriate source of light. The light pollution will still show, however it won't have that nasty orange color.
 
Some of it can be corrected in post-processing, but it's best to shoot in RAW format so that you retain all flexibility for fine-tuning the white balance and tone curve. If you must shoot JPEG, it's advisable to take images at each of the white-balance pre-sets.

By the way, nice capture of the rising Fall constellations!





--
Mark
my gallery: http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/5120988127/albums
 
Best results are obtained from stacking multiple short exposures and post processing to reduce the effects of light pollution. Here's one of my early attempts at stacking. I used 36 light frames (30 second exposures, 35mm f1.8, iso 800). The staking software I used was Deep Sky Stacker.

Kurt



 
When you stack, do you have to adjust for the earth's rotation or does the program do this for you?
 
cyclemonkey said:
When you stack, do you have to adjust for the earth's rotation or does the program do this for you?
Click to expand...
I've never tried stacking pictures from a stationary tripod, but have always used a tracking equatorial mount. However, I believe that the software will take care of that. Obviously, the longer the total exposure time, the less your usable stacked coverage will be.

Kurt
 
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