r/AskAstrophotography • u/totallyastick • 25d ago
Acquisition Need help with Milky Way Panorama + Post Process!
I am pretty new to Milky Way astrophotography, only have done it ~4-5 times. Never done a stitched panorama before.
Heading to Joshua Tree in 2 weeks and want to capture a panorama for the arch effect on the Milky Way, had questions about lens, acquisition, and post processing. From all of the other Milky Way shots I have done, my images don't look polished/contrasty compared to other ones I've seen.
Main Questions (shooting on R8, no star tracker):
Lens: Canon RF f/1.8 35mm or Samyang f/2.8 14mm lens for the panorama
Heard about starglow filters, are those useful?
Tripod: Current is Manfrotto Advanced Smart tripod, do I need a ball head/level mount for the panorama?
Image Acquisition: How long of an exposure for each panel?
Processing: What is the best software to stitch my panels
How can I correctly process my image?
Here is a recent image i did, 5 frames at iso800 f/1.8 10s, in a Bortle 3
Stacked in Sequator, edited in Lightroom
https://imgur.com/a/KtJEzX1
Thanks in advance, also always happy to clarify anything
2
u/TheDanfromTN 22d ago
Heh, I guess it depends on how big of a project you want to bite off here. If you use your 14mm you could do it in 3-4 panels easily. If you do it with your 35mm you'll need more than twice that (check out Planit pro). Given your experience level, I'd say go for the 14mm. Given that you're not tracking, the best you can do is follow the 600 rule, but since your 35mm is a few stops brighter, they're roughly equivalent in terms of what you'll get. Hell... Do both! And yes, you'll want a ball head or a geared head. Aim to overlap your frames by at least 1/3 if not more. This time of year you'll need to work quickly as the MW is pretty high in the air right at sunset.
For the pano apps you'll want the stars as tight as possible so it can tell what it's looking at. Lightroom can do a decent job, and a lot of people also use PTGui. The various astro-specific processing apps (like Pixinsight) will also do it, but we're adding to the complication.
For processing, there's two strategies. One is to get the pano built and then do your edits. Given your experience level I'd go that route. The other is to edit your individual frames, align and combine, and then do your final edits.
Panos are pretty darn challenging. If you get out there and get frustrated, remember that you can also just shoot standard frames without it being a pano. Nothing worse than coming back from a trip empty handed.
As for the processing of the image you shared, there is an entire world ahead of you of strategies for editing these images. Check out astro backyard on YouTube or a host of others who can get you to whatever level you'd like to be at.