Carina nebula and the Milky Way, Aoraki Mt. Cook, 2024
It was super clear around midnight, so I quickly grabbed my fastest wide lens and my star tracker and started astro imaging a bit away from the camping site below the Aoraki Mt. Cook mountain in South New Zealand a couple of nights ago. A memorable night! I was totally mesmerised. Like a siren song, the night sky excited me incredibly. I managed to shoot this area of the sky around the Carina nebula that was incredibly sharp and detailed with my naked eye. I cannot wait to return to this magical place and enjoy the dark pristine night sky again! To produce this image, traditional methods were used of calibrating the light frames, aligning them and stacking them using PixInsight. Photoshop was used for colour balance mainly and final touches.
Tech Card
Date / Location
8th February 2024, Aoraki Mount Cook, New Zealand, Bortle Class 1 ~SGM: 22.00 mag./arc sec2
Equipment
Camera: Nikon D810A
Lens: Sigma Art 40mm f/1.4
Mount: Skywatcher Star Adventurer
Image Quality
14 bit RAW (NEF)
Exposure time per image / number of composites and sensitivity
17 x 60s ISO 1600 f/1.4
Total Integration Time
17 mins (Sky)
Software
PixInsight 1.8 Core
Photoshop
DEEP SKY
STARSCAPE
SOLAR SYSTEM
EVENTS
