Just in time before Orion sets below the horizon until next Fall. Yesterday, a couple of friends and I set forth to backpack and camp at Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania to capture my first image using my newly modified Canon R with a 12 nm H-alpha (Hα) filter. Our original plan was to start shooting by 9:40 PM, right when astronomical night starts, but with a little bad luck and off-trailing to find the shore of the place I had in mind, we eventually arrived at our destination at a good ol’ time of 10 PM. Since Orion was already hurrying along to the horizon, I rushed to set up my gear, and surprisingly, got my polar alignment perfect on my tracker on the first try for the first time. I took the Hα images first, then the RGB images, and finally the foreground. Note, because Orion is slowly setting, I actually decided to use the last RGB image as my base to accurately portray the night sky at that exact moment. It was tight, but wowww, this came out so much better than I thought.
This project started way back in November when I first decided to astro-modify my backup Canon R to be sensitive to Hα at 656.28 nm, and Sulfur II (SII) at 671.7nm and 673 nm. In normal digital cameras, there is a UV/IR block filter that blocks UV and IR signals, but these filters are aggressive and actually block the visible light from Hα and SII. To enhance the transmission of these signals, a new filter must be installed, replacing the OEM UV/IR filter. I sent my camera to Daniel from AstroGear for this service, and he did an amazing job modifying my camera, fine-tuning it to exactly as it was before.
📸 Shot on my Astro-modified Canon R+ EF 24-70mm f/2.8 II
AÂ NEEWERÂ 1/8 Black Diffusion Filter was used to soften the highlights in the stars, creating a dreamy glow effect.
Sky: 4 frames stacked | f/2.8 | 60s | ISO 1600
Foreground: 1 frame | f/2.8 | 180s | ISO 1600
Hα: 5 frames stacked | f/2.8 | 120s | ISO 6400
Processed using Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and ASTAP for stacking.
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by TheFakeKevKev