Neowise from Joshua Tree NP

Tuan Le

Well-Known Member
I went to Joshua Tree NP last Wednesday to see comet Neowise and it turned out a lot of people had the same idea. Many of the turnouts were pretty much full and plenty of people were parking where they shouldn’t. Still glad I made it out there though since we won’t be seeing this comet again anytime soon. Next time I would pick an area where car traffic doesn't constantly light up the background.

The images below were stacked using Starry Landscape Stacker software (10 and 6 images, respectively). It made it lot easier than doing it manually and the resulting file is a bit cleaner than a single high ISO image.

DSC00779.jpg
DSC00738_SLS.jpg
 

Kyle Jones

Moderator
Very nice Tuan, those trees make a great foreground.

How does the stacking software align the stars without blurring the ground?
 

Tuan Le

Well-Known Member
Very nice Tuan, those trees make a great foreground.

How does the stacking software align the stars without blurring the ground?
Thanks Kyle. The software allows you to mask the foreground either by manually painting in the mask or loading a mask file created in another program, like Photoshop in my case.

Neat results - I especially like the last one with the comet framed by the Joshua trees.
Thanks Alan. It was good i was able to find these two distinctive Joshua trees in the dark to frame the comet.
 

Timmeh

Well-Known Member
Hi Tuan,

Both are excellent with a nod to #2, and the masking for joshua trees must have taken some time.

How does the stacking software align the stars without blurring the ground?
Sequator is the PC equivalent of Starry Landscape Stacker that I use, and I really like the results. You can get 400 ISO equivalent shots with very short shutter speeds.

Tim
 

Tuan Le

Well-Known Member
Both are excellent with a nod to #2, and the masking for joshua trees must have taken some time.
Thanks Tim. This one is actually not too bad with the silhouette being distinct. It took just a few minutes with PS's magic wand and quick selection tool after I added additional contrast. I figured it didn't have to be super accurate since I can manually remove any stars if I saw it intrude into the silhouette.
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Very nice work Tuan! You scored here big time. I liked #1 a lot until I saw #2 that is. :)

Both of these are great, and you did a really good job with the processing. The Joshua Tree's made great objects of interest.
 

Amy Earl

Well-Known Member
Nice shots, Tuan! Congrats on the featured post.

Hi Tuan,

Both are excellent with a nod to #2, and the masking for joshua trees must have taken some time.



Sequator is the PC equivalent of Starry Landscape Stacker that I use, and I really like the results. You can get 400 ISO equivalent shots with very short shutter speeds.

Tim
Sequator, good to know 👍
 
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