Summer Night Sky

from Payson

Uploaded 9/10/07

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 Here is my first clear night test of our new Sigma fish eye lens. Seen here is from top to bottom a full sky length 180 degree coverage, with the right and left sides cropped by the smaller APS-C sized sensor in the XTi. On the top of this short 10 minute exposure is the northern horizon, the bottom is the southern horizon with the distant glow of Phoenix low in the south west. On the right side is the roof of my house. This was shot from my balcony on the back of my home which is about 3 miles from down town Payson.

Running down the center of this image from upper left to lower right is the band of the Milky Way, with the brightest area in Sagittarius near the bottom southern horizon.

I strongly urge you to take a look at the largest image and see what type of image quality this lens provides wide open. I was impressed with its sharpness over such a huge field of view.

Instrument: Sigma 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens Platform: Robotic Barn Door Mount Camera: Hutech Modified Canon XTi @ ISO400 Exposure: 10m Filters: None Location: Payson, Arizona Elevation: 5150 ft. Sky: Seeing 8/10, Transparency 9/10 Outside Temperature: 65F Processing Tools: Photoshop CS2, Maxim DSLR HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS FastCounter by bCentral