Milky Way Vacation Shots 2020

This image is looking south on the Twin Beach dock at Lake George in the foothills of Adirondack Park.  The skies are bortle 4 here as opposed to 5 in Monroe so a little better.  There were some low lying clouds but I was still able to get an image.  Jupiter and Saturn are in the center left with Jupiter being the brightest.  This was captured with the cheapo standard 18-55mm lens that comes with Canon and Nikon cameras.  I can't speak for Nikon but the Canon lens is not bad for astrophotography.  I have to thank Trevor Jones from AstroBackyard for bringing Topaz DeNoise AI to my attention - it works well!

Milky Way
Location: Lake George, NY
Date: 8-12-20
Camera: Canon T3i/600D modified
Lens: Canon 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6
Focal Length: 18mm
f/4.0
Mount: iOptron SkyGuider Pro on a Manfrotto Tripod
Filter: none
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: 15 x 30s (7.5min)
ISO: 1600
Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoise AI

https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
http://youtube.com/c/AstroQuest1 

Addendum

This image from the same location as the previous image only two days later and with a different lens.  This time I used the the Opteka 6.5mm F3.5 Fisheye to capture the Milky Way.  This lens is a good price at just under $150 and other brands such as Samyang also sell a version of this for not much more money.  These lenses are well suited for astrophotography as well as other uses and are great additions especially if you are on a limited budget - compare this to normal wide angle lenses which cost $500 or more.  Although it is manual, focusing is easier because it has an infinity setting unlike automatic lenses which go beyond the infinity setting.  So what is the downfall of these lenses?  Because they give a distorted view around the edges, under close up view the stars show elongation and suffer more chromatic aberration.    

At first glance 6.5mm image may look like the image I took with the 18mm lens, however, it is a much larger FOV.  The bottom of 6.5mm image starts closer to the dock and passes Deneb (and the constellation of Cygnus) whereas the 18mm image starts farther from the dock and ends just after Altair.

https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
http://youtube.com/c/AstroQuest1  

Milky Way
Location: Lake George, NY
Date: 8-14-20
Camera: Canon T3i/600D modified
Lens: Opteka 6.5mm F/3.5
Focal Length: 6.5mm
f/5.6
Mount: iOptron SkyGuider Pro on a Manfrotto Tripod
Filter: none
Autoguiding: none
Exposure: 4 x 60s (4min)
ISO: 1600
Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoise AI

https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
http://youtube.com/c/AstroQuest1