u/PeaSuspicious6209

Rho Ophiuchi region captured from Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India under roughly Bortle 5/6 skies.

This was shot completely untracked using a Sony A7III with a 70mm lens on a cheap $20 tripod. All frames were taken at f/5.6 (widest available at 70mm on this lens), ISO 2000, with 4 second exposures for a total integration time of around 3 hours.

For processing, I first stacked everything in DeepSkyStacker and imported the final TIFF into Siril using 32-bit mode since 16-bit processing was causing noticeable banding. I then used GraXpert for background extraction/gradient removal and StarNet for star separation inside Siril, followed by an initial stretch.

After that, I exported the result to Photoshop for additional stretching, levels, saturation adjustments, noise reduction, and recomposition of the starless and star layers.

This was mainly an attempt to see how far I could push an untracked setup from light polluted skies on the Rho Ophiuchi complex. Feedback and criticism are welcome.

Spent the night on MNC terrace from around 3 AM to 5 AM capturing this view of the Milky Way.

What’s crazy is that the last slide is what a single 6-second exposure looked like. Most of the details were almost invisible at first. After stacking around 550 photos with a total integration time of nearly 52 minutes, this is the result I got.

Even crazy thing is that I shot with just a camera and a tripod.

This frame has Antares, the Rho Ophiuchi region, Lagoon Nebula, Swan Nebula, Eagle Nebula, M24 and more hidden inside it.

Processed using GraXpert, Siril and Photoshop. First used graxpert to extract the background then on siril i did curve stretching and more stretching then denoised the processed image on graxpert then used photoshop for more post processing.

Still can’t believe this was right above us the whole time.
📍IIT Roorkee

Shot on Alpha A7 III | (28-70) mm 
Each Frame : 6 sec | f/3.5 | ISO 2000

Spent the night on MNC terrace from around 3 AM to 5 AM capturing this view of the Milky Way.

What’s crazy is that the last slide is what a single 6-second exposure looked like. Most of the details were almost invisible at first. After stacking around 550 photos with a total integration time of nearly 52 minutes, this is the result I got.

Even crazy thing is that I shot with just a camera and a tripod.

This frame has Antares, the Rho Ophiuchi region, Lagoon Nebula, Swan Nebula, Eagle Nebula, M24 and more hidden inside it.

Processed using GraXpert, Siril and Photoshop.

Still can’t believe this was right above us the whole time.
📍IIT Roorkee

Shot on Alpha A7 III | (28-70) mm 
Each Frame : 6 sec | f/3.5 | ISO 2000 | 28 mm