HOW IT's DONE.
Saturn and Jupiter grand conjunction (one day before)
Camera is a Nikon P1000 on a Fornax tracking stage so the planet stays in frame. Get the zoom setting right at 6000 mm equivalent. Take 1 min videos at different ISO settings for the moons and planets. Wait for the perfect align to get a single align shot. Wait for planets to move away. Go back and get a video of the right bit of foreground. Use software to separate into frames and then stack 100+ frames to a single low noise image at each ISO. Then assemble the images in Photoshop. Using the align image as background image in the layers, cut around the foreground, planets and moons layers to form a spatially correct, very high dynamic range, composite. You have to size the cuts to cover up the overexposed planets in the background layer. Merge the layers and adjust to taste !! Its the better part of a day post processing to get it to work. The key really is the frame stacking it reduces the low light ISO noise and the atmospheric noise. QED!
Andromeda (M31) Mag. 3.4, Size 3 degrees.
Above M110 Mag. 8.9, Size 21'.
Photographed using a Canon 7as
400mm f6.1 exposed at 1.5M ISOsecs, Fornax tracking stage.
Bortle 2 sky - background at Mag. 11.
Flame Nebula in Orion Mag. 7.2, Size 30', illuminated by the neighboring star Alnitak Mag. 1.74.
Photographed using astro mod Canon 7as 400mm f6.1, exposed at 0.6M ISOsecs. Fornax tracking stage
Bortle 4 sky - background at Mag. 9
HDR created with the stars imaged by 4 smaller exposures, converted to B&W and stacked, then stacked with the nebula image.
Stitched fish eye view panorama June and Dec.
20 mm lens 84x61 degrees. In portrait 20 degrees up, 8x 45 degree rotations plus 1 vertical view.