Martinique — Day Fifteen — Astrophotography of the Night Sky with a Fuji X100T

I reviewed the original Fuji X100 when it came out, and decided it wasn’t for me — a bit too slow for my tastes, and the sensor wasn’t there yet. Two generations later, in April 2015, I finally accepted the X100T for what it was — a small, retro camera, which should handle most of my needs when travelling. The single 35 mm (in full frame terms) focal length is of course limiting, but it is my favourite — I rarely took the Nikkor 35 mm f/2D off of my D700. In fact, I sold my DSLR a few months later and have not missed it at all. I am however planning to spring for a Fuji X-Pro2 or X-T2 in the near future.

Table of Contents

Day One — Our Airbnb Host Was Nowhere to Be Found.

Day Two — Like a Bloody Fire Engine!

Day Three — Things You Need to Know About Renting Cars and Dining.

Day Four — I Know Where the Rum’s Gone!

Day Five — The Diamond Rock / Rocher Du Diamant.

Day Six — A Beautiful Sunset.

Day Seven — Beaches and Nudists.

Day Eight — How to Avoid Crowded Beachs on the Weekends.

Day Nine — The Volcano and Jardin de Balatan.

Day Ten — Banana Museum.

Day Eleven — Sunsets.

Day Twelve — the One With Me Being Lazy.

Day Thirteen — Les Trois Ilets, Pointe Du Bout, and the Museums.

Day Fourteen — Anse Michel, Anse Trabuad, and Driving Down a Road Narrower Than Our Car.

Day Fifteen — Astrophotography of the Night Sky with a Fuji X100T.

Day Sixteen — Trying Some More Astrophotography with the Fuji X100T.

Day Seventeen — Restaurant Pignon Nouvelle Vague in Les Trois Ilets.

Day Eighteen & Nineteen — Probably the Best Vacation in My Life.

The one thing I haven’t yet tried with the X100T is shooting the night sky. I was always in locations with enormous light pollution, and since we’re on Martinique, I decided to give it a shot (pun unintended) yesterday. Unfortunately, the moon was always in the way for the past few weeks, but not last night.

Orion’s Belt, in the middle of the frame.

I learned three things:

there are many more cameras better than the X100T at astrophotography

I have a lot to learn in terms of processing them

I should learn to stack shots

I shouldn’t expose for more than 20 seconds @ 35 mm

All three photos were shot at ISO 3200, f/2, between 20 and 25 seconds. The photo above, as well as the featured one at the top of this post, show a bit of the colour of the Milky Way, however there were a few issues last night, which I’ll try to avoid tonight:

a nearby lamp polluted the images more than I thought it would

the clouds came in fast

I’ll try harder today, and bump up the ISO to 6400.

P.S. If anyone know of any stacking tutorials for OS X & Photoshop, that do not require me to spend hours aligning the shots, I’d be grateful for a link. Or software to do it for me.