Even though the South of the UK is lacking the astro darkness until late July, the Milky-Way can still be visible if you drive away from the light pollution.
On Friday night I had planned to go to the same place I managed to see the incredible show the aurora put on for us on the 10th May but before that we had a stop at the Newhaven lighthouse which is very close to our final destination.
I wasn't sure if 35mm would look good for the foreground but I didn't really want to bring the lighthouse too close, so I went for the "nice and simple" composition.
The foreground was shot during the blue hour and the Milky-Way, when the sky was dark enough to see it with the naked eye.
Equipment:
Astro-modified Canon 6d Sigma Art 24-35mm f2 lens
iOptron Sky-Guider Pro star tacker.
The foreground is a single image, 8sec, ISO 100, 35mm f2.8 and the sky is a stack of 20 x 120sec, ISO 1600, 25mm f2.8 tracked images.
The stacking of the tracked images was done in Sequator and the editing was done in Lightroom Classic, Pixinsight and Photoshop with the blending with the final touches in Photoshop.
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Gazing into the unknown
The second photo from the amazing Bank Holiday trip to Portland Bill
I always wanted a selfie with the Milky-Way in the background, and this was my chance of taking one that I would remember for years to come. I set my camera on the edge of a cliff, as close as possible to the location where I was gonna be posing. I wasn't sure my wireless remote sutter was gonna work that far from the camera but I had to give it a go. To my surprise, it did work and when I returned to the camera, the photo was exactly what I was trying to achieve.
For the Milky-Way photos, the sky was excelent. So far, I have never seen southern hemisphere nebulas in any Milky-Way photos shot from the UK but with the sky being so clean and clear, I managed to capture the Cat's Paw and Lobster nebulae, just one degree above the horizon, seen in the photo as the 2 red patches at the bottom of the Milky-Way.
The same as my previous photo, I used my Astro-modified Canon 6d, with the Sigma Art 24-35mm f2 lens at 24mm f2.8 and the Optolong L-Pro clip-in filter for Canon full frame on the iOptron Sky-Guider Pro.
The foreground is a single 30sec ISO1600 @24mm f2.8 and the sky is a stack of 10x120sec shot with the same settings.
The stacking was done in sequator and the editing, in Lightroom Classic, Pixinsight and Photoshop with the blending and final touches in Photoshop.
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on the 13th January 3 of my friends and I went on a 3 night trip to the Scottish Highlands and one of our first sttop was at Kilchurn Castle.
I always wanted to go to this castle and getting there while it was still dark made it even more special.
Looking over Loch Awe, Kilchurn Castle was a fortress, a comfortable residence and later a garrison stronghold, and contains the oldest surviving barracks on the British mainland. Its five-storey tower house dominates the complex, with a lower hall, courtyard and barracks below.
Kilchurn Castle was built in the mid-1400s, and it remained the base of the mighty Campbells of Glenorchy for 150 years. After the first Jacobite Rising of 1689, Kilchurn was converted into a garrison stronghold, but was abandoned by the end of the 1700s.
Knowing that I will be shooting towards the North, I wasn't really expecting to capture more than stars, but as you can see in the photo, the Perseus arm of the Milky-Way was nicely rising behind the mountains.
The red patches are the Heart and Soul nebulae and the bright patches under them is the Double Cluster in Perseus.
Exif:
Modified canon 6d, Sigma 24-35mm f2 DG HSM Art lens, 3 legged thing carbon tripod
Sky: 24mm f2 10x25sec ISO3200
Foregroundr: 24mm f2 1x120sec ISO3200
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