https://nightscapades.com/2016favs daily 0.75 2019-09-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482142752084-TZ4L1KDN6Z7J2ONVSASF/Down+in+the+valley-cropped.jpg 2016 - Down in the valley, the valley so low In my post last night I mentioned how windy things were on Saturday night when I drove 140km to the riverside at Nowra. After getting a few shots in I headed north to the Kangaroo Valley, figuring that it would be sheltered from the wind there. Thankfully I was spot-on and although the drive there meant I’d be home later than originally intended I settled in for several hours, getting a time-lapse sequence, some panoramas and lots of single-frame shots of various night sky features. I was like a little kid in a toyshop when I saw the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) on my camera’s LCD while reviewing one of the single-frame shots. M31 is easily visible to the naked eye in the northern hemisphere but not so much down here in southern Australia. This beautiful object only rises 14 degrees above the northern horizon at its peak and with two major cities being north of this location I figured it would get lost in the light pollution spilling in from far over the hills. I’m so happy that I misjudged things and ended up getting this glowing smudge in a darker part of the sky. The Andromeda Galaxy is the yellow-white smudge just over the hilltop about one third in from the left. Up and to the right of that is the green trail of a meteor burning up in our atmosphere. An added bonus was also getting another galaxy, the M33 “Triangulum Galaxy” almost at the edge at the upper right. It’s quite faint and hard to see but it’s there. M33 is the faintest galaxy visible with the naked eye. This night was the first night I’d ever seen M31 with my eyes and that took a lot of doing, so a naked-eye sighting of M33 was out of the question. The dark green tint to the sky is from atmospheric airglow. Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm STM lens @ f/2.5, 8 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482143870463-TAJ04HY46KS343X8DRQ2/So+still+for+SquareSpace.jpg 2016 - So still! The tide was just past its peak when I was shooting this scene on a Friday night back in August of 2016. The water was flowing–ever so slowly–down the Shoalhaven River to make its way to the South Pacific Ocean, around 25km away. Despite this movement, the lack of any breeze made the top of the water into an almost perfect mirror. Up at the top left-hand corner you can see the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is a companion galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. The colourful arch of stars, dust and gas that stretches almost right across the image is that same Milky Way galaxy and its “galactic core” region. The planets Mars and Saturn were close to one another in the sky back in August and you can see the two of them, along with the supergiant star Antares, glowing orange just over the tree line near the middle of the shot. All of these celestial wonders can also be seen reflecting off the surface of the river, with a surprising amount of the Milky Way’s structure visible in the mirror image. Spilling red light all over the rocks at right is the tiny LED pilot light in a battery that powers the dew heater keeping my camera lens warm and free from fogging. This panoramic image was created by shooting 33 overlapping images, in three rows of eleven shots, then stitching the images together in the application “AutoPano Pro”. Each photo was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482139120890-R5FT7N5SIJ76TPG0WHW9/MW%2C+Mars%2C+Saturn+setting.jpg 2016 - Tuross trails Mars & the Milky Way setting over the Tuross River (Australia). Cameras are far more capable of capturing and rendering the colours that shine in the blackness of night than our human eyes. Capturing all of that colour adds up when you put together a number of images that were shot over a period of time, as in this image. This results in the coloured curved stripes–the “star-trails”–in the sky and the even more colourful reflections of the brighter objects on the river’s surface. The bright and wide orange reflection on the water’s surface is from the planet Mars as it set in the two-hour period over which the original frames were captured. This image was created from 470 original photos, each shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482141012664-L23F8UG81IJGFQVELH5Z/Blowing+the+clouds+away.jpg 2016 - Blowing the clouds away The wind farm near Tarago, Australia, makes for some interesting photographs. I set up this shot to make it seem like the turbines were trying to blow away the Magellanic Clouds. The site was one of those “Private property - No Trespassing” places so I couldn’t flash much light around to see where I was going. Somehow I moved around without tripping or dropping anything. The sky was showing a lot of orange airglow with a few green patches showing through. There was also moisture in the air contributing to the discolouration. Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm STM @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567755952526-JO394BO8J7HAA0YU1MF9/Dwarves%2Bdwelling%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bheavens.jpg 2016 - Dwarves dwelling in the heavens In a number of mythologies the dwarves are small human-like beings who live under the ground and in the mountains. Featured in J.R.R Tolkein’s writings of the 1930s and 1940s the dwarves are well known to humans, elves and other races of beings of their worlds. Compilations of Norse literature from the 1300s AD contain discussions of the origins of these mythical creatures. Much older than that, though, are the dwarves that dwell in the heavens. The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds are dwarf galaxies that are travelling with our Milky Way galaxy through our part of the Local Group of galaxies. In July, 2016 I captured these heavenly wonders in the south-eastern skies of Australia. The Large Magellanic Cloud’s reflection is shimmering in the Tuross River next to the lovely timber bridge. The colour tint in the sky is due to atmospheric airglow and moisture in the wintry night air. Shot with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482140227421-QZ5MU5IPCJE19CITNR8P/Gerroa+trails+50+percent.jpg 2016 - Circles in the southern sky The stars of my southern hemisphere cutting trails across the sky as they appear to orbit the South Celestial Pole over Seven Mile Beach, New South Wales, Australia. The orange glow on the right is from some cloud that blew in, lit by the light pollution from the city of Nowra, 22km away. The clouds interrupted the trails a little which is why they stop & start at lower right. The waves are blue from the presence of bioluminescent organisms in the water. Produced from 163 images taken over 45 minutes, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567756408273-2YGEEWOMW2J2T5MYHQ3J/The%2Bmonths%2Bgo%2Bso%2Bfast-smaller.jpg 2016 - Stacks of detail This shot of the Milky Way’s galactic core region, captured on Saddleback Mountain (Australia), includes quite a few interesting features. The “Dark Horse” nebula is one of the most prominent parts of the shot, although down here in the Southern Hemisphere it’s more often known as the “Galactic Kiwi” due to its resemblance to the national bird of New Zealand. Grouped down at the bottom of the frame is the bright orange supergiant star Antares, with Mars below it and Saturn across further to the right. In the same area as Antares is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, a star-forming region of space. You can see some of the yellow and blue gas clouds in the photo. This is a "stacked" image created from 32 individual frames. Stacking reduces the digital noise of the overall image and helps to bring out a bit more detail than a single shot would. The 13 frames were captured with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm @ f/2.8, 6 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482147571205-EEK72EX9SJXMCTRWHF3Y/The+one+that+didn%27t+get+away-smaller.jpg 2016 - The one that didn't get away! On the last weekend of July 2016, I was visiting the Blue Mountains, about 120km west of my home in Sydney, Australia. While out shooting Milky Way panoramas that night I missed out on catching two bright meteors that briefly left trails on the sky. I didn’t miss this one, though! With my camera set to take a photo every 25 seconds, I pointed it at the region of the sky where the meteors were radiating from. Briefly looking away from the sky and back towards my car, the landscape lit up so brightly that I thought there had been a flash of lightning. I glanced skywards to see the last gasp of a meteor as it burned up in the earth’s atmosphere. Like the two big-uns that I missed earlier this one left a trail on the sky for a couple of seconds. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482925905298-6PGILALJS8LXAR6R5F1V/Ambulance+on+approach-Insta-FB-Flickr.jpg 2016 - Ambulance on approach Shot one day after its full phase, here is the 99% full Nov 2016 "supermoon" providing a backdrop for a Beech B300 Super King Air on approach to Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport (Australia). This aircraft is operated by the The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS), one of the largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organisations in the world. Perhaps one day their area of service will include the moon! Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 500mm @ f/7.1, 1/500 sec @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567757207351-OIMP3ENI3B69AR7HNBJS/Down%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bvalley-cropped%2Bsmall.jpg 2016 - Down in the valley I was like a little kid in a toyshop when I saw the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) on my camera’s LCD while reviewing this photo. M31 is easily visible to the naked eye in the northern hemisphere but not so much down here in southern Australia. The Andromeda Galaxy is the yellow-white smudge just over the hilltop about one third in from the left. Up and to the right of that is the green trail of a meteor burning up in our atmosphere. A bonus was also getting another galaxy, the M33 “Triangulum Galaxy” almost at the edge at the upper right. It’s quite faint and hard to see, but it’s there. M33 is the faintest galaxy visible with the naked eye. This night was the first night I’d ever seen M31 with my eyes, and that took a lot of doing, so a naked-eye sighting of M33 was out of the question. The dark green tint to the sky is from atmospheric airglow. Shot with a Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm STM lens @ f/2.5, 8 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567835519746-0ZN0WA7X25JMIXBOQVLX/cosmic-spray.jpg 2016 - Cosmic spray People from the northern hemisphere often comment on how they’d love to see the Milky Way’s core high in the sky like this. Come on down to Australia, or visit New Zealand, or get below the equator in Africa or South America and you’ll be in for this treat (at the right time of year). Some extra goodies in this part of the sky when I shot this were the planets Mars and Saturn. Mars is exactly mid-way down the photo at the left, shining a nice orange colour. Below and very slightly to the right of it is the whitish light that is Saturn. A single frame shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400.00 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567835752271-W06PQ51RPGUL6BUPO60C/southern-circles.jpg 2016 - Brightened Bridge This star-trails image shows the stars’ apparent movement across the sky over a period of about an hour-and-a-quarter. The central point that the stars seem to rotate about is called the South Celestial Pole. Cars & trucks crossing the unlit bridge over the Tuross River gave it and the water below the bright white glow that you can see,and also lit up the sand in the foreground. Reflected on the water’s surface are navigation lights on the bridge’s pylons and some of the trails from the starlight above. This single photo is made up from 153 individual shots that were compiled using the software “StarStaX. Each image was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/4.0, 25 sec exposure @ ISO 4000. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567835260729-AUG26R3AKR8USGG2CKW3/stop%2C-look%2C-listen.jpg 2016 - Stop, Look, Listen Shooting at a dark location means a couple of hours driving from home, checking Milky Way alignment and access to the spot, then setting up gear, taking test shots, checking alignment again, getting the foreground lighting right, then taking some production shots, checking again, etc, etc. Some or all of those actions get repeated multiple times through the night before driving home. That’s why it’s important to stop for a bit and look at what amazing things are above me; listen to the ambient sounds like the ocean and local wildlife; and enjoy the beauty of the moment. In this photo, Mars is the bright and orange point of light at top left and Saturn is below that, on a line pointing towards me. Captured 30/04/16 at Seven Mile Beach near Gerroa, Australia. Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 3200. https://nightscapades.com/panoramas daily 0.75 2022-08-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1483142310523-LR3E8ZNARJ6R1RUS1H42/M31+to+M42+small.jpg Long & Wide https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1603023260493-KZAWMWJY65P8K4GFPO6Y/image-asset.jpeg Long & Wide - One Bridge, Two Years Ago "I'll get to it one day." They might not be the exact words I mumbled to myself when I sat down to edit this panorama in September of 2018, but they fit the bill. The photos that I captured to make up the wide-format image had been shot a week earlier, during a nightscape photography weekend at Tuross Head, on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. All up I took over 700 photos during my stay, so, understandably, I still haven't processed them all. Despite how the bridge looks in my photo, it's a simple straight span across the Tuross River. The curved look is an optical effect resulting from shooting the panorama so that the Milky Way was at its centre. Riding above the Milky Way, I caught the red planet, Mars, drawing attention to itself as the brightest single object in the field of view. The two Magellanic Cloud galaxies seem to be floating in the sky over the distant bridge approach on the left of the vista. To create the panoramic image you're looking at I shot 57 single photos, in three rows, using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1603455780321-LM2AR6NPTUCIVNXKKN6P/murky-milky-mirror.jpg Long & Wide - Murky Milky Mirror Even at night, with only the feeble photons of atmospheric airglow to light the landscape, you can see that the water in this agricultural dam is a very unappealing colour. The still air on the night left the pond's surface undisturbed, offering me a mirrored but muted view of the treeline, the Milky Way and the light coming from the planet Jupiter. Despite the dirtiness of the pool's contents, you can still see some hues of starlight reflected in the water. The Magellanic Cloud galaxies are conspicuous in the top-left corner of my panorama, keeping station as they travel through the Local Group of galaxies with our marvellous & majestic Milky Way. I've mentioned that Jupiter is one of the lights shining from the dark mirror, and you can see the source of that light in the sky above the dusty stretch of our home galaxy, as well as the planet Saturn up and to the right of Jupiter's bright beacon. It's frustrating that the clouds conspired to keep me from photographing the stars and planets during last weekend's New Moon period. With very few chances left to shoot the Milky Way's core region as the year draws to a close, so I'll be relying on my trove of shots from previous expeditions–like this one–to keep me posting here. I created this panoramic photo by shooting thirteen overlapping single-frame images, then merging them using stitching software on my Mac. For each of those individual shots, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera set to an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400 and fitted with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598708045675-93327OILT9C63DM7L3QM/Three+Galaxies.+Three+Planets.jpg Long & Wide - Three Galaxies. Three Planets Three Galaxies: Our home galaxy, which we call the “Milky Way,” dominates my photo with its colourful and dust-fringed arch stretched almost the full width of the frame. I captured another two galaxies in this fourteen-shot panorama, namely the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These fluffy, puffy orbs seem like they’re floating in the sky in the left side of my photo, able to be blown away by the slightest wind. The two Magellanic Clouds are dwarf galaxies and companions or our Milky Way as it travels through what astronomers call the Local Group. Three Planets: Our home planet, Earth, is first on the list of planets visible in this scene that I shot at Seven Mile Beach, Australia, last Sunday night, 23 August. About one-third of the way from the right-hand edge of the photo, in the area of sky above the Milky Way, I caught the Solar System’s two most massive planets, Jupiter and Saturn, as they followed our home galaxy towards the western horizon. The fourteen single frames that I shot to create the panoramic view of these planets and galaxies were all captured with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1575634729914-LF0ISVLARYXGX55A1H3O/Beautifully+Bent.jpg Long & Wide - Beautifully Bent Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to be home to at least 100 billion stars. If you or I could travel at the speed of light, it would take us close to 100,000 years to make a trip from one side of this "island universe" to the other. I think I'm not the only person who feels overwhelmed when trying to comprehend the immensity of these kinds of numbers. Perhaps it's because I can't grasp–or mentally "conquer"–the almost divine scale of astronomical objects that fascinates me and drives me to keep pointing my camera heavenwards. This panoramic view of the Milky Way arching across Tuross Lake, on the southeastern coast of Australia, is one of my attempts at bringing together the enormity of the astronomical and the familiarity of more terrestrial objects. Although the green, red and yellow navigation lights on the lake are bright and conspicuous, I find my eyes quickly drawn to the Magellanic Cloud galaxies (the white blobs in the sky at the left of the frame), and the grand arch of the Milky Way that dominates the majority of the photo. Almost directly above the yellow navigation marker near the centre is the white glow from the planet Jupiter, and you can see its reflection as a little white squiggle down where the water and sand meet. I photographed this scene in July of 2019, by shooting thirty individual images (in two rows of 15 shots each) that were then stitched together in software to create the final panoramic rendering. To snap each of those frames I used my Canon EOS 6D camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1592225807454-NIG774IYF6SA32WIPEUD/seven-mile-arch.jpg Long & Wide - Seven Mile Arch I’m not sure how long it’s been since I posted a Milky Way arch here. I’ve had this one in the can for several months now, so figured it was time to get it in front of some eyeballs. As well as the Milky Way my photo takes in two other galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Jupiter, Saturn & Mars are here as well, and I also caught a lot of green atmospheric airglow in the panorama. The location I captured the sky at on this clear night was Seven Mile Beach, near Gerroa, Australia. I shot 71 overlapping images, with my camera mounted on a “Nodal Ninja” panoramic head. I shot each of the 71 individual frames with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1570777562864-7EVD9X0YY92JFFVEXGP5/nines-better-than-none.jpg Long & Wide - Nine's better than none After a five-week hiatus from night photography, I drove south to the Jerrawangala national park near Nowra, Australia, on the last Saturday night in September of 2019. Despite the forecast for clear skies, upon arrival, I could see that clouds were quickly moving in from the southwest. My haul for the night was just nine photos, thanks to the weather. Still, as today’s post title says, nine is better than none. Two of those nine images had overlapping fields of view, so I was able to stitch them together to create the panoramic photo you’re looking at now. It shows the Milky Way’s central band and core region very low in the southwestern sky, with Jupiter lighting the way towards the horizon. The two photos that I took to create this panorama were captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567287690908-WL8VQH9H33GQ10WY2577/three-galaxies-from-halfway-to-the-top.jpg Long & Wide - Three galaxies from halfway to the top Australia’s highest mainland mountain is Mt Kosciuszko, located in the Snowy Mountains region in my home state of New South Wales. With its summit at 2228 metres (7310 feet) above sea level it’s by no means one of the world’s tallest mountains but it’s the best we’ve got. Just over 60km to the northeast of that mountain is the spot where I captured this panorama of my beloved Australian night sky. The elevation there is 1000 metres, about halfway to the top, you might say. There are three galaxies visible in this photo. The largest and most obvious is our own collection of stars, the Milky Way, with its galactic core area hovering over the western horizon just to the right of centre. Over in the top left of the scene are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, travelling through space with us on our journey through what is known as the “Local Group” of galaxies. Apart from the two Magellanic Clouds every other star, star cluster and wisp of interstellar dust in this photo is inside the Milky Way. Some clouds way off in the distance obscured some of the Milky Way over on the right of the image. This panorama was created from thirteen overlapping photos, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/5860968159cc68360b10185d/586096fe46c3c49fd7a49698/1482725118854/ Long & Wide https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567288136224-GPFH862O70AP4W0GZSN7/a-night-of-lights.jpg Long & Wide - A night of lights Sunday night (28th May) was a night of lights. The Aurora Australis was pumping in the Southern Hemisphere with some fantastic photos coming from places ranging from 35 degrees south and below.. I drove 100km south from home once I saw the reports and photos coming in but by the time I arrived the show was pretty much over. There’s some purple auroral glow on the horizon at the lower right of this image. On the horizon over towards the left-hand side is the glow from an electrical storm that was way out to sea but still very much visible here and north for about 200km. The lights of the stars in the Milky Way are arching up from near the storm, through the core region and off towards the right. A couple of ships out a sea show as white streaks from their navigation lights forming little trails during the time that the shutter was open. Atmospheric airglow gives the whole shot a slightly purplish tint, not related to the colours added by the auroral glow on the horizon. This single image is comprised of seven individual shots that were stitched together using Autopano Pro. Each shot was captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567290491796-EZZWVHJGV9476NKDVZ9O/galactic+reservoir.jpg Long & Wide - Galactic reservoir Tallowa Dam, in the Kangaroo Valley (Australia), has a viewing platform that is very brightly lit all through the night. The spill from those lights is what has illuminated the hills on the other side of the lake. I used a hand-held LED light bank to show the foreground but my inconsistent light painting has resulted in grass that’s several shades of yellow and green. My favourite heavenly sight, the band of the Milky Way’s galactic core region, is reigning over the hills and is showing a lot of detail in the strands of interstellar dust. The row of yellow lights on the water’s surface serve as a warning to kayakers, hopefully to keep them from going over the dam’s spillway. This panorama that was created from 18 single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567294740806-6LCBYTR1E7Z4TGN5GVZD/going-going.jpg Long & Wide - Going, going… I shot this panorama of the Milky Way in the west back on October 24th of 2016, from ten single photos that were stitched together using the Autopano Pro app. On the left you can see the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds as they circle the south celestial pole. Venus is just above the horizon a small way to the right of the centre of the photo, with Saturn above and to the right of that. Mars is up above the stretch of the Milky Way. The city of Nowra is responsible for the bright yellow lights on the horizon at the left of centre. Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567294992450-WFVP0AATD6HNE4KOXXS2/coila-mw-silo-arch-small.jpg Long & Wide - Ruins under the arch These old silo ruins next to the Princes Highway at Coila, on Australia’s southeast coast, stand firm as the dome of the night sky moves overhead. Peeking out from behind a tree at left the Large Magellanic cloud, a companion galaxy of our Milky Way, is at the bottom of its circuit of the south celestial pole. The Small Magellanic Cloud is higher up above it, and just above that is the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, looking like a large star here. Just over the top of the silo are two similarly bright objects, the supergiant star Antares to the left and the planet Saturn almost dead-centre of the tower. The Galactic Kiwi is presiding over the scene higher up over the tower, under the wings of the Milky Way with its swirls and filaments of interstellar dust. The purplish colour of the sky is due to a high moisture content in the air and some atmospheric airglow. I’m still learning the art of foreground lighting as evidenced by the patches of light and dark in the grass between the camera and the silo. This is a stitched panorama created from 68 individual photos, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567258801314-TAX0U7AOCD1PVAI9Q8U7/the-sky-over-swan-lake.jpg Long & Wide - The sky over Swan Lake Swan Lake, on the southeast coast of New South Wales, Australia, is one of the many places that I’ve heard of for years but not ever visited, until October of 2018. I was there on this Sunday night to try to photograph the Milky Way while it was low in the southwestern sky. A few minutes before I shot the last images that make up this panorama, the clouds moved in from the northeast to try and rain on my parade. Although this part of the coast is only lightly populated, the small holiday townships near the lake still produce their share of light pollution. Cudmirrah, over on the left, was pumping out white light, and near the middle of the shot, the yellow glow on the horizon is from fog-piercing lights on the Princes Highway, about 12 km (7.5 mi) distant. Some campers had a fire burning at the north end of the lake, and I love the little blossom of orange light that they added to the scene. Mars is riding high over the middle of my photo. The Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy, snuck into the lefthand edge, for extra interest. I hope to get back here again before this Milky Way season ends. I shot 24 single photos to create this panoramic image and took each of those frames using a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24 mm lens @ f/2.4, for a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567382036290-7SAYYK8BE503HDUWIUPO/waste-water-and-wonder-50-percent.jpg Long & Wide - Waste, water and wonder Would I be correct in guessing that most countries are like Australia, where the rural roadsides are littered with manmade waste, to some degree? I hope that you can’t see them when you’re squinting at this photo on your phone, but there are several bottles and cans visible at the bottom of the frame. How lazy, uncaring about the natural environment, or just plain reckless, can people get? At least the waste doesn’t dominate the shot, but the bottles were some of the first things my eyes went to when I was processing this image. That’s the “waste” part of the title out of the way. The “water” that you see here is known as the Bamarang Dam, a small reservoir west of the rural town of Nowra in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It was a new nightscape photography location for me this year and I look forward to getting back there in 2018. What’s the “wonder”, you may be wondering? What else but the majestic arch of the Milky Way that dominates the scene. Hundreds of billions of stars, plus immense clouds and “lanes” of dust and gas are responsible for the structure that marks our galaxy’s place on our night skies. Over on the left are the Magellanic Clouds, two companion Dwarf Galaxies of the Milky Way that are like astronomical hangers-on, always there as our enormous “island universe” travels through the cosmos. This panorama was made from 30 original overlapping images. Each of the photos was captured with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm wide-angle lens @ an aperture of f/2.4. Each shot was exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567258811731-SZBK9IK7O00QRE1U737I/camera-vs-eyes-2.jpg Long & Wide - Camera vs eyes You don’t have to look at this image for long to see how well lit up the foreground is. The fields are quite bright and very green, and there’s no mistaking the blue paint job on my car. When I was standing out on the road taking photos, though, things were very different. As I was avoiding using a light to see my way around, to protect my night vision, the only way I could see my car was from the blinking red light of its alarm. It wasn’t until I got home and looked at the photos I’d shot that I saw the cows laying out on the paddocks. Once or twice I stumbled down the little embankment next to the road because I just couldn’t see it. OK, why does it all look so bright in the photo? To be able to capture all of the details in the sky, such as the stars and planets, and the dust and dark gas in the Milky Way in a photo, your camera needs to take a long exposure, e.g. at least 10-15 seconds. As well as a long exposure time you need to set your camera to a high level of light sensitivity, its “ISO” setting, such as 1600, 3200, 6400 or higher. The combination of these two settings not only lets you gather lots of light from the sky, it also results in you capturing lots of any other light that is around. Out of shot and to the left, about 30km away, is the industrial city of Wollongong, pumping out wasted artificial light all night long. That light pollution spilt onto the fields where I was, bouncing off of the green grass and onto my camera’s sensor. Although I was disappointed to have driven about 100km (60mi) from home to escape the lights of Sydney, only to be bathed in the same stuff here, the light pollution was useful. The photo is a stitched panorama that I created using the application Autopano Pro. I shot 67 single and overlapping images to make up the pano. Each of those was photographed with this equipment and settings: Canon EOS 6D camera, Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567383586354-PX7TJZ12F414QIFL30D7/wispy-wonder-over-the-water-16x9.jpg Long & Wide - Wispy wonder over the water The location I shot this at is Bamarang Dam, southwest of the regional city of Nowra, Australia, just over two hour’s drive from my home. The road sweeps around the eastern perimeter of the reservoir and the bushland falls away to give this view across the water. There are a few prominent colours in this image, arising from astronomical, atmospheric & earthly causes. In the astronomical realm, stretching from left to right across the middle 1/3 of the scene is the band of our Milky Way galaxy with its billions of stars and the wispy structures known as “dust lanes”. Right in the middle of the photo is the core, the centre, of the Milky Way. Above that is the greenish atmospheric airglow that’s caused by electrons of oxygen atoms in our atmosphere changing orbits and emitting energy as light. There is also some greyish discolouration of the sky in the sky between the Milky Way and the horizon that’s caused by moisture in the air. As for earthly causes you can see the orange glow behind the trees at the centre of the middle 1/3 of the photo. That was caused by the lights of the city of Goulburn, which is about 70km (45 mi) from where the photo was shot. This image was created by shooting and then stitching together 24 single shots, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm @ f/2.2, 10 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567384519340-0QNBN3TMESAR6CNETUBC/from-tree-to-tank.jpg Long & Wide - From tree to tank Like the arc of water flowing from an ornamental fountain, the grand arch of the Milky Way in this piece seems to be emanating from the tree at left and spraying up across the sky before being caught in the water tank on the right. The lush fields and hills in this valley west of Katoomba, Australia, show a different shade of green to that of the atmospheric airglow that’s so prominent near the horizon from the left edge of the shot almost across to the centre. Morphing into a more bluish colour by the top of the image, the sky was very clear and still on this night in late July of 2016. Also on the left of the shot the beautiful and enchanting wisps of the Magellanic Cloud galaxies. They’re like ladies-in-waiting for their queen, the Milky Way, as she dominates the night. Behind the water tank, off in the distance, the glow from the lights of the city of Lithgow burn into the darkness. This is a stitched panorama, made up from 65 original images and coming in at almost 1.9GB for the full-res image. Each frame was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482725227963-6IH5PS96CLIX8HRVAA6R/So+still+.jpg Long & Wide - So still! It’s been on my todo list for three months to finish editing this panorama then post it to Instagram and Facebook and now–finally– it’s done! The tide was just past its peak when I was shooting this scene on a Friday night back in August of this year (2016), so the water was flowing–ever so slowly–down the Shoalhaven River to make its way to the South Pacific Ocean, around 25km away. Despite the movement of the water the lack of breeze made the top of the water into an almost perfect mirror.  Up at the top left-hand corner you can see the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is a companion galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. The colourful arch of stars, dust and gas that stretches almost right across the image is that same Milky Way galaxy and its “galactic core” region. The planets Mars and Saturn were close to one another in the sky back in August and you can see the two of them, along with the supergiant star Antares, glowing orange just over the tree line near the middle of the shot. All of these celestial wonders can also be seen reflecting off the surface of the river, with a surprising amount of the Milky Way’s structure visible in the mirror image. Spilling red light all over the rocks at right is the tiny LED pilot light in a battery that powers the dew heater keeping my camera lens warm and free from fogging.  This single image was created by shooting 33 overlapping images, in three rows of eleven shots, then stitching the images together in the application “AutoPano Pro”. Each photo was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567761508485-QA9EI0WMR78MDH42UQZA/luminous-maximus.jpg Long & Wide - Luminous Maximus This night in September of 2018 was the first time that I had ever photographed the blue glow of bioluminescent organisms in the water here at Tuross Lake, Australia. It’s visible at the waterline on the lower left. Distinct from the individual stars in the photo, the galactic core of the Milky Way, with its billions of suns all glowing together, is giving off a yellowish tone in the sky above the bioluminescence. High over the core is the planet Mars. I shot each of the 18 individual frames that comprise this panorama with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567426900430-ANIWUO4UPG9PJ0894E7P/straight-but-bent.jpg Long & Wide - Straight but bent This panorama is made up from 45 photos, shot in three rows of 15 frames each. It shows the Milky Way arching over the western sky on the Toolijooa Road near Kiama, Australia. The foreground’s brightness is due to light pollution coming from the cities of Sydney, Wollongong and Kiama on the right and the city of Nowra on the left. To be able to show the view of over 180 degrees that this image covers, the normally-straight lines at the top and bottom of the photo are curved. For whatever reason our brains are OK with a horizon that looks normal (i.e. it's horizontal) even if other lines are bent. I could have warped the image so that the Milky Way was a straight band of stars but then the horizon would have been curved like a big smiley mouth. Each of the 45 shots was taken with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567472548571-EPDE1BVXXRR45JEYY42S/majestic-arch.jpg Long & Wide - Majestic Arch I can't get enough of photographing the Milky Way in different settings, and including a waterway of some kind is one of my favourite compositions. Broughton Creek near Nowra, Australia, is a feeder tributary of the Shoalhaven River. When I visited on this night in 2015 the water’s surface was amazingly flat despite the movement of the tide. This panoramic image is made up from 16 single frames, stitched together with the application AutoPano Pro. 16 images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567472598176-DGJQRW2GT0LTM26ENH4P/so-still.jpg Long & Wide - So still! The tide was just past its peak when I was shooting this scene on a Friday night back in August of 2016. The water was flowing–ever so slowly–down the Shoalhaven River to make its way to the South Pacific Ocean, around 25km away. Despite this movement, the lack of any breeze made the top of the water into an almost perfect mirror. Up at the top left-hand corner you can see the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is a companion galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. The colourful arch of stars, dust and gas that stretches almost right across the image is that same Milky Way galaxy and its “galactic core” region. The planets Mars and Saturn were close to one another in the sky back in August and you can see the two of them, along with the supergiant star Antares, glowing orange just over the tree line near the middle of the shot. All of these celestial wonders can also be seen reflecting off the surface of the river, with a surprising amount of the Milky Way’s structure visible in the mirror image. Spilling red light all over the rocks at right is the tiny LED pilot light in a battery that powers the dew heater keeping my camera lens warm and free from fogging. This panoramic image was created by shooting 33 overlapping images, in three rows of eleven shots, then stitching the images together in the application “AutoPano Pro”. Each photo was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567507879356-9UYWGQ8MCKREPLNLKNUJ/a-stitched-stretch-of-river.jpg Long & Wide - A stitched stretch of river It was around 11:30pm when I finished shooting this panoramic image of a stretch of the Tuross River back in October of 2016. In the seventeen minutes between shooting the first frame (bottom left) & shooting the final frame to make up the pano (top right), a breeze disturbed the river’s surface, leaving me with only 2/3 of an image with stars reflected in the river. The Milky Way was setting over the trees in the right-hand half of the scene, signalling that our southern-hemisphere’s summer wasn’t far away. The Magellanic Clouds show their usually lovely wispiness at the centre-top, with the sky’s second-brightest star Canopus in a line with the two satellite galaxies. The bright navigation markers on the bridge spilled their light all the way across to where I was shooting, resulting in the red glow of the sand there at the bottom of the frame. Although I thought I’d hidden my camera heater’s battery pack out of sight the mini LED on its case shone a red spot onto the sand, adding an extra point for your eyes to be drawn to. A panorama stitched from 27 individual frames using Autopano Pro. Each frame was capture with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567509095124-MS6JAT5W1CLZLMOME4Y0/arc-from-a-spark.jpg Long & Wide - To anyone who's tuned in TV transmitters send out their signals whether or not anyone is tuned in to watch and listen. In a similar way, the Milky Way broadcasts its beautiful image onto our skies every night. Weather permitting, the beauty is there to be seen by anyone who cares to look; to anyone who bothers to tune in. I love tuning in to this broadcast! Here in Australia it's now spring and we're heading for summer. This means later sunsets, more humid and less clear skies, and therefore less sharp pictures of the Milky Way as it sets through the thicker horizon. I’m gonna miss shooting this wonder over the summer months. Roll on autumn! Shot with my Canon EOS 7D, Samyang 24mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 5000. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567509848945-6JDITPXAS4BFZ2PJVUNJ/coila-arch-final-1920-x-640-posted-to-fb.jpg Long & Wide - Somewhere special under the stars Tuross Head, Australia. I’m now in my mid-50s & have been visiting Tuross since for holidays since was 11. It's got two lakes and several beaches and by night has wonderfully dark skies. This is the first stitched panorama that I ever shot, in October of 2013. I didn’t have much idea of what I was doing and I hadn’t heard of panoramic heads for tripods at this stage. Shooting the 14 frames that make up the image consisted of my taking a shot, estimating how much I needed the next shot to overlap by, then moving the tripod to that position for the next shot. Centre of frame & just above tree line is Venus, also reflected on the lake. The processed panoramic image’s dimensions were 10000 x 3333 pixel, with a file size of 240MB. 12 original frames (10x portrait, 2x landscape), stitched in AutoPanoPro Mac, edited in PhotoShop CC & Aperture. Denoised via Topaz Denoise 5. Original RAW frames shot with Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 10-20mm (10mm) @ f4.0, 25sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567258849451-JGKPXCLMFRMDEY0ERQLY/three-for-one.-galaxies-that-is.jpg Long & Wide - Three for one The Milky Way has several smaller galaxies that are travelling through space with it (well, with us, in fact). These are known as “satellite galaxies” or “companion galaxies” and of the approximately sixty that have been detected only two are visible with the unaided eye. Named the “Magellanic Clouds”, you can see them at the left of this image, looking like two hazy blobs in the sky. I always find it a bit of a buzz to capture the Magellanic Clouds in the same image as their much bigger brother and hope that you get the same buzz seeing the three galaxies together in a photo like this. Unless you’re shooting with a very wide-angle lens you can’t get all three galaxies into the one shot but you can use the process of “stitching” to finish up with such a wide photo. For this image I shot thirteen overlapping images and then used software to blend them (via stitching) into this single scene. Each of the photos that make up today’s image were shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567510605295-N6WEGHYF91F1EYHI6HBO/three-galaxies-and-a-beach-and-a-hill.jpg Long & Wide - Three galaxies, a beach and a hill There’s no missing the Milky Way in this panoramic image that I shot on the beach at Black Head Point, Gerroa, Australia. The time was close to 4:00 am, so the central band and core region of our home galaxy were low in the western sky and in the perfect position to shoot a single-row panorama. The other two galaxies alluded to in the title of this image are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, the two fuzzy and white smudges at the extreme left of the scene. These two dwarf galaxies, which are travelling through space as companions to the Milky Way, live up to their names and look like little clouds handing in the night sky. Down to the left of the Large Magellanic Cloud is the white star Canopus, the second-brightest star in the night sky anywhere on Earth. Directly below this white beacon is a reflection of the star’s light, stretched across the shallow waters in a tidal rock pool. Gerroa is a great spot for nightscape photography. You can shoot the Milky Way when it’s rising, overhead and setting, all with an interesting landform or horizon in the photo. The drive isn’t too bad, either, taking me a little under 90 minutes to get there from my home in Sydney. This panorama was created from twelve overlapping images, each shot in portrait orientation and stitched together using the software Autopano Pro. I lit the beach and cliff face using a Tristar 2 SMD LED light, fitted with a 3200K filter. Each of the component images was photographed with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using a shutter speed of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567511685875-V7G9RAUYDJV2OIF2CJND/five-galaxy-panorama.jpg Long & Wide - Five-galaxy Fiesta The Taralga Wind Farm in New South Wales, Australia, is a 51-turbine installation that can power around 45,000 average Australian homes per year. I chose the site as the foreground for a Milky Way panorama that I photographed between 1:00 & 2:00 am on Saturday 3rd of August, 2019. Like the title says, this image includes five galaxies, all visible to the naked eye, and I have also noted some other objects that were visible on the night. The five galaxies you can see in the photo are 1. The Large Magellanic Cloud, 2. The Small Magellanic Cloud, 3. Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, 4. The Andromeda Galaxy, aka M31, and 5. The Triangulum Galaxy, M33. I admit that the fourth and fifth of those are hard to see, but they’re there in the photo, and I could see them even with my 55-year-old eyes. Also captured in the picture is the globular cluster Omega Centauri, as well as the planets Jupiter and Saturn. The photo doesn’t show how cold it was on this night, but this was the first time I’ve seen a 0-degree Celsius reading on my car’s thermometer. I shot each of the 17 photos that make up the panorama using a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567511465157-GW4EYLQJJY6UM1M3XGQK/ststephens-wayo-goulburn.jpg Long & Wide - Skies wide open I covered nearly 500km (310 mi) on the night that I shot this panorama. My first stop of trip was at the 19th-century church and its accompanying graveyard near Crookwell, Australia. The final composite image was a monster 65-image panorama that ended up saving out as a 1.8GB file! I know there’s a lot of empty sky in the photo, but I cropped it that way so I could include Mars up at the top-right of the scene. You can see the Magellanic Clouds and the globular cluster 47 Tucanae shining clearly on the left. 47 Tucanae is hovering a little to the top-right of the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Milky Way and its galactic core were low in the western sky, and there is a visible glow extending up towards Mars, indicating the presence of the Zodiacal Light. To create the full-size I captured 65 single images, each of which was shot with a Canon EOS 6D camera, using a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/vertical-panos daily 0.75 2021-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1606822511939-1D90V3IN7XZSZWYP2HKY/a-cosmic-tuft-of-wool.jpg Tall & Thin - A Cosmic Tuft of Wool A handful of sheep stood atop this hill, silhouetted by the lights of the rural city of Goulburn, Australia, while I photographed the starry and cloud-free sky at the Taralga wind farm in mid-November of this year. High overhead and looking like a tuft of wool, cut free and discarded by a shearer’s blades, the amorphous glow from the billions of stars forming the Large Magellanic is the standout feature of today’s photo. The background sky is showing a purplish tint, caused by the presence of what scientists call “airglow” in the Earth’s atmosphere, which human eyes cannot see, sadly. Dark nebulae in the Milky Way show themselves as dimmer patches in the sky near the horizon, as they block the light from stars more distant than these enormous bodies of gas and dust. I shot two overlapping frames to create this final image, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II Digital SLR camera fitted with a Sigma 35 mm wide-angle lens. Each photo was taken using the same settings, which were a shutter speed of 8.0 seconds, a lens aperture of f/1.6, and an ISO selection of 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1606822511939-1D90V3IN7XZSZWYP2HKY/a-cosmic-tuft-of-wool.jpg Tall & Thin - A Cosmic Tuft of Wool A handful of sheep stood atop this hill, silhouetted by the lights of the rural city of Goulburn, Australia, while I photographed the starry and cloud-free sky at the Taralga wind farm in mid-November of this year. High overhead and looking like a tuft of wool, cut free and discarded by a shearer’s blades, the amorphous glow from the billions of stars forming the Large Magellanic is the standout feature of today’s photo. The background sky is showing a purplish tint, caused by the presence of what scientists call “airglow” in the Earth’s atmosphere, which human eyes cannot see, sadly. Dark nebulae in the Milky Way show themselves as dimmer patches in the sky near the horizon, as they block the light from stars more distant than these enormous bodies of gas and dust. I shot two overlapping frames to create this final image, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II Digital SLR camera fitted with a Sigma 35 mm wide-angle lens. Each photo was taken using the same settings, which were a shutter speed of 8.0 seconds, a lens aperture of f/1.6, and an ISO selection of 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1596976775678-4B4K5UQSER8AMH7WF3UX/still-standing-under-the-stars.jpg Tall & Thin - Still Standing Under The Stars Although I have visited this area on the south coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia, since late 1975, it is only in the last five or so years that I’ve been making my way there to shoot nightscape photos. The old tree that I’ve included here in today’s photo has been the foreground feature for plenty of the shots I’ve taken on the access road to the town of Tuross Head. Thinking about it now, I don’t reckon I ever paid the tree any attention until I started to use it in my photos, but on each visit now I check to make sure that it’s still standing. The glory of being able to shoot in the dark skies like what the far south coast of New South Wales offers is something I hope I never take for granted. You can see so much of the dark dust and gas structures present in the Milky Way, as well as the seemingly countless stars that paint the darkness with brilliant flecks of beauty, even without a camera, binoculars or a telescope. Add to that some naked-eye-visible planets, such as Jupiter and Saturn, and you have ample reason to want to stand in a field on a cold night, as I did in mid-July this year, capturing this scene. The image is a vertical panorama, created by stitching together five original frames, each of which I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.5, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1610446482602-D98J2T1BX5K61EHHZFE2/old-location-new-year.jpg Tall & Thin - Old Location, New Year This post is my first in nearly six weeks, due to bad weather (the grey dome that seems to follow me around), busyness in my business, Christmas, and some time away with my wife. I hope to use my photos of the night sky's wonders to bring some wonder, light, and even joy into your lives during this current circuit of the Sun. My initial post for 2021 is from a location where I cut my teeth on digital nightscape photography in 2013 and 2014, Tuross Head, on Australia's south-east coast. Over thirty years before then, I was shooting black-and-white star trails photos at Tuross during my mid-late teen years. This heritage-listed church hasn't heard worshippers' singing or prayers for several decades but is a landmark still beloved by locals and the region's many holidaying visitors. The narrow opening in the persistent cloud cover only lasted long enough to shoot thirty images, including eight that I used to create this vertical panorama. The portion of the Milky Way included in the photo stretches from the constellation of Carina, just above the church's spire, up through Canis Major and just squeezing in Orion near the top of the scene. To shoot each of the eight images in the final panorama I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.5, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598830089421-RPIZCZA41QM8848WQWA6/two-little-galaxies.jpg Tall & Thin - Two Little Galaxies My previous photo was called "Three Galaxies. Three Planets", and in the text, I noted that two of the galaxies in the title were the "Magellanic Clouds". Today's image features those two dwarf galaxies in more detail as I captured them in the sky over the Tasman Sea off Seven Mile Beach, NSW. The Large Magellanic Cloud is estimated to contain between a few billion and ten billion stars, and have a diameter of around 30000 light-years. Its sibling, the Small Magellanic Cloud, measures approximately 7000 light-years across and contains possibly several hundred million stars. Above the Small cloud, you can see the globular star cluster 47-Tucanae, and if you zoom in on the Large Magellanic Cloud, you'll see a green blob that is known to astronomers as the Tarantula Nebula. Although I could have fit this scene into one wide-angle photograph, I shot four overlapping images and stitched them together during processing. I took four single frames with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1593608262925-X69HDUGKWVGS2RVB61LA/jamberoo-jaunt.jpg Tall & Thin - Jamberoo Jaunt The 30th day of June is the final day of the Australian financial year, which often means a last-minute rush of people and businesses wanting their IT problems solved by their friendly “Always Apples” support technician, i.e., me! That tug on my time, as well as a few cloudy nights, has seen me trapped at home, wishing I was out photographing the night sky. Fortunately, though, I did get some time out last Thursday night, 25th June. I spent more of the session driving compared to how long I got to shoot photos, but some of the images I captured made that ratio worth enduring. This vertical panorama, created from shooting sixteen overlapping frames, shows why I was willing to be tired the next morning. The road, fences, paddocks and mountainside in the foreground are all lit by light pollution from the nearby city of Wollongong, and the cloud hovering over the mountain is illuminated by the rural town of Nowra, around 30 km (18 mi) to the southwest. Jupiter and Saturn are prominent in the upper left-hand corner of the scene, and the globular cluster Omega Centauri is on the right and about one third up from the bottom of the frame. I shot the sixteen photos that make up this panoramic image using m Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 3200. I didn’t have my panoramic head with me, so I used dead-reckoning to calculate the overlap needed for the photos. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591602131517-GS3XDGIUBNLJI2TD15OG/one-last-look.jpg Tall & Thin - One Last Look There is a habit that’s overcome me on my nocturnal adventures. No matter how late the hour, or how long the trip home will take me, I have to sneak one last look at the sky before I get into my car. I could have taken only a handful of photos, or it could have been hundreds, but I still need that one last look. If clouds have muscled in on the unspoilt heavens, or if the view is as clear as it ever could be, that one last look is a must. So it was on this night when the Milky Way was glorious, and the planet Jupiter owned the sky between that galactic gem and the horizon. I took my one last look, a little after 1:00 am. Moonlight, the need for sleep, the restrictions of the pandemic and uncooperative weather have kept me from seeing this unfettered view for too many weeks. It’s good that I had my camera with me to capture this one last look. I shot this photograph at Seven Mile Beach National Park in my state of New South Wales, Australia. I used my reliable Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1599400773110-0E6HK9PN0G7RQIHPI0E4/privileged.jpg Tall & Thin - Privileged I chose the title for today’s photo because of how blessed I feel to be able to photograph scenes like this, and for the opportunities that I get to try to pass on that thrill to others. The time was a little after 4:15 am, one Saturday morning in July, as I sat on the sand at the edge of Tuross Lake (Australia), taking in the serenity and doing my best to capture the scene with my camera, to enjoy again when I like. Bioluminescent marine organisms in the shallow, sandy water gave away their positions by their telltale blue glow, seen as a stripe near the bottom of my photo. The king of all planets, the gas-giant Jupiter makes two appearances in this image, dominating the sky with its bright orb, as well by its stretched reflection atop the lake. The Milky Way’s stars, nebulae, gas clouds and dust lanes stain the sky above the horizon as well as the water below, with each apparition heading for the other as the Earth turned on its axis. Above and to the right of Jupiter, you can see our Solar System’s next-biggest planet, Saturn, standing out against the stars. To create the image that you’re viewing, I shot nine overlapping photos that I then stitched together in software. For each of those original individual images, I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, with an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1600088866088-LI5SKHPPSIO1BRGQA1MI/a-splendid-stretch-of-sky.jpg Tall & Thin - A Splendid Stretch of Sky It’s a shame that the time of year has passed for shooting these vertical panoramas featuring the Milky Way standing on-end. I’ve been luckier than many Australians, particularly in the state of Victoria, been able to move outside of a small radius from my home. Many of the photographers who inspire and encourage me have been in lock-down for many months and haven’t had the chance to stand under the night sky, let alone to photograph it. Today’s image was captured in July, on the ocean rock shelf at Gerroa, Australia, during one of my crazy one-night driving trips. The horizon is alight with the glow from street lights and other artificial illumination from towns along the coast, places that were only dimly lit and sparsely populated when I was a kid in the 1970s. Despite that, I was well able to capture the stars, planets, nebulae and dust lanes visible in this stretch of the sky in the Southern Hemisphere. From the crimson-coloured Eta Carina Nebula low in the sky over those light-polluted towns, up through the Milky Way’s galactic core area in the top one-third of the shot, there are innumerable celestial objects visible in my photo. The two gas-giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, can be seen in the top left-hand corner of this scene, standing off from the central band of the Milky Way’s streak upon the heavenly dome. I shot ten overlapping single-frame photos to create this composite image, capturing each of those frames using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598529528866-FMF34PSG9LNTL52EUMYU/dark-and-detailed.jpg Tall & Thin - Dark and Detailed It’s hard to beat dark, clear nights and a sharp lens for capturing the non-starry details of the Milky Way’s dust lanes and dark nebulae. The night that I photographed this scene, in late July of this year, was one of those times, and the Sigma 35 mm lens that I had mounted on my camera was the perfect tool to make the most of it. Of course, the brightness of the massive conglomeration of stars that makes up the Milky Way’s galactic core shows up well in such a photo, but that’s not what my eyes were first drawn to when I saw this image come together. Those dark features hide estimated millions of stars (billions?), which makes me wonder how bright the sky would look should the dust and gas somehow drift off into the wider universe. The planets Jupiter and Saturn are glowing to the upper-left of the Milky Way, and I caught the Southern Cross and several other familiar features in the lower half of the image. The lights on the horizon are those of coastal towns that are over 30 km distant from the rocky beach and headland at Gerroa, Australia, the location where I captured this scene. This style of image is a called a vertical panorama (or “vertical pano”) that I created by shooting twenty single frames, in two columns that each contain ten photos. These individual images were then blended–“stitched”–to make the final image. I captured each of the twenty single shots using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598911837459-ZN4B7MVOB1ELOATPGK43/the-galaxy%27s-made-of-cheese.jpg Tall & Thin - The Galaxy's Made of Cheese Fans of the claymation short films, “Wallace & Gromit”, will tell you that it’s the Moon–and not the Milky Way–that’s made of cheese. There was a proverb, from the year 1546, that spoke of the Moon being made of green cheese. Apparently, this saying was used at the time to describe people who would be so gullible as to believe such a thing. I admit that it’s self-evident that the Milky Way is made of milk, of course! The long-defunct cheese factory in my photo, atop a small rise next to the Princes Highway at Bumbo, on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, gave me the inspiration for the name of today’s nightscape photo. The idea of photographing the former fromage factory, under the Milky Way, came from a friend I was visiting during June of 2019 on a long-weekend break on the coast. At around 1:00 am on my last night in the region before heading north to my home in Sydney, I visited the spot and captured the photos I used to create this vertical panorama. The overly-bright looking Milky Way is due to a thin fog that was moistening the sky at the time. To get the eight individual frames that make up this composite photo I used a Canon EOS 6D camera fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, mounted on a Nodal Ninja panoramic tripod head. I selected an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400 for each shot. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1571313194809-KCFTRMDED86879ET7QJ6/a-little-church-under-the-big-sky.jpg Tall & Thin - Little Church. Big Sky The St Stephens Anglican Church at Wayo, in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. The site was donated by a local landowner for use as a church and cemetery back in 1866. The current building’s stone structure was erected in the 1880s. As enduring as the stony sanctuary may be, it is dwarfed and humbled under the immensity and timelessness of the Milky Way. This image was one of a number that I shot during a visit in May of 2019, on a night when the atmospheric airglow was a mix of green and orange. Those colours are evident in the background sky in my photo. To create this vertical panoramic image, I took eight overlapping photos. After a few adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, I used the stitching software “Autopano Pro” to merge those eight frames into the final composition. For each of the single images, I used my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, choosing an exposure time of 15 seconds, with the 6D’s ISO set at 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1584188893872-755PBFLTLTMOS9LIOM6X/field-of-view.jpg Tall & Thin - Field of View With the cloud-cover that’s been a regular feature in my area for several weeks, and the full moon’s light washing out the Milky Way’s details in the early morning sky, what’s a photographer to do but draw from their reserves? Today’s image is from May of 2019, taken near the rural city of Nowra, Australia, showing the Milky Way’s core rising over the distant Coolangatta Mountain and its surrounding dairy country. One challenge with nightscape photography–well, with any style of photography–is to be creative with how you frame your shots. Rather than having the Milky Way’s core in the sky with only the ground to compare it to, I used an overhanging pine tree’s branches and fronds to obscure the sky just a little, trying to create a feeling of the trees revealing the heavenly wonders on display. I think I managed to get it just the way I wanted it, in the end. The vertical panorama was created by photographing eight overlapping images that were then edited in Adobe Lightroom, followed by stitching into the final single image using the now-discontinued software Autopano Pro. For each of those eight photos, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1576384964544-HPZX8KAQZYTP17EA7EC5/Alignment.jpg Tall & Thin - Alignment I find it easy to imagine the people building this church, which was finished in 1903, using the line of the rising Milky Way to set the angle for their little building’s roof gable. There wouldn’t have been as much man-made dust in the air nor light pollution to dim their view back then, giving the locals an unobstructed vista of the heavens on a cloudless night. Mind you the air was clear and the night quite dark when I visited the small sanctuary in April of 2019, evidenced by how much of the fine details in the Milky Way’s dust lanes my photo has captured. The colours of a number of the nebulae in the star-forming region of Rho Ophiuchi have also shown up nicely in the photo. Not visible in the photo, and certainly lost to my eyes on the night, is the cap for one of my lenses, dropped as I was stumbling through the darkness, looking for an interesting composition to shoot. Perhaps if I make the 400+ kilometre round-trip back there one day, I might find my piece of protective plastic still laying in the grass. I used nine separate overlapping photos to create this composite “vertical panorama” image. My Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400, did a splendid job of sucking as much light out of the sky as possible to record each of those nine frames. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1575463707137-ZLZHFVFKB2GYNQFP8STN/windmilky-way.jpg Tall & Thin - Windmilky Way With the Milky Way’s galactic core now in the part of the sky where the sun is, it’s time to edit and post photos that I’ve shot throughout 2019 but not yet published. I will still try to get out and photograph the night magic of our southern summer, but with the craziness that leads up to Christmas, I’ll probably have lots of family and work commitments to keep me otherwise occupied. During one of my trips to the farmlands of Goulburn, Australia, back in April, I shot the twelve photos that make up this vertical panorama of the Milky Way rising over and dwarfing the old windmill on Braidwood Road. I’m still surprised at how much of the fine details of our galaxy’s dust lanes and dark nebulae I managed to capture with exposure times of only 6.0 seconds per shot. I didn’t use any image stacking, but I did make sure that my lens was focussed as sharply as I could get it! I photographed the original twelve single-frame images using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, with an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. For the photo nerds, no, I didn’t use a panoramic head, I used good old guestimation to get the right coverage of the field of view. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566902320912-EBZQM7G6QWAAN3YCBDG4/Still+and+stunning+SMALL.jpg Tall & Thin - Still and stunning I can almost hear once again the sound of the quiet that I enjoyed while I shot this scene at the beginning of June on the Tuross River, on Australia's southeast coast. The lack of breeze on the river rendered the water's surface a natural mirror to reflect the light from the sky and the foreground to where I had positioned my camera. As well as numerous stars, you can see the Large Magellanic Cloud–which is a galaxy and not a cloud at all–shining off the top of the water. At this point, the river forks off to the right into Bumbo Creek, which is broached by the wooden bridge that leads to lush and prized dairy paddocks. Beyond that bridge, you can see the fine layer of fog that hovered over the fields in the post-midnight hour. Ruling over it all, of course, is the central band and concentrated core of our home in the heavens, the Milky Way galaxy. My attraction to viewing and photographing this section of the sky isn't only the billions of stars concentrated there. The dark filament-like structures known as "dust lanes" that only make themselves visible by the millions of stars they obscure, also captivate me. I created this image by shooting nine overlapping images, with my camera mounted on a panoramic head that sets a fixed angle between each photo. After capturing the individual pictures and downloading them to my computer, I used some panorama-stitching software to blend the nine images into one. To shoot each of those nine photos I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259322230-7FRI7ROI0WSZ0AKIKTH2/amber-airglow.jpg Tall & Thin - Amber airglow Something that amazes me is the fact that you can see details of the bright, starry galactic core of our Milky Way, reflected off the water. Those photons have travelled about 27,000 light-years across space but still have enough energy to bounce off the water’s surface. Single stars are mirrored, too, like the blue star on the middle right. Its reflection is far more prominent than the original blue dot itself. This photo was captured at Black Head, a landmark of the town of Gerroa, on Australia’s south-east coast. I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Canon 40mm STM lens @ f/2.8, for an exposure length of 10 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567338132550-HWYTS58PWLJCJVB3CH0Y/another-dam-fine-view.jpg Tall & Thin - Another dam fine view Luckily the wind that had been blowing for the previous two days abated enough for me to get some reflections of stars in the bottom-right of this pano, although they’re still not sharp. I actually got the stars of the Southern Cross reflected, and their colours show up much more prominently on the water’s surface than they do in the sky. Look how much detail there is in the galactic core, including the “dancing horse” or “dark horse” nebula, as well as other dust lanes around the galactic centre. You can see the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies at the lower left, above the bright glow from the lights of the nearby HMAS Albatross naval aviation base. Mars is a prominent feature, and Jupiter’s white light is disappearing into the trees about one third down on the right. A total of nine overlapping images were used to create this image, each of which I shot with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Samyang 14mm XP lens set at f/2.8. The exposure time for each frame was 25 seconds, with an ISO setting of 6400. I processed the panorama using the stitching software Autopano Pro. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259332687-HVR42STL8PUN6WO6M1AK/bend-and-stretch-reach-for-the-stars.jpg Tall & Thin - Bend and stretch, reach for the stars I’ve used poplars to frame the Milky Way in several shots over the past four years, and I continue to find them useful. Perhaps it’s because they’re not native trees to Australia, or because they are much taller than other trees of the same width. The warped perspective from using a wide-angle lens seems to be bending the trees towards the mass of light and gravitational attraction present in the galactic core. The location, southwest of Nowra, Australia, was another gem with clear skies, no wind and only three cars passing me in the two hours that I was lurking in the dark with my camera. I just managed to sneak Jupiter into the right-hand edge of the shot, but Mars and its blazing orange light dominate the relatively empty section of sky at the top left. This shot doesn’t quite nail the alignment I was after, and I didn’t manage to get the lighting even across all of the poplars, so I hope you find beauty and interest in it. I used the app Autopano Pro to stitch together five single, overlapping photos to create this final vertical panorama. For each photo, I used the following equipment and settings: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567338496738-7Q14U39QL5W6PS8WWZWI/centreline-small.jpg Tall & Thin - Centreline Take your pick, if you please, as to which centreline my title is referring to. The centreline of the Braidwood Road, or the centreline of the sky, in the form of the Milky Way? It took me several stops to find a location where this road lined up with the Milky Way in just the way I wanted. I was fortunate to have only one vehicle pass through while I was shooting here, which isn’t usually the case on this road. On weekends it’s particularly busy, so maybe it was quiet due to this being on a weeknight. The leaves on the trees have been blurred here due to the exposure time of 30 seconds for each photo and the strong wind that was blowing. Mars is very bright up at the top of the picture, but still not at its brightest for this year. If you know the southern skies at all, you might be able to make out the Southern Cross towards the bottom, next to the dark area known as the Coal Sack Nebula. Seven photos were taken to create this final image, with each picture in the sequence overlapping the one before it. The settings I used for each shot were: Canon EOS 6D camera, Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567338685930-EUWZNQDFYDVF0ROI3MKR/citrus-under-the-stars.jpg Tall & Thin - Citrus under the stars My wife’s sister and her husband live near the rural city of Lismore, Australia. Their property is in a place where there’s very little light pollution so I only had to walk out to their driveway to find a spot to shoot the Milky Way when visiting them a few years back. What a change that was from my usual expeditions of hundreds of kilometres on Friday or Saturday nights! Amongst the 100 or so shots I captured that night was this seven-image panorama, showing the Milky Way standing almost vertical over their fruit and vegetable garden. The orange fruit on his citrus tree adds some colour to this shot that I don’t normally see in a foreground. Just above and to the left of that tree you can see the Southern Cross and Pointers, with the planet Saturn showing as a white spot on the neck of the Dark Horse nebula. Created from 7 single frames, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259344331-QPB1DR264Q90PK5WLNNT/death-and-light-at-big-hill.jpg Tall & Thin - Death and light at Big Hill The predominant green colour of the background sky in this image is the result of the atmospheric phenomenon called “airglow”. To my eyes, the background sky colour looked grey rather than black–a sure sign of the presence of airglow. Our digital cameras excel at seeing and recording the shades of the night that we don’t discern, and this photo is a solid example of that difference. Can you see orange-brown hues in the sky in the top two-thirds of the image, looking like bruises on the dermis of the heavenly dome? These peculiar patches were caused by the fog that came and went during the couple of hours I was shooting here, mostly hampering but occasionally enhancing my photos. The brilliant glow from Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet, has been diffused but brightened by the same airborne moisture. That accounts for the large white spot in the sky that’s roughly half-way down my image. Dominating the foreground is the frame of the tired, expired and lonely tree that was so grand, and seemed to beckon to me, pleading to be featured in a photograph. Without the LED torch that I used to illuminate the tree and the paddocks, all you would see here would be the silhouette of this deceased and exhausted patriarch of the countryside. The photo is another example of a “vertical panorama”, an image that has been created by shooting multiple frames, covering the view from the horizon to the zenith, which I then blended, or “stitched”, into the final image. I captured each of the seven single frames using a Canon EOS 6D camera, with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f2.4, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567339013638-VZJSQ8CS3FSEEJN4XOF9/gerroa-rising.jpg Tall & Thin - Gerroa Rising I created this vertical pano using eleven overlapping photos, providing enough coverage to capture the Milky Way and its galactic core, accompanied by Jupiter and Saturn, rising over the Tasman Sea at Gerroa, Australia. A bonus was capturing some of the little pools of water that were reflecting the stars. I shot the 11 single-frame photos that make up the final panorama using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4. For each shot, I had the camera set to an ISO value of 6400 and exposed each shot for 8.0 seconds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567339328849-OU2QTNSSMYZG6AXH5AW1/gravitational-anomaly.jpg Tall & Thin - Gravitational anomaly The movie “Interstellar” came to mind after I noticed how the use of a wide-angle lens had made the trees at the bottom of my photo look like they’re bending in towards the massive amount of gravity present in the Milky Way’s galactic core. The fields and farmhouse also seemed reminiscent of that movie, although I was fortunate to not encounter any mega dust storms in the area around Jamberoo, New South Wales, Australia. The photo is a vertical panorama that is made up by taking overlapping images and combining them in a process called “stitching”. I shot nine photos, starting with my camera pointing a little towards the ground and facing to the southwest. Between each shot I moved the camera upwards by 15 degrees, using a panoramic head to do so. Nine shots, each spaced fifteen degrees apart, gives a total sweep of 135 degrees of sky. If I’d shot another four photos I would have covered the view from horizon to horizon, and then some. Jupiter, our solar system’s most massive planet, is off at the right-hand edge of the photo and Mars is on the left, not far out from the treetops there. The glow on the horizon at the bottom of the picture is from the city of Nowra and the white, washed-out area at the very top of the photo is from the industrial city of Wollongong, about 30km to the north. I used the following camera equipment and settings to take the nine shots that comprise the panorama: Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm lens set to f/2.4, exposing each shot for 13 seconds at an ISO of 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567424409901-CVWAK439I3287SUT4DVZ/jerrara-core-3planets.jpg Tall & Thin - Rising Lights Jupiter, Saturn & Mars were lined up in the eastern sky when I captured this scene. The location is Jerrara, a dairy farming area on the southeast coast of Australia and a little over an hour’s drive from my home in the southern suburbs of Sydney. The vertical panorama was created from four overlapping images, each shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mark II camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, for an exposure time of 13-seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567339791067-EORZN3B4J5IS4AK6DLB6/jupiter-reflected.jpg Tall & Thin - Jupiter, reflected Our solar system’s most massive planet, Jupiter, was slipping towards the western horizon when I captured this scene at around 12:30 am on July 14 of this year. There was a stiff breeze blowing across the top of this man-made pond, causing the water to be anything but smooth, and so diffusing the reflection of Jupiter’s light. That light had travelled across close to 737 million km (458 million mi) of space to reach the pond’s shimmering surface before bouncing the few metres up to my camera. Dwarfing Jupiter in size, magnetic field, brightness and every other aspect is the central band and galactic core of our Milky Way galaxy, owning the top 1/3 of my photo. The sky was exceptionally clear and dark on this night, enabling me to capture lots of fine details in the wisps and filigrees of the Milky Way’s “dust lanes”. This photo was created from nine overlapping frames. I shot each of those individual photos with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. I used a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head, tipped on its side, to take the nine photos with enough overlap between them to create a smoothly stitched vertical panorama. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259368125-5N978B740LA9F2NC4PQ1/look-both-ways-before-crossing.jpg Tall & Thin - Look both ways In July of 2017 I visited this level crossing on a rural railway line and captured a couple of vertical panoramas. It’s probably too small to see here but I caught a meteor as it flashed across the Milky Way’s core region, just underneath the “Dark Horse” nebula, aka the “Galactic Kiwi” for we Southern Hemisphere folk. This vertical panorama was created using nine overlapping images that were each shot with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259373208-A0YH3IR4MOSH2L856IYP/monday-night-magic.jpg Tall & Thin - Monday Night Magic The Milky Way’s galactic core is unmissable in this image, with its beautiful glow and obscuring bands of dust and dark gas dominating the upper right-hand quarter of the frame. Jupiter’s stark white orb is also in the same sector of my shot. The two blots of yellow on the horizon indicate the locations of the city of Goulburn and the town of Marulan, situated 85 km and 65 km distant, respectively. Yeah, light pollution sucks. Dozens of photographers located in the states of Victoria and Tasmania, –both south of my state of New South Wales–photographed the Aurora Australis on this night. Did I capture some of this light show myself, showing as the pink colour just over the headland left of centre? I’ll wait for some of my more experienced online friends to burst that bubble before I get too confident. To create this image, I shot ten overlapping frames, with each one taken in “landscape” format. After downloading the shots and doing some editing in Adobe Lightroom, I stitched the ten into the final vertical panoramic format using the now-defunct application Autopano Pro. Each of the ten single images was shot using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259385669-9AD2TEMT6Y5TH056MLN6/starlight-moonlight-city-lights.jpg Tall & Thin - Starlight. Moonlight. City lights. The 140+ year-old St Matthias Church looking lovely in the moonlight while the Milky Way is keeling over towards the west. With the 20 second exposures I used to capture the Milky Way’s detail, the camera caught light from the rising crescent moon and so the church and the grass around it look well lit up here. The moonlight was also bright enough to cast a selfie-shadow of me and my camera at the lower right of the shot. There’s a yellow-white glow coming from behind the church from the lights of Canberra, Australia’s capital city, about 50km (30mi) away. The large, bright and white orb above the power pole on the right is the planet Jupiter, very close to setting for another night. The sky looks a bit mottled and patchy due to fog that was thickening up and on the left you can see a few clouds that were drifting in and starting to ruin the party for me. After this it was time to drive home–with a safety sleep along the way–where I slumped into bed at 8:00am. This is a vertical panoramic image, created from 7 individual frames, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569551134535-8AQG3SKBMT6RWEJDGWZU/up-out-of-the-ocean.jpg Tall & Thin - Up out of the ocean The Milky Way and its core region as they rose over the Tasman Sea near Kiama, Australia on May 7th of 2018. The distinctive orange-purple colour of the background sky is caused by what is known as atmospheric airglow, which has also provided enough light to show the rocks below the water in the foreground. The bright white ball in the top left corner is the planet Jupiter, which only looks big in the photo because moisture in the Earth’s atmosphere had diffused its light. The bright orange “star” that can be seen hovering over the horizon at the bottom is the planet Mars, and you can see its reflection in the ocean pool below it. Another planet, Saturn, is about a quarter of the way between Mars and Jupiter, but harder to make out in the photo. Saturn’s reflection is easier to see than the planet itself, poking above the rock down at the bottom of the image. The tide rose substantially between arriving at this location and finishing shooting my photos, so I made the 110km drive home with one wet shoe and some partly-wet jeans after scrambling back to the main beach. The single photo that you see was created from seven overlapping shots, each of which was taken with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm wide-angle lens set to an aperture of f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. The camera was mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head atop a Manfrotto tripod. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259390982-SLXBTDNRYB0N1X7262BY/still-and-stunning.jpg Tall & Thin - Still and stunning I can almost hear once again the sound of the quiet that I enjoyed while I shot this scene at the beginning of June on the Tuross River, on Australia's southeast coast. The lack of breeze on the river rendered the water's surface a natural mirror to reflect the light from the sky and the foreground to where I had positioned my camera. As well as numerous stars, you can see the Large Magellanic Cloud–which is a galaxy and not a cloud at all–shining off the top of the water. At this point, the river forks off to the right into Bumbo Creek, which is broached by the wooden bridge that leads to lush and prized dairy paddocks. Beyond that bridge, you can see the fine layer of fog that hovered over the fields in the post-midnight hour. Ruling over it all, of course, is the central band and concentrated core of our home in the heavens, the Milky Way galaxy. My attraction to viewing and photographing this section of the sky isn't only the billions of stars concentrated there. The dark filament-like structures known as "dust lanes" that only make themselves visible by the millions of stars they obscure, also captivate me. I created this image by shooting nine overlapping images, with my camera mounted on a panoramic head that sets a fixed angle between each photo. After capturing the individual pictures and downloading them to my computer, I used some panorama-stitching software to blend the nine images into one. To shoot each of those nine photos I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567343075619-MHT8D1ZUFC4TECM2WY53/the-heavens-at-halfway.jpg Tall & Thin - The heavens at halfway Not quite halfway, but it was only a week after the midpoint of 2018 when I was out in the cold of an Aussie winter night, capturing the photos that I used to create this vertical panoramic image. Located near the rural city of Lismore in New South Wales, Australia, this old and former church building is blessed with dark skies on a moonless night. The lack of light pollution, as well as the dry and clear air on that evening, provided excellent conditions for revealing the wispy dust lanes and dark nebulae that characterise the core region of our Milky Way galaxy. As with so many of my photos from that year, Mars is a dominant player in the scene, looking big, bright and orange over at the top-left of the frame. The Large Magellanic Cloud is peeking out from the bottom edge of the church’s roof on the left, with its sibling the Small Magellanic Cloud making a more conspicuous appearance over the tree near the lower corner of the frame. The short tail of a meteor forms a triangle with Mars and the Small Cloud. For all of the interest that these celestial objects give to the scene, it’s our majestic, magic and magnificent Milky Way that my eyes go straight to, every time I look at this photo. As I mentioned above, this is a vertical panorama which I composited from ten single, overlapping images. For each of those individual frames I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, and a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. I had the camera mounted on a Nodal Ninja III panoramic head, tipped at 90 degrees to allow for the vertical orientation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567337994812-QND8T7V4VNC42A7JG7GW/another-uprising.jpg Tall & Thin - Uprising This image is a stitched vertical panorama created from five overlapping photos. The Milky Way was doing its thing for another night, while local fishermen did their thing on the rock shelf below. The white glow down there on the right is from the headlamps worn by the fishos, while the red arc is from where one of them cast his line into the water, its attached glowing float on heading for another session of bobbing on the waves. The big section of rock shelf closer to the camera was pock-marked with small pools of seawater, and some of them reflected starlight back towards me, only barely showing up in the photo. Each of the five images used to create the panorama was captured with a Canon EOS 6D MkII camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566907328729-8MD9QG39X1KA65XIJUWF/Death+and+light+at+Big+Hill.jpg Tall & Thin - Death and light at Big Hill You may find it hard to believe, but I haven’t adjusted the saturation of the colours in this image. The predominant green colour of the background sky is the result of the atmospheric phenomenon called “airglow”. To my eyes, the background sky colour looked grey rather than black–a sure sign of the presence of airglow. Our digital cameras excel at seeing and recording the shades of the night that we don’t discern, and this photo is a solid example of that difference.  Can you see orange-brown hues in the sky in the top two-thirds of the image, looking like bruises on the dermis of the heavenly dome? These peculiar patches were caused by the fog that came and went during the couple of hours I was shooting here, mostly hampering but occasionally enhancing my photos. The brilliant glow from Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet, has been diffused but brightened by the same airborne moisture. That accounts for the large white spot in the sky that’s roughly half-way down my image.  Dominating the foreground is the frame of the tired, expired and lonely tree that was so grand, and seemed to beckon to me, pleading to be featured in a photograph. Without the LED torch that I used to illuminate the tree and the paddocks, all you would see here would be the silhouette of this deceased and exhausted patriarch of the countryside. The photo is another example of a “vertical panorama”, an image that has been created by shooting multiple frames, covering the view from the horizon to the zenith, which I then blended, or “stitched”, into the final image. I captured each of the seven single frames using a Canon EOS 6D camera, with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f2.4, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569544555662-1KF0H0O7WIJP307JO0M0/on-the-hill-since-1859.jpg Tall & Thin - On the hill, since 1859 I love how the yellowed hue of the LED bank that I used to light this shot has highlighted the colours of the stones in the church’s walls. The building is 160 years old and seems to be in excellent condition considering the extremes of temperature and persistent winds that it’s endured in that time. The building is located west of the Australian rural city of Goulburn, and the nation’s capital city of Canberra is the source of the glow on the horizon behind the church. The drought that’s affecting this area–and a large portion of our country–isn’t something about which the locals happy. For me, though, the dry air provided exceptional viewing of the Milky Way when I visited on this night in August of 2019. The green-blue airglow colour helps to make the stars stand out and is a nice contrast to the colours in the Milky Way’s dust lanes and gas clouds. I can make out the Dark Horse Nebula about one third down from the top, on the right-hand side of the image. This photo is another example of one of my favourite forms, the “vertical panorama”. I shot seven overlapping images that I stitched into one, using the now-defunct application Autopano Pro. For each of those individual photos, I used my Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4. I exposed each shot for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569068023450-A13K6J1K94JOH4AILN67/out-of-the-gap.jpg Tall & Thin - Out of the gap The Milky Way’s core region was just breaking the horizon in the gap at the entrance to the inlet at Bombo Quarry, Australia, when this image was captured in February of 2017. The moon was due to rise shortly after this and that explains the slightly orange tint starting to creep into the sky at the horizon. This photo is a stitched image created from nine single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569586819291-I00IU7EMG9A8L2ECH0ZW/relative-brightness.jpg Tall & Thin - Luminous Lismore My sister-in-law and her husband live near Lismore, a major rural town in an area that has plenty of flatlands, lots of grassy hills, and everything in between. The other thing the locality has, looking in most directions, is dark skies. The clarity and darkness of the night sky made it easy to photograph the Milky Way’s band of stars, dust and gas almost hugging the enormous leopard tree in the garden before stretching up to the northeast. Look to the top of the frame, and you'll see the familiar orange glow of the planet Mars. I repositioned my camera several times to capture Jupiter’s blue-white orb before it slipped behind the right-hand side of the tree. I mentioned that the skies are dark in most directions. The pink-white glow from the lights of Lismore, at lower right, is the reason for the “almost”. To create this photo I shot eight single overlapping frames and then stitched those together using software called Autopano Pro. For each photo that I shot I used the following settings: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, with a 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569587060580-LQ4ZWIXWHT8OQ59K9ZVW/%C2%A0A+sight+I+love+at+a+place+I+love.jpg Tall & Thin - At a place I love If you’ve read even a few of the blurbs that go with my photos you’ve probably seen me mention Tuross Head. Over forty years ago my family inherited a small holiday shack at this coastal township. My siblings, and our own families, still visit as often as we can. When I was learning about astronomy in my teen years I’d often spend hours outside staring up at the lovely dark skies while visiting Tuross. Although the area is a little more populated now than in the 70s the skies are still much darker than back in the city. The disused, heritage-protected church on this land near the town has featured in many of my nightscape photos. This vertical panoramic shot shows the Milky Way and its dust and gas “lanes” ruling this part of the sky. Not too far above the church you can see the Coalsack Dark Nebula, with the Southern Cross immediately to its lower right. Between the Coalsack and the church is a pinkish patch that includes the Eta Carinae nebula. I created this image from fourteen single images that were shot to overlap and form a vertical panorama. The shots were stitched together using Autopano Pro software. The final image was too big to fit on Instagram so I’ve had to crop some of the Milky Way from the top. Each frame was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569066644699-9ZZ1G7YCGZDCPUG71ERN/moonlight-feels-right.jpg Tall & Thin - Moonlight feels right When I took the shots that make up this vertical panorama the moon–at only 12% illumination and three days from New Moon–had been in the eastern sky for a little over an hour. That was just the right brightness to light up the foreground in this scene. The moonlight felt right, you might say. There is so much detail of the Milky Way’s dust lanes and dark nebulae visible in this image. They look like oil stains on the sky as they block out the light of the billions of stars behind them. The yellow glow at the bottom of the scene is from the lights of Australia’s capital city, Canberra, about 50km (30mi) away. At bottom left is the St Matthias Church, an Anglican place of worship built in 1875. It was around 3:30 am when I shot this, a time of day that so often brings with it the peace and quiet that regenerates my soul. The original vertical panorama was created from nine single shots, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568966328654-0XC2CXBRP5NO0OF8QT5U/milky-%28rail%29way.jpg Tall & Thin - Milky (Rail)way This is a vertical panorama created from nine separate images and shows the Milky Way rising from the north-north-east up towards the zenith (the point on the sky that’s directly overhead). The bright white band of light on the horizon at left is from the town of Berry, a little under 4 km (3 mi) away. A quick flash of my LED lamp–with its “warm” filter fitted–lit up the crossing gate and lights just enough to show their detail here. Created from nine separate images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568764784933-MG66F3XDUDR51PKHNKWT/gravity-well.jpg Tall & Thin - Gravity Well I’m a sucker for photographing the poplar trees that line Australia’s country roads, lanes, rivers and creeks. If I can include the Milky Way in a scene, then my day has been well-and-truly made. This copse of poplars, bereft of leaves at the start of winter, stands either side of the parched creek that meanders through the farmland at Big Hill, New South Wales, Australia. Poplars aren’t native to Australia, and in some of our states, have been deemed an “invasive species”. Still, they are quite photogenic, and I made the most of their spindly forms in this image. The bottle-green hues in the sky–caused by atmospheric airglow–offered a colourful backdrop for my photo. I created this image by shooting nine overlapping frames, moving the camera through an arc that started with it pointing south at the little bridge and down at a slight angle. The last photo was captured with the camera pointing over my head and towards the north, taking in the trees behind me. Each image was photographed through a 14 mm wide-angle lens, making the trees seem to be bending in towards the centre of the Milky Way. My thought was that the gravitational attraction of the hundreds of billions of stars amassed near our home galaxy’s core would be warping the trees in its direction. As well as the 14 mm wide-angle lens (a Samyang 14 mm XP set to f/3.2), I used my Canon EOS 6D camera mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head. Each image was exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569642266062-68A24L9ZI5ID9WPSYFXD/dam-fine-sky.jpg Tall & Thin - Dam fine sky Bamarang Dam is a secondary water reservoir, located about 10km southwest of the coastal-plain town of Nowra, on Australia’s southeast coast. The dam’s intake structure can be seen at the bottom-left, silhouetted by light spilling from the nearby HMAS Albatross naval aviation base and some coastal towns further off. In the sky above the inlet are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, companion dwarf galaxies that are travelling through space with our home galaxy, the Milky Way. You can see the Milky Way itself rising almost vertically from over the dam wall and up to the top of my image. The planet Mars is dominating the top left-hand corner of the scene, and Jupiter is slipping behind the trees on the right, still over three hours from setting for the night. The background sky colour is showing the green hue of atmospheric airglow. Each of the seven photos used to create this vertical panorama was taken using a Canon EOS 6D camera, with a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/3.2, for a 30-second exposure @ ISO 6400. The camera was mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head atop a Manfrotto tripod. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569631449792-GS73K5BPYYXU8FUJG3TC/Southern+Summer+Nights.jpg Tall & Thin - Southern Summer Nights This is what the summer sky looked like back January of 2017 at about 10:50pm, from a spot on the southeast coast of Australia, the Tilba Cemetery. The dense band of the Milky Way runs diagonally across the shot, from mid-left to lower-right, where it blends into the haze of the horizon. Dark nebulae and dust clouds in space block the light of the stars behind them. Canopus, the second-brightest star in the Earth’s skies, shines blue-white at the very top of the shot, with the Large Magellanic Cloud below it to the right, looking for all the world like a puff of cotton-wool floating on the breeze. Mid-way down the image and about one third in from the left is the crimson glow the of Eta Carinae nebula. The right-hand edge of this photo is almost on the line of due south. Created from two single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568543500477-3FPLZ65S5FISYAPA2SG7/seen-with-another%27s-eyes.jpg Tall & Thin - Seen with another's eyes In June, a friend of mine, a professional truck driver, said that he’d noticed this barn a few times on his trips down south. “You should use it in one of your night shots”, he suggested. Once he said it, the idea seemed too obvious to have missed thinking of myself. After all, I’ve driven past it probably hundreds of times in the 40+ years that I’ve holidayed in the area. Perhaps familiarity does breed contempt, as the saying goes. Thanks to my friend Kevin I took the 15-minute drive from my holiday shack to photograph this ageing construction at around midnight a few days later. The location–Bodalla–has exceptionally light-pollution-free skies, and I could make out most of the dark features in the Milky Way, even with my ageing eyes. This image is a single-frame photograph that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D camera, through a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569645233734-EPSUTABPTTVW8R50VJ08/milky-way-muster.jpg Tall & Thin - Milky Way Muster After several attempts at getting my composition right to include the cattle ramp in this paddock near Nowra, Australia, I shot off the images that comprise this six-image vertical panorama. The planet Jupiter–“the bringer of jollity”, as proclaimed by Gustav Holst–is the brightest object in the photo, in the top left-hand area of the image. Saturn’s yellowish dot is smack in the centre of the image, providing a second planet to include in the scene. The dense, intense and immense central band and galactic core of our Milky Way galaxy is by far the dominant feature of my photograph. To create this vertical panorama, I shot six photos, overlapping each frame with its predecessor. Shooting like this, then merging the photos using “stitching” software, means I can show a large stretch of the sky in one image. I shot each of those six photos with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462337349-UPVD0OCDA8VI0KG6S5DG/worth-the-chase.jpg Tall & Thin - Worth the chase Wind farms fascinate me, and since the Milky Way’s core was in the right place to include it in a vertical panorama over a wind turbine on this night, I couldn’t pass up the chance to shoot away. The bright glow on the horizon, to the left of the closest tower, is light pollution from the city of Sydney, approximately 160 km (100 mi) distant. As I mentioned already, this image is a vertical panorama, created from eight overlapping single-images. For those eight images, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567950013508-HCWBTBVPVAT6LSYK0B3A/48698842291_590647a245_k.jpg Tall & Thin - The Milky Way & the Wind Farm Early in August of this year 2019, I made one of my crazy 500 km round-trip treks to the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, my home state in Australia. The Taralga Wind Farm was the last location I visited for photos that night, arriving at about 1:00 am and then spending about an hour, shooting pictures. The whole night was cloud-free, but as the night ran into the early morning, the amount of moisture in the air increased. I could see from my photos that the deep green colour of the atmospheric airglow had morphed into the rusty colour in the sky that my photo has captured. The core region of the Milky Way, with its wisps of dust and interstellar gas, is looking glorious here. The planet Jupiter’s bright, white orb is hanging in the sky below. Saturn was also shining on this night, showing as an orange dot at the top right-hand corner of the scene. I shot seven landscape-format images to create the final single-image photo, using a panoramic head on my camera to ensure proper overlap between each frame. For each of those seven photos, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera and a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.6, exposing each frame for 6.0 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569649602303-9S2LG198H06FUUBKEMKM/magellanic-bridge.jpg Tall & Thin - Magellanic Bridge This rickety bridge over the Bumbo Creek at Bodalla, Australia, has loads of character and even more gaps between its planks. Walking across it in the dark is not for the faint-hearted! When I visited the location in January of 2019 the Magellanic Clouds–satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way–happened to line up right over the bridge. The stillness of the water in the creek provided a great mirror to reflect starlight from, and a little bit of illumination from an LED lamp helped make the bridge more visible. There was a lovely amount of green atmospheric airglow to provide a pleasant background colour to the scene. I created this photo by shooting ten overlapping images, then stitching those images into a vertical panorama. For each of the ten individual images I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm lens set to f/2.4, and an exposure time of 15 seconds per frame @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569660705976-EGIQOWPZ6UXQHCDM8QCN/ferdinands-field.jpg Tall & Thin - Ferdinand's Field Named for the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, the two glowing clouds seemingly suspended in the sky over this field north of Goulburn, Australia, are known as the “Magellanic Clouds”. For this image, I shot seven single-frame photos in quick succession, then used the software “Starry Landscape Stacker” to composite them into a final picture that had less digital noise and better definition than any of the contributing images. The equipment and settings that I used for each photo were a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. I set the camera on a fixed tripod, i.e. I didn’t use a star-tracker. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569687106765-DHDXNGJPH6JXPYHWCN9Z/clouds-in-a-cloudless-sky.jpg Tall & Thin - Clouds in a cloudless sky The Kialla Uniting Church is located northwest of the Australian rural city of Goulburn. The building was erected in 1903, but I’m not sure if it’s still in use. The clouds that I referred to in this post’s title are several. First up (first and second?) are the Magellanic Clouds, the two distinct blobs of white that are hovering over the roof of the church. These two wispy wonders are satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way, and between them, they are estimated to contain over 33 billion stars. For the most part, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are only visible in the Southern Hemisphere. Also present in this vista are the vast clouds of interstellar dust and gas that signify the central band of the Milky Way. A little to the left of centre at the top is the dark nebula known as The Coal Sack, making itself known by blocking the light of distant stars. There are lots of other dark nebulae in my photo, concentrated around the top left of the shot and I also captured the Eta Carinae nebula across to the right. I shot three single and overlapping photos that were used to create this final image. For each of those shots, I used the following equipment and settings: a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569726408457-FEVP2UODLGI6ZI3LO9NM/mist-the-milky-way-and-a-marine-mirror.jpg Tall & Thin - Mist & the Milky Way A fine and almost invisible layer of mist was hugging the surface of Tuross Lake when I sat on the small beach at Sandy Point at around 4:00 am on a Sunday, morning in July of 2019. As thin as that mist layer was, the air contained enough moisture to give a milky look to the water around the red and orange navigation markers whose light demands your attention when you first view this photo. I shot five overlapping photos to create the final vertical panoramic image that you see here. That composite image measured roughly 5800 x 12200 pixels and consumed almost half a gigabyte of disk space! Each of those five single photos was shot with my Canon EOS6D camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569726597656-DTHJQTHVHXQIXJLM5G8V/no-camping.jpg Tall & Thin - No camping? This has to be one of the worst-placed signs I’ve ever seen. If you’re going to get out and camp under the stars, wouldn’t you want to do it somewhere like this, at the Yalwal Dam, Australia? Sometimes life isn’t fair! This vertical panorama has quite a few of my favourite astronomical features in it. At the lower left, only just over the tree line, there’s a crimson area of stars that is the Eta Carinae nebula. Up to the right of that is the Coal Sack nebula, showing as a small dark mark on the bright starry background. The Southern Cross is immediately under the lower-right corner of the Coal Sack, with Alpha & Beta Centauri, aka “The Pointers”, up to the right. Our solar system’s most massive planet, Jupiter, is almost out of frame on the right, being kept company by the bright star Zubenelgenubi, in the constellation of Libra. Shining in its beautiful orange glory at the top and centre of my photo is Mars, which had passed its closest point to earth a couple of weeks before I captured it in this scene. Of course, the edge-on view that we have of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, totally dominates the photo, looking like a vast diagonal streak of light and dark stains against the starry sky. I shot nine overlapping frames to create this vertical panorama but only ended up needing seven of those to capture all of the features that I wanted to include. For each of those seven photos, I used the following settings: a Canon EOS 6D digital SLR camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens set @ f/2.4, a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1596633734745-JBM9EWALNBYC8WEIOBOL/What+Lurks+Beneath.jpg Tall & Thin - What Lurks Beneath The colours of the Milky Way, Jupiter and Saturn in the night sky are a beautiful contrast to the less-than-appealing green ooze lurking in the artificial pond at the bottom of my photo. Ugly or not, the mix of stormwater, silt and other unwholesome ingredients at least provided enough of a still surface to reflect some of the heavenly lights towards my camera. You can see Jupiter and Saturn at the bottom of the shot, atop the surface of the ooze. My visit to this fenced-off compound in the Seven Mile Beach National Park took place in June of this year, on one of the first nights that people in our state able to travel again following the lifting of some COVID-19 restrictions. I’m grateful that I was able to be out and about, especially as our neighbouring state of Victoria has seen a resurgence in coronavirus cases and is now under a very tight Level-4 lockdown. The image you’re looking at was created by shooting ten overlapping frames and stitching them in software to create a vertical panorama. For each one of those ten shots, I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569729943449-7I0727BVDN0TI3P3SCPP/pillar-of-dust-and-light.jpg Tall & Thin - Pillar of dust and light There are several things going on in this image, with the central band and core region of the Milky Way standing out–and standing up–down the centre of the photo. You can see the light from the hundreds of billions of stars that make up our galaxy, some of which are masked by the enormous dust lanes that stretch through the spiral arms of our “island universe”, as galaxies used to be called. Down at the left and not too far above the trees are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These are dwarf galaxies that are travelling through space with the Milky Way, kind of like those folk who hover around politicians when there’s a photo opportunity. Higher up but still on the left-hand side of the frame is the planet Mars. Almost as bright as Mars, but definitely not the same orange-red colour, you can see our solar system’s most massive planet, Jupiter on the right. As well as being the biggest planet in our system Jupiter also holds the record for the number of moons that orbit it. The count is currently 79! I created this final image from eight overlapping single frames, each captured with the following equipment and settings: Canon EOS 6D camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens (manual focus) @ f/2.4, 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1596459212061-R3MF82VVW3IRIT6AMSUT/winters-night-picnic.jpg Tall & Thin - Winter's Night Picnic Picnics aren't usually fun if you're on your own, I'm told. Being alone in the picnic area at Seven Mile Beach, Gerroa, Australia, under this incredibly beautiful and awe-inspiring sky on a winter's night in June of this year, was a time I'd be happy to experience again. The Milky Way's core was almost straight overhead at this time of the night, although it doesn't look that way here due to the warping that a vertical panoramic photo brings with it. A little below midway down my image, you can see the Solar System's two most massive planets, Jupiter and Saturn, making their way up the eastern sky. The picnic grounds here are another location on my ever-growing list of places that I've only ever visited after dark. There was a slight wind breathing through the area on the night, keeping the air free of dust, helping me to make the most of the very dark skies that the region offers. The only disappointment attached to this nightscape photography trek was that I had to work the next day, limiting the time that I could stay before making the 110 km (68 mi) drive back to my home in Sydney. As I mentioned above, this photo is a vertical panorama, created by shooting ten overlapping frames that were then stitched into the final image using the application Autopano Pro. I shot each of the individual frames with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1588423351228-6GOCTGC4PRZEQSYX4UQO/tall-order.jpg Tall & Thin - Tall Order Fellow photographer & good friend Ian Williams http://bit.ly/imagesbyimw recently commented that I was well overdue for posting one of my favourite types of nightscape photos, a vertical panorama of the Milky Way rising. With movements currently restricted to essential travel only, that was a tall order. I was up to the task though and found some images that I hadn’t yet edited or posted. Ian, here is my answer to your challenge, a nine-shot vertical panorama showing the Milky Way stretching up and out of the southeast over the Tasman Sea, captured at Seven Mile Beach near Gerroa, Australia. The crescent moon was peeking over the horizon as I took the overlapping frames that make up the pano. As well as the yellowed Moon I caught the mighty Jupiter, our solar system’s most massive planet, in the scene, positioned in the middle of the photo at about 1/3 up from the bottom edge. If you draw an imaginary line between Jupiter and the Moon you can see two other planets that I’m happy to include here, being Saturn and Mars, respectively. The background sky has a green hue in my photo, caused by what is known as atmospheric airglow. Another astronomical wonder I captured here, but which is hard to make out if you’re looking at the photo on your phone, is the globular star cluster Omega Centauri, up in the top right-hand corner of the frame. Regular readers won’t be surprised to see that for each of the nine images making up this panorama I used my workhorse Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, with an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1595940596159-J8XAPHD6BVPQQM5GKUE3/earthly-and-heavenly.jpg Tall & Thin - Earthly and Heavenly There goes another month in which I'd set out to post a photo every day, but in which, until today, I'd only managed to get eight images online. It seems to be the year for things going awry, so I guess I'll chalk up another missed goal for 2020! Last Friday night (24th July) I put in a 227 km (141 mi) round-trip to the rock platform at Black Head Point, Gerroa, on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. I shot some vertical panoramas that I will post in due course, but today's post is this more straightforward image that features the crumbling face of Black Head itself, watched over by the Milky Way. Up on top of the headland, but out of the shot, local photographer & fellow night-nerd Jason De Freitas had staked out a position, capturing the Rho Ophiuchi region of the sky. I saw Jason's gear in place when I arrived, so after getting back to my car when I finished shooting, I tapped on his car window and said hi. I love that once I said I'd driven down from Sydney, and even without him being able to see my face, Jason asked, "Hey, are you Doug?" Have a look at Jason's photography on Instagram instagram.com/jase.film or the web at www.jasondefreitas.com. I created this shot by overlaying or ("stitching", as it's known), three photos. None of the three took in the whole scene that I wanted to capture, so I had to shoot each one and then let my software do the job of putting it all together. I captured each of those three individual frames using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/4.0, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/star-trails-gallery daily 0.75 2021-02-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1602678094927-U8DXG3WV4A4BW5S5CU0B/rings-of-light.jpg Star Trails - Rings of Light I captured the movement of the stars around the South Celestial Pole during two hours last Saturday night (10th October) at this location in the Jerrawangala National Park southwest of Nowra, Australia. Well, the stars weren’t moving at all. When we look above us at night, it seems that the Earth is still and the sky is moving. However, this apparent movement of the stars across the sky is due to our planet rotating on its axis, just as it has done for longer than humans can remember. When I was a teenager in the 1970s, I made images like this one–known as “star-trails” photos–by locking my camera’s shutter open for however long was needed to capture the streaks of light on a frame of film. In the digital era, though, a final shot like today’s required me to set my camera to take a lot of shorter-exposure photos that I then combined in an app on my computer. I combined 180 single frames to make this final image, and I shot each one of them with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.5, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1602678094927-U8DXG3WV4A4BW5S5CU0B/rings-of-light.jpg Star Trails - Rings of Light I captured the movement of the stars around the South Celestial Pole during two hours last Saturday night (10th October) at this location in the Jerrawangala National Park southwest of Nowra, Australia. Well, the stars weren’t moving at all. When we look above us at night, it seems that the Earth is still and the sky is moving. However, this apparent movement of the stars across the sky is due to our planet rotating on its axis, just as it has done for longer than humans can remember. When I was a teenager in the 1970s, I made images like this one–known as “star-trails” photos–by locking my camera’s shutter open for however long was needed to capture the streaks of light on a frame of film. In the digital era, though, a final shot like today’s required me to set my camera to take a lot of shorter-exposure photos that I then combined in an app on my computer. I combined 180 single frames to make this final image, and I shot each one of them with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.5, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1587472204864-DP4D3XVR43BRBFK7ZTTJ/seven-mile-segments.jpg Star Trails - Seven Mile Segments A mere 35 minutes of the Earth spinning on its axis under the night sky provided enough movement for me to produce this image of stars making trails over the Tasman Sea. My photo shows only a small segment of the long stretch of sand known as Seven Mile Beach at Gerroa, Australia. In the very early hours of an April morning, I made the 220 km (136 mi) return trip without engaging with any other person. I was in my own isolated and protected world. In my later teen years, in the late 1970s and early 80s, I made photographs like this using a 35 mm film SLR camera, with the shutter held open by a “cable release” device for the entirety of the shot. Now, several digital decades later, I set my camera to take multiple photos that are combined in software to deliver a final, colourful single image. Both methods required the same ingredients: a reliable camera; a properly-focused lens; the correct exposure settings; a stable tripod and, most importantly, patience. Thinking of my life then, compared to now and the experience that the whole world is sharing, I am happy after all those years the waves still break, the Earth keeps turning, and the beauty of it all still amazes me. I combined 81 single-frame photos to create the composite image that I’m offering you today. For each of those photos, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, with an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1575806139611-LPXZLV19BBG7RK86OPP1/stones-and-stripes.jpg Star Trails - Stones and Stripes My image for you today is the result of having set out to shoot a time-lapse sequence of a meteor shower in May of 2019. The Eta Aquariids shower usually shows up near the top of lists of “the best meteor showers to see in 20xx” [insert the year as you see fit]. In my attempts to photograph the heavenly fireworks show, though, I’ve not yet seen it live up to expectations. I did capture some short meteor trails in the 178 photos that I shot on this night, but they were so small and dim that they didn’t warrant the work required to make a time-lapse video. Instead, I opted to create a star-trails composite for you to view. At the top right-hand corner of the scene, the trails are forming tight circles indicating the point in the sky close to where the South Celestial Pole is located. Moving to the left from there, you see the trails start to form larger circles until they reach a place where they scribe straight diagonal lines on the image. Moving further left from there, you see that the stars’ trails are now describing more curved paths that are arcing towards the lower-left vanishing point, where the North Celestial Pole lies. There are a few satellite trails to be seen in the photo, and the keen-eyed might be able to see the points where meteors briefly flashed into oblivion. For each of the 178 photos that I shot to make up this final composite, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, shooting for an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1574195849868-8SCH56F1EH68TAFAHD2D/agar%27s-lines.jpg Star Trails - Agar's Lines I have photographed the night sky set against this dead tree near Berry, New South Wales, Australia, on a handful of occasions over the past four years. The tree is hard up against the edge of the asphalt strip named Agars Lane, a narrow and mostly straight rural road in the region. At a rough guess, I’d reckon that I’ve only ever seen five or six cars pass along the road while I’ve been lurking in the dark with my tripod and camera. In one of those “what are the chances of that” moments that life sometimes serves up, during the hour that I was shooting photos on this particular night, two cars drove along the road and passed each other right near the tree. Their headlights seemed to be set for “kill” rather than “stun”, with my night-vision being their target. It can take up to half an hour for a person’s low-light sight to reach full sensitivity and I didn’t want to have to set my internal timer back to zero and start over, so covered my eyes until the much dimmer tail lights were all that I could see. When reviewing the photos, later on, I saw just how intensely the headlights had lit up the area. Three pictures were so bright and washed out that they were unusable, but a couple of shots either side of those were images showing only a few of the tree branches illuminated. I used those photos to make up this star-trails composite, as well as the remaining darker frames, to give the tree its half-dark/half-lit look. The gaps that you can see in the trails show where I had to leave out the overcooked shots, but they don’t take away too much from the concept of stellar inscriptions on the night sky. My final, edited image here was created from 200 individual photos, and I shot each of those with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1574034029788-CL49OQMK2WX9J3E8VIDH/trials-and-trails.jpg Star Trails - Trials and Trails I created this star-trails image from 218 still-frame photos that I shot in late April of 2019. During the 100 km (60 mi) drive from my home in Sydney, Australia, to the rock shelf at Black Head at Gerroa, there was no hint of any clouds overhead to obscure the stars. As I looked at my test shots, though, I could see that there was a haze of cloud over towards the west, right where I’d pointed my lens. Still, I’d driven so far and didn’t want to pack up and head home straight away, so set my camera the task of shooting a series of images to create either a star-trails shot like today’s and/or a time-lapse video sequence. The clouds are what caused the breaks in stars’ trails, and also made it difficult to get the exposure settings right so that the ground and the sky were exposed correctly. In fact, the reflections of the star-trails in the rock pools show more colour and definition than the originals up above. The bright yellow blob of light towards the right of the scene is from the supergiant star Betelgeuse, whose broken streak you can see heading towards the distant mountains. During the period that the photos were being taken, several waves broke on the rock shelf’s edge, and you can see their plumes of spray frozen in time in my final composition. I also captured the light trails from a few Melbourne-bound aircraft, and the water’s surface mirrored two of them. I captured each of the 218 photos using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566729015554-19QJOWHY88QFHITZP56K/Tuross+Trails+with+Mars+LATEST+EDIT.jpg Star Trails - Tuross trails Mars & the Milky Way setting over the Tuross River (Australia). Cameras are far more capable of capturing and rendering the colours that shine in the blackness of night than our human eyes. Capturing all of that colour adds up when you put together a number of images that were shot over a period of time, as in this image. This results in the coloured curved stripes–the “star-trails”–in the sky and the even more colourful reflections of the brighter objects on the river’s surface. The bright and wide orange reflection on the water’s surface is from the planet Mars as it set in the two-hour period over which the original frames were captured. This image was created from 470 original photos, each shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566729195948-H8GW2I1IKGMNJ78AF6C7/Round+and+round.+Again+SMALL.jpg Star Trails - Round and round. Again I am so used to shooting my nightscape images in the autumn, winter and early spring months that I forgot to take something essential with me on this summer night in the first week of January. Insect repellant is a necessity if there are mosquitoes about and especially if you don’t enjoy being bitten by them. With none of the liquid in my kit, I took the only other measure I could and popped on a parka that lives in the back of my car. When the temperature is somewhere around 25 degrees C (77 F), and the humidity is in the low 70s, a parka isn’t what you want to be wearing. Still, it kept the mosquitoes at bay. I set my camera up to shoot this star-trails scene and let it run itself for 3.5 hours. The camera was set to take a 25-second exposure, close the shutter for 1 second and then capture another 25-second image, repeating the cycle until I turned off the camera. All-up I shot 463 single frames over those 3.5 hours, then used the software “StarStaX” to make the final composite photo. For each of those shots, I had my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera mounted on a tripod and fitted with a Samyang 14mm lens set to f/2.8. As mentioned above, the exposure time for each frame was 25 seconds, and I set the ISO to 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566728918678-9EK2UN66TEMGLHAB3JQ0/Tuross+Trails.jpg Star Trails - Smudges of light A light breeze was blowing across Tuross Lake while my camera shot the images used to make up this star-trails photo. The wind disturbing the water’s surface resulted in reflections that are wider, less sharp and brighter than the points of light in the sky that created them. Clouds moving across the sky during the shoot caused the trails to have breaks in them in a few places, bringing more beauty from disorder. The blue and white smudges on the water at the bottom left are from the stars Beta & Alpha Centauri, respectively. The pair of orange streaks that are right-of-centre and that start near the horizon are from the star Antares and the planet Saturn. Created from 194 single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566730568845-IJRGK8W0TLEAMDUBZCOP/Round+%27n%27+round+over+the+ruins.jpg Star Trails - Round 'n' round over the ruins The turning of our earth on its axis–its diurnal rotation, as astronomers call it–is what causes the sun and moon to seem to rise and set each day. This daily movement of our planet has the same effect on how we see the stars. They appear to move across the sky as the night passes. Some of these celestial hosts, called “circumpolar stars”, never disappear behind the horizon, and so appear to scribe complete circles across the heavens. To show this movement I set up my camera on a tripod and connected an interval timer, aka an “intervalometer”, so that the camera would take a 25-second long exposure, pause for one second, then take another shot. Rinse and repeat! Over one hour and ten minutes, my camera shot off 155 frames, which I then combined using some free software (StarStax) to create a single image that conveys the feeling that the stars have moved in circles on the sky. I took the 155 single frames using a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, with each frame exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567595316368-YBD6PKTE4JVF0M9186VZ/Tuross+star+trails+ca+1978.jpg Star Trails - Genesis of an Obsession So long ago! This image was my first star-trail photos, taken back in 1979 or 1980 at Tuross Head, Australia. I pointed the camera towards the Southern Cross and Pointers, with the South Celestial Pole being out of shot at the upper-left. The diagonal trail of light across the image is from a small aircraft that passed over during the time the shutter was open. I was a poor high-school student who was very new to this area of photography, so I made the most of the equipment at hand. The camera was my mum’s, and it was a no-name 35 mm non-SLR job. Unlike a lot of cameras at the time, it had a shutter lever, rather than a button, so there was no way to use a lockable shutter-release cable. I found that I could set the camera to “B”, press the shutter lever down, then tie a string between it and my dad’s tripod. The string would keep the shutter open for as many minutes or hours as I needed. I’m sure I have the original negative somewhere but can’t find it, so I scanned one of the prints I made at the time. Back in those days, I used to develop and print my black-and-white photos, turning our family bathroom into a makeshift darkroom as needed. The film’s ISO rating was 400, but since I can’t find the negatives for that roll of film, I don’t have any of the shooting data that I used to keep for all of my photos then. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733276277-ZS7GELIPG4BJKESTRYK2/Circles+in+the+southern+sky-Insta-FB-Flickr.jpg Star Trails - Seven Mile Circles The stars of my southern hemisphere cutting trails across the sky as they appear to orbit the South Celestial Pole over Seven Mile Beach, New South Wales, Australia. The orange glow on the right is from some cloud that blew in, lit by the light pollution from the city of Nowra, 22km away. The clouds interrupted the trails a little which is why they stop & start at lower right. The waves are blue from the presence of bioluminescent organisms in the water. Produced from 163 images taken over 45 minutes, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733453409-V560R1KY5RW6MQVEE9BQ/Coloured+Cathedral+Circles+SMALL.jpg Star Trails - Coloured Cathedral Circles My photo here was made by shooting multiple 15-second photos over 2.5 hours at Cathedral Rocks near Kiama, Australia. In that time the camera clicked off 530 shots. Once I got home, I imported the photos into Adobe Lightroom for basic editing, then stacked (blended) them, using the free application StarStaX, to create a single image that shows the trails of the stars on the night sky. To capture those 530 single frames I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with each shot exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733382903-D13U9N9WYW5T459AJC8O/Circles+of+Friends+SMALL.jpg Star Trails - Circles of Friends It’s not unusual for me to think of the stars as friends, or at least as familiar acquaintances. Orion has been a pattern in the sky that I’ve known since I was five years old, back in 1969, when an uncle pointed it out to me. I learned to recognise the other constellations and objects that I know in my early high school years when I was switched on to astronomy as a hobby. When I arrive at a photography location in the dark of night the first thing I do after getting out of my car is to look up and see where my familiar friends are positioned. Doing that helps to orientate me and to give me ideas for where to point my camera. If it’s circular star trails that I’m going to be imaging, for example, I find the Southern Cross and from that can work out where the South Celestial Pole is. Then it's a matter of making sure that you have an engaging foreground scene to use, plus enough coverage of the sky to capture some good-sized circles and then start shooting. That simple routine is one I followed on Friday night (07 Dec 2018) at the St David’s Anglican Church in Burrawang, a small rural town in my state of New South Wales, Australia. To create this circular-trails image I shot 329 individual photos over two-and-a-half hours. I used the same equipment & settings for each of the single frames, namely a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, a 25-second exposure @ ISO 800. To light the church’s exterior I used a small tripod-mounted LED bank that I'd fitted with a 3200K filter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567591395890-SQI2ZB32KQH5L22DPOQA/Saddleback+6D+trails.jpg Star Trails - Saddleback Streaks The peak of Saddleback Mountain sits at 600 metres above sea-level, just south of the coastal city of Kiama, Australia. I first visited there in late November of 2015 and tried a few star-trails images. This one is made from 264 photos that I shot that night. Stars at the upper right are appearing to turn around the South Celestial Pole. Those at the lower left seem to be rotating around the North Celestial Pole. At the bottom, about 1/3 in from the left, you can see the light trail made by a cargo ship heading down Australia’s south-east coast. Made up from 264 images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 5000. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733669348-QXX3U520SMSG9JABABVI/Mountain+trails.jpg Star Trails - Mountain trails The sky in the shot is blue because the moon was shining and showed the colour of the sky as we see it in daylight. The fields, grass and trees can be seen for the same reason. The clouds are pink from a combination of light pollution from the townships down off the mountain, the changing colour of the moonlight as the moon got towards setting and some errors introduced when processing the images that make up this final photo. I had planned to let the camera keep shooting away until after the moon had set, revealing more stars, but clouds put an end to that. This photo is made up from 62 individual shots, each 25 seconds long, that were captured in sequence. Using the free software “StarStaX” those 62 images were blended to form this single shot. Each shot was captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/4.0, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733955698-B419G8VLFLA1U835MWYC/Setting+stars+%26+a+mystery+solved+%28I+think%29+SMALL.jpg Star Trails - Setting stars Shot at Gerroa, New South Wales, the image you’re looking at was created from 594 single photos taken over a three-hour period. My camera was pointing due west to capture the constellation Orion and surrounding stars as they set for the night. A slight mess-up with the settings is responsible for the gaps in the star trails. I lit up the trees with a Litra LED lamp fitted with a 3200K filter and a diffuser. The 594 images used here were shot with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567592856883-KAUW7JOOLCHFHMZCSG9A/Same+place%2C+different+season.jpg Star Trails - Spinning silos I have featured these silos in a variety of static shots in the past few years. My visit here in early December of 2018 was the first time that I tried a star-trails composition. There is a fog-piercing light a few hundred metres along the road from the silos, and it provided the orange glow to back-light the scene. To create this image I shot 123 single-frame photos in 55 minutes. I captured each of those frames with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567593311439-PFTLYB8EAXW228GCENKI/Streaks+on+the+sky.jpg Star Trails - Streaks on the sky The 102 photos that make up this shot were taken over a period of 25 minutes, which equates to 6.25 degrees of turn by our planet. When I look at the photo it seems like there’s been much more movement than that because of the number of stars in the shot. In the centre of the scene, just above the rocks there, you can see an orange-brown stain on the sky. This is the part of the shot where the Milky Way’s galactic core was rising, and since this region of sky is dense with interstellar dust and gas you get the dirty sky look seen here. Out of the frame from the top right-hand corner is the location on the sky around which the stars seem to rotate as the earth turns, the South Celestial Pole. The further away from this point you get, the longer and straighter the trails seem to be. If you went far enough across to the left and out of the shot you’d see the stars as straight lines perpendicular to the horizon. Despite how complex the shot looks, it’s not hard to create such an image. Even - the most basic digital SLR (or mirrorless) camera can be used. I took 102 original shots, captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400 and stacked together using the free app StarStaX. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567647098596-NBK1QR16OU5LSVHG7GZ6/While+I+was+snoozing.jpg Star Trails - While I was snoozing With the moon not setting until nearly 1:00 on this morning in June of 2017 there was about an hour to wait for a dark sky after I arrived at my photo location, the “Grand Canyon Lookout” lookout in the Morton National Park, Australia. It had been a two-hour drive to get to the spot, which meant a two-hour drive home when I was done for the night. I was quite tired so I set my camera on its tripod, checked focus, tested the settings of my intervalometer and started the camera shooting a time-lapse sequence. Then I went to sleep in my car. My phone’s alarm was set to wake me about an hour from when I settled in to a comfortable position and drifted off. It was very cold in the car despite five layers of clothing, gloves and two layers of head covering, resulting in the alarm not being needed because my shivering woke me much sooner. Zero degrees C, read the car’s thermometer. I left the time-lapse sequence running for a while after I woke up then started on other shots. I’m yet to edit and compile the time-lapse but with the frames I got I was able to create this star-trails composite from 337 shots over two hours. The sky is blue and the landscape is lit because of the light from the setting moon. Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566734272614-Z8K9GIU2DTOASATN94TZ/Swan+trails.jpg Star Trails - Swan trails Living in a very light-polluted area means that I need to travel for at least 100 km (60 mi) out of my city to get somewhere with dark skies. Ideally, I should be scouting out new locations during the day and then returning later for a nightscape photography session. Due to the distances that I have to drive, plus my family & work commitments, I rarely have the time to do a daylight scouting trip as well as several hours of shooting at night. Most of the time I head out with a knowledge of where the Milky Way’s core will be at a particular time of night, and an idea of the kind of landscape features I want to include in my photos. There will be a few possible locations in my head as I leave my driveway, but there’s also lots of map-checking and imagining of compositions on the way. On this Sunday night in October of 2018, Swan Lake, on the southeast coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia, turned out to be a spot that ticked almost all of the boxes. The only one that didn’t score a ten was the light-pollution category, but the white glow from the tourist town of Cudmirrah, on the left of this photo, isn’t too bad. The photo is a star-trails composite shot, created by shooting several 25-second-long images and combining them in the app “StarStaX”. I shot the original frames for a time-lapse sequence, at high ISO, so I had to pull down the highlights and push up the saturation to finish with a trails image where the stars weren’t all white and not showing their true colours. Each photo used to create this image was taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, through a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566735397758-C9UVHUVDJ61RYX1JADSL/Trails+on+the+water+and+sky.jpg Star Trails - Circles on sky and water The still waters of this man-made pond provided a great natural mirror to photograph reflections of the stars one Friday night in July of 2017. The glow from my headlamp and red-light torch also reflected their photons off the shiny surface, creating the colourful smear at the lower left of the scene. For this shot, I took 323 photos over nearly 2.5 hours. I hadn’t visited this spot until my outing that night, noticing the location on Google Maps while at a prior stop. The satellite photo showed it to be a scar on the landscape, the remains of a road construction dig, including the pond, in a national park. Since it was the only water catchment for many kilometres around, it was worth stopping at to try to get some stellar reflections. I made this final image from 323 single photos, each shot as follows: Canon EOS 6D camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.4, 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. The images were combined using the free software StarStaX. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567660176372-TI1FTC9Z6IJWR17927Z3/Streaks+of+light+and+colour.jpg Star Trails - Gerroa Glory This view from Black Head Point at Gerroa, Australia, takes in the waters of Berrys Bay and the Tasman Sea, as well as nearly 30 km of coastline, and lots of sky. The tidal rock pools were slowly filling from the rising tide in the two hours over which I shot the individual photos that make up this star-trails composite. They acted as a shallow but still mirror to reflect and diffuse the colours of the moving stars. Each of the single images was shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, using a 20-second exposure @ ISO 6400. I used the free application "StarStaX" to combine the photos into the final image. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567671873501-OGE0VL2KQ1BWVR2UMBCT/trail-mix.jpg Star Trails - Trail mix There are many colours in the night sky but I often find that I don’t notice most of them until I see shots like this “star-trails” photo. It can be hard to discern the colours when you see stars as little points of light. Having the light concentrated like it is here helps you to see the mix of shades of white, orange, blue and yellow that are in the stars. As a background to all of that you can see the deep green colour of the atmospheric airglow. This image is made up from 85 separate photos and each one of those captured 20 seconds of the sky's movement. When you put the shots all together using a process called “stacking" you are adding each small movement of the stars to the previous one, giving you these apparent tracks or trails across the sky. Created using the free software “StarStax” from 85 original images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567678196722-G2UTUAGUPNT0FRQDTG5I/Rings+and+streaks+of+colour+and+light.jpg Star Trails - Lighting Rig I guess he just wanted to get in on the act, the driver of the 4WD who sped through the area where I had my camera set up shooting this star-trails image. He didn’t have any idea that his car was to appear in my photo, he was simply driving along this road that skirts the Bamarang Dam near Nowra, Australia. I know this because after he passed through he stopped the car, turned it around and came back to see what I was doing. “I hope you’re not setting up a police speed camera,” he joked. After I told him what it was I was up to and showed him some of the photos I’d already gotten he headed back off into the night. The LED bank on the vehicle’s bumper gave me some good foreground lighting, at least. If you spend even just a little time looking at this photo you can see the different colours of the stars. It’s cool that we can use a camera to let us see the wonderful colours up there above us. This star-trails image is made up from 205 single images that were shot over a period of just under two hours. Each individual photo was captured with Canon EOS 6D MkII, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 30 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566735372033-2WNGVOHI7N9CI5O7CE6K/Train+and+trails.jpg Star Trails - Trains and trails Trails on the sky from the stars, several aeroplanes, a satellite and a couple of meteors are underscored by the light-trail of a train passing through the crossing level crossing at Toolijooa, New South Wales, Australia. Star trails created in StarStax for Mac, from 78 original frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733097436-AS542CYL8VSK2D8CA0BH/Amphitheatre+of+the+stars.jpg Star Trails - Amphitheatre of the stars "Lights, camera, action!" They're the clichéd words used when speaking of filmmaking rather than taking photos. Still, I had all of these components in play to create this star-trails photo in the stony amphitheatre of the abandoned quarry at Bombo Headland, New South Wales, Australia. Lights? I used the warm tungsten beam of my trusty torch ("flashlight" for the Americans reading this); a round, white photographic reflector to spread that light over the rocks and cliffs; and the glorious glow of the stars above. Some ambient light from the Kiama lighthouse–out of shot at right–plus the sodium lamps, aglow at the nearby sewage treatment works, also helped to light the scene. Camera? My camera was mounted on a tripod, shooting a 20-second-long photo then waiting one second before grabbing the next shot. Over forty-five minutes, my faithful Canon captured 118 frames. Action? How do you show movement in a still image? The rotation of the earth in those forty-five minutes was enough to make the stars look like they are drawing lines on the sky. The blurring of the waves breaking in the small inlet also gives a sense of movement. I was walking around, placing the torch to light up various features of the quarry, providing a further idea of motion as the beams were recorded by the camera's sensor. Created from 118 single frames, each shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 8000. After shooting those 118 photos I imported them into my Mac laptop, did some editing in Adobe Lightroom then used the free “StarStax” application to put them together into one final image. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567679593338-CY8PMARR7LG7AZYA0MAT/braidwood-trails.jpg Star Trails - Braidwood Trails I shot this on January 4th, 2019, at Braidwood, Australia. We were holidaying on the south coast of New South Wales, where it was cloudy nearly every night of the seven full days that we visited. The drive to Braidwood takes about an hour and a half, and the cloud-cover forecast was favourable, so I headed inland and up the Clyde Mountain for some star time. I created this composite star-trails image by shooting 124 single photos, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Samyang 14mm lens @ f/2.8. Each shot was exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 800. After a few adjustments in Adobe Lightroom I used the free software StarStaX to combine the single images into the final whirly scene. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567595309486-DF5VMXAQYPDORS4PIF47/moonlit-beach-and-starlit-sky.jpg Star Trails - Moonlit beach and starlit sky The sky is blue and the beach is lit up by the moon in this image, shot at Garie Beach in the Royal National Park, Australia, in March of 2016. Earth’s largest natural satellite was in the western sky and about half an hour from setting when I commenced shooting, after which it sank down into the west for the night. The large straight streak across the scene is from the lights of an aircraft that had flown out of Sydney airport, while the strip of light along the horizon was provided by two cargo ships plying their way through the Tasman Sea. I created the composited image from 312 single photos, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 3200 and blended in the free app “StarStaX”. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567681041631-UQL5SUA7PP79RYBQ1LOL/Trees+and+fractured+trails+SMALL.jpg Star Trails - Trees and fractured trails Looking at the star trails in here, I guess something messed up with my settings. Star trails photos like this are created by taking lots of photos in succession, with as little gap as possible between each shot and the next, and then combining them in a process called “stacking”. The aim is to create an image where the movement across the sky of each star looks like a streak of light, or a “trail”. Rather than trails, though, the stars in this image look like dotted lines with a break at regular intervals in each trail. This was probably caused by me not setting my intervalometer (interval timer) properly, resulting in the camera and intervalometer getting out of sync. I hope that you enjoy this photo anyway. Created from 111 single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/featured daily 0.75 2026-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1771929054462-Y2D3I927J94ES9C76AVL/sometimes-it%E2%80%99s-the-beauty.jpg Featured - Sometimes it’s the Beauty Sometimes it’s the beauty of seeing the Moon against a vibrant blue sky that moves me to shoot and post an image. I don’t think I need to add other words to this one. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1771929054462-Y2D3I927J94ES9C76AVL/sometimes-it%E2%80%99s-the-beauty.jpg Featured - Sometimes it’s the Beauty Sometimes it’s the beauty of seeing the Moon against a vibrant blue sky that moves me to shoot and post an image. I don’t think I need to add other words to this one. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1771844445968-7RV5WMTAI89J9SZ4D0MU/spotless.jpg Featured - Spotless We haven’t seen many cloudless days or nights in Sydney lately, so I was happy when a brief burst of blue sky lasted long enough for me to photograph the Sun on Sunday, 22nd February. My excitement faded when I saw the images my Dwarf 3 smart telescope was producing. “Spotless,” “boring,” “bare,” and “disappointing” were a few of the words that came to mind once I downloaded this image I’m posting today. There wasn’t a sunspot to be seen! The only fact worth mentioning is that this was the first sunspot-free day since the 8th of June, 2022. That’s a total of 1355 days in a row that the Sun was showing its spots! I captured this photo of our home star with my Dwarf 3 Smart Telescope. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1770290812022-0V26O386Z3UWCTHH7Y0L/one-of-my-first.jpg Featured - One of my First With cloudless skies predicted for early Sunday morning, I went to bed on the night of Saturday, the 24th of January, hoping that promise would come to pass. I’d set multiple alarms for around 1:30 am on Sunday and got out of bed at the second reminder’s chiming. Having scouted this location on the northern shore of Brou Lake, Australia, the previous day, I knew what the spot had in store, including a half-dozen or so caravans and tents with their occupants asleep and not expecting my 4WD to come down the steep dirt access road. I didn’t seem to wake anyone, so I quickly got to setting up my tripods and cameras. The Milky Way’s core was still more than an hour from rising, but I started shooting anyway, trying a few shots with my 7.5 mm TTArtisan fisheye lens. Although I could have done a lot better with my foreground lighting, I’m posting this image anyway, and I hope you enjoy viewing one of my first Milky Way photos for 2026. This image was shot with a Canon EOS R mirrorless camera, using a TTArtisan 7.5 mm f/2.0 fisheye lens @ f/2.0. I shot for 25 seconds at ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1765365613402-AVOSYAEZ6OJ3GPDOXLYA/auroral-selfie.jpg Featured - Auroral Selfie This is another shot from the November 12th sky show. In contrast to my previous post—a panorama created from thirty-seven individual photos—today’s image is a single shot, taken with a fisheye lens. I didn’t intend to get myself in the photo, but the see-through effect from me moving in and out of the frame still allows you to see the stars despite my presence. As with the panorama, I captured not only the Aurora Australis but also the SAR arc visible that night, spanning the middle of the scene. A Canon EOS R camera, equipped with a TTArtisan 7.5 mm f/2.0 fisheye lens @ f/2.0, was used to take this shot. I used an exposure time of 30 seconds at ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1765107303347-WSZWAJ7MRMZI9NH4EZ2E/aurora-and-arc.jpg Featured - Aurora and Arc While photographing the excellent Aurora Australis display from Seven Mile Beach, New South Wales, Australia, on the night of November 12th this year, I noticed that one of my shots seemed to capture part of an “SAR arc.” Knowing what a treat it would be to see more than just part of the arc, I started taking individual shots to make up the panorama that I’m posting here. With my tripod’s panoramic head attachment back in the car and not wanting to miss any of the show while I trekked back to fetch it, I did my best using dead reckoning to take three rows of overlapping shots, and ended up with a final image I’m very happy with.  I’m so chuffed I captured the aurora and the SAR arc, plus some people on the beach taking in the marvels of nature on the night. On the left of the shot, you can see the constellation Orion rising over the Tasman Sea, plus the brilliant light of the night sky’s brightest star, Sirius, reflecting across the water’s surface. Also on the left, I included a smidgeon of the headland at Gerroa, knowing how crowded the place would be with people trying to get aurora photos. As you can see from the foreground in my picture, I had the beach almost entirely to myself. There’s a faint hint of blue in the waves courtesy of some bioluminescent marine organisms.  The Aurora Australis/Borealis result from charged particles, ejected by the Sun, interacting with gases in our planet’s atmosphere, causing them to glow. An SAR arc, though, arises from intense levels of thermal energy in our planet’s ionosphere interacting with the inner layer of the magnetosphere, called the plasmasphere. Simple, no? It’s possible to view and photograph an aurora without an SAR arc being present, and the opposite can also happen. Making up this panorama are 37 single frames, all captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.4, each with an exposure time of 8 seconds at ISO 3200. The panorama was stitched using PTGui software. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1761647680252-W8KK0CVWCMR7311KC3DG/my-thinnest-moon.jpg Featured - My Thinnest Moon I’m almost sure this is the thinnest moon I’ve ever photographed. When I shot this image on 23rd September 2025, the Moon was only 2% illuminated. Captured with my Dwarf 3 smart telescope. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1749985706839-JK5198AFKIYWWT3GSAJJ/always-read-the-label.jpg Featured - Always Read the Label From this image of the Sun I shot today (15th June 2025), it appears that someone didn’t read the label when choosing the SPF rating of their sunscreen. Look at all the sunspots. You’d think the primary source of radiation in our Solar System would know better than to go out without sunscreen on! Our nearest star is a candidate for some serious melanomas! Joking aside, seeing so many sunspots is encouraging for those of us keen to see and photograph the Aurora Borealis or Aurora Australis. As a general rule, the more sunspots that are visible on the surface of the sun near Solar Maximum, the more solar flare energy is being released into space, which means more potential Aurora activity! Bring it on, I say. I captured this image of the Sun using my DWARF 3 smart telescope, using its “Astro” function. In the Astro mode, the telescope takes twenty images of the Sun and stacks them for better image quality. Once I downloaded the stacked image to my computer, I upscaled it using the Topaz Photo AI plug-in for Adobe Lightroom. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1748952994909-KP3NEPK3V6U34HZ1LMZI/not-so-colourful.jpg Featured - Not So Colourful In complete contrast to the colours of my post last night (2nd June), today’s photo is of the Moon, looking very monochrome, indeed. As bright as the Moon seems to be when it’s shining in a clear and dark sky, our nearest heavenly neighbour only reflects around ten percent of the sunlight that falls on its surface. Can you imagine how bright a full moon would look if that figure was closer to, say, fifty percent? Night sunglasses, anyone? This photo was taken using my DWARF 3 smart telescope. The Moon was 51% illuminated at the time, and its distance from Earth was 396,396 km (246,309 mi). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1748937962978-NMI6Z2A8TAMZ9KPKSANJ/oh-what-a-night.jpg Featured - Oh, What a Night! I missed seeing and photographing all the major Aurora events in 2024 for various reasons. When I read and heard that there was a significant chance of something big happening in the sky on the night of Sunday, June 1, 2025, I made sure I was in the right place at the right time, knowing only a cloud-covered sky could stop me. I drove down the south coast of New South Wales to Jervis Bay (a mere 180 kilometres by road) and met up with two friends who had come from Canberra (a slightly longer 230 km drive). When I started shooting images at around 7:00 pm, a faint purple glow was visible in the southern sky, with a tinge of green skirting the horizon. Sometime close to 8:10 pm, nature threw the switch to “party time,” and the Aurora Australis turned on the lights. As you can see from my photos, this was something more than a hint of colour on the horizon. This was one for the ages! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1748606722014-7FID371WLNRI1JVSKDJW/why-not-the-sun%3F.jpg Featured - Why Not the Sun? After a busy week at work, my plans to edit and post a Milky Way photo from one of my recent trips to the south coast of New South Wales have fallen through tonight. Instead, here’s a picture of the Sun taken today, Friday, 30th May, from my home in Miranda, Australia. My DWARF 3 smart telescope did a great job of capturing twenty images, which it then stacked to enhance image quality. You make out several sunspots on the surface of our closest star, indicating potential increased activity for the aurora borealis and aurora australis. The smart telescope comes with a solar filter that allows for safe viewing and photographing of the big ball of plasma in the sky. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1747485375846-YTPZ6DGMN18WI1USC794/horse-head-rock-in-the-moonlight.jpg Featured - Horse Head Rock in the Moonlight Plenty of rock formations around our planet are said to resemble people, inanimate objects, or animals. More than a few such landmarks must suffer from imposter syndrome, and you would be forgiven if you wondered what the discoverer was smoking or drinking when they named the place. As I hope you can see from my photo, Horse Head Rock, near the coastal town of Bermagui, Australia, is one tourist destination that’s the real deal. Previously, I’d visited this fantastic location during daylight hours. On the first Saturday in May 2025, though, I was on the beach at night with my friend, Ian Williams, to test our equipment and skills as we photographed the mighty horse under a moonlit and starry sky. Since moonlight is nothing other than reflected sunlight, the colours of the sky, the ocean and the foreground look here as if the sun hadn’t set. The moon was on its way down to the western horizon for the night, accounting for the shadowed portion of the horse’s body here. I’m grateful to Ian for suggesting we brave the walk to and from the Rock twice—once in daylight to scout the course and another after dark with about 20 kg (44 lb) each of camera gear—to come back with some photos we’re both happy with. I shot this single-frame image with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1747136515977-IIOAFS36F31UM1GX62T7/laid-back.jpg Featured - Laid Back Seeing this photo on my camera’s preview screen made me smile at its simplicity. I captured it a few weeks back after 1:30 a.m. on a Saturday, at the end of a six-hour nightscape photography session. I tipped the camera back on the tripod so it was pointing straight up and clicked the remote shutter’s button. A quick flash-around with an LED bank was enough to light up the leaves on the gum trees above me, and the photo was done. Sometimes, it’s the simple things that bring so much joy. The photo was shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1746880093203-AAASLB98V21WOY8AN12J/100-years-under-the-stars.jpg Featured - 100 Years Under the Stars This river barge would have regularly passed up and down the Moruya River (New South Wales, Australia) a hundred years ago, working as a sand dredge. Dredging the river was essential to the small ships transporting locally quarried granite blocks up the coast to build the pylons of the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge. The waters of Malabar Creek, an offshoot of the river and where the barge now rests and rusts, were perfectly still and flat, giving me a mirror in which the Milky Way’s stars, nebulae and dust lanes were reflected. A pink glow in the sky at the lower right, from the Aurora Australis, flared up while I was balanced on rocks at the creek’s edge. After taking the seventh and final shot used to create this image, I scurried back to my car and drove to higher ground, hoping to photograph the aurora in more detail. Although the vantage point was only a fifteen-minute drive away, the aurora had faded to a dismal glow when I arrived. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1746690983062-5BB0FSUXCVFU8KAJCY1S/galaxies-in-the-green.jpg Featured - Galaxies in the Green Captured at Bodalla, Australia, last Friday night, May 2nd, today's photo is dominated by the green hues of “airglow” caused by photochemical processes in the Earth’s atmosphere. To human eyes, airglow seems like a brightening of the sky, making it look like there’s a strong light source somewhere, preventing the sky from appearing black. Seemingly floating in this sea of green are the two Magellanic Clouds, galaxies that have been unimaginatively named the Small Magellanic Cloud and Large Magellanic Cloud. The Small cloud is on the left of the shot, near the globular cluster called 47 Tucanae. To the right of the Large cloud is the unmissable glow of Canopus, the second-brightest star visible in the night sky anywhere on Earth. You can see two other light sources in my photo—the orange glow of a tree stump being burned by a farmer and the faint pink glow of the Aurora Australis stretching across the horizon. According to reports from other photographers, the aurora had been stronger an hour or so before I arrived at this location. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1745324298616-BYX6BS635MS5DPP4VSZ6/easter-monday-aurora.jpg Featured - Easter Monday Aurora After a run of almost cloudless days over the Easter holiday break, Monday brought grey skies and a slight drizzle. Despite my sky forecasting app showing a cloudy night ahead, my wife kept telling me, “You never know, it might fine up.” Around 8:30 pm, I skeptically walked onto our back verandah and looked at the sky to see twinkling stars and no sign of any clouds. Ten minutes after discovering the clouds had gone, I was at this spot near the highway at Tuross Head, Australia, capturing photos of the stars and a surge of the Aurora Australis. The auroral dance faded less than five minutes after I took this shot, and the clouds rolled back in, so I am glad to have come away with something worth showing you. Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 6 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1743420656741-YYR4V3QVHUAYQ4WMKSDC/summer-delight.jpg Featured - Summer Delight Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) was a wonder to see and to photograph, as I did on the night of January 24, 2025, at Tilba Cemetery. Australia was well into our summer then, and it was great to be out capturing the night sky in a tee shirt and shorts for a change. Although the comet was almost beyond my naked-eye vision, it was most definitely viewable without a camera, telescope, or binoculars and was a treat I hope I don’t forget. I composed this shot to make the most of all the natural beauty on offer, with the comet and its tail dominating the sky over the farmland surrounding Little Lake. I captured four consecutive frames that I stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker to help reduce the final image’s noise. Each shot was taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1742938225908-LXEN3SISLS45L0WU2FII/belated-birthday-present.jpg Featured - Belated Birthday Present My wife and I turned 60 last year. As a special present to herself, my lady bought some top-notch tickets to see Taylor Swift in Sydney with our girls. In June, I ordered a DWARF 3 smart telescope as my self-chosen present in anticipation of my birthday in July. It arrived very late in December. We had cloudy nights from then until mid-February, but since then, I’ve used my DWARF a dozen or so times. Shooting nightscape photos, which combine an earthly landscape with a celestial scene, is my favourite style of astrophotography, but it’s been fun learning how to shoot the sun, the moon and some deep-sky objects with my new little friend. Although I still face a steep learning curve, I feel confident enough to show some of what I’ve captured in the past five weeks. You can swipe on your tablet or phone or click on your computer to see a larger version of each target. 1: composite of four targets 2: B 33, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion 3: the Sun, with plenty of sunspots 4: the Moon at 31% illumination 5: M42, the Orion Nebula https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1742122050713-2PID8A9BCI867O2GVKAD/as-good-as-it-got.jpg Featured - As Good as it Got After a day of clear and blue skies, clouds moved in to obscure the view a few hours before Moonrise on Friday night, 14th March. Despite that, I managed to photograph glimpses of the partially eclipsed Moon when the clouds thinned out briefly. Photographed at Brighton-Le-Sands, across Botany Bay from Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1740567720177-XFDLKIITTRM9CC1IL1A6/Peaceful+Panorama.jpg Featured - Peaceful Panorama I like to post photos showing how the sky currently looks, or at least how it looked in the few months before posting. That said, it’s taken me six months to finish processing this panorama of the Milky Way setting over the Tuross River, so I’m posting it today. Despite the water flowing quickly due to the outgoing tide, its surface was almost mirror-perfect, with only a thin layer of fog to slightly blur my view. The mist was thicker downstream, at the left side of the scene, giving the starlight a slightly pinkish hue. I’d love it if our eyes could see the beauty of the night sky’s colours like a camera captures, but I’m grateful for the chance to freeze a beautiful moment in time, see it on a screen, and pass it on to you. I shot twelve overlapping frames to create the final pano. For each photo, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera and a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1740393689884-8MA27MRFEP19O3V4LZ3E/quintessential-quindalup.jpg Featured - Quintessential Quindalup I haven’t had the chance to photograph the Milky Way’s core this year, so I’m sharing images of other celestial wonders captured in the past few months. Today’s fish-eye view was taken in Western Australia, where my family spent the Christmas-New Year break. One Airbnb we booked for two nights was located in Quindalup, near the coastal town of Busselton, and was far from light pollution. It felt like a dream, only having to walk a mere fifty metres from the front door to Qunidalup’s star-filled skies. I shot this image for our host, Leonie, a longtime local and one of the best Airbnb hosts we’ve dealt with. This photo is a single-frame shot, taken using a Canon EOS R camera fitted with a TTArtisan 7.5 mm f/2.0 fisheye lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1740047397692-NGKDAK0KV6QGIKAC9FU0/a-comet-and-some-company.jpg Featured - A Comet and Some Company Stanwell Park is a wonderful beachside town only thirty minutes from my home in southern Sydney, Australia. On February 4th, at the invitation of fellow photographer Luke Vadekar, I headed to Bald Hill, which overlooks the town and has a clear view of the southwestern sky. By the time I arrived, Luke had set up his telescope and a couple of cameras. The telescope attracted much attention from sightseers and Luke generously took time out from shooting to show several people the Moon and Jupiter through the ‘scope’s eyepiece. Once again, I tested out the Samyang Lens Global AF 12mm F2 lens and shot twenty-four photos of Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) as it set over the Illawarra Escarpment. After stacking the images in StarryLandscapeStacker, I further edited them in Adobe Lightroom to dim the human-made light and enhance the comet’s appearance. Each of the twenty-four shots that make up this final scene was captured with a Canon EOS R camera, a Samyang AF 12mm f/2.0 lens @ f/2.2, and an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1739614910920-3RZ23OR9PNBQSQ0CWUMO/southern-summer-milky-way.jpg Featured - Southern Summer Milky Way Early in February, I shot a seven-image vertical panorama at Gerroa, Australia, to capture the beauty of the southern summer Milky Way and its cast of supporting actors rising in the southeastern sky. The shallow tidal pools on the headland’s rock shelf were barely ankle-deep when I shot this scene, but that was enough water to provide a natural mirror for the overhead glories. The Magellanic Clouds, travelling through space with our home galaxy, are hard to miss in this image, like great wisps or puffs of cotton hanging in the sky. About two-thirds of the way from the left of the shot, the red-pink tint of the Aurora Australis is visible above the horizon, struggling to be seen in the glare from the coastal towns of Crookhaven Heads, Culburra, and Currarong. As with several recently posted photos, I again tested the Samyang AF 12mm F2 lens while shooting that night. I used the lens to capture each of the seven pictures in the panorama. Here are my camera settings for each image: Canon EOS R camera, a Samyang AF 12mm f/2.0 lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1738927729623-8ENBM6S87A6R9IG74JBE/gorgeous-gerroa.jpg Featured - Gorgeous Gerroa As well as photographing Comet G3 on my visit to Gerroa, Australia, last Sunday night (2nd Feb, 2025), I caught this lovely scene of Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades in the northwestern sky. Along for the ride was Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet, holding place a little below the sideways “V” of Taurus. You can see the lights of Gerroa township beyond the cliff face, reflecting off the surface of Berrys Bay. My wife’s family used to holiday at Gerroa when she was growing up. I now make the return trip in one night to escape the bright lights of Sydney and Wollongong. I used the Samyang Lens Global AF 12mm F2 lens on my Canon EOS R mirrorless camera to create this image, shooting four stacked photos to reduce digital noise. For those interested, here are the camera settings for the four shots: Canon EOS R camera, a Samyang AF 12mm f/2.0 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1738620967361-GE1ZNVJYYGE2RH6X042P/comet-g3-and-friends.jpg Featured - Comet G3 and Friends Recently, I was invited by Samyang Lens to test their new AF 12mm F2 lens for the Canon RF-S mount. I finally took the lens out last night (Sunday, 2nd Feb 2025) at Gerroa, Australia. After the 111 km (69 mi) drive from home and a stunning sunset, I set up my camera gear and waited for astronomical twilight to begin. My main target for the night was Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS). As you can see from my photo, I captured the comet and a few celestial companions. G3 looks magnificent, hovering over Coolangatta Mountain near the left side of the frame. The 16%-illuminated Moon dominates the right side, casting its silvery reflection on Berry’s Bay and illuminating the bright white planet Venus at its lower left. Between the Moon and the comet, you can spot the orange arc that traces the path of the Chinese Tiangong space station, which was making another orbit around our planet. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1737026021051-CQUAFOWEJJSDEZ07XTB0/a-sprinkle-of-stellar-flour.jpg Featured - A Sprinkle of Stellar Flour My post for you today is another shot I captured on my New Year’s Eve/Day visit to the New Norcia Benedictine Monastery in Western Australia. This scene features the now-defunct flour mill at the left, built in 1879, and abandoned agricultural equipment. The temperature was 29º C a little after midnight, with the heat and lack of rain affording the ground its bare and brown look. I thought the stars looked like a sprinkling of flour across the heavenly expanse. Looking skyward from the rusting relic, you can spot the constellation Orion, which has its belt and sword features almost at the centre of the photo. Jupiter, not long from setting for the night, glows brightly above the metal monster, and Mars is the large, bright orange orb lurking closer to the right-hand side of the image. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1736848585963-V0LE0QRPQJPX4RVG0Y5N/a-green-flash-at-sunset-02.jpg Featured - Closeup of Green Flash at Sunset Seeing the sun set over the ocean is a rare treat for us Aussie east coasters, so our family visit to Perth, Western Australia, allowed us to sit on Cottesloe Beach and enjoy that treat while we ate fish and chips for dinner on Boxing Day night (26 December 2024). While my family took sunset shots with their phones, I put my Canon mirrorless camera and its zoom lens to my eye and clicked away as the sun sank seaward for the night. When I checked the images after shooting, I let out a “wow” as I saw that I’d captured the atmospheric wonder known as a “green flash.” Green flashes are most commonly seen immediately before sunrise and after sunset due to the concentration and refraction of sunlight in the Earth’s atmosphere. Swipe or click to view the two composite images I made to help you see the emerald light of the green flash. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1736767678481-VB9H76NM2WK3FH4KEGTB/a-green-flash-at-sunset-01.jpg Featured - A Green Flash at Sunset Seeing the sun set over the ocean is a rare treat for us Aussie east coasters, so our family visit to Perth, Western Australia, allowed us to sit on Cottesloe Beach and enjoy that treat while we ate fish and chips for dinner on Boxing Day night (26 December 2024). While my family took sunset shots with their phones, I put my Canon mirrorless camera and its zoom lens to my eye and clicked away as the sun sank seaward for the night. When I checked the images after shooting, I let out a “wow” as I saw that I’d captured the atmospheric wonder known as a “green flash.” Green flashes are most commonly seen immediately before sunrise and after sunset due to the concentration and refraction of sunlight in the Earth’s atmosphere. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1735730449119-4TRS1YE3GY1CNC9ZCMNI/hello-2025.jpg Featured - Hello, 2025 Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to a year of better health, more photography and making new friends. My wife and I are holidaying in Perth, Western Australia, and on New Year’s Eve, we drove 125 km / 78 miles northeast to New Norcia, a monastic town founded in 1848. The temperature there was 39º C / 102º F, so it was a little hard to concentrate on the commentary, but we took in enough to learn the site’s history. After returning to Perth and having our final dinner for 2024, I drove back to the monastery for some nightscape photos. It was 28º C at midnight—so much for the cool of the evening! I composed my shot with Taurus, Jupiter, Orion, and Sirius strung out in a line stretching from above the abbey to between the palm trees flanking the pathway between the Monastery building and the abbey. Mars’s orange hue added its lovely glow to the right of the shot. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1734347573698-A0XJN8L2G7S90FVXVNOR/it-was-great-to-see-you.jpg Featured - It Was Great to See You! We weren’t treated to the thrill of any total eclipses—solar or lunar—in my part of the world in 2024, but I’m thankful we got to see the heavenly wonder that was Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). The last few weeks of September saw me waking up at 3:30 am to head to the beach and try to photograph the comet as it drew closer to the Sun. From mid-October, the fuzzy-looking traveller’s path positioned it to be visible after sunset. You’d be correct in saying I was keen to capture shots of the comet before it moved deeper into our solar system and out of view of all but the best telescopes. On the night I captured today’s posted image, I drove a 450 km (280 mi) round-trip away from the lights of my big city, with my camera ready to snap as many shots as possible. A few patches of high cloud disturbed my view, but not too much that the comet was obscured. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1677757480230-E75IAANQDCGPLT3RO1EK/jupiter-and-venus-hanging-out.jpg Featured - Jupiter and Venus Hanging Out Seeing the close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in tonight's post-sunset sky was a treat after so many days of grey clouds, showers and the occasional thunderstorm recently. The apparent separation between these two planets was only 0.5 degrees–roughly the full Moon's width as seen from here on Earth. The actual separation was a mere 645 million kilometres (400 million miles) or so, but as I looked at them, they seemed like friends hanging out together. My photo caught the planetary pair setting over the old fisheries research buildings at Hungry Point in Cronulla, Australia. If you pinch to zoom in on your phone or enlarge the picture to full-screen on your computer, you can see three of Jupiter's moons stretching up and to the right of the orb. I heard on a podcast this week that recent discoveries have brought the total count of Jupiter's moons to 92. Considering how that number keeps increasing, Jupiter will soon have more Moons than there are Marvel movie sequels! For this single-frame photo, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera attached to my 17-year-old Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 313mm @ f/5.6, using an exposure time of 2.0 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1637927971087-7605KNGAREI4754SDO7Z/rural-resting-place.jpg Featured - Rural Resting Place The ancient and vast form of our Milky Way galaxy was rising in the south-eastern sky near Yass, Australia, when I photographed this scene at the Tangmangaroo All Saints Church in April 2021. A truck heading northwest on the Lachlan Valley Way made its presence known as its super-bright headlights illuminated the countryside, and my LED banks fought back as they lit the crumbling monuments in the overgrown graveyard. I created this image by combining two photos that had differing focal points. The first image was captured with the lens focusing on the background, and for the second shot, I ensured that the monuments were the sharpest features of the frame. Blending the two images into this final scene was done in Adobe Photoshop. I used the same camera and settings for both photos, namely my Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/3.2, using a 13-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1643973096396-2KKB7R7BZFLQGGIA0PY0/A+Meteor+in+the+Middle.jpg Featured - A Meteor in the Middle I was fortunate to capture a meteor’s glowing streak in the dead centre of this image when I shot it in May of 2021. Out on the horizon, you can see the green glow from a small fleet of squid-fishing boats, their lamps shining in all directions and lighting the bank of clouds above them. Above the second and third trawler lights, Saturn was slowly climbing the sky. You can see its glow reflecting across the surface of the ocean pools between the shell-laden beach and the line of breakers. The tendrils of dark interstellar dust and gas between the Milky Way and the top of the frame give the sky an untidy look as if dark cobwebs had built up to blot out the starlight behind them.This photo is a vertical panorama that I created from eight individual images. Each of those eight frames was shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598911837459-ZN4B7MVOB1ELOATPGK43/the-galaxy%27s-made-of-cheese.jpg Featured - The Galaxy's Made of Cheese Fans of the claymation short films, “Wallace & Gromit”, will tell you that it’s the Moon–and not the Milky Way–that’s made of cheese. There was a proverb, from the year 1546, that spoke of the Moon being made of green cheese. Apparently, this saying was used at the time to describe people who would be so gullible as to believe such a thing. I admit that it’s self-evident that the Milky Way is made of milk, of course! The long-defunct cheese factory in my photo, atop a small rise next to the Princes Highway at Bumbo, on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, gave me the inspiration for the name of today’s nightscape photo. The idea of photographing the former fromage factory, under the Milky Way, came from a friend I was visiting during June of 2019 on a long-weekend break on the coast. At around 1:00 am on my last night in the region before heading north to my home in Sydney, I visited the spot and captured the photos I used to create this vertical panorama. The overly-bright looking Milky Way is due to a thin fog that was moistening the sky at the time. To get the eight individual frames that make up this composite photo I used a Canon EOS 6D camera fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, mounted on a Nodal Ninja panoramic tripod head. I selected an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400 for each shot. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1599400773110-0E6HK9PN0G7RQIHPI0E4/privileged.jpg Featured - Privileged I chose the title for today’s photo because of how blessed I feel to be able to photograph scenes like this, and for the opportunities that I get to try to pass on that thrill to others. The time was a little after 4:15 am, one Saturday morning in July, as I sat on the sand at the edge of Tuross Lake (Australia), taking in the serenity and doing my best to capture the scene with my camera, to enjoy again when I like. Bioluminescent marine organisms in the shallow, sandy water gave away their positions by their telltale blue glow, seen as a stripe near the bottom of my photo. The king of all planets, the gas-giant Jupiter makes two appearances in this image, dominating the sky with its bright orb, as well by its stretched reflection atop the lake. The Milky Way’s stars, nebulae, gas clouds and dust lanes stain the sky above the horizon as well as the water below, with each apparition heading for the other as the Earth turned on its axis. Above and to the right of Jupiter, you can see our Solar System’s next-biggest planet, Saturn, standing out against the stars. To create the image that you’re viewing, I shot nine overlapping photos that I then stitched together in software. For each of those original individual images, I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, with an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1600088866088-LI5SKHPPSIO1BRGQA1MI/a-splendid-stretch-of-sky.jpg Featured - A Splendid Stretch of Sky It’s a shame that the time of year has passed for shooting these vertical panoramas featuring the Milky Way standing on-end. I’ve been luckier than many Australians, particularly in the state of Victoria, been able to move outside of a small radius from my home. Many of the photographers who inspire and encourage me have been in lock-down for many months and haven’t had the chance to stand under the night sky, let alone to photograph it. Today’s image was captured in July, on the ocean rock shelf at Gerroa, Australia, during one of my crazy one-night driving trips. The horizon is alight with the glow from street lights and other artificial illumination from towns along the coast, places that were only dimly lit and sparsely populated when I was a kid in the 1970s. Despite that, I was well able to capture the stars, planets, nebulae and dust lanes visible in this stretch of the sky in the Southern Hemisphere. From the crimson-coloured Eta Carina Nebula low in the sky over those light-polluted towns, up through the Milky Way’s galactic core area in the top one-third of the shot, there are innumerable celestial objects visible in my photo. The two gas-giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, can be seen in the top left-hand corner of this scene, standing off from the central band of the Milky Way’s streak upon the heavenly dome. I shot ten overlapping single-frame photos to create this composite image, capturing each of those frames using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1602678094927-U8DXG3WV4A4BW5S5CU0B/rings-of-light.jpg Featured - Rings of Light I captured the movement of the stars around the South Celestial Pole during two hours last Saturday night (10th October) at this location in the Jerrawangala National Park southwest of Nowra, Australia. Well, the stars weren’t moving at all. When we look above us at night, it seems that the Earth is still and the sky is moving. However, this apparent movement of the stars across the sky is due to our planet rotating on its axis, just as it has done for longer than humans can remember. When I was a teenager in the 1970s, I made images like this one–known as “star-trails” photos–by locking my camera’s shutter open for however long was needed to capture the streaks of light on a frame of film. In the digital era, though, a final shot like today’s required me to set my camera to take a lot of shorter-exposure photos that I then combined in an app on my computer. I combined 180 single frames to make this final image, and I shot each one of them with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.5, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598830089421-RPIZCZA41QM8848WQWA6/two-little-galaxies.jpg Featured - Two Little Galaxies My previous photo was called "Three Galaxies. Three Planets", and in the text, I noted that two of the galaxies in the title were the "Magellanic Clouds". Today's image features those two dwarf galaxies in more detail as I captured them in the sky over the Tasman Sea off Seven Mile Beach, NSW. The Large Magellanic Cloud is estimated to contain between a few billion and ten billion stars, and have a diameter of around 30000 light-years. Its sibling, the Small Magellanic Cloud, measures approximately 7000 light-years across and contains possibly several hundred million stars. Above the Small cloud, you can see the globular star cluster 47-Tucanae, and if you zoom in on the Large Magellanic Cloud, you'll see a green blob that is known to astronomers as the Tarantula Nebula. Although I could have fit this scene into one wide-angle photograph, I shot four overlapping images and stitched them together during processing. I took four single frames with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598708045675-93327OILT9C63DM7L3QM/Three+Galaxies.+Three+Planets.jpg Featured - Three Galaxies. Three Planets Three Galaxies: Our home galaxy, which we call the “Milky Way,” dominates my photo with its colourful and dust-fringed arch stretched almost the full width of the frame. I captured another two galaxies in this fourteen-shot panorama, namely the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These fluffy, puffy orbs seem like they’re floating in the sky in the left side of my photo, able to be blown away by the slightest wind. The two Magellanic Clouds are dwarf galaxies and companions or our Milky Way as it travels through what astronomers call the Local Group. Three Planets: Our home planet, Earth, is first on the list of planets visible in this scene that I shot at Seven Mile Beach, Australia, last Sunday night, 23 August. About one-third of the way from the right-hand edge of the photo, in the area of sky above the Milky Way, I caught the Solar System’s two most massive planets, Jupiter and Saturn, as they followed our home galaxy towards the western horizon. The fourteen single frames that I shot to create the panoramic view of these planets and galaxies were all captured with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1594126336829-CN74ALO2P4LQQQAEGA60/stark.jpg Featured - Stark The Moon was at 92% of its full illumination as I photographed it setting over Tuross Lake, on the New South Wales south coast last Friday morning, July 3rd. I had to close the lens’ iris down to a small opening so that the Moon’s brightness didn’t overwhelm the photo and blot out the details of the seas (“mare”) and craters on our heavenly neighbour’s surface. The resulting starkness of the shot hooked me when I saw it on my computer’s screen. I hope that my photo captivates you, too! The shot is a single-frame image, captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, attached to a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 313 mm and set to an aperture of f/9.0, using an exposure time of 1/30 seconds @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1596284027683-K58821BIMRO9HS8E99NR/Sea+Creatures+of+the+Sky.jpg Featured - Sea Creatures of the Sky Not for the first time, the appearance of the two dwarf galaxies known as the “Magellanic Clouds” remind me of jellyfish, or similarly amorphous inhabitants of the ocean. Seeing them hovering over the Tasman Sea at Gerroa, Australia here in my photo makes that act of imagination a whole lot easier. The “Clouds” aren’t creatures, nor are they from the ocean, but are companions of our Milky Way galaxy, travelling with us through the Local Group of galaxies, yet visible to nocturnal folk here in the Southern Hemisphere.To the upper-left of the Small Magellanic Cloud is what looks like an overgrown star, but is a globular star cluster–a big ball of stars, pretty much–with the unromantic name of 47 Tucanae. This bright and slightly fuzzy orb that I included in the photo is about 120 light-years in diameter, making it a massive ball of stars, indeed.To produce this final photo, I shot two overlapping images & after editing those in Adobe Lightroom Classic, I stitched them together with the (now-defunct) application Autopano Pro. After stitching, I washed the composite frame through Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop (for noise reduction and improving some of the details). The two original frames that I took were shot with my Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1587472204864-DP4D3XVR43BRBFK7ZTTJ/seven-mile-segments.jpg Featured - Seven Mile Segments A mere 35 minutes of the Earth spinning on its axis under the night sky provided enough movement for me to produce this image of stars making trails over the Tasman Sea. My photo shows only a small segment of the long stretch of sand known as Seven Mile Beach at Gerroa, Australia. In the very early hours of an April morning, I made the 220 km (136 mi) return trip without engaging with any other person. I was in my own isolated and protected world. In my later teen years, in the late 1970s and early 80s, I made photographs like this using a 35 mm film SLR camera, with the shutter held open by a “cable release” device for the entirety of the shot. Now, several digital decades later, I set my camera to take multiple photos that are combined in software to deliver a final, colourful single image. Both methods required the same ingredients: a reliable camera; a properly-focused lens; the correct exposure settings; a stable tripod and, most importantly, patience. Thinking of my life then, compared to now and the experience that the whole world is sharing, I am happy after all those years the waves still break, the Earth keeps turning, and the beauty of it all still amazes me. I combined 81 single-frame photos to create the composite image that I’m offering you today. For each of those photos, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, with an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1593608262925-X69HDUGKWVGS2RVB61LA/jamberoo-jaunt.jpg Featured - Jamberoo Jaunt The 30th day of June is the final day of the Australian financial year, which often means a last-minute rush of people and businesses wanting their IT problems solved by their friendly “Always Apples” support technician, i.e., me! That tug on my time, as well as a few cloudy nights, has seen me trapped at home, wishing I was out photographing the night sky. Fortunately, though, I did get some time out last Thursday night, 25th June. I spent more of the session driving compared to how long I got to shoot photos, but some of the images I captured made that ratio worth enduring. This vertical panorama, created from shooting sixteen overlapping frames, shows why I was willing to be tired the next morning. The road, fences, paddocks and mountainside in the foreground are all lit by light pollution from the nearby city of Wollongong, and the cloud hovering over the mountain is illuminated by the rural town of Nowra, around 30 km (18 mi) to the southwest. Jupiter and Saturn are prominent in the upper left-hand corner of the scene, and the globular cluster Omega Centauri is on the right and about one third up from the bottom of the frame. I shot the sixteen photos that make up this panoramic image using m Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 3200. I didn’t have my panoramic head with me, so I used dead-reckoning to calculate the overlap needed for the photos. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1571313194809-KCFTRMDED86879ET7QJ6/a-little-church-under-the-big-sky.jpg Featured - Little Church. Big Sky The St Stephens Anglican Church at Wayo, in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. The site was donated by a local landowner for use as a church and cemetery back in 1866. The current building’s stone structure was erected in the 1880s. As enduring as the stony sanctuary may be, it is dwarfed and humbled under the immensity and timelessness of the Milky Way. This image was one of a number that I shot during a visit in May of 2019, on a night when the atmospheric airglow was a mix of green and orange. Those colours are evident in the background sky in my photo. To create this vertical panoramic image, I took eight overlapping photos. After a few adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, I used the stitching software “Autopano Pro” to merge those eight frames into the final composition. For each of the single images, I used my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, choosing an exposure time of 15 seconds, with the 6D’s ISO set at 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1575595736503-P4GBVBMXXTJZGRPUU7QQ/hope-through-the-smoke.jpg Featured - Hope Through the Smoke For a few weeks now, my city of Sydney, Australia, has been affected by smoke from bushfires burning on the city’s outskirts, and beyond. The daily cycle has become that of a deep red sunrise, followed by hours of yellowed skies, brought to a close by a setting sun that is even redder than when it began the morning. On a typical day, the Moon only takes on an orange hue when close the horizon, beaming with a distinctive white glow for the majority of its hours overhead. For many on Australia’s eastern coast, though, we now see an orange-red moon while ever the rocky satellite is visible in the night sky. Tonight (5th December), I took a short drive and did my best to shoot some photos that showed off this smoke-stained visage of Earth’s nearest neighbour. Wanting to capture images that weren’t merely the orange Moon against the hazy sky, I spent time looking for something to bring some perspective, and hope, to the scene. These lights on the Christmas tree at the St Andrews Anglican Church at Cronulla were happy to emit their lively colours to brighten the eerie night. For this single-frame photograph, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm @ f/16, using an exposure time of 1/100 of a second @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1587126282623-SE7AY62ZPS0P344LUQY3/white-and-crimson-and-blue.jpg Featured - White and Crimson and Blue Once again this morning, I was treated to a beautiful sight from my balcony as the 25%-illuminated Moon was adorned by some high clouds, made crimson by the pre-sunrise light refracting around the Earth’s atmosphere. The purity of the white light coming from the moon’s surface always looks enchanting to me and having the colours of the background sky and sunlit clouds added to the joy of it all this morning. I captured this scene with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500mm focal length and set to an aperture of f/8.0, using an exposure time of 1/100th of a second @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591444259140-FWPJK0V0S5LP1GHSVVOA/centred.jpg Featured - Centred This morning (Sat 6th June) there was a penumbral lunar eclipse visible in Eastern Australia. Well, visible is a stretch, since the dimming of the Moon's light during a penumbral eclipse is nigh on impossible to see. Still, with almost every lunar eclipse visible from Sydney in the last six years having been clouded out, waking up to find that the forecast clear skies were a reality was motivation to get out of my warm bed and set off for a shoot. By the time the Moon was in a position for me to create this shot, the eclipse was all but over and there’s no visible sign of it in the photo. My image shows the full moon as it was dipping to the western horizon, behind the Sydney Tower Eye (aka Centrepoint Tower), which was 7.5 km from my spot on the beach at Watsons Bay. Shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500mm @ f/7.1, using an exposure time of 1/25 sec @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1582538878003-E7ODQSM64HEO1D45AHPK/five-moons.jpg Featured - Five moons I snapped this image of Jupiter, flanked by its four "Galilean" moons–Ganymede, Europa, Io & Callisto–in conjunction with the Earth's waning-crescent Moon in the skies over Australia last Thursday, 20th of February. Looking carefully, you can see details in the darker portion of the moon. The moon here is lit with what is called "earthshine", which is light from the sun, bouncing off the Earth, lighting up the moon, then bouncing back to Earth for us to see. Shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500mm @ f/8.0, using an exposure time of 0.3 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1583753752927-GN4HP91AG8EBBTOC30EK/launceston-lunar-light-tower.jpg Featured - Launceston Lunar Light Tower Taken in January of 2020, my photo captured the Moon sliding towards the western horizon in Launceston, in the Australian state of Tasmania. There was a penumbral lunar eclipse at this time (11th January Australian Eastern Daylight Time), but it's hard to see any dimming of the Moon's light in this image. A penumbral eclipse occurs when the Moon's orbit takes it through the outer shadow of the Earth, which is less intense and less distinct than the central shadow, or "umbra". Not being familiar with the city and its landmarks due only being in Launceston for two nights, I found it challenging to locate a suitable structure to silhouette against the Moon's glow. The best I could do was this lighting tower at the University of Tasmania Stadium. Another single-frame image, this photo was shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500 mm f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm @ f/6.3, using an exposure time of 1/50 second @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1592225807454-NIG774IYF6SA32WIPEUD/seven-mile-arch.jpg Featured - Seven Mile Arch I’m not sure how long it’s been since I posted a Milky Way arch here. I’ve had this one in the can for several months now, so figured it was time to get it in front of some eyeballs. As well as the Milky Way my photo takes in two other galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Jupiter, Saturn & Mars are here as well, and I also caught a lot of green atmospheric airglow in the panorama. The location I captured the sky at on this clear night was Seven Mile Beach, near Gerroa, Australia. I shot 71 overlapping images, with my camera mounted on a “Nodal Ninja” panoramic head. I shot each of the 71 individual frames with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598529528866-FMF34PSG9LNTL52EUMYU/dark-and-detailed.jpg Featured - Dark and Detailed It’s hard to beat dark, clear nights and a sharp lens for capturing the non-starry details of the Milky Way’s dust lanes and dark nebulae. The night that I photographed this scene, in late July of this year, was one of those times, and the Sigma 35 mm lens that I had mounted on my camera was the perfect tool to make the most of it. Of course, the brightness of the massive conglomeration of stars that makes up the Milky Way’s galactic core shows up well in such a photo, but that’s not what my eyes were first drawn to when I saw this image come together. Those dark features hide estimated millions of stars (billions?), which makes me wonder how bright the sky would look should the dust and gas somehow drift off into the wider universe. The planets Jupiter and Saturn are glowing to the upper-left of the Milky Way, and I caught the Southern Cross and several other familiar features in the lower half of the image. The lights on the horizon are those of coastal towns that are over 30 km distant from the rocky beach and headland at Gerroa, Australia, the location where I captured this scene. This style of image is a called a vertical panorama (or “vertical pano”) that I created by shooting twenty single frames, in two columns that each contain ten photos. These individual images were then blended–“stitched”–to make the final image. I captured each of the twenty single shots using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1584912870053-GXVWUZSP8D95VK2JRIXH/mercury-and-the-moon-and-the-morning-light.jpg Featured - Mercury and the Moon and the Morning Light With the Moon only two days from ending its current cycle, its visible sunlit surface is now a thin crescent, or as I used to call it when I was a child, a fingernail cutting. The soft and subtle glow on the Moon’s earth-facing side–an illumination that astronomers call “earthshine”–was dimmed somewhat by the thin clouds that were heading towards the east as I shot this photo this morning, Sunday 22nd of March, 2020. The Sun was hiding below the horizon, but its reddened beams were bright enough to give a crimson hue to those same high and thin clouds. In the thickest section of cloud here in the photo, I caught a pinprick of light from the planet Mercury, our Sun’s nearest neighbour in space. You will probably need to zoom in to see the little yellowish dot. What a lovely sight these two celestial characters provided for the beginning of my Sunday! This photo is a single-frame image that I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, through a Tamron 70-300 mm lens @ 259 mm and with its aperture set to f/5.6, using an exposure time of 1/10 second @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1570777562864-7EVD9X0YY92JFFVEXGP5/nines-better-than-none.jpg Featured - Nine's better than none After a five-week hiatus from night photography, I drove south to the Jerrawangala national park near Nowra, Australia, on the last Saturday night in September of 2019. Despite the forecast for clear skies, upon arrival, I could see that clouds were quickly moving in from the southwest. My haul for the night was just nine photos, thanks to the weather. Still, as today’s post title says, nine is better than none. Two of those nine images had overlapping fields of view, so I was able to stitch them together to create the panoramic photo you’re looking at now. It shows the Milky Way’s central band and core region very low in the southwestern sky, with Jupiter lighting the way towards the horizon. The two photos that I took to create this panorama were captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569544555662-1KF0H0O7WIJP307JO0M0/on-the-hill-since-1859.jpg Featured - On the hill, since 1859 I love how the yellowed hue of the LED bank that I used to light this shot has highlighted the colours of the stones in the church’s walls. The building is 160 years old and seems to be in excellent condition considering the extremes of temperature and persistent winds that it’s endured in that time. The building is located west of the Australian rural city of Goulburn, and the nation’s capital city of Canberra is the source of the glow on the horizon behind the church. The drought that’s affecting this area–and a large portion of our country–isn’t something about which the locals happy. For me, though, the dry air provided exceptional viewing of the Milky Way when I visited on this night in August of 2019. The green-blue airglow colour helps to make the stars stand out and is a nice contrast to the colours in the Milky Way’s dust lanes and gas clouds. I can make out the Dark Horse Nebula about one third down from the top, on the right-hand side of the image. This photo is another example of one of my favourite forms, the “vertical panorama”. I shot seven overlapping images that I stitched into one, using the now-defunct application Autopano Pro. For each of those individual photos, I used my Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4. I exposed each shot for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1587640384807-59QVQTZDZ9LP22PEUZWK/the-iss-in-the-twilight.jpg Featured - The ISS in the Twilight The International Space Station (ISS) made a pass over my part of Australia tonight (Wednesday 22nd April). Fortunately I was able to get to a spot that’s not far from home, and whose location on an exercise path meant that it was OK to be at. The whole day was an example of how wonderful Autumn can be here, and I was happy that the predicted afternoon clouds failed to materialise. This was the longest ISS flyover that I’ve ever seen, lasting for a little under seven minutes. I wasn’t able to capture the entire traverse of the sky from northwest to southeast in one shot. What I did instead was to frame up the image, shoot off a few photos, then move the camera to offer a different view and take several shots of that vista. After looking through what I’d captured I chose the two photos that I combined to make up this final image. The two shots that I used were taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/10.0, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 100. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568764784933-MG66F3XDUDR51PKHNKWT/gravity-well.jpg Featured - Gravity Well I’m a sucker for photographing the poplar trees that line Australia’s country roads, lanes, rivers and creeks. If I can include the Milky Way in a scene, then my day has been well-and-truly made. This copse of poplars, bereft of leaves at the start of winter, stands either side of the parched creek that meanders through the farmland at Big Hill, New South Wales, Australia. Poplars aren’t native to Australia, and in some of our states, have been deemed an “invasive species”. Still, they are quite photogenic, and I made the most of their spindly forms in this image. The bottle-green hues in the sky–caused by atmospheric airglow–offered a colourful backdrop for my photo. I created this image by shooting nine overlapping frames, moving the camera through an arc that started with it pointing south at the little bridge and down at a slight angle. The last photo was captured with the camera pointing over my head and towards the north, taking in the trees behind me. Each image was photographed through a 14 mm wide-angle lens, making the trees seem to be bending in towards the centre of the Milky Way. My thought was that the gravitational attraction of the hundreds of billions of stars amassed near our home galaxy’s core would be warping the trees in its direction. As well as the 14 mm wide-angle lens (a Samyang 14 mm XP set to f/3.2), I used my Canon EOS 6D camera mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head. Each image was exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591600917989-JA65P7WSP5F3C1YHBDON/one-last-look.jpg Featured - One Last Look There is a habit that’s overcome me on my nocturnal adventures. No matter how late the hour, or how long the trip home will take me, I have to sneak one last look at the sky before I get into my car. I could have taken only a handful of photos, or it could have been hundreds, but I still need that one last look. If clouds have muscled in on the unspoilt heavens, or if the view is as clear as it ever could be, that one last look is a must. So it was on this night when the Milky Way was glorious, and the planet Jupiter owned the sky between that galactic gem and the horizon. I took my one last look, a little after 1:00 am. Moonlight, the need for sleep, the restrictions of the pandemic and uncooperative weather have kept me from seeing this unfettered view for too many weeks. It’s good that I had my camera with me to capture this one last look. I shot this photograph at Seven Mile Beach National Park in my state of New South Wales, Australia. I used my reliable Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569471979970-IIEEG7ADYMRS2HHNAB08/on-the-hill-since-1859.jpg Featured - On the hill, since 1859 I love how the yellowed hue of the LED bank that I used to light this shot has highlighted the colours of the stones in the church’s walls. The building is 160 years old and seems to be in excellent condition considering the extremes of temperature and persistent winds that it’s endured in that time. The building is located west of the Australian rural city of Goulburn, and the nation’s capital city of Canberra is the source of the glow on the horizon behind the church. The drought that’s affecting this area–and a large portion of our country–isn’t something about which the locals happy. For me, though, the dry air provided exceptional viewing of the Milky Way when I visited on this night in August of 2019. The green-blue airglow colour helps to make the stars stand out and is a nice contrast to the colours in the Milky Way’s dust lanes and gas clouds. I can make out the Dark Horse Nebula about one third down from the top, on the right-hand side of the image. This photo is another example of one of my favourite forms, the “vertical panorama”. I shot seven overlapping images that I stitched into one, using the now-defunct application Autopano Pro. For each of those individual photos, I used my Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4. I exposed each shot for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1587906363867-TD4B3HMR272T6V1HB4KG/wonder-in-the-round.jpg Featured - Wonder, in the Round I don't often shoot with my 8 mm "fisheye" lens, so I was happy to get a result like this the last time I used it to photograph the Milky Way reigning over our little planet. The central band and galactic core of the Milky Way are the dominant features of the shot, painted on the canvas of the airglow-tinted background sky. There are 26 km (16 mi) of ocean separating the coastal havens of Gerroa, left, and Currarong, right, but my photo makes them seem much closer to each other. Hovering over Currarong are the white, fuzzy blobs of light known as the Magellanic Clouds, dwarf galaxies that are two of my favourite features of the southern hemisphere's skies. As well as the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds I caught the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in the image, bright dots in the darkness in the lower left quarter of the frame. The small waves that were breaking on the beach added a serene soundtrack to the visual delights I took in as I sat on the beach that night. As mentioned above, I shot this photo using an 8 mm fisheye lens, made by Samyang, that was attached to my Canon EOS 6D Mk II digital SLR camera. I captured the image with an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400, and aperture I chose was f/4.0. https://nightscapades.com/socials daily 0.75 2019-09-01 https://nightscapades.com/vids daily 0.75 2023-01-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1672799473771-GX5UE38UIQE5474I5FIZ/image-asset.jpeg Videos The best-known feature of the night sky in my part of the world is the Southern Cross in the constellation Crux. Featured on the flags of five nations, the “Cross” is an asterism–a pattern of stars that make up a familiar shape and include stars from other constellations. Where I live in Sydney, Australia, the Southern Cross is a “circumpolar” feature of the night sky, which means that it never sets below the horizon. At the bottom of the image are the two brightest stars in the constellation Centaurus, namely Alpha and Beta Centauri. The common name of this pair of lights is “The Pointers” because you can use them to find the Southern Cross. Most of the items that are captured in my photo are naked-eye visible. I shot several photos in succession to bring out more sky features, resulting in you seeing the contrast between the Milky Way’s dark nebulae and dust lanes versus the billions of bright stars. I created this detailed image by shooting twenty-one single-frame images edited in Adobe Lightroom and then stacked using the Starry Landscape Stacker application. The shooting information for each of those single images is as follows: Camera: Canon EOS 6D Mk II Lens: Sigma 35 mm f/1.4 DG Art Exp time: 10 sec Aperture: f/1.8 ISO: 1600 Light frames: 11 Dark frames: 10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1672799473771-GX5UE38UIQE5474I5FIZ/image-asset.jpeg Videos The best-known feature of the night sky in my part of the world is the Southern Cross in the constellation Crux. Featured on the flags of five nations, the “Cross” is an asterism–a pattern of stars that make up a familiar shape and include stars from other constellations. Where I live in Sydney, Australia, the Southern Cross is a “circumpolar” feature of the night sky, which means that it never sets below the horizon. At the bottom of the image are the two brightest stars in the constellation Centaurus, namely Alpha and Beta Centauri. The common name of this pair of lights is “The Pointers” because you can use them to find the Southern Cross. Most of the items that are captured in my photo are naked-eye visible. I shot several photos in succession to bring out more sky features, resulting in you seeing the contrast between the Milky Way’s dark nebulae and dust lanes versus the billions of bright stars. I created this detailed image by shooting twenty-one single-frame images edited in Adobe Lightroom and then stacked using the Starry Landscape Stacker application. The shooting information for each of those single images is as follows: Camera: Canon EOS 6D Mk II Lens: Sigma 35 mm f/1.4 DG Art Exp time: 10 sec Aperture: f/1.8 ISO: 1600 Light frames: 11 Dark frames: 10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1573824587929-5S8OY6IN3MYVACPM4GMU/IMG_6290.jpg Videos - Ruins & Sky Smoke from bushfires, the need to wake for work early tomorrow morning (I don’t usually work on Saturdays) and a few other conspiring circumstances kept me from getting out tonight for some nightscape photography. As disappointing as that was–there are only a few days left in 2019’s “Milky Way Season”–this gave me time to edit and post another time-lapse movie for you to (hopefully) enjoy. It has taken me a little over a year to get around to working on this piece, having captured the photos for it in early November of 2018. The abandoned stone house is located on the grounds of the Gullen Range Wind Farm near Crookwell, Australia, requiring over 220 km (136 mi) of driving for me to visit. This outing was my last Milky Way shoot of 2018, in fact, so it was a relief to travel that far and find skies free of clouds and haze. As the video starts, you can see the Moon beaming from behind the trees, low in the southwestern sky. Once the Moon had set, I was left to photograph the riches of the Milky Way’s galactic core region as it, too, sank into the night. The sun had been below the horizon for a few hours by this time, but its light was still available hundreds of kilometres above the earth, evidenced by the shiny trails traced on the sky by orbiting satellites. If you look closely, you can see at least two points in the clip where satellite-pairs flash across the sky. I hope that the farmhouse is still standing when I revisit the location sometime in 2020. To create this time-lapse video I shot 354 still images with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1573615198615-S334HZZH6Q3WJ78FJIMY/IMG_0833.jpg Videos - The Milky Way, Jupiter, and a crazy guy in a boat One Friday night in August of this year (2019) I returned to a location that I hadn’t visited since 2016, on the Shoalhaven River at North Nowra, Australia. I have already posted a couple of still images from this trip, and have a few others that I’ll get to eventually. Something else that I shot on the night was this time-lapse video of the Milky Way and Jupiter setting over the river. The sequence is made up of 440 single images that my camera took while I was shooting stills, plus grabbing a few stretches of sleep. The camera and my sleeping self, plus my massive backpack of gear, were all perched on a rock that only offered about 60 cm (24 inches) of solidity between the natural wall behind and the drop to the river below. The laser-beam-like flashes that you see moving across the sky are aeroplanes making their way from Sydney to Australia’s next-largest city, Melbourne. The competing airlines’ planes leave from Sydney in quick succession and follow parallel flight paths south, thus providing the lights that look like blasts from the X-Wing fighters in Star Wars. The time-lapse sequence also caught some meteors as they flashed to their deaths in the Earth’s atmosphere, and a few satellites as well. The “crazy guy in a boat” shows up pretty close to the middle of the movie, and I slowed down the video there to show how brightly his hand-held spotlight lit up the river and the bank. The stillness of the river’s surface was upset by the boat’s wake, causing the crazy reflections of the stars and Jupiter. As mentioned above, this time-lapse sequence was created from 440 individual photos, each of which I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1573615660565-BRVBT1N5O2CQDC5E9ZGX/arboreal-silhouettes.jpg Videos - Arboreal Silhouettes I love it when atmospheric airglow and the light of the stars are bright enough to silhouette terrestrial objects like these bare trees, which I photographed near Nowra, Australia, in May of 2019. I shot the two photos used to make this video with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1573622699568-EGN0OTG02NGJ2DQBT51N/2019-11-13_15-04-02.jpg Videos - Strands of wool in the night sky Viewing this video must make you think I’ve been gorging on funny mushrooms, or trying to understand Brexit. No, I’m as sane as I can be but decided to play around a little with a recent star-trails image. To me, the zoomed-in trails look like close-up images of the threads of a rug or a massive, colourful carpet. I’m sure this video won’t do so well when it comes to Instagram Likes, but I’m in it for the art. The source image that I used for this video is my post from March 31st, “Coloured Cathedral Circles”, which was made up of 530 single-frame photos that I shot at Cathedral Rocks, Australia. To capture those 530 single frames I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with each shot exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567344695379-ILQF95NWG04XYVP3ANXY/image-asset.jpeg Videos - Gerroa Galactic Goodies The galactic core of the Milky Way and the planets Jupiter, Mars & Saturn rising off the coast of Gerroa, Australia one night in March, 2018. The sequence finishes with the moon rising, about two hours from the first exposure. The video is made up from 371 single frames, that were captured over a two-hour period, using a Canon EOS 6D MkII, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.8, with each frame exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567848878676-OJMOQLK9N6OT68UCUUIX/meteor-to-mars-insta-fb-flickr-copy.jpg Videos - Nocturnal Reflections Saturn, Mars and the Milky Way are shown here setting over and reflected in the Tuross River, about 300km south of Australia’s largest city of Sydney. You’re looking at the apparent movement of the sky over a two hour period (two hours and six minutes, to be precise) back on the night of 1/2 October, 2016. Mars is responsible for the bright and shimmering orange reflection on the water around the middle of the shot and starting about halfway through the video. The abundant stars, dust and interstellar gas present in the core region of the Milky Way are dominant in the western sky at this time of year down here in the southern hemisphere. Created from 470 frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/5d6bc7ebb91b0c0001d96b59/5dcaace97b9b4d409e1ea359/1573564092363/ Videos - The Milky Way, Jupiter, and a crazy guy in a boat One Friday night in August of this year (2019) I returned to a location that I hadn’t visited since 2016, on the Shoalhaven River at North Nowra, Australia. I have already posted a couple of still images from this trip, and have a few others that I’ll get to eventually. Something else that I shot on the night was this time-lapse video of the Milky Way and Jupiter setting over the river. The sequence is made up of 440 single images that my camera took while I was shooting stills, plus grabbing a few stretches of sleep. The camera and my sleeping self, plus my massive backpack of gear, were all perched on a rock that only offered about 60 cm (24 inches) of solidity between the natural wall behind and the drop to the river below. The laser-beam-like flashes that you see moving across the sky are aeroplanes making their way from Sydney to Australia’s next-largest city, Melbourne. The competing airlines’ planes leave from Sydney in quick succession and follow parallel flight paths south, thus providing the lights that look like blasts from the X-Wing fighters in Star Wars. The time-lapse sequence also caught some meteors as they flashed to their deaths in the Earth’s atmosphere, and a few satellites as well. The “crazy guy in a boat” shows up pretty close to the middle of the movie, and I slowed down the video there to show how brightly his hand-held spotlight lit up the river and the bank. The stillness of the river’s surface was upset by the boat’s wake, causing the crazy reflections of the stars and Jupiter. As mentioned above, this time-lapse sequence was created from 440 individual photos, each of which I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567840966136-VH05OML7CMRRZUZCSGHX/Eclipse+x9.jpg Videos - Partial Lunar Eclipse July 2019 I created this video from nine single photos that were shot over 90 minutes, starting during the penumbral phase of the eclipse. The partial eclipse proper–the "umbral" phase–commenced at 6:01 am where I was viewing and shooting from at Sandringham, Sydney, Australia. You can see the earth's shadow consuming more of the Moon's disk as the clip progresses. The Moon's colour changes throughout the sequence, due to the effects of atmospheric refraction near the horizon. If you look carefully, you'll see the moon rotate clockwise slightly. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 50-500 mm lens to capture the source photos for this video. The shutter speed and aperture were varied depending on the Moon's brightness against the background sky, which changed as sunrise came closer. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1573616620902-1RJFY0OHEOVCK99QRKVC/IMG_1497.jpg Videos - The Milky Way over the Shoalhaven Watching the Milky Way set over the Shoalhaven River one Friday night in 2016 was a wonderful way to spend a few hours on my own. The river was flowing out as the tide dropped, but with no breeze and the river’s steady movement the reflections of the sky upon the water’s surface were insanely good. I’ve paused the movement slightly at the point where a meteor flashed across the sky. Although its path was too high to capture in this shot I caught its reflection on the river’s surface. You can see some of the fog from that night, dancing on the water off to the left of the shot. This time-lapse video is comprised of 373 individual frames which were turned into a movie clip in Final Cut Pro. Each shot was captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. The royalty-free music piece is “The Coming Of Spring” by Markoni. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567842064160-28GMK9SIBGHGIEZDSJFW/galactic+reservoir.jpg Videos - Mars & the Milky Way say goodnight Can you see Mars in the dip between the two hills at the start of the video? You can watch it set as the night passes by. Although a bit obscured by the plants at the water’s edge, the reflection of the red planet is shining from the water’s surface. The Milky Way’s galactic core region, 27000 or so light-years away, follows Mars down behind the hills for another night. The wall of this dam has its top flush with the water’s surface and the floating orange safety lights can be seen doing their dance as the wind and water move them about, providing extra warning to any late-night kayakers who might be about to plunge over the edge. This time-lapse was created from 267 individual photos, shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400, shot over a period of one hour and twenty minutes. Tallowa Dam, Kangaroo Valley, Australia. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/5d6bc7ebb91b0c0001d96b59/5d6bc8377be555000125b0be/1567344685372/ Videos https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/5d6bc7ebb91b0c0001d96b59/5dcaaebb54446f0607f4db8c/1573563694367/ Videos - The Milky Way, Jupiter, and a crazy guy in a boat One Friday night in August of this year (2019) I returned to a location that I hadn’t visited since 2016, on the Shoalhaven River at North Nowra, Australia. I have already posted a couple of still images from this trip, and have a few others that I’ll get to eventually. Something else that I shot on the night was this time-lapse video of the Milky Way and Jupiter setting over the river. The sequence is made up of 440 single images that my camera took while I was shooting stills, plus grabbing a few stretches of sleep. The camera and my sleeping self, plus my massive backpack of gear, were all perched on a rock that only offered about 60 cm (24 inches) of solidity between the natural wall behind and the drop to the river below. The laser-beam-like flashes that you see moving across the sky are aeroplanes making their way from Sydney to Australia’s next-largest city, Melbourne. The competing airlines’ planes leave from Sydney in quick succession and follow parallel flight paths south, thus providing the lights that look like blasts from the X-Wing fighters in Star Wars. The time-lapse sequence also caught some meteors as they flashed to their deaths in the Earth’s atmosphere, and a few satellites as well. The “crazy guy in a boat” shows up pretty close to the middle of the movie, and I slowed down the video there to show how brightly his hand-held spotlight lit up the river and the bank. The stillness of the river’s surface was upset by the boat’s wake, causing the crazy reflections of the stars and Jupiter. As mentioned above, this time-lapse sequence was created from 440 individual photos, each of which I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/2019 daily 0.75 2019-09-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568464423880-BN8JOJTSRKCHBJM8AKWO/magellanic-bridge.jpg 2019 - Magellanic Bridge This rickety bridge over the Bumbo Creek at Bodalla, Australia, has loads of character and even more gaps between its planks. Walking across it in the dark is not for the faint-hearted! When I visited the location in January of 2019 the Magellanic Clouds–satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way–happened to line up right over the bridge. The stillness of the water in the creek provided a great mirror to reflect starlight from, and a little bit of illumination from an LED lamp helped make the bridge more visible. There was a lovely amount of green atmospheric airglow to provide a pleasant background colour to the scene. I created this photo by shooting ten overlapping images, then stitching those images into a vertical panorama. For each of the ten individual images I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm lens set to f/2.4, and an exposure time of 15 seconds per frame @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568464423880-BN8JOJTSRKCHBJM8AKWO/magellanic-bridge.jpg 2019 - Magellanic Bridge This rickety bridge over the Bumbo Creek at Bodalla, Australia, has loads of character and even more gaps between its planks. Walking across it in the dark is not for the faint-hearted! When I visited the location in January of 2019 the Magellanic Clouds–satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way–happened to line up right over the bridge. The stillness of the water in the creek provided a great mirror to reflect starlight from, and a little bit of illumination from an LED lamp helped make the bridge more visible. There was a lovely amount of green atmospheric airglow to provide a pleasant background colour to the scene. I created this photo by shooting ten overlapping images, then stitching those images into a vertical panorama. For each of the ten individual images I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm lens set to f/2.4, and an exposure time of 15 seconds per frame @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462340164-1V7PWY83VEONBH347KHX/the-colour-of-night-4x5-marked-up.jpg 2019 - The Colour of Night To capture this image I made use of a star tracker, a device that enables you to take photos with exposure lengths measured in minutes, rather than 30 or fewer seconds. In this case, I had the camera’s shutter open for two minutes (and one second), resulting in the capturing of the beautiful crimson hues of the Eta Carinae Nebula region. Wisps of dark interstellar dust dangle down below the nebula, and there’s no missing the opaque gases that make up the Coal Sack Nebula, left of centre down the bottom. Along with the iOption SkyTracker, I used the following equipment and settings to take this photo: Canon EOS 6D camera, Canon 50mm STM lens @ f/3.2, 121-second exposure @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462296846-K5R1SDQIZZW3X1N12O0G/round-and-round.-again-small.jpg 2019 - Round and round. Again. I am so used to shooting my nightscape images in the autumn, winter and early spring months that I forgot to take something essential with me on this summer night in the first week of January. Insect repellant is a necessity if there are mosquitoes about and especially if you don’t enjoy being bitten by them. With none of the liquid in my kit, I took the only other measure I could and popped on a parka that lives in the back of my car. When the temperature is somewhere around 25 degrees C (77 F), and the humidity is in the low 70s, a parka isn’t what you want to be wearing. Still, it kept the mosquitoes at bay. I set my camera up to shoot this star-trails scene and let it run itself for 3.5 hours. The camera was set to take a 25-second exposure, close the shutter for 1 second and then capture another 25-second image, repeating the cycle until I turned off the camera. All-up I shot 463 single frames over those 3.5 hours, then used the software “StarStaX” to make the final composite photo. For each of those shots, I had my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera mounted on a tripod and fitted with a Samyang 14mm lens set to f/2.8. As mentioned above, the exposure time for each frame was 25 seconds, and I set the ISO to 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568465961792-R8XLA9VK41TU201GWRF2/not-a-bad-start%2521.jpg 2019 - Not a bad start! One night in February I drove south for around 100 km to a spot that I’ve heard so much about but never visited, Cathedral Rocks, near the coastal town of Kiama, Australia. It’s a gross understatement to say that I struck gold by choosing this location. Not only did I have the famous rock formations to feature in my foreground, with the majesty of the galactic core rising in the southeast to dominate the frame, but I was treated to the presence of the planets Jupiter and Venus as they rose over the Tasman Sea. All of that happening on my first Milky Way shoot for the year was almost too much! The intensity of Venus’ light is unmissable in the photo, shining both low in the sky and reflected off the waves breaking on the beach. The unexpected bonus for the night was the light from bioluminescent organisms in the water turning the waves a glowing blue colour. I’m ridiculously tired from staying out late and only getting a few hours of sleep, but it was so worth it! I shot this single-frame photograph with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM lens @ f/2.8, using a 10-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462322809-7M2I8HJIHINJCR4HI83A/silos-full-of-stars.jpg 2019 - Silos full of stars Even though this is a rural locality–near Goulburn, Australia–there is a car speedway off to the east, and its carpark lighting seems to be left on all night. That was frustrating, but one of the lights did provide a nice “starburst” effect through the support structures that hold up the silos. Almost as bright as that light below the silos is the planet Jupiter, rising into the heavens and situated above the line between silos two and three (counting from the left). Like all photographs this one doesn’t convey the smells that were assailing my nostrils as I stood outside the compound, clicking away to try to get a few good shots. For this single-frame photo, I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568504877932-BAQGEU331L9QCFO10DJV/a-windmill-on-a-windless-night.jpg 2019 - A windmill on a windless night Is a windmill still a windmill if there’s no wind? Is it just a “mill”? There was no wind, nor even a breeze, on the night that I photographed this scene in April of 2019. The bright spot near the centre and about 1/4 down from the top is the planet Jupiter, its brightness contrasted with the enormous dark dust and gas clouds characteristic of the Milky Way’s galactic core. A little down and to the right of the windmill is the planet Saturn. This post is a single-frame image that I shot with Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.6, using an exposure time of 6 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568505078904-4IBZTT6MFBUQHUQELNVD/coloured-cathedral-circles-small.jpg 2019 - Coloured Cathedral Circles My photo here was made by shooting multiple 15-second photos over 2.5 hours at Cathedral Rocks near Kiama, Australia. In that time the camera clicked off 530 shots. Once I got home, I imported the photos into Adobe Lightroom for basic editing, then stacked (blended) them, using the free application StarStaX, to create a single image that shows the trails of the stars on the night sky. To capture those 530 single frames I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with each shot exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462310160-XRPBFZ0059IJ1PX4S4XG/silos-again.jpg 2019 - Twin silos When I visited the site and shot this photo (plus a bunch of others) in April of 2019, the Milky Way’s core had not long cleared the decrepit corrugated iron roof that straddles the two concrete cylinders. Much closer to Earth than our galaxy‘s centre, but looking here to be a bright spot in the dark nebula known as the Dark Horse or the Galactic Kiwi, Jupiter was also climbing into the evening sky. For this single-frame image, I pushed my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera’s ISO setting to 12,800, shooting through a Canon 40 mm lens at f/2.8 for an exposure time of 10 seconds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462246759-AF8JHFV4146ZJ3IQQDSD/cemetery-under-the-core.jpg 2019 - Cemetery Under the Core It’s been nearly impossible to find any details online about this cemetery near Pejar, New South Wales, Australia. The only information that I turned up suggests that the oldest headstone there dates from 1875, and the church that shares the same piece of land was built by locals in 1903. However old it is, the cemetery sure hasn’t been around as long as the Milky Way, seen here stretching up from the horizon to overshadow the countryside. The stars & planets, comets & asteroids, nebulae & dust clouds that make up our home galaxy are at their densest concentration in what is known as the galactic core, seen near the centre of this shot. Halfway down and about one quarter in from the left of the shot is the brilliant white light reflecting from the planet Jupiter. Another planet, Saturn, had not long risen when I took this shot. You can see it a little above the bloom of white light coming from behind the distant hills. This image is a single-frame photo that I shot with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4x, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462233670-33OGACS3CXDOWDK1L7U6/before-the-sunshine.jpg 2019 - Before the sunshine What kinds of things make up our solar system? big things like the Sun (which accounts for 99.8% of the mass of the solar system), as well as planets, dwarf planets (hello, Pluto), moons, comets, asteroids, meteoroids, and all of the bits of metal that mankind has sent into space. Those answers are all correct, and as well as this big stuff there’s also dust. LOTS of dust spread across the same plane in which the planets orbit the Sun. In the autumn and spring months, it’s common to see this dust lit up in the dawn or dusk sky, depending on the season and whether you’re located north of south of the equator. This glowing dust is called the Zodiacal Light, also known as the “false dawn” because it is so bright it does look as if the first/last rays of sunlight are visible. The glow is sunlight being reflected and dispersed by these minute dust particles. The Zodiacal Light is unmissable in this photograph that I shot this morning (10th June), and it is so bright that you can see that it’s lit up the water and some of the shoreline of Coila Lake, Australia. This lake is a non-tidal, enclosed waterway and its surface was all the more still due to there being no breeze at all, providing a perfect mirror to reflect the Zodiacal Light and plenty of stars. This image is a single-frame photograph that I took with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568542467409-D8QCBDHDN8O8IRGFNFSU/death-and-light-at-big-hill.jpg 2019 - Death and light at Big Hill The predominant green colour of the background sky in this image is the result of the atmospheric phenomenon called “airglow”. To my eyes, the background sky colour looked grey rather than black–a sure sign of the presence of airglow. Our digital cameras excel at seeing and recording the shades of the night that we don’t discern, and this photo is a solid example of that difference. Can you see orange-brown hues in the sky in the top two-thirds of the image, looking like bruises on the dermis of the heavenly dome? These peculiar patches were caused by the fog that came and went during the couple of hours I was shooting here, mostly hampering but occasionally enhancing my photos. The brilliant glow from Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet, has been diffused but brightened by the same airborne moisture. That accounts for the large white spot in the sky that’s roughly half-way down my image. Dominating the foreground is the frame of the tired, expired and lonely tree that was so grand, and seemed to beckon to me, pleading to be featured in a photograph. Without the LED torch that I used to illuminate the tree and the paddocks, all you would see here would be the silhouette of this deceased and exhausted patriarch of the countryside. The photo is another example of a “vertical panorama”, an image that has been created by shooting multiple frames, covering the view from the horizon to the zenith, which I then blended, or “stitched”, into the final image. I captured each of the seven single frames using a Canon EOS 6D camera, with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f2.4, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259390982-SLXBTDNRYB0N1X7262BY/still-and-stunning.jpg 2019 - Still and stunning I can almost hear once again the sound of the quiet that I enjoyed while I shot this scene at the beginning of June on the Tuross River, on Australia's southeast coast. The lack of breeze on the river rendered the water's surface a natural mirror to reflect the light from the sky and the foreground to where I had positioned my camera. As well as numerous stars, you can see the Large Magellanic Cloud–which is a galaxy and not a cloud at all–shining off the top of the water. At this point, the river forks off to the right into Bumbo Creek, which is broached by the wooden bridge that leads to lush and prized dairy paddocks. Beyond that bridge, you can see the fine layer of fog that hovered over the fields in the post-midnight hour. Ruling over it all, of course, is the central band and concentrated core of our home in the heavens, the Milky Way galaxy. My attraction to viewing and photographing this section of the sky isn't only the billions of stars concentrated there. The dark filament-like structures known as "dust lanes" that only make themselves visible by the millions of stars they obscure, also captivate me. I created this image by shooting nine overlapping images, with my camera mounted on a panoramic head that sets a fixed angle between each photo. After capturing the individual pictures and downloading them to my computer, I used some panorama-stitching software to blend the nine images into one. To shoot each of those nine photos I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462276055-Y6JDJU3ZK4NGE3FGRXLY/northerly-aspect.jpg 2019 - Northerly aspect On the last Friday night in June, I headed out from my home in Sydney, Australia, to the southern tablelands region of New South Wales. My first stop was at a farming locality known as Big Hill, a drive of about 180 km (110 mi) from home. With the Milky Way’s galactic core almost overhead, I pointed my camera northward to take in the view over the foggy fields of Big Hill. The few large puddles that formed the small creek in the foreground excelled at reflecting the starlight for me to capture. The Milky Way’s galactic core might not be in the photo, but there was plenty of interstellar dust-lane detail in the northern heavens to add interest to the scene. The distinctive green hue in the sky was generated by the natural phenomenon known as atmospheric airglow. To create this image, I blended three individual shots in a process known as “stacking”, which helps to reduce the amount of digital noise in the final photo and also removed unevenness in my foreground lighting. For each of those three single photos, I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462268640-7CBXVLO4I7QGO2EVLEA6/me%2C-in-the-mist%2C-after-midnight.jpg 2019 - Me, in the mist, after midnight It took a lot of deft footwork to get across that wooden bridge in the dark when I visited this section of the Tuross River in June, 2019. This area is a Bortle Class 1 location, which means things are very dark and free of light pollution. It's so dark that I could make out the bridge's slats without the help of artificial light, using only the natural atmospheric airglow, and starlight, for illumination. The Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy is hiding in the top of the tree to the left of the bridge, and in the sky to the right, the crimson hues of the Eta Carinae region of the sky can be seen. The light mist over the fields and the river added a special magical quality to the scene. You mightn't be able to see me too well on the bridge, on the right-hand side, near the tree on the far bank, but I promise you, I'm there. I captured this image with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462325961-5EJBI4CDNW31Q6Q7NTVR/southerly-aspect.jpg 2019 - Southerly Aspect As with my bookended original image “Northerly Aspect”, in this one, I am featuring a portion of the Milky Way that isn't as dense and bright as the oft-featured galactic core region. This southerly aspect of our home galaxy still has a lot of prominent features, though. You can see many dark nebulae and dust lanes that show themselves by obscuring light from the stars behind them. The Southern Cross is right in the centre of the image and the two stars that are known as the "Pointers", Alpha and Beta Centauri, are visible above the Cross. The intensity of the green atmospheric airglow on this night was the most I've ever seen, I think, and that's what has given the photo the coloured background sky. For today's image, I shot and stacked six individual images. I captured each of those six photos with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462289197-QU4HTZYRZHYRBHCCCJ82/over-the-top.jpg 2019 - Over the top The title of this photo describes the position of the Milky Way and Jupiter above the bare poplar trees here alongside the Princes Highway near Bodalla, Australia. The phrase also applies to the fact that I was out shooting photos at 2:00 on a Monday morning. After this, I would have only a few hours sleep, then have to drive for over four hours to get back to Sydney for a client appointment. The dividing line between dedication and obsession becomes less distinct each time I cross it! I didn’t do any stitching, stacking, or blending for this photo. The shot is a single-frame capture, taken using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. Lighting was provided by a Litra Pro LP1200 bi-colour LED unit, hand-held by yours truly. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462337349-UPVD0OCDA8VI0KG6S5DG/worth-the-chase.jpg 2019 - Worth the chase Wind farms fascinate me, and since the Milky Way’s core was in the right place to include it in a vertical panorama over a wind turbine on this night, I couldn’t pass up the chance to shoot away. The bright glow on the horizon, to the left of the closest tower, is light pollution from the city of Sydney, approximately 160 km (100 mi) distant. As I mentioned already, this image is a vertical panorama, created from eight overlapping single-images. For those eight images, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568543500477-3FPLZ65S5FISYAPA2SG7/seen-with-another%27s-eyes.jpg 2019 - Seen with another's eyes In June, a friend of mine, a professional truck driver, said that he’d noticed this barn a few times on his trips down south. “You should use it in one of your night shots”, he suggested. Once he said it, the idea seemed too obvious to have missed thinking of myself. After all, I’ve driven past it probably hundreds of times in the 40+ years that I’ve holidayed in the area. Perhaps familiarity does breed contempt, as the saying goes. Thanks to my friend Kevin I took the 15-minute drive from my holiday shack to photograph this ageing construction at around midnight a few days later. The location–Bodalla–has exceptionally light-pollution-free skies, and I could make out most of the dark features in the Milky Way, even with my ageing eyes. This image is a single-frame photograph that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D camera, through a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/2018 daily 0.75 2019-09-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567424409901-CVWAK439I3287SUT4DVZ/jerrara-core-3planets.jpg 2018 - Rising Lights Jupiter, Saturn & Mars were lined up in the eastern sky when I captured this scene. The location is Jerrara, a dairy farming area on the southeast coast of Australia and a little over an hour’s drive from my home in the southern suburbs of Sydney. The vertical panorama was created from four overlapping images, each shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mark II camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, for an exposure time of 13-seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567424409901-CVWAK439I3287SUT4DVZ/jerrara-core-3planets.jpg 2018 - Rising Lights Jupiter, Saturn & Mars were lined up in the eastern sky when I captured this scene. The location is Jerrara, a dairy farming area on the southeast coast of Australia and a little over an hour’s drive from my home in the southern suburbs of Sydney. The vertical panorama was created from four overlapping images, each shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mark II camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, for an exposure time of 13-seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785916250-3T1KUWJK3JKYDA9IUHHP/last-one.-i-promise.jpg 2018 - Blood orange In the same way that the bending (refracting) of light at sunrise and sunset gives the sky a red colour, sunlight refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere tints the Moon with this copper-coloured visage during a lunar eclipse’s “totality” phase. Shots like this of the orange-red moon against a black sky are probably the most common type of photo I’ve seen of total lunar eclipse events. My preference is to capture images that include a terrestrial scene in them as well as the moon. Still, I find something engaging and intriguing about these moon-and-sky shots, and so chose to include this one of the total lunar eclipse of July, 2018. Captured with a Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 500mm @ f/6.3 with a 0.8-second exposure @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567337994812-QND8T7V4VNC42A7JG7GW/another-uprising.jpg 2018 - Uprising This image is a stitched vertical panorama created from five overlapping photos. The Milky Way was doing its thing for another night, while local fishermen did their thing on the rock shelf below. The white glow down there on the right is from the headlamps worn by the fishos, while the red arc is from where one of them cast his line into the water, its attached glowing float on heading for another session of bobbing on the waves. The big section of rock shelf closer to the camera was pock-marked with small pools of seawater, and some of them reflected starlight back towards me, only barely showing up in the photo. Each of the five images used to create the panorama was captured with a Canon EOS 6D MkII camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259332687-HVR42STL8PUN6WO6M1AK/bend-and-stretch-reach-for-the-stars.jpg 2018 - Bend and stretch, reach for the stars I’ve used poplars to frame the Milky Way in several shots over the past four years, and I continue to find them useful. Perhaps it’s because they’re not native trees to Australia, or because they are much taller than other trees of the same width. The warped perspective from using a wide-angle lens seems to be bending the trees towards the mass of light and gravitational attraction present in the galactic core. The location, southwest of Nowra, Australia, was another gem with clear skies, no wind and only three cars passing me in the two hours that I was lurking in the dark with my camera. I just managed to sneak Jupiter into the right-hand edge of the shot, but Mars and its blazing orange light dominate the relatively empty section of sky at the top left. This shot doesn’t quite nail the alignment I was after, and I didn’t manage to get the lighting even across all of the poplars, so I hope you find beauty and interest in it. I used the app Autopano Pro to stitch together five single, overlapping photos to create this final vertical panorama. For each photo, I used the following equipment and settings: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567339791067-EORZN3B4J5IS4AK6DLB6/jupiter-reflected.jpg 2018 - Jupiter, reflected Our solar system’s most massive planet, Jupiter, was slipping towards the western horizon when I captured this scene at around 12:30 am on July 14 of this year. There was a stiff breeze blowing across the top of this man-made pond, causing the water to be anything but smooth, and so diffusing the reflection of Jupiter’s light. That light had travelled across close to 737 million km (458 million mi) of space to reach the pond’s shimmering surface before bouncing the few metres up to my camera. Dwarfing Jupiter in size, magnetic field, brightness and every other aspect is the central band and galactic core of our Milky Way galaxy, owning the top 1/3 of my photo. The sky was exceptionally clear and dark on this night, enabling me to capture lots of fine details in the wisps and filigrees of the Milky Way’s “dust lanes”. This photo was created from nine overlapping frames. I shot each of those individual photos with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. I used a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head, tipped on its side, to take the nine photos with enough overlap between them to create a smoothly stitched vertical panorama. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259322230-7FRI7ROI0WSZ0AKIKTH2/amber-airglow.jpg 2018 - Amber airglow Something that amazes me is the fact that you can see details of the bright, starry galactic core of our Milky Way, reflected off the water. Those photons have travelled about 27,000 light-years across space but still have enough energy to bounce off the water’s surface. Single stars are mirrored, too, like the blue star on the middle right. Its reflection is far more prominent than the original blue dot itself. This photo was captured at Black Head, a landmark of the town of Gerroa, on Australia’s south-east coast. I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Canon 40mm STM lens @ f/2.8, for an exposure length of 10 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567343075619-MHT8D1ZUFC4TECM2WY53/the-heavens-at-halfway.jpg 2018 - The heavens at halfway Not quite halfway, but it was only a week after the midpoint of 2018 when I was out in the cold of an Aussie winter night, capturing the photos that I used to create this vertical panoramic image. Located near the rural city of Lismore in New South Wales, Australia, this old and former church building is blessed with dark skies on a moonless night. The lack of light pollution, as well as the dry and clear air on that evening, provided excellent conditions for revealing the wispy dust lanes and dark nebulae that characterise the core region of our Milky Way galaxy. As with so many of my photos from that year, Mars is a dominant player in the scene, looking big, bright and orange over at the top-left of the frame. The Large Magellanic Cloud is peeking out from the bottom edge of the church’s roof on the left, with its sibling the Small Magellanic Cloud making a more conspicuous appearance over the tree near the lower corner of the frame. The short tail of a meteor forms a triangle with Mars and the Small Cloud. For all of the interest that these celestial objects give to the scene, it’s our majestic, magic and magnificent Milky Way that my eyes go straight to, every time I look at this photo. As I mentioned above, this is a vertical panorama which I composited from ten single, overlapping images. For each of those individual frames I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, and a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. I had the camera mounted on a Nodal Ninja III panoramic head, tipped at 90 degrees to allow for the vertical orientation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567338132550-HWYTS58PWLJCJVB3CH0Y/another-dam-fine-view.jpg 2018 - Another dam fine view Luckily the wind that had been blowing for the previous two days abated enough for me to get some reflections of stars in the bottom-right of this pano, although they’re still not sharp. I actually got the stars of the Southern Cross reflected, and their colours show up much more prominently on the water’s surface than they do in the sky. Look how much detail there is in the galactic core, including the “dancing horse” or “dark horse” nebula, as well as other dust lanes around the galactic centre. You can see the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies at the lower left, above the bright glow from the lights of the nearby HMAS Albatross naval aviation base. Mars is a prominent feature, and Jupiter’s white light is disappearing into the trees about one third down on the right. A total of nine overlapping images were used to create this image, each of which I shot with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Samyang 14mm XP lens set at f/2.8. The exposure time for each frame was 25 seconds, with an ISO setting of 6400. I processed the panorama using the stitching software Autopano Pro. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733955698-B419G8VLFLA1U835MWYC/Setting+stars+%26+a+mystery+solved+%28I+think%29+SMALL.jpg 2018 - Setting stars Shot at Gerroa, New South Wales, the image you’re looking at was created from 594 single photos taken over a three-hour period. My camera was pointing due west to capture the constellation Orion and surrounding stars as they set for the night. A slight mess-up with the settings is responsible for the gaps in the star trails. I lit up the trees with a Litra LED lamp fitted with a 3200K filter and a diffuser. The 594 images used here were shot with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785866496-7YWON8TYV86U2DMSCJP7/a-photo-from-september-to-remember-in-november-4x5.jpg 2018 - Limbs alight I had visited this location, near the dairy town of Bodalla, several times over the past four years and I’d noticed these dead trees still reaching skywards while I was photographing other foregrounds. On this shoot, in September of 2018, I made a point of including the lifeless limbs in several photos. The yellow wire across the track wasn’t visible in the dark, but I somehow managed to avoid tripping over it during my fumbling footfalls. The bright white object near the horizon is the planet Jupiter, still surrounded by some Zodiacal Light. This image is a single-frame photo that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785878446-J5VKGJ9XWZ24QTKDVW0Q/australia-rock-2x3.jpg 2018 - Australia Rock Hopefully, my international followers have a least heard of Australia, if not visited here. The location of this photo was Narooma, a beautiful town on the south-east coast of the state of New South Wales, Australia. If you look at a map of Australia and then at this photo, you will see why this rock formation–actually the hole in it–is known as “Australia Rock”. The distinctive shape weathered out of the rock is very popular for daytime photographers and is a something I’ve wanted to feature in a nightscape photo for some time. The Milky Way’s galactic core was rising at just the right time for me to stumble over the rocks, dodge a few ocean pools and then precariously balance myself and my tripod to line up the hole to frame this shot. Less than five minutes after this a cloud front blew in from the south (right-hand side of the scene) and ended my shooting session. This photo is a single image taken with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II, Canon 40mm @ f/2.8, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. The foreground was lit with a Manfrotto "Lumimuse" 3-led handheld lamp. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785862065-XVND8R78U938JHXC0WE1/a-shining-sea-of-stars-2.jpg 2018 - A shining sea of stars Way out to sea and just over the horizon a cargo ship moves down the coast, its lights seeming to answer the fluorescent spill from a street light near the photographer’s position. The endless thud of waves crashing over the rocks beats a slow rhythm to mark time for the stars of the Milky Way as they make their nightly crawl across the roof of the sky. In my late childhood and early teen years, I spent lots of hours clambering over these rocks with my siblings, looking for shells, driftwood & unusual pebbles during holiday times. The location is Tuross Head, on the southeast coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia. My children, now in their twenties, have also enjoyed many holidays at this place of peace and relaxation. None of them nor my wife have ever joined me on an outing to see and photograph the wonders of the night sky, either here or anywhere else. They’re missing out on so much! This image is a single-frame photograph, captured with a Canon EOS 6D MkII camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, with a 13-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785879483-PINBLH2Y2LL29TCST127/beyond-the-gate.-give-or-take-2.5-million-light-years%21.jpg 2018 - Beyond the gate One of the most enthralling objects appearing in the astronomy books in my high school’s library was the Andromeda Galaxy. These were long-exposure images of this body of around one trillion stars, about 2.5 million light-years from Earth, captured by some of the largest and most legendary telescopes of the 20th century. Even though M31 is best seen much further north than my latitude of 34 degrees below the equator, it’s still possible to photograph this little glowing fuzzy blob low over the northern horizon. However, I didn’t use a telescope–big or small–to get this photo. This image is a single-frame photo, captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Canon 40mm lens @ f/2.8, and a 10-second exposure @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785895759-MERY14I8TSMPC2E2YCBC/eclipse-%28verb%29.-to-obscure-or-block-out.jpg 2018 - Eclipse. "To obscure or block out" Apart from a few brief exceptions, this title describes my experience of the total lunar eclipse of late-January, 2018. The eclipse of the moon was itself eclipsed/obscured/blocked out by clouds that covered the sky from just before the eclipse started until I got home at 2:30 the next morning. In case you’re wondering, yes, I did try hard to find some cloudless locations. How hard? 685km of driving (426mi), multiple stops to check the situation and update the weather satellite feed on my iPad. 10.5 hours from leaving home to returning and getting into bed. Better luck next time, perhaps? A focus-stack of five shots, captured with Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 500mm @ f/10.0, 1/60 sec @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785890692-ETMAFBPMP3XE2C19FERY/dam-fine-sky.jpg 2018 - Dam fine sky Bamarang Dam is a secondary water reservoir, located about 10km southwest of the coastal-plain town of Nowra, on Australia’s southeast coast. The dam’s intake structure can be seen at the bottom-left, silhouetted by light spilling from the nearby HMAS Albatross naval aviation base and some coastal towns further off. In the sky above the inlet are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, companion dwarf galaxies that are travelling through space with our home galaxy, the Milky Way. You can see the Milky Way itself rising almost vertically from over the dam wall and up to the top of my image. The planet Mars is dominating the top left-hand corner of the scene, and Jupiter is slipping behind the trees on the right, still over three hours from setting for the night. The background sky colour is showing the green hue of atmospheric airglow. Each of the seven photos used to create this vertical panorama was taken using a Canon EOS 6D camera, with a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/3.2, for a 30-second exposure @ ISO 6400. The camera was mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head atop a Manfrotto tripod. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785908902-SSNPMIRKFMLDFVZA1QQT/in-the-cold-light-of-night.jpg 2018 - In the cold light of night I don’t remember what the exact temperature was when I visited this shallow valley at Burrier, west of Nowra, Australia, in August of 2018. However, I do remember that the air was cold and that I was wearing multiple layers of warm clothing plus a beanie, a hoodie, gloves and had a couple of heat packs in my pockets. This photo from that night is a stitched vertical panorama, made up from five overlapping images that I shot in the cold. The Milky Way almost bisects the scene diagonally, coming between the bright light of the planet Mars at the top and that of Jupiter below, just near the trees. I did some lighting of the foreground grass, road and trees with an LED lantern. Stray light from a nearby farmhouse did the job of lighting the fields and the thin fog that had drifted across them. For each of the five photos that make up this image, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, with an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785917070-6EETQNGZY10GO40ECCUQ/inner-light.jpg 2018 - Inner Light In general, artificial light is not the friend of astronomers and astrophotographers. When it gets in the way of our observing or our photography, we refer to it as “light pollution”, a name that doesn’t have any hint of positivity at all. For this photo, though, I used artificial light in the form of my LED Lenser headlamp/torch to make some inner light seem to beam and burn out from the windows of this little church. Of course, the celestial lights above the church are the reason I was at this spot taking photos, but I didn’t want to pass up the chance to give this old house of worship some inner light to brighten the scene. Although I could have captured this with a single image, I used nine shots from a 65-frame panorama that I was creating on the night. I photographed each of those nine images with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566734272614-Z8K9GIU2DTOASATN94TZ/Swan+trails.jpg 2018 - Swan trails Living in a very light-polluted area means that I need to travel for at least 100 km (60 mi) out of my city to get somewhere with dark skies. Ideally, I should be scouting out new locations during the day and then returning later for a nightscape photography session. Due to the distances that I have to drive, plus my family & work commitments, I rarely have the time to do a daylight scouting trip as well as several hours of shooting at night. Most of the time I head out with a knowledge of where the Milky Way’s core will be at a particular time of night, and an idea of the kind of landscape features I want to include in my photos. There will be a few possible locations in my head as I leave my driveway, but there’s also lots of map-checking and imagining of compositions on the way. On this Sunday night in October of 2018, Swan Lake, on the southeast coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia, turned out to be a spot that ticked almost all of the boxes. The only one that didn’t score a ten was the light-pollution category, but the white glow from the tourist town of Cudmirrah, on the left of this photo, isn’t too bad. The photo is a star-trails composite shot, created by shooting several 25-second-long images and combining them in the app “StarStaX”. I shot the original frames for a time-lapse sequence, at high ISO, so I had to pull down the highlights and push up the saturation to finish with a trails image where the stars weren’t all white and not showing their true colours. Each photo used to create this image was taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, through a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785931323-RX0MICE566M00EM87AVK/lines-and-lights.jpg 2018 - Lines and lights I did my best to line up the dominant elements of this photo in a zig-zag shape that starts at the top-right of the frame with the bright stars Beta and Alpha Centauri. Moving down and to the left is the thick line of stars and interstellar dust and gas of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Following the horizon across to the right-hand side, a new sight-line begins, with the rock shelf at Black Head, Gerroa, marking the edge of the water. The planet Mars is glowing not far above the horizon in the middle of the scene, with its bright orange signature colour reflected across the water. Jupiter stakes its claim as the brightest object in my photo, which is proper for the most massive planet in our solar system. In a line between these two and about one-quarter of that distance up from Mars, the planet Saturn is almost washed out by the light from our galaxy’s core region. Shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.4, using a 30-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568786033664-TE0Y2F6WYJLVBAXJ9IH9/the-riches-of-orion.jpg 2018 - The riches of Orion This image of Orion and its surrounds was created using the iOptron SkyTracker and my unmodded Canon EOS 6D plus Canon 40mm STM lens. The photo shows lots of stars and some significant deep-sky features. I expected to be able to photograph M42 (Orion Nebula) and got it but it’s overexposed here. The one feature of this part of the sky that I was wanting to capture was Barnard’s Loop and I’m happy that I achieved that goal. As well as these two wonders I snagged the Witch Head Nebula (very faint), the Running Man Nebula, IC434 & the Horsehead Nebula, plus the Flame Nebula. The Rosette and Lambda Orionis Nebulae, the much smaller and fainter vDB 38 Nebula and the Christmas Tree Cluster are also visible. The source images for this composite were as follows:Lights: x49 frames Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm STM f/2.8 lens @ f/3.2, 60 second exp @ ISO 1600Darks: x5 frames Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm STM f/2.8 lens @ f/3.2, 60 second exp @ ISO 1600Bias: x15 frames Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm STM f/2.8 lens @ f/3.2, 1/4000 second exp @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785931321-NQQFTGOXDHGGNLCTV5CS/luminous-maximus.jpg 2018 - Luminous Maximus This night in September of 2018 was the first time that I had ever photographed the blue glow of bioluminescent organisms in the water here at Tuross Lake, Australia. It’s visible at the waterline on the lower left. Overhead, distinct from the individual stars in the photo, the galactic core of the Milky Way, with its billions of suns all glowing together, is giving off a yellowish tone in the sky above the bioluminescence. High over the core is the planet Mars. I shot each of the 18 individual frames that comprise this panorama with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785948178-KGL4ABX108HX4PI7CBRI/mt-cambewarra-under-mars-%26-the-milky-way.jpg 2018 - Mt Cambewarra & the Milky Way Mt Cambewarra rises to around 680 metres (2230 feet) above sea level and provides views stretching for about 145 km (90 miles), over dairy farms, local and distant towns and out to the Tasman Sea. The nearest large town, Nowra, is only 9 km to the south (5.6 mi) and was pumping out lots of ambient light when I visited there about ten nights back. That wasted illumination is what is lighting up the foothills and southeastern face of the mountain in this single-frame photo. Shot at around 1:30 am, my photograph captured the bright orange planet Mars riding over the Milky Way at it tipped past the horizontal, low in the southwestern sky near Mt Cambewarra. I took this photo with my faithful Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/3.2, using a 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568786017830-29HHYL06YDCEIEVH9K6I/the-red-orb.jpg 2018 - The Red Orb On the eastern coast of Australia we missed out on seeing the July 2018 total lunar eclipse all the way through. The point of maximum eclipse was reached at 6:21 am, and the Moon then set at 6:55 am. Although I took lots of photos that featured Mars as well as the Moon, I’m particularly taken with this one showing the fully-eclipsed moon on its way to setting behind Seven Mile Beach, Australia. It's going to be nearly three years before the next total eclipse that's visible from my part of the world. Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 161mm @ f/5.6, 1.0 sec @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785967679-UBMWZ1SCRPTP745YHYP3/relative-brightness.jpg 2018 - Luminous Lismore My sister-in-law and her husband live near Lismore, a major rural town in an area that has plenty of flatlands, lots of grassy hills, and everything in between. The other thing the locality has, looking in most directions, is dark skies. The clarity and darkness of the night sky made it easy to photograph the Milky Way’s band of stars, dust and gas almost hugging the enormous leopard tree in the garden before stretching up to the northeast. Look to the top of the frame, and you'll see the familiar orange glow of the planet Mars. I repositioned my camera several times to capture Jupiter’s blue-white orb before it slipped behind the right-hand side of the tree. I mentioned that the skies are dark in most directions. The pink-white glow from the lights of Lismore, at lower right, is the reason for the “almost”. To create this photo I shot eight single overlapping frames and then stitched those together using software called Autopano Pro. For each photo that I shot I used the following settings: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, with a 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785971707-YKKCN2JXT0QTURPOG05O/stars-and-wind-and-light-2.jpg 2018 - Stars and Wind and Light The Pleiades star cluster–aka “The Seven Sisters” and “M45”–is a beautiful sight in the eastern skies of my Southern Hemisphere from mid-winter through until late in autumn. You can see it here in my photo, between the wind turbine’s supporting pylon and the left side of the frame. In roughly the same position on the opposite side of the tower is the inverted vee-shape that is the most recognisable portion of the constellation of Taurus, The Bull. The wind turbine–which was idle on this night, despite others nearby turning in the wind–did cut a slightly scary shape against the night sky. In the dark, it had me thinking of the “fighting machines” in HG Wells’ “War of the Worlds”. Apart from the stars in the sky, and the headlamps of a passing car that lit up the turbine, the only other source of light I could see was the horrible, yellow-green brightness on the eastern horizon. That ghostly glow is light pollution from the city of Sydney, whose central business district is a distance of 160 km (100 mi) from where I took the photo. This image is a single-frame photo that I shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, using a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens @ f/2.2, with an 8-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785992752-NODP601VYYUSCELKMBR1/straight-outta-camera-2x3.jpg 2018 - Straight Outta Camera Shot at close to 10 pm on a night in June of 2018, this scene has the Milky Way’s central band and its galactic core positioned between two rows of trees as it climbed towards the zenith. The Milky Way here serves as a dividing line between the evergreen trees on the left and the leafless deciduous ones on the right. This stop was a hunch-stop, if you will, and paid off with some OK photos. The photo is a “sooc” shot, that is, straight-out-of-camera. The only editing I have done is to crop the photo down to fit on Instagram. I was ready to light-paint the trees and grass with a hand-held LED lamp when a car passed by on the road behind me and lit the whole area just the way I needed. Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785997611-BOELQUC8T3NR13ERLLPV/thanks-for-the-inspiration-16x9.jpg 2018 - Thanks for the inspiration! I dedicate this photo to my fellow Australian nightscape photographer, Richard Tatti http://facebook.com/nightscapeimages. Richard lives in an area of Australia that seems to have more than its fair share of derelict, abandoned and very photogenic farm equipment and vehicles, which he uses in many of his nightscape images. I’d failed to find any similar relics during my rural road trips, but while driving in the daytime near Nowra, New South Wales, I spotted this abandoned cart under a tree, about 50 metres from the highway. I quickly saved the GPS location, and in early 2018 made my way there after shooting at another spot about 20km away. Being near a highway the tree was lit up by passing traffic, and I got in close to light the cart with my LED lamp. You can see thick fog in the background in front of the mountain near where Mars had just risen. The moon was peeking above the eastern horizon, giving the white glow that is silhouetting the skyline. The Milky Way was its usual beautiful glowing band of light and colour in the Aussie night sky. This single-frame image was shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, 20-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568786017830-S4X0VDEG8OOLOTWSK0XS/the-dead-amongst-the-living-copy.jpg 2018 - The Dead amongst the Living The starlight that our eyes detect is what has reached us at the instant we are looking, after having travelled through space for varying distances over proportional lengths of time. If a star is four light-years away, then we’re seeing the light as it was four years ago when it left that star. If a hundred light-years distant, then our view is of one hundred year-old light. A simple look at the numbers says that at least some of the stars in this photo are dead now, despite looking alive and alight to us. As with the trees, there are many dead stars amongst the living. A single frame, shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 30 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785952999-EUFDX0NMTG57V8JH7F5X/prepping-for-summer.jpg 2018 - Clouds in the treetops The Magellanic Clouds, the two large, fuzzy and misty blobs in the sky in my photo, are usually high on the list of summer nightscape targets. For most of where Australia’s population lives, the Magellanic Clouds are visible all year round but don’t get as much photographic fame as the Milky Way’s core does. I photographed these two dwarf galaxies in early September, 2018, as they seemingly hung in the air over the Norfolk Island pine trees at Tuross Head, Australia. I also captured some satellite trails at the right-hand edge of the shot, as well as a meteor trail flashing between two of the pine trees. I created this image from two slightly overlapping single photos, which I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, through a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 15-second exposure @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568786033197-7352WK2IUBHJJM1KHY8P/tuross-bioluminscence-01.jpg 2018 - Tuross Blue My photo for today is from Tuross Head, Australia, shot in September of 2018. It was taken when most of the Milky Way’s core region was in the hazy part of the sky below ten-degrees elevation. The planet Saturn was low in the west (about 1/3 in from the right of the shot), and you can see its reflection coming right across the lake to the sand in the foreground. The blue light at the lake’s edge is from bioluminescent organisms in the water. I enhanced the intensity of the glow by throwing and splashing water that I’d scooped from the shallows. This photo is a single-frame image that I photographed with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.8, using a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/2017-candidates daily 0.75 2019-09-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568893031563-RIVYWH0HHIJ7IKA4MVRY/amphitheatre-of-the-stars.jpg 2017 Candidates - Amphitheatre of the stars https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568935541148-23C2YOJU26R1BS0E552X/moonrise-under-the-milky-way.jpg 2017 Candidates - Moonrise under the Milky Way Most of the times that I photograph the Milky Way I intend for it to be the main feature of an image. Choosing moonless hours of the night is a must for that to occur. Sometimes, though, you can use the moon’s glow to add a special element to the scene, as I did with this photograph from early in 2017. The location was Gerroa, Australia. On the night, I did shoot a lot of Milky Way images up until around 9:30 pm, when the moon was due to rise. Rather than pack up and head home as the sky started to brighten from the lunar glow, I stayed on the beach and got some frames of the Milky Way plus the moon just as it peeked over the horizon. I rather like the result!. Photographed with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 10 second exposure @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567678196722-G2UTUAGUPNT0FRQDTG5I/Rings+and+streaks+of+colour+and+light.jpg 2017 Candidates - Lighting Rig I guess he just wanted to get in on the act, the driver of the 4WD who sped through the area where I had my camera set up shooting this star-trails image. He didn’t have any idea that his car was to appear in my photo, he was simply driving along this road that skirts the Bamarang Dam near Nowra, Australia. I know this because after he passed through he stopped the car, turned it around and came back to see what I was doing. “I hope you’re not setting up a police speed camera,” he joked. After I told him what it was I was up to and showed him some of the photos I’d already gotten he headed back off into the night. The LED bank on the vehicle’s bumper gave me some good foreground lighting, at least. If you spend even just a little time looking at this photo you can see the different colours of the stars. It’s cool that we can use a camera to let us see the wonderful colours up there above us. This star-trails image is made up from 205 single images that were shot over a period of just under two hours. Each individual photo was captured with Canon EOS 6D MkII, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 30 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568935496998-NKDB9MT4VZHP24K7AV3V/in-orbit-over-down-under.jpg 2017 Candidates - In orbit down-under Captured in the very wee small hours of a Saturday morning in August of 2017, this photo captured the International Space Station passing over the opening to the Minnamurra River in southeastern Australia. The moon had risen and even though it was only 6% illuminated that was enough to light up the scene for me. Out on the horizon is the light-trail of a cargo ship that was moving down the coast carrying a load of who-knows-what to who-knows-where. This single image is a composite of seven original shots, each capturing 13 seconds of movement of the ISS across the sky. I used the free software “StarStaX” to overlay the seven photos and then filled in gaps in the ISS’ trail using Photoshop. The original photos were taken with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568966328654-0XC2CXBRP5NO0OF8QT5U/milky-%28rail%29way.jpg 2017 Candidates - Milky (Rail)way This is a vertical panorama created from nine separate images and shows the Milky Way rising from the north-north-east up towards the zenith (the point on the sky that’s directly overhead). The bright white band of light on the horizon at left is from the town of Berry, a little under 4 km (3 mi) away. A quick flash of my LED lamp–with its “warm” filter fitted–lit up the crossing gate and lights just enough to show their detail here. Created from nine separate images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568962390211-NXO1A7MU3TI9G9PJ8M33/%E2%80%9Cwe-all-travel-the-milky-way-together%2C-trees-and-men%E2%80%9D-.jpg 2017 Candidates - Together through time & space “We all travel the Milky way together, trees and men” That quote is by John Muir, the Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the USA. In the US he is known as “Father of the National Parks”. Muir loved the outdoors & nature and spoke wide and far about the joy that came from being human and experiencing creation. I feel that way when I’m out at night, standing under and photographing the stars. Those times are spiritual, invigorating, inspiring and totally sublime. I’ve done my best to convey that in this photo, viewing the complexity of the Milky Way through the simple branches of a dead tree. Two adjoining shots were stitched together using Autopano Pro 4.4 to create this 16x9 view. Each frame was captured with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 8000. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568967164062-4UD52GQOVYDRXV5LMNF5/look-both-ways-before-crossing.jpg 2017 Candidates - Look both ways In July of 2017 I visited this level crossing on a rural railway line and captured a couple of vertical panoramas. It’s probably too small to see here but I caught a meteor as it flashed across the Milky Way’s core region, just underneath the “Dark Horse” nebula, aka the “Galactic Kiwi” for we Southern Hemisphere folk. This vertical panorama was created using nine overlapping images that were each shot with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568967440428-SCKL31O4WLI2M1MI1T6U/citrus-under-the-stars.jpg 2017 Candidates - Citrus under the stars My wife’s sister and her husband live near the rural city of Lismore, Australia. Their property is in a place where there’s very little light pollution so I only had to walk out to their driveway to find a spot to shoot the Milky Way when visiting them a few years back. What a change that was from my usual expeditions of hundreds of kilometres on Friday or Saturday nights! Amongst the 100 or so shots I captured that night was this seven-image panorama, showing the Milky Way standing almost vertical over their fruit and vegetable garden. The orange fruit on his citrus tree adds some colour to this shot that I don’t normally see in a foreground. Just above and to the left of that tree you can see the Southern Cross and Pointers, with the planet Saturn showing as a white spot on the neck of the Dark Horse nebula. Created from 7 single frames, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568945574776-BG50MY1T53R4HUP563A3/img_5956-edit.jpg 2017 Candidates - Other-worldly moonrise Despite the brightness of the moon I still managed to get quite a bit of colour and detail around the Milky Way’s core region in this image that I captured at Kiama, on Australia’s east coast in February of 2017. The moonlight spilling across the basalt towers and boulders in this deserted quarry gave me the feeling of this having been shot on another world orbiting a star other than our Sun. My camera with its red LEDs and the tripod legs invoke the image of a probe sent from earth to investigate the surface of this exotic world. The light of the moon shining into the lens caused the red spot to the right of centre. This is s single shot captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568985304547-DMGLDIBSZ01WAK4T4LDQ/capital-capture.jpg 2017 Candidates - Capital capture This panorama of the night sky was shot in April of 2017 at a place called Tharwa, in the Australian Capital Territory. Just as the US has the District of Columbia for its national capital, Australia’s capital city of Canberra is located in the Australian Capital Territory. Arched overhead is the glorious Milky Way and its galactic core. The two white blobs hovering above the horizon on the right are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of our Milky Way. The lovely bottle-green colour to the background sky is caused by atmospheric airglow, which has similar colours to the aurora but is caused by a different process. This panorama is made up from 42 images that were stitched together using the software Autopano Pro. Each shot was captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568985487881-OJAPW7ELDTURMCDSJDW8/three-galaxies-from-halfway-to-the-top.jpg 2017 Candidates - Three galaxies from halfway Australia’s highest mainland mountain is Mt Kosciuszko, located in the Snowy Mountains region in my home state of New South Wales. With its summit at 2228 metres (7310 feet) above sea level it’s by no means one of the world’s tallest mountains but it’s the best we’ve got. Just over 60km to the northeast of that mountain is the spot where I captured this panorama of my beloved Australian night sky. The elevation there is 1000 metres, about halfway to the top, you might say. There are three galaxies visible in this photo. The largest and most obvious is our own collection of stars, the Milky Way, with its galactic core area hovering over the western horizon just to the right of centre. Over in the top left of the scene are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, travelling through space with us on our journey through what is known as the “Local Group” of galaxies. Apart from the two Magellanic Clouds every other star, star cluster and wisp of interstellar dust in this photo is inside the Milky Way. Some clouds way off in the distance obscured some of the Milky Way over on the right of the image. This panorama was created from thirteen overlapping photos, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568985673228-91ODR9Q1SE6D9HPOBUMP/starlight-moonlight-city-lights.jpg 2017 Candidates - Starlight. Moonlight. City lights. The 140+ year-old St Matthias Church looking lovely in the moonlight while the Milky Way is keeling over towards the west. With the 20 second exposures I used to capture the Milky Way’s detail, the camera caught light from the rising crescent moon and so the church and the grass around it look well lit up here. The moonlight was also bright enough to cast a selfie-shadow of me and my camera at the lower right of the shot. There’s a yellow-white glow coming from behind the church from the lights of Canberra, Australia’s capital city, about 50km (30mi) away. The large, bright and white orb above the power pole on the right is the planet Jupiter, very close to setting for another night. The sky looks a bit mottled and patchy due to fog that was thickening up and on the left you can see a few clouds that were drifting in and starting to ruin the party for me. After this it was time to drive home–with a safety sleep along the way–where I slumped into bed at 8:00am. This is a vertical panoramic image, created from 7 individual frames, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733097436-AS542CYL8VSK2D8CA0BH/Amphitheatre+of+the+stars.jpg 2017 Candidates - Amphitheatre of the stars "Lights, camera, action!" They're the clichéd words used when speaking of filmmaking rather than taking photos. Still, I had all of these components in play to create this star-trails photo in the stony amphitheatre of the abandoned quarry at Bombo Headland, New South Wales, Australia. Lights? I used the warm tungsten beam of my trusty torch ("flashlight" for the Americans reading this); a round, white photographic reflector to spread that light over the rocks and cliffs; and the glorious glow of the stars above. Some ambient light from the Kiama lighthouse–out of shot at right–plus the sodium lamps, aglow at the nearby sewage treatment works, also helped to light the scene. Camera? My camera was mounted on a tripod, shooting a 20-second-long photo then waiting one second before grabbing the next shot. Over forty-five minutes, my faithful Canon captured 118 frames. Action? How do you show movement in a still image? The rotation of the earth in those forty-five minutes was enough to make the stars look like they are drawing lines on the sky. The blurring of the waves breaking in the small inlet also gives a sense of movement. I was walking around, placing the torch to light up various features of the quarry, providing a further idea of motion as the beams were recorded by the camera's sensor. Created from 118 single frames, each shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 8000. After shooting those 118 photos I imported them into my Mac laptop, did some editing in Adobe Lightroom then used the free “StarStax” application to put them together into one final image. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568986254035-PJANFGKH3YQSD9YDSKHU/a-jewel-in-a-thorny-crown.jpg 2017 Candidates - A jewel in a thorny crown I composed this photo to look like some sort of precious jewel in the sky, framed by twisting tree branches, almost like a glowing gem set in a royal crown. A thorny crown. The tree branches were about five metres above where my camera was placed. The jewel framed in the shot, the Large Magellanic Cloud, was around 163,000 light-years distant, or around 308,400,000,000,000,000,000 times further away than the tree. If you go a’Googling you can find some very detailed photos of the Large Magellanic Cloud, showing many more stars and nebulae than you can see in this shot taken with my DSLR and a basic 50mm lens. To the lower left of the Cloud is the bright green smudge of light that’s known as the Tarantula Nebula, or its technical name of 30 Doradus. This is a nebula that has at its centre a star cluster that has an estimated mass of 450,000 times that of our Sun. You don’t have to know any of those facts to enjoy its beauty, fortunately. The photo is a single-frame shot that I captured with Canon EOS 6D Mk II, Canon 50mm @ f/2.2, 8.0 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567383586354-PX7TJZ12F414QIFL30D7/wispy-wonder-over-the-water-16x9.jpg 2017 Candidates - Wispy wonder over the water The location I shot this at is Bamarang Dam, southwest of the regional city of Nowra, Australia, just over two hour’s drive from my home. The road sweeps around the eastern perimeter of the reservoir and the bushland falls away to give this view across the water. There are a few prominent colours in this image, arising from astronomical, atmospheric & earthly causes. In the astronomical realm, stretching from left to right across the middle 1/3 of the scene is the band of our Milky Way galaxy with its billions of stars and the wispy structures known as “dust lanes”. Right in the middle of the photo is the core, the centre, of the Milky Way. Above that is the greenish atmospheric airglow that’s caused by electrons of oxygen atoms in our atmosphere changing orbits and emitting energy as light. There is also some greyish discolouration of the sky in the sky between the Milky Way and the horizon that’s caused by moisture in the air. As for earthly causes you can see the orange glow behind the trees at the centre of the middle 1/3 of the photo. That was caused by the lights of the city of Goulburn, which is about 70km (45 mi) from where the photo was shot. This image was created by shooting and then stitching together 24 single shots, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm @ f/2.2, 10 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569025501476-M20PI2BX6NDU8I255HZY/%E2%80%9Cyeah-but-that%E2%80%99s-been-photoshopped%E2%80%9D%E2%80%A6-3x2-no-watermark.jpg 2017 Candidates - "That's been Photoshopped" A lot of thought, effort and practice goes into how I shoot my photos and trying to make them as “natural looking" as possible. Nightscape photography isn’t only about capturing the image, though. Editing and presentation are as important as getting the shot right. That said, tonight I’m posting an image which has only been cropped Other than that I have not adjusted it in Lightroom or Photoshop. The photo shows the Milky Way’s galactic core region rising in the eastern sky, shot from the “Grand Canyon” lookout in the Morton National Park, a couple of hours south of Sydney, Australia. There’s a deep green colour to the background sky, caused by atmospheric airglow. The tree in the image was lit up by an LED bank with a warm-light filter on it. The bright glow on the horizon at the bottom right is from the city of Kiama, about 50km (30mi) away. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566735397758-C9UVHUVDJ61RYX1JADSL/Trails+on+the+water+and+sky.jpg 2017 Candidates - Circles on sky and water The still waters of this man-made pond provided a great natural mirror to photograph reflections of the stars one Friday night in July of 2017. The glow from my headlamp and red-light torch also reflected their photons off the shiny surface, creating the colourful smear at the lower left of the scene. For this shot, I took 323 photos over nearly 2.5 hours. I hadn’t visited this spot until my outing that night, noticing the location on Google Maps while at a prior stop. The satellite photo showed it to be a scar on the landscape, the remains of a road construction dig, including the pond, in a national park. Since it was the only water catchment for many kilometres around, it was worth stopping at to try to get some stellar reflections. I made this final image from 323 single photos, each shot as follows: Canon EOS 6D camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.4, 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. The images were combined using the free software StarStaX. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569049006298-983YG689JC0K9WM67Z1L/a-windmill-against-the-starry-sky.jpg 2017 Candidates - A windmill against the starry sky Perhaps it’s because I grew up and still live in a city that I find windmills so fascinating. Fog was starting to form in the air near this one when I visited in March of 2017. By the time I finished at the site (all of 20 minutes after I arrived), the fog was thick enough to obscure all but the brightest stars. I got off a few shots then headed back in the direction of my light-polluted city. In the background sky you can see the distinct green colour created by atmospheric airglow. This atomic-level phenomenon is so bright that it is silhouetting the clouds, the line of the hill and the windmill itself. I managed to get a meteor in this shot, too. A single frame photographed with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569050821015-BQCU2TDB7HV9EL2YA7LU/a-planet-in-the-water.jpg 2017 Candidates - A planet in the water There are a few stars reflected in the tidal pool at the bottom of this photo, yet the brightest light on the water isn’t a star but that of the planet Saturn. Situated at a distance of over 1.3 billion km from Earth (800 million mi) at present, this “gas giant” is the second-largest planet in our solar system. Famed for its beautiful system of rings, Saturn is also orbited by over sixty moons. Even in the smallest of telescopes Saturn is a magical sight, and I’ve never forgotten my first view of it through a friend’s ‘scope back in the late 1970s. The Milky Way’s galactic core had cleared the horizon when this scene was captured, and was ascending the southeastern sky over the Tasman Sea off the coastal town of Gerroa, Australia. This image is a seven-frame vertical panorama. Each shot was taken with my Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569051467824-D8932K6C3LD3SX2SL2HW/add-a-touch-of-cloud-to-bring-out-the-colours.jpg 2017 Candidates - Add a touch of cloud Thin, high cloud has the effect of diffusing starlight, making the twinkling dots in the sky seems brighter and more colourful that they appear to our eyes. This photo is a great example of that phenomenon. The white bauble-like light that seems to be hanging off the tree branch at the top left of this photo is star Alpha Centauri, the third-brightest star visible in the night skies. Down to the right of that is Beta Centauri, looking lovely and blue. These two stars form what’s known as “The Pointers” because they seem to guide your eyes to the Southern Hemisphere’s most famous star formation, the Southern Cross, in the constellation of Crux. If you imagine the classic shape of a child’s kite tipped over to the right at about 45 degrees then you should be able to see the Southern Cross hiding in the branches around the centre of my photo. Up at the top-right of the scene is what looks like another star with its light diffused. Rather than a star, this object is actually the globular star cluster Omega Centauri. This spherical conglomeration of stars is the largest such object in the Milky Way, estimated to contain around ten million individual stars. This single-frame image was shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm lens @ f/2.8, 10 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569052395101-EJACL6POW34FFC7Y0AO2/along-for-the-ride.jpg 2017 Candidates - Along for the ride Sometimes in the world of rocketry and satellites things don’t go according to plan. This was the case with Cornell University’s “CUSat” nanosatellite project, launched in September of 2013. The CUSat was in fact a pair of satellites designed to launch together and then carry out manoeuvres in orbit, coming to within ten metres of each other. During testing one of the satellites was damaged and rendered nonfunctional but was sent into space anyway and is orbiting the earth while still attached to its Space X Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Although not all of the mission goals based on a pair of satellites could be met, the project has returned useful data. Failure or not, the two satellites still make an interesting sight when they show up in photographs. I caught them making a pass one Saturday morning in April of 2017. The celestial couple appeared to move through the Milky Way and just miss the supergiant star Antares, glowing bright orange in this photo. Some very thin cloud caused the light of the stars to diffuse and look bigger and brighter than usual. Photographed with a Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569060633328-9DIFLKJL60AIHYYA8CWS/a-stellar-jellyfish-and-friends-2x3.jpg 2017 Candidates - A jellyfish and friends Imagination and the night skies have gone together since man’s been on the earth, it seems. Many of the constellations that are accepted today have referred to for literally thousands of years of written history and who knows how many before that. That puts me in ancient company when I look at this photo and see the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) as some sort of stellar jellyfish. The LMC is the prominent cloud-like object dominating the centre of this photo. High up above that is the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Together these two dwarf galaxies, satellites of our Milky Way galaxy, comprise about 30 billion stars. Just above and to the right of the Small Cloud is the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, a ball containing around 10,000 stars. The photo is a stitched image created from seven original frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm STM lens @ f/1.8, 8.0 second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566729015554-19QJOWHY88QFHITZP56K/Tuross+Trails+with+Mars+LATEST+EDIT.jpg 2017 Candidates - Tuross trails Mars & the Milky Way setting over the Tuross River (Australia). Cameras are far more capable of capturing and rendering the colours that shine in the blackness of night than our human eyes. Capturing all of that colour adds up when you put together a number of images that were shot over a period of time, as in this image. This results in the coloured curved stripes–the “star-trails”–in the sky and the even more colourful reflections of the brighter objects on the river’s surface. The bright and wide orange reflection on the water’s surface is from the planet Mars as it set in the two-hour period over which the original frames were captured. This image was created from 470 original photos, each shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569061677247-HRNTE8Z3B8SIBSLWYOJF/a-bite-out-of-the-moon.jpg 2017 Candidates - A bite out of the moon This photo of the moon and a construction crane was taken in August of 2017, at close to 4:40 am. Fortunately, the location was only a five minute drive to from my home. You can’t see much of the crane here but I did manage to use the moon to silhouette some of the crane’s structure and also get the construction company’s logo. I shot the photo with a Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ f/16, 1/50 sec @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568935421386-6IPUAYUEM175D3OW7TYY/another-one-for-the-%E2%80%9Cnext-year%E2%80%9D-list.jpg 2017 Candidates - National park wonders The “Grand Canyon Lookout” in the Morton National Park, located about a two-hours to drive from my home in Sydney, Australia, is very well orientated for seeing and photographing the Milky Way’s core rising. From the same spot at this lookout you can turn ninety degrees to face the south and, if conditions are right, see the Aurora Australis. Well, so I’m told. I haven’t been lucky enough to see it from here yet but I know a couple of guys who have and they say it’s a great location. This shot was captured with a Canon EOS 6D camera fitted with a Rokinon 24mm wide-angle lens @ f/2.4 aperture, exposed for 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569062358217-L1DA0F4GLB8WTVS1RO8K/aussie-night-clouds.jpg 2017 Candidates - Aussie night clouds The Magellanic Clouds are certainly visible from other countries down here in the Southern Hemisphere, but so far I’ve only ever seen them from Australia. For a large portion of the Southern Hemisphere these dwarf galaxies are always above the horizon, no matter the time of year. At the South Pole they appear to travel around the sky in a perfect circle, centred straight above the viewer. The bright and fuzzy blob to the lower left of the Large cloud, here in this photo, is the star Canopus, the second-brightest star in the Earth’s skies (well, the third if you include the Sun as the brightest). The fuzziness shown in the image is due to thin cloud that was diffusing the light from Canopus, making it seem larger than it actually appears in the night sky. This single-frame image was captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569062691489-JAGA80WN04PBQ5Z0G06Z/glowing%2C-going%2C-gone.jpg 2017 Candidates - Glowing, going, gone My guess is that on your first look at this photo you saw the green trail of the meteor and imagined it moving from the top of the shot and down towards the left as it vaporised in the Earth’s atmosphere. It went the other way, actually, beginning its green flash about a third of the way down from the top and moving upward as it faded. This meteor was from the Eta Aquariids shower, which had its peak around the 7th of May in 2017. Sometimes touted as the second-best meteor shower of the year, the Eta Aquariids results from debris shed by Halley’s Comet in a prior orbit around the sun. As often happens, the best meteors of the night were zipping across the sky as I was setting up my tripod and camera. One lasted for nearly five seconds from first appearance until its trail disappeared. At least I got this one image before packing up and heading back home. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 10 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567382036290-7SAYYK8BE503HDUWIUPO/waste-water-and-wonder-50-percent.jpg 2017 Candidates - Waste, water and wonder Would I be correct in guessing that most countries are like Australia, where the rural roadsides are littered with manmade waste, to some degree? I hope that you can’t see them when you’re squinting at this photo on your phone, but there are several bottles and cans visible at the bottom of the frame. How lazy, uncaring about the natural environment, or just plain reckless, can people get? At least the waste doesn’t dominate the shot, but the bottles were some of the first things my eyes went to when I was processing this image. That’s the “waste” part of the title out of the way. The “water” that you see here is known as the Bamarang Dam, a small reservoir west of the rural town of Nowra in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It was a new nightscape photography location for me this year and I look forward to getting back there in 2018. What’s the “wonder”, you may be wondering? What else but the majestic arch of the Milky Way that dominates the scene. Hundreds of billions of stars, plus immense clouds and “lanes” of dust and gas are responsible for the structure that marks our galaxy’s place on our night skies. Over on the left are the Magellanic Clouds, two companion Dwarf Galaxies of the Milky Way that are like astronomical hangers-on, always there as our enormous “island universe” travels through the cosmos. This panorama was made from 30 original overlapping images. Each of the photos was captured with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm wide-angle lens @ an aperture of f/2.4. Each shot was exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569063101092-WC71QPL4IW6DIQDJ4KOW/eye-of-god.jpg 2017 Candidates - Eye of God My Milky Way panoramas are almost all after the classic “arch” format, where the horizon is shown as straight, resulting in the band of stars of the Milky Way looking like a great rainbow (starbow?) arching across the night sky. The view of the landscape is shown as a ball with the heavens surrounding it, pretty much like how the earth is in space. Since I didn’t take photos of the ground below the tripod there is a black circle in the centre, looking like a giant eye’s pupil keeping watch. This panorama using the “Little Planet” projection was created from 150 separate images. The Photoshop PSB file was 7.7GB when exported from my panorama stitching software and took over four hours to render. That “B” in the Photoshop .PSB format means Big! Each image was captured with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569063799024-N6U6XWBXWWSRL3RZII58/death-and-light.jpg 2017 Candidates - Death and Light The colour and beauty of the stars in the Milky Way make a lovely backdrop to show the dead tree’s twisting, failing and aged branches. A living tree with its abundance of leaves would block too much light and stop us from seeing the wonders beyond. Often in death we can find life and light. Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569065127682-0HQKW21DNLNB9CAFBIOT/galactic-crossing.jpg 2017 Candidates - Galactic Core Crossing I drove a couple of hours to get to this spot so that I could line up the rising of the Milky Way’s galactic core with the Railway Crossing sign here on this rural spur line south of Goulburn, Australia. The concentration of stars in the core region looks more yellow than in a lot of my other shots, mainly due to atmospheric distortion near the horizon (just like how the moon seems yellow when it rises and sets). A single shot taken with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569065462352-B7SUHX60L97GHXUK7BSP/holy-halo%3F.jpg 2017 Candidates - Holy halo? A lunar halo appears as a ring around the moon on nights when there is high, thin cloud passing between the viewer and the moon’s position in the sky. Also known as a 22-degree halo, the optical phenomenon is caused by the moon’s light being refracted (bent) by millions of hexagonal ice crystals suspended in the earth’s atmosphere. The dead tree that I used to centre the image and hide the direct moonlight was in a graveyard belonging to a rural church in the Southern Tablelands area of my state of New South Wales, Australia. That explains the photo’s title. This one is a single -rame shot with Canon EOS 6D, Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 6.0 sec @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569065870775-7NGVDB7ML9YHYQH9XYCS/highlands-night-freight.jpg 2017 Candidates - Highlands night freight It was pure luck that the train passed through just as I was setting up my gear at this location in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. The Milky Way was climbing the eastern sky and I’d planned to photograph it and the emptry train tracks. The mad scramble for me to turn my remote on and grab the shot was just a bit too close-cut, though. I only managed to capture the last few coal cars as they passed by, sweeping my torch back and forth to light up the otherwise dark carriages. Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569066071059-D26K5IZ96MWMM3TFVZW2/laneway-of-lights.jpg 2017 Candidates - Laneway of lights Agars Lane is one of those wonderful country back-roads that most people except the locals haven’t heard of. It’s a narrow rural link between two roads of the dairy farming region of Berry, New South Wales, Australia. One of its attractions for me is the way the trees almost make a fully closed canopy but leave enough room for sunlight to pass through during the day and starlight at night. This photo was taken at around 3am on a Saturday morning in April of 2017. My reward for the long night and drowsy following-day is how much of the Milky Way’s dust lanes are are visible in this shot and others that I got through the night. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569066458925-757QYTZ2ACWNJ39M2QHC/kangaroo-hop-2.jpg 2017 Candidates - Kangaroo Hop Do you think I could have found a more clichéd Australian name than the one that’s on the sign outside this farming property, “Kangaroo Hop”? Yes, I chuckled when I saw it and figured it would make a good foreground to contrast the view of the Milky Way’s core region that we get in Australia in these autumn months. The farm is located about an hour’s drive from our country’s capital city, Canberra. This simple single-frame shot was captured with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569066644699-9ZZ1G7YCGZDCPUG71ERN/moonlight-feels-right.jpg 2017 Candidates - Moonlight feels right When I took the shots that make up this vertical panorama the moon–at only 12% illumination and three days from New Moon–had been in the eastern sky for a little over an hour. That was just the right brightness to light up the foreground in this scene. The moonlight felt right, you might say. There is so much detail of the Milky Way’s dust lanes and dark nebulae visible in this image. They look like oil stains on the sky as they block out the light of the billions of stars behind them. The yellow glow at the bottom of the scene is from the lights of Australia’s capital city, Canberra, about 50km (30mi) away. At bottom left is the St Matthias Church, an Anglican place of worship built in 1875. It was around 3:30 am when I shot this, a time of day that so often brings with it the peace and quiet that regenerates my soul. The original vertical panorama was created from nine single shots, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569066904987-IMLFSEZ7PB3WWTVR1COA/just-past-midnight.jpg 2017 Candidates - Just past midnight Apart from the occasional vehicle heading along the road it was totally quiet at this spot in the wee small hours of this morning in April, 2017. The planet Jupiter–big and bright at upper-right–was climbing up the sky towards the meridian and up to the right of that the star Spica was also dominating this area of sky. Spica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo and the 16th-brightest star visible in the sky. The moon was less than three hours away from setting and I managed to position my camera so that the trees obscured its direct light and appeared in silhouette in the shot. Some fine and high cloud wafting in caused there to be a "Lunar Halo” visible just above the tallest tree on the left. The clarity and purity of the moon’s white light seems to have brought up the colours of the countryside very well. A single shot taken with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm XP AE lens @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569631449792-GS73K5BPYYXU8FUJG3TC/Southern+Summer+Nights.jpg 2017 Candidates - Southern Summer Nights This is what the summer sky looked like back January of 2017 at about 10:50pm, from a spot on the southeast coast of Australia, the Tilba Cemetery. The dense band of the Milky Way runs diagonally across the shot, from mid-left to lower-right, where it blends into the haze of the horizon. Dark nebulae and dust clouds in space block the light of the stars behind them. Canopus, the second-brightest star in the Earth’s skies, shines blue-white at the very top of the shot, with the Large Magellanic Cloud below it to the right, looking for all the world like a puff of cotton-wool floating on the breeze. Mid-way down the image and about one third in from the left is the crimson glow the of Eta Carinae nebula. The right-hand edge of this photo is almost on the line of due south. Created from two single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569067379521-EXLBRF0D5QZFRHXSQQ47/on-its-way-west.jpg 2017 Candidates - On its way west Down here in the Southern Hemisphere we are privileged to have the galactic core of the Milky Way pass overhead during our winter nights. At the right time of night during several months of the year the glowing strip of our galaxy looks like it is standing on one end, perpendicular to the southern horizon. Once past that point it seems to whirl overhead and down until it’s parallel with the western horizon. In this photo that bright band of the Milky Way has started that westerly descent. The location where this was shot is about a two hour drive southwest of my home city of Sydney and is mostly free of light pollution. The image was created by stitching together six overlapping frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm XP Lens @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569068023450-A13K6J1K94JOH4AILN67/out-of-the-gap.jpg 2017 Candidates - Out of the gap The Milky Way’s core region was just breaking the horizon in the gap at the entrance to the inlet at Bombo Quarry, Australia, when this image was captured in February of 2017. The moon was due to rise shortly after this and that explains the slightly orange tint starting to creep into the sky at the horizon. A stitched image created from nine single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569068266112-43NHVJB7388WHVNIYYIP/over-the-quiet-waters.jpg 2017 Candidates - Over the quiet waters The slowly moving waters of the Minnamurra River on the east coast of Australia were providing a natural mirror to reflect starlight when I stopped here for some nightscape photos on this night in May of 2017. The green hills were lit by stray light flooding in from the industrial city of Wollongong, 20km (12mi) to the north. This was stop number three for the night, close to 11pm. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569068714996-ZL9O89V7IFPSOIA83EM4/sometimes-any-tripod-will-do.jpg 2017 Candidates - Any tripod will do This photo of the Milky way is one I captured in August of 2017. I wasn’t sure if I was going to stop long at the location, so rather than put the camera onto its tripod I simply rested it on the roof of my car and took some test shots. The “Galactic Kiwi” is in the centre of the image and the planet Saturn is a bright spot on what looks like the kiwi’s left leg. Trains of dark gas that seem to run down and left from the kiwi stop near the orange star Antares and the nearby Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region. Did you notice that the background sky colour isn’t black but rather has a strong deep green tint? This is from what’s known as atmospheric airglow and this phenomenon can also appear in orange and a number of other colours. This is a single image shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569068922049-SIBF4AZTJINLMDS8D64D/slowing-down-from-light-speed.jpg 2017 Candidates - Slowing from light speed Whether it be when I’m out at night shooting astro images or cycling along in the daylight hours, single-lane country roads always hold some enchantment and fascination for me. This one is named Toolijooa Road and is located just over an hour’s drive south of my home city of Sydney, Australia. Toolijooa is an Australian Aboriginal name meaning “a place of emus”. These days it’s more a place of dairy cattle. This vertical panorama was shot in July, 2017. It shows the Milky Way stretching up from the south through the dark “Coal Sack” nebula and up into the galactic core region. Lining things up to get the Milky Way to seem to emanate from the 45 sign took a bit of moving around and a few test shots. Created from seven single overlapping images shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569069096296-12AYPWEDNQEXAAWB7LHS/treebeard-under-the-stars.jpg 2017 Candidates - Treebeard under the stars If you're a fan of the "Lord of the Rings" books or movies you'll know who Treebeard is. In these classic stories he's described as a tree-like creature, an Ent, "the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun upon this Middle-earth." I guess you can see why I thought of Treebeard when I shot this scene in September of 2017. The location was the Orroral Valley, in the Australian Capital Territory. Glowing up from the horizon over the right-hand side of the tree is the Zodiacal Light, which was naked-eye visible for several hours. The light of the background sky comes from atmospheric airglow. This is a stitched image created from two overlapping shots. Each shot was taken with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, 25.0 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569069368004-61FMV93Z3T874ZSHULZR/the-moon-and-mercury-from-miranda.jpg 2017 Candidates - The Moon and Mercury I took this photo from the balcony of my apartment in suburban Sydney, Australia, in 2017. Mercury is the bright star-like dot to the upper left of the moon in my photo. Up and to the right of Mercury is the star Regulus, the brightest in the constellation of Leo. Well, I say "star" but Regulus is actually a quaternary system, that is it's actually four stars rather than just one. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 417mm @ f/8.0, 1.0 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569069616938-TTM7INNSODC85G0O6JC0/two-and-a-bit-galaxies-small.jpg 2017 Candidates - Two and a bit galaxies The Milky Way galaxy is always visible in the night sky, purely by way of definition. The Earth–along with the Sun and everything else in our Solar System–is inside the Milky Way, which means that when we look at the moon, planets and stars at night, we’re seeing the Milky Way. The galactic core region of the Milky Way (“the core”, or “galactic centre”) is what nightscape photographers regard as the most photogenic section of the galaxy that we see in the heavens. In my photo the core is on the right-hand side of the image, looking like clouds of earthly dust obscuring a big blob of light low in the night sky. That is the “bit” of a galaxy I referred to in the title of today’s post. What about the other two galaxies I mentioned? These are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the bright and wispy orbs of light in the sky at the left of the photo. The Clouds are companion galaxies of the Milky Way (they’re also called “satellite galaxies”) that are travelling with us through our part of the “Local Group” of galaxies. The phantom-like figure in blue at the bottom left is fellow nightscape addict Ian Williams. Although this looks like a single photo, it’s a stitched image, created from sixteen individual and overlapping shots. Each shot was taken with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569070158161-BXWLX0G031LIZV793KD7/up-from-the-south.jpg 2017 Candidates - Up from the south Gerroa is a popular coastal town about 110km (68mi) south of where I live in Sydney, Australia. I have made many treks there over the past four years to shoot nightscape photos like this one. This is another image that has tested my editing abilities due to the large amount of orange airglow and airborne moisture on that night that it was capture, plus the lights of holiday townships further down the coast. Despite those things I seem to have captured a quite an amount of detail in the dust lanes and dark nebulae in the galactic core region, something which surprised me a lot. Down at the bottom-left is the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s companion galaxies and a year-round night sky feature at my latitude. This five-image vertical panorama was captured with my Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/3.2, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569070421636-B139JMLLM37HNAKI2R59/zodiacal-overload.jpg 2017 Candidates - Zodiacal overload The house in this photo is the abandoned Orroral Homestead, which was built for grazing in the 1860's, located south of Canberra, Australia. Over the hill to the right of the house you can see the intense glow of the astronomical feature known as the Zodiacal Light. The Milky Way looked as magnificent as it always does in rural dark skies and the green atmospheric airglow was more than evident. Just prior to this photo, the International Space Station passed over, as well as a few bright and long-lasting fireballs. This is a stitched image made from six overlapping shots. Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm XP @ f/3.2, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569070550504-LVLO3YXRK69TU833BSKK/two-little-trees-at-the-end-of-the-galaxy-2x3.jpg 2017 Candidates - Two little trees at the end of the galaxy Do you see the two little trees on the horizon, backlit by the glow of the city of Goulburn, Australia (33km /20mi away) and dwarfed by the glory of the Milky Way rising above them? Out of shot to the right the just-risen moon, a thin crescent and relatively dim at 12% illumination, acted as my light source to give the fields their dim glow. I hope that you can look at this image and find something for yourself in that juxtaposition of the tiny vs the astronomical. This vertical panorama was created from seven individual images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/2015 daily 0.75 2019-10-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566735372033-2WNGVOHI7N9CI5O7CE6K/Train+and+trails.jpg 2015 - Trains and trails Trails on the sky from the stars, several aeroplanes, a satellite and a couple of meteors are underscored by the light-trail of a train passing through the crossing level crossing at Toolijooa, New South Wales, Australia. Star trails created in StarStax for Mac, from 78 original frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566735372033-2WNGVOHI7N9CI5O7CE6K/Train+and+trails.jpg 2015 - Trains and trails Trails on the sky from the stars, several aeroplanes, a satellite and a couple of meteors are underscored by the light-trail of a train passing through the crossing level crossing at Toolijooa, New South Wales, Australia. Star trails created in StarStax for Mac, from 78 original frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567472548571-EPDE1BVXXRR45JEYY42S/majestic-arch.jpg 2015 - Majestic Arch I can't get enough of photographing the Milky Way in different settings, and including a waterway of some kind is one of my favourite compositions. Broughton Creek near Nowra, Australia, is a feeder tributary of the Shoalhaven River. When I visited on this night in 2015 the water’s surface was amazingly flat despite the movement of the tide. This panoramic image is made up from 16 single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. Stitched together with the application AutoPano Pro. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569736500743-AX09YI50LSVIZF7F61PM/through-the-night-3x2.jpg 2015 - In a flash It's not as astronomical as my usual photos, but I figured it was worth posting. After all, I was out shooting the stars when the train zipped through this crossing at Toolijooa, New South Wales, Australia. Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/8.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569761922599-8FVY0AEYMFR9MSBQV7TM/heaven-and-earth.jpg 2015 - Heaven and Earth The All Saints Anglican Church in Bodalla, Australia, was officially opened in 1902 and is a well-known landmark in the area. It provided a wonderful foreground to set the Milky Way against for this single-frame image when I visited the dark skies of the area in June of 2015. In September of that year, I entered this photo into a competition that is run each year from Paris, France. It’s an understatement to say that I was excited when the photo placed fifth out of 400 entries from 50 countries! Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569761499940-KHXQ11PUC5ZWOF5BLQXG/Iconic+tower+and+magic+moon.jpg 2015 - Iconic tower and magic moon A waxing gibbous moon hanging in the dark sky with the Eiffel Tower glowing in the foreground. I shot this photo in December of 2015, while visiting Paris to see one of my photos featured in an exhibition. Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 191mm @ f/10.0, using an exposure time of 1/13 seconds @ ISO 200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569587060580-LQ4ZWIXWHT8OQ59K9ZVW/%C2%A0A+sight+I+love+at+a+place+I+love.jpg 2015 - At a place I love If you’ve read even a few of the blurbs that go with my photos you’ve probably seen me mention Tuross Head. Over forty years ago my family inherited a small holiday shack at this coastal township. My siblings, and our own families, still visit as often as we can. When I was learning about astronomy in my teen years I’d often spend hours outside staring up at the lovely dark skies while visiting Tuross. Although the area is a little more populated now than in the 70s the skies are still much darker than back in the city. The disused, heritage-protected church on this land near the town has featured in many of my nightscape photos. This vertical panoramic shot shows the Milky Way and its dust and gas “lanes” ruling this part of the sky. Not too far above the church you can see the Coalsack Dark Nebula, with the Southern Cross immediately to its lower right. Between the Coalsack and the church is a pinkish patch that includes the Eta Carinae nebula. I created this image from fourteen single images that were shot to overlap and form a vertical panorama. The shots were stitched together using Autopano Pro software. The final image was too big to fit on Instagram so I’ve had to crop some of the Milky Way from the top. Each frame was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569913087966-3US01S282OBZ5H64AD2M/tree-of-light.jpg 2015 - Tree of Light I shot this back in July of 2015 at Tuross Head, New South Wales. It’s a vertical panorama from seven images, capturing the Milky Way seeming to emanate from the dead tree. The green tint to the sky towards the bottom is from atmospheric airglow. Seven images, each shot with a Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569762975765-KGFCQ8CGY0DL4PARSC6J/Wattamolla+morning.jpg 2015 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569912532257-S01M5K0FYKKDW6K7OBD1/between-this-life-and-the-next.jpg 2015 - Between this life and the next This photo uses a “vertorama” (vertical panorama) of 13 images stitched together to show the view from horizon to horizon, with the Milky Way and its Galactic Core bridging between the two worlds. Rotate your phone through 180 degrees for a different perspective. Data for the 13 images: Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/4.0, 8 second exposure at ISO 6400. Stitched in Autopano Pro for Mac. Edited in Lightroom CC. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569762923380-OU4Y2DLC6EPEMO9CW69K/Reaching+for+the+night+Bodalla.jpg 2015 https://nightscapades.com/wip-moon daily 0.75 2021-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569551134535-8AQG3SKBMT6RWEJDGWZU/up-out-of-the-ocean.jpg WIP-Moon - Up out of the ocean The Milky Way and its core region as they rose over the Tasman Sea near Kiama, Australia on May 7th of 2018. The distinctive orange-purple colour of the background sky is caused by what is known as atmospheric airglow, which has also provided enough light to show the rocks below the water in the foreground. The bright white ball in the top left corner is the planet Jupiter, which only looks big in the photo because moisture in the Earth’s atmosphere had diffused its light. The bright orange “star” that can be seen hovering over the horizon at the bottom is the planet Mars, and you can see its reflection in the ocean pool below it. Another planet, Saturn, is about a quarter of the way between Mars and Jupiter, but harder to make out in the photo. Saturn’s reflection is easier to see than the planet itself, poking above the rock down at the bottom of the image. The tide rose substantially between arriving at this location and finishing shooting my photos, so I made the 110km drive home with one wet shoe and some partly-wet jeans after scrambling back to the main beach. The single photo that you see was created from seven overlapping shots, each of which was taken with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm wide-angle lens set to an aperture of f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. The camera was mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head atop a Manfrotto tripod. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569551134535-8AQG3SKBMT6RWEJDGWZU/up-out-of-the-ocean.jpg WIP-Moon - Up out of the ocean The Milky Way and its core region as they rose over the Tasman Sea near Kiama, Australia on May 7th of 2018. The distinctive orange-purple colour of the background sky is caused by what is known as atmospheric airglow, which has also provided enough light to show the rocks below the water in the foreground. The bright white ball in the top left corner is the planet Jupiter, which only looks big in the photo because moisture in the Earth’s atmosphere had diffused its light. The bright orange “star” that can be seen hovering over the horizon at the bottom is the planet Mars, and you can see its reflection in the ocean pool below it. Another planet, Saturn, is about a quarter of the way between Mars and Jupiter, but harder to make out in the photo. Saturn’s reflection is easier to see than the planet itself, poking above the rock down at the bottom of the image. The tide rose substantially between arriving at this location and finishing shooting my photos, so I made the 110km drive home with one wet shoe and some partly-wet jeans after scrambling back to the main beach. The single photo that you see was created from seven overlapping shots, each of which was taken with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm wide-angle lens set to an aperture of f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. The camera was mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head atop a Manfrotto tripod. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1604225592611-6A5OEK1DL21VPZ2T962B/looking-sharp-mr-moon.jpg WIP-Moon - Looking Sharp, Mr Moon OK, I’m not sure if the Moon has a gender, but work with me here, please. In September, I bought myself a telescope, and a few days back, I used it to photograph the Moon. My favourite style of night-sky photo is still a “nightscape” image, which includes a landscape feature as well as something to marvel at in the sky. The type of ‘scope I bought–known as a Dobsonian, or “Dob”–isn’t the best kind for taking photos with, but I couldn’t resist seeing what I could get out of it. The Moon was at 95% of its full phase when I captured it from my home in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday, October 29. It would have been better to photograph it earlier in its current cycle, but Thursday night was the only chance I’d had for weeks on end. As mentioned above, to create this photo I used my new Sky-Watcher 8” Goto collapsible telescope, to which I attached my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera. I shot 58 frames and used 20 of those, stacked in Registax, to enhance the amount of detail visible. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569550699779-MLONKYZ2Q6VS5NBYKM4T/dam-fine-sky.jpg WIP-Moon - Dam fine sky Bamarang Dam is a secondary water reservoir, located about 10km southwest of the coastal-plain town of Nowra, on Australia’s southeast coast. Despite being a weeknight, I visited the dam on Tuesday of this week, determined to make use of a clear night with very little moisture in the air. The moon was setting just as I arrived, leaving me only some local light pollution to contend with. The two-hour drive meant I’d be late to bed after shooting and then returning home, but pushing through tiredness at work is a skill I’ve been perfecting. The dam’s intake structure can be seen at the bottom-left, silhouetted by light spilling from the nearby HMAS Albatross naval aviation base and some coastal towns further off. In the sky above the inlet are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, companion dwarf galaxies that are travelling through space with our home galaxy, the Milky Way. You can see the Milky Way itself rising almost vertically from over the dam wall and up to the top of my image. The planet Mars is dominating the top left-hand corner of the scene, and Jupiter is slipping behind the trees on the right, still over three hours from setting for the night. The background sky colour is showing the green hue of atmospheric airglow. Each of the seven photos used to create this vertical panorama was taken using a Canon EOS 6D camera, with a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/3.2, for a 30-second exposure @ ISO 6400. The camera was mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head atop a Manfrotto tripod. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1594126336829-CN74ALO2P4LQQQAEGA60/stark.jpg WIP-Moon - Stark The Moon was at 92% of its full illumination as I photographed it setting over Tuross Lake, on the New South Wales south coast last Friday morning, July 3rd. I had to close the lens’ iris down to a small opening so that the Moon’s brightness didn’t overwhelm the photo and blot out the details of the seas (“mare”) and craters on our heavenly neighbour’s surface. The resulting starkness of the shot hooked me when I saw it on my computer’s screen. I hope that my photo captivates you, too! The shot is a single-frame image, captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, attached to a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 313 mm and set to an aperture of f/9.0, using an exposure time of 1/30 seconds @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591444259140-FWPJK0V0S5LP1GHSVVOA/centred.jpg WIP-Moon - Centred This morning (Sat 6th June) there was a penumbral lunar eclipse visible in Eastern Australia. Well, visible is a stretch, since the dimming of the Moon's light during a penumbral eclipse is nigh on impossible to see. Still, with almost every lunar eclipse visible from Sydney in the last six years having been clouded out, waking up to find that the forecast clear skies were a reality was motivation to get out of my warm bed and set off for a shoot. By the time the Moon was in a position for me to create this shot, the eclipse was all but over and there’s no visible sign of it in the photo. My image shows the full moon as it was dipping to the western horizon, behind the Sydney Tower Eye (aka Centrepoint Tower), which was 7.5 km from my spot on the beach at Watsons Bay. Shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500mm @ f/7.1, using an exposure time of 1/25 sec @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1587126282623-SE7AY62ZPS0P344LUQY3/white-and-crimson-and-blue.jpg WIP-Moon - White and Crimson and Blue Once again this morning, I was treated to a beautiful sight from my balcony as the 25%-illuminated Moon was adorned by some high clouds, made crimson by the pre-sunrise light refracting around the Earth’s atmosphere. The purity of the white light coming from the moon’s surface always looks enchanting to me and having the colours of the background sky and sunlit clouds added to the joy of it all this morning. I captured this scene with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500mm focal length and set to an aperture of f/8.0, using an exposure time of 1/100th of a second @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1583753752927-GN4HP91AG8EBBTOC30EK/launceston-lunar-light-tower.jpg WIP-Moon - Launceston Lunar Light Tower Taken in January of 2020, my photo captured the Moon sliding towards the western horizon in Launceston, in the Australian state of Tasmania. There was a penumbral lunar eclipse at this time (11th January Australian Eastern Daylight Time), but it's hard to see any dimming of the Moon's light in this image. A penumbral eclipse occurs when the Moon's orbit takes it through the outer shadow of the Earth, which is less intense and less distinct than the central shadow, or "umbra". Not being familiar with the city and its landmarks due only being in Launceston for two nights, I found it challenging to locate a suitable structure to silhouette against the Moon's glow. The best I could do was this lighting tower at the University of Tasmania Stadium. Another single-frame image, this photo was shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500 mm f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm @ f/6.3, using an exposure time of 1/50 second @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1582538878003-E7ODQSM64HEO1D45AHPK/five-moons.jpg WIP-Moon - Five moons I snapped this image of Jupiter, flanked by its four "Galilean" moons–Ganymede, Europa, Io & Callisto–in conjunction with the Earth's waning-crescent Moon in the skies over Australia last Thursday, 20th of February. Looking carefully, you can see details in the darker portion of the moon. The moon here is lit with what is called "earthshine", which is light from the sun, bouncing off the Earth, lighting up the moon, then bouncing back to Earth for us to see. Shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500mm @ f/8.0, using an exposure time of 0.3 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1575595736503-P4GBVBMXXTJZGRPUU7QQ/hope-through-the-smoke.jpg WIP-Moon - Hope Through the Smoke For a few weeks now, my city of Sydney, Australia, has been affected by smoke from bushfires burning on the city’s outskirts, and beyond. The daily cycle has become that of a deep red sunrise, followed by hours of yellowed skies, brought to a close by a setting sun that is even redder than when it began the morning. On a typical day, the Moon only takes on an orange hue when close the horizon, beaming with a distinctive white glow for the majority of its hours overhead. For many on Australia’s eastern coast, though, we now see an orange-red moon while ever the rocky satellite is visible in the night sky. Tonight (5th December), I took a short drive and did my best to shoot some photos that showed off this smoke-stained visage of Earth’s nearest neighbour. Wanting to capture images that weren’t merely the orange Moon against the hazy sky, I spent time looking for something to bring some perspective, and hope, to the scene. These lights on the Christmas tree at the St Andrews Anglican Church at Cronulla were happy to emit their lively colours to brighten the eerie night. For this single-frame photograph, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm @ f/16, using an exposure time of 1/100 of a second @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568443101184-OI1WLVLOHD6MMMSWXNCU/Proximity.jpg WIP-Moon - Proximity The lengthy driving trips that I take to photograph the stars in rural locations are always enjoyable. They give me a lot of time to listen to podcasts, audiobooks or (rarely) some music. I’m not one to turn down a quick trip, though, so having to drive only ten minutes from home to get this photo at Sandringham, Australia, was just as pleasant.While not as awe-inspiring as the total eclipse of July last year, July 2019’s partial lunar eclipse was still very photo-worthy. The event began before sunrise but didn’t reach its maximum until after the moon had set. I captured this shot fifteen minutes before the moon sank behind the bridge and the suburbs beyond. If you look closely, you can see a jet on its approach to Sydney International Airport, bringing in another morning load of travellers.This image is a single-exposure photo that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Tamron 70-300 mm lens zoomed to 209 mm. I set the aperture to f/8.0, the shutter speed to 1/10 sec and the ISO setting was 200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1584912870053-GXVWUZSP8D95VK2JRIXH/mercury-and-the-moon-and-the-morning-light.jpg WIP-Moon - Mercury and the Moon and the Morning Light With the Moon only two days from ending its current cycle, its visible sunlit surface is now a thin crescent, or as I used to call it when I was a child, a fingernail cutting. The soft and subtle glow on the Moon’s earth-facing side–an illumination that astronomers call “earthshine”–was dimmed somewhat by the thin clouds that were heading towards the east as I shot this photo this morning, Sunday 22nd of March, 2020. The Sun was hiding below the horizon, but its reddened beams were bright enough to give a crimson hue to those same high and thin clouds. In the thickest section of cloud here in the photo, I caught a pinprick of light from the planet Mercury, our Sun’s nearest neighbour in space. You will probably need to zoom in to see the little yellowish dot. What a lovely sight these two celestial characters provided for the beginning of my Sunday! This photo is a single-frame image that I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, through a Tamron 70-300 mm lens @ 259 mm and with its aperture set to f/5.6, using an exposure time of 1/10 second @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569761499940-KHXQ11PUC5ZWOF5BLQXG/Iconic+tower+and+magic+moon.jpg WIP-Moon - Iconic tower. Magic Moon A waxing gibbous moon hanging in the dark sky with the Eiffel Tower glowing in the foreground. I shot this photo in December of 2015, while visiting Paris to see one of my photos featured in an exhibition. Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 191mm @ f/10.0, using an exposure time of 1/13 seconds @ ISO 200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569061677247-HRNTE8Z3B8SIBSLWYOJF/a-bite-out-of-the-moon.jpg WIP-Moon - A bite out of the moon This photo of the moon and a construction crane was taken in August of 2017, at close to 4:40 am. Fortunately, the location was only a five minute drive to from my home. You can’t see much of the crane here but I did manage to use the moon to silhouette some of the crane’s structure and also get the construction company’s logo. I shot the photo with a Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ f/16, 1/50 sec @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569069368004-61FMV93Z3T874ZSHULZR/the-moon-and-mercury-from-miranda.jpg WIP-Moon - The Moon and Mercury I took this photo from the balcony of my apartment in suburban Sydney, Australia, in 2017. Mercury is the bright star-like dot to the upper left of the moon in my photo. Up and to the right of Mercury is the star Regulus, the brightest in the constellation of Leo. Well, I say "star" but Regulus is actually a quaternary system, that is it's actually four stars rather than just one. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 417mm @ f/8.0, 1.0 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568786017830-29HHYL06YDCEIEVH9K6I/the-red-orb.jpg WIP-Moon - The Red Orb On the eastern coast of Australia we missed out on seeing the July 2018 total lunar eclipse all the way through. The point of maximum eclipse was reached at 6:21 am, and the Moon then set at 6:55 am. Although I took lots of photos that featured Mars as well as the Moon, I’m particularly taken with this one showing the fully-eclipsed moon on its way to setting behind Seven Mile Beach, Australia. It's going to be nearly three years before the next total eclipse that's visible from my part of the world. Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 161mm @ f/5.6, 1.0 sec @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785916250-3T1KUWJK3JKYDA9IUHHP/last-one.-i-promise.jpg WIP-Moon - Blood orange In the same way that the bending (refracting) of light at sunrise and sunset gives the sky a red colour, sunlight refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere tints the Moon with this copper-coloured visage during a lunar eclipse’s “totality” phase. Shots like this of the orange-red moon against a black sky are probably the most common type of photo I’ve seen of total lunar eclipse events. My preference is to capture images that include a terrestrial scene in them as well as the moon. Still, I find something engaging and intriguing about these moon-and-sky shots, and so chose to include this one of the total lunar eclipse of July, 2018. Captured with a Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 500mm @ f/6.3 with a 0.8-second exposure @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482925905298-6PGILALJS8LXAR6R5F1V/Ambulance+on+approach-Insta-FB-Flickr.jpg WIP-Moon - Ambulance on approach Shot one day after its full phase, here is the 99% full Nov 2016 "supermoon" providing a backdrop for a Beech B300 Super King Air on approach to Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport (Australia). This aircraft is operated by the The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS), one of the largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organisations in the world. Perhaps one day their area of service will include the moon! Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 500mm @ f/7.1, 1/500 sec @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785895759-MERY14I8TSMPC2E2YCBC/eclipse-%28verb%29.-to-obscure-or-block-out.jpg WIP-Moon - Eclipse. "To obscure or block out" Apart from a few brief exceptions, this title describes my experience of the total lunar eclipse of late-January, 2018. The eclipse of the moon was itself eclipsed/obscured/blocked out by clouds that covered the sky from just before the eclipse started until I got home at 2:30 the next morning. In case you’re wondering, yes, I did try hard to find some cloudless locations. How hard? 685km of driving (426mi), multiple stops to check the situation and update the weather satellite feed on my iPad. 10.5 hours from leaving home to returning and getting into bed. Better luck next time, perhaps? A focus-stack of five shots, captured with Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 500mm @ f/10.0, 1/60 sec @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1604225592611-6A5OEK1DL21VPZ2T962B/looking-sharp-mr-moon.jpg WIP-Moon - Looking Sharp, Mr Moon OK, I’m not sure if the Moon has a gender, but work with me here, please. In September, I bought myself a telescope, and a few days back, I used it to photograph the Moon. My favourite style of night-sky photo is still a “nightscape” image, which includes a landscape feature as well as something to marvel at in the sky. The type of ‘scope I bought–known as a Dobsonian, or “Dob”–isn’t the best kind for taking photos with, but I couldn’t resist seeing what I could get out of it. The Moon was at 95% of its full phase when I captured it from my home in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday, October 29. It would have been better to photograph it earlier in its current cycle, but Thursday night was the only chance I’d had for weeks on end. As mentioned above, to create this photo I used my new Sky-Watcher 8” Goto collapsible telescope, to which I attached my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera. I shot 58 frames and used 20 of those, stacked in Registax, to enhance the amount of detail visible. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1575173998795-I2T3H2FW7VAIV68VPEPK/skydance.jpg WIP-Moon - Skydance I’ve been keeping watch on the lovely celestial show in the western sky after sunset in the closing days of November. After commencing a new cycle on the 26th of the month, the Moon has been dancing its way through the gathering of naked-eye planets in that part of the heavens. On this night–28th November–I photographed the Moon when it was only 1% illuminated and a mere sliver of light pushing through the haze of bushfire smoke that marked the sky near Nerriga, Australia. The pinprick of light that you can see above and to the left of the Moon denotes the position of Jupiter, our Solar System’s most massive planet and also the second-largest source of gravitational disturbance in our planetary nuclear family. High above, its light at once diffused and brightened by the endemic smoke and cloud, the planet Venus unmistakably telegraphs its location to those on the lookout for such wonders. To quote the late Leonard Nimoy from his role in “The Simpsons”, Season 4/Episode 12, “The cosmic ballet goes on”. For this single-frame photo, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Tamron 70-300mm lens @ 200 mm @ f/5.0 using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://nightscapades.com/wip-galaxies daily 0.75 2021-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1606822511939-1D90V3IN7XZSZWYP2HKY/a-cosmic-tuft-of-wool.jpg WIP-Galaxies - A Cosmic Tuft of Wool A handful of sheep stood atop this hill, silhouetted by the lights of the rural city of Goulburn, Australia, while I photographed the starry and cloud-free sky at the Taralga wind farm in mid-November of this year. High overhead and looking like a tuft of wool, cut free and discarded by a shearer’s blades, the amorphous glow from the billions of stars forming the Large Magellanic is the standout feature of today’s photo. The background sky is showing a purplish tint, caused by the presence of what scientists call “airglow” in the Earth’s atmosphere, which human eyes cannot see, sadly. Dark nebulae in the Milky Way show themselves as dimmer patches in the sky near the horizon, as they block the light from stars more distant than these enormous bodies of gas and dust. I shot two overlapping frames to create this final image, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II Digital SLR camera fitted with a Sigma 35 mm wide-angle lens. Each photo was taken using the same settings, which were a shutter speed of 8.0 seconds, a lens aperture of f/1.6, and an ISO selection of 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1606822511939-1D90V3IN7XZSZWYP2HKY/a-cosmic-tuft-of-wool.jpg WIP-Galaxies - A Cosmic Tuft of Wool (Copy) A handful of sheep stood atop this hill, silhouetted by the lights of the rural city of Goulburn, Australia, while I photographed the starry and cloud-free sky at the Taralga wind farm in mid-November of this year. High overhead and looking like a tuft of wool, cut free and discarded by a shearer’s blades, the amorphous glow from the billions of stars forming the Large Magellanic is the standout feature of today’s photo. The background sky is showing a purplish tint, caused by the presence of what scientists call “airglow” in the Earth’s atmosphere, which human eyes cannot see, sadly. Dark nebulae in the Milky Way show themselves as dimmer patches in the sky near the horizon, as they block the light from stars more distant than these enormous bodies of gas and dust. I shot two overlapping frames to create this final image, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II Digital SLR camera fitted with a Sigma 35 mm wide-angle lens. Each photo was taken using the same settings, which were a shutter speed of 8.0 seconds, a lens aperture of f/1.6, and an ISO selection of 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1606458000502-BYSKJU9FJ9CWSWW76JOX/galaxies-far-far-away.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Galaxies Far, Far Away (Copy) On my last nightscape photography trip to Taralga, Australia, I was able to get some shots of the Milky Way’s core region not long before it set over the southwestern horizon. Once that favoured area of the heavens was–literally–out of the picture, I turned my attention to photographing some of the other galaxies that are visible here in the Southern Hemisphere. I recently posted one of those images, containing the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which are dwarf galaxies travelling through space with our own Milky Way galaxy. As well as those relatively-close massive collections of stars, planets, dust, gas and asteroids–and the odd black hole or two–there are a few other “islands universes” that are visible to naked-eye observers. I photographed two of these, the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy, as they hung low in the northern sky. Known in astronomical catalogues as “M31”, the Andromeda Galaxy sits around 2.5 million light-years from our position in the “Local Group” of galaxies. M31 is visible in my photo as a fuzzy-yet-distinct bright disc mid-way down the shot, and about one third in from the left. If you look up to the right, in the one o’clock direction from Andromeda, there’s a much smaller blur of light showing the position of the Triangulum Galaxy. Aka “M33”, this galaxy is nearly 3 million light-years away in space. The Milky Way, M31 and M33 are the three largest galaxies, respectively, in the Local Group. This image was stacked from ten single-frame photos, each of which I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 8 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1605526122719-TIXQ9KHQ33E777BNZAYB/not-a-cloud-in-the-sky...almost.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Not A Cloud In The Sky...Almost (Copy) After nearly five weeks straight of clouds covering the skies at any location that I planned to shoot from, last Saturday night gave me a gem of a view of the heavens. The only clouds that I could see were the two dwarf galaxies captured in my photo, the Large (left) and Small (on the right) Magellanic Clouds. These concentrations of stars, nebulae, gas and dust are travelling through space with our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Looking like puffs of light in the heavens, the Magellanic Clouds are adored by astronomers, astrophotographers and casual stargazers throughout the Southern Hemisphere. The Southern Tablelands region of my state, New South Wales, had been a much-visited spot on the map for me during 2018 & 2019, but Saturday night was the first time I’d made it there in 2020. I did the 540 km (335 mi) round-trip in one night, stopping here at the Taralga Wind Farm for photos of the low-hanging Milky Way, and a few other features of our southern summer skies. The two brightest stars in the constellation of Centaurus are flanking the base of the turbine’s pylon–and its accompanying tree–close to the bottom of their circuit of the South Celestial Pole. An abundance of atmospheric airglow coloured the background sky, and you can see the crimson hues of the Eta Carina nebula dominating the lower left-hand corner of my shot. I lit the foreground of the scene with an LED bank as I shot the photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, with an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1602588353943-L78XN6QQ4OJP1EMKB1IZ/personal-favourites.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Personal Favourites (Copy) While choosing a photo to post today, I spent possibly too much time deciding if I should select this one. I had a feeling that I’d featured these fluffy, floating orbs–the Magellanic Clouds–too many times throughout 2020, and didn’t want to bore anyone. After a quick flick through my published images for the year, I found that this will be only the third time since January that I’ve brought them to you, and I hope that you’ll enjoy another look. Despite their names, you’re not looking at clouds but two dwarf galaxies that are travelling through space with our Milky Way galaxy, at the relatively close distances of 163,000 light-years and 206,000 light-years from us, respectively. My photo managed to capture them both in the same frame, but that gap between the two irregular dwarf galaxies has been measured at around 75,000 light-years. Southern Hemisphere observers–and some from the lower northern latitudes–can see the Clouds in the night sky, even in light-polluted cities such as the one I live in, Sydney, Australia. To create this photo, I shot eleven individual images of this part of the sky, then combined (stacked) those in software so that I could reduce the amount of digital signal noise in the scene. For each one of the eleven frames, I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0 using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1600640563577-QAIBKTAA0LI82QU2MO2Q/nebula-in-the-north.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Nebula in the North (Copy) Sometime around the year 964 AD, a Persian astronomer named Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi made the earliest recorded sighting of what we now call the Andromeda Galaxy, describing it as a “nebulous smear” [Source: Wikipedia]. Since then, this smudge on the night sky has been thought by observers to be a variety of astronomical objects. Astronomers have estimated it to be at a wide range of distances from the Earth. As recently as 2019 the mass of the “Andromeda Nebula” when compared to our home galaxy, the Milky Way, was revised in line with new data from measurements of both galaxies. Aside from the physical characteristics of the object, the ancient observer’s smear is renowned for its visual beauty. My little photo here doesn’t do justice to the details, colours or shape of the giant spiral that is moving through space, at a distance from Earth of 2.5 million light-years or so. Still, I do love to photograph M31 (as it’s commonly known) when I can and hope to see it someday from our Northern Hemisphere. The view of M31 there is much better than the atmospherically-blurred look that I get in my part of Australia. This photo of M31 was taken west of Nowra, Australia, and is what is known as a “stacked” image. I shot twelve consecutive “light” frames of the scene, then took another 12 with my camera’s lens cap in place (known as “dark” frames). Next, I processed the light frames in Adobe’s Lightroom Classic Software, then made use of an app called Starry Landscape Stacker to remove a lot of the digital noise present in the original shots. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 4.0 seconds @ ISO 6400, to capture the original images. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1596284107081-5M3RSXA2Y6Z06JSV4ZIT/sea-creatures-of-the-sky.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Sea Creatures of the Sky (Copy) Not for the first time, the appearance of the two dwarf galaxies known as the “Magellanic Clouds” remind me of jellyfish, or similarly amorphous inhabitants of the ocean. Seeing them hovering over the Tasman Sea at Gerroa, Australia here in my photo makes that act of imagination a whole lot easier. The “Clouds” aren’t creatures, nor are they from the ocean, but are companions of our Milky Way galaxy, travelling with us through the Local Group of galaxies, yet visible to nocturnal folk here in the Southern Hemisphere. To the upper-left of the Small Magellanic Cloud is what looks like an overgrown star, but is a globular star cluster–a big ball of stars, pretty much–with the unromantic name of 47 Tucanae. This bright and slightly fuzzy orb that I included in the photo is about 120 light-years in diameter, making it a massive ball of stars, indeed. To produce this final photo, I shot two overlapping images & after editing those in Adobe Lightroom Classic, I stitched them together with the (now-defunct) application Autopano Pro. After stitching, I washed the composite frame through Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop (for noise reduction and improving some of the details). The two original frames that I took were shot with my Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1594556861234-I1V69XJGVCA3Y3PHIRR5/this-isnt-the-comet-youre-looking-for.jpg WIP-Galaxies - This Isn’t The Comet You’re Looking For (Copy) Northern hemisphere folk have been enjoying a celestial show over the past week or more, in the form of a naked-eye-visible comet. The celestial sojourner has a name that is, per astronomical good-practice, totally unromantic and very clinical. "Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE" — or just NEOWISE for short, is what's written on its name tag. The name came from the NASA mission that discovered it, also called NEOWISE, for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. You can hit up Google–or your favourite search engine–to find thousands of photos of this beautiful addition to the northern summer's skies. OK, that Public Service Announcement out of the way, I can now go on to tell you about my less-exciting-than-a-comet photo. The image features the Milky Way's neighbouring galaxy M31, aka the "Andromeda Galaxy". I need to explain that the word "neighbouring" has a different scale about it in the realm of astronomy. M31 is around 2.5 million light-years from our home planet and is one of the most distant objects that mere mortals can see with our unaided eyes. That's not the kind of neighbour to whom you can pay a quick visit to borrow some tools or a cup of sugar, but in the scale of things in the universe, it's nearby. My photo was created by taking two shots of the same scene, which I then processed through what is known as "stacking" software to reduce the digital noise in the image and try to enhance the details of the distant galaxy. I took the two images using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. The software used to make the final stacked image is called "Starry Landscape Stacker". https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1583233873146-5VD3RQVLOWAGL354ZH3Z/clouds-in-a-cloudless-sky.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Clouds in a Cloudless Sky (Copy) I shot this photo last Thursday night, 27th February. The only clouds visible were the two galaxies you see in the picture, known as the Magellanic Clouds. Astronomers classify these two blobs of light as dwarf galaxies, and they travel through space with our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The Magellanic Clouds are a familiar sight to Southern Hemisphere folk who’ve spent even a little bit of time studying the night sky. The galaxies are easily mistaken for the meteorological objects after which they’re named. If you look carefully, you can see the smaller cloud–aka the Small Magellanic Cloud–reflected in the water that the tide had washed over the rock shelf at Black Point Head, Gerroa, Australia. With clouds and rain forecast for at least the next two weeks, I have to keep looking at photos like this to remind me that clear skies can come again. The photo is a single-frame image, captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1576586541714-KHZUOPIKL17HMTEG9MM3/danjera-dam-delight.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Danjera Dam Delight (Copy) The Danjera Dam near Nowra, Australia, is a popular campsite and especially so for freshwater fishing folk. Its seven-kilometre long catchment is stocked with rainbow trout and Australian bass and hosts plenty of eels. Also under the waters of the dam are the ruins of the old mining town of Yalwal, where gold was discovered in 1852. A bushfire in 1939 burnt almost the whole village, leaving only one residence, one shop and the Post Office. Completion of the dam in 1971 drowned the gully and with it the area’s gold-boom history. I have visited the dam a half-dozen or so times in the past two years, including on an ill-fated trip in early November, when I lost the memory card containing my last Milky Way core shots of the year. There were also several photos of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, on that memory card, so I had to go back one more time to shoot some more. This time I was very careful to make sure that the memory card made it home with me. As well as M31 there are plenty of stars visible in the sky, and a few reflected off the dam's surface, towards the bottom of the shot. Here is a photo of M31 in the sky over the dam, which I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1571527875742-LC9VPALD1YIZGVWOXBXR/messier-magic.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Messier Magic (Copy) My photo today brings you three of these Messier objects, M31, M33 and M110. Apart from their dry catalogue names, two of these galaxies have the common names of the “Andromeda Galaxy” (M31) and the “Triangulum Galaxy” (M33). Their distances from Earth are 2.5 million (M31 & M110) and 2.73 million (M33) light-years. I captured this photo without the use of a telescope or telephoto lens. I shot nine pictures of the foreground and sky, plus twelve “dark” frames, which were combined in software to reduce the amount of digital noise present. For all of the twenty-one images, I used the same equipment and settings. These were my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569660705976-EGIQOWPZ6UXQHCDM8QCN/ferdinands-field.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Ferdinand's Field (Copy) Named for the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, the two glowing clouds seemingly suspended in the sky over this field north of Goulburn, Australia, are known as the “Magellanic Clouds”. For this image, I shot seven single-frame photos in quick succession, then used the software “Starry Landscape Stacker” to composite them into a final picture that had less digital noise and better definition than any of the contributing images. The equipment and settings that I used for each photo were a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. I set the camera on a fixed tripod, i.e. I didn’t use a star-tracker. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785879483-PINBLH2Y2LL29TCST127/beyond-the-gate.-give-or-take-2.5-million-light-years%21.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Beyond the gate (Copy) One of the most enthralling objects appearing in the astronomy books in my high school’s library was the Andromeda Galaxy. These were long-exposure images of this body of around one trillion stars, about 2.5 million light-years from Earth, captured by some of the largest and most legendary telescopes of the 20th century. Even though M31 is best seen much further north than my latitude of 34 degrees below the equator, it’s still possible to photograph this little glowing fuzzy blob low over the northern horizon. However, I didn’t use a telescope–big or small–to get this photo. This image is a single-frame photo, captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Canon 40mm lens @ f/2.8, and a 10-second exposure @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1571527875742-LC9VPALD1YIZGVWOXBXR/messier-magic.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Messier Magic My photo today brings you three of these Messier objects, M31, M33 and M110. Apart from their dry catalogue names, two of these galaxies have the common names of the “Andromeda Galaxy” (M31) and the “Triangulum Galaxy” (M33). Their distances from Earth are 2.5 million (M31 & M110) and 2.73 million (M33) light-years. I captured this photo without the use of a telescope or telephoto lens. I shot nine pictures of the foreground and sky, plus twelve “dark” frames, which were combined in software to reduce the amount of digital noise present. For all of the twenty-one images, I used the same equipment and settings. These were my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569374487412-YFBUEJ34F1CY2QTDIKAO/if-my-eyes-don%27t-deceive-me.jpg WIP-Galaxies - If my eyes don't deceive me There are two very-distant galaxies visible in this photo. They are the Andromeda Galaxy (aka M31) and the Triangulum Galaxy (M33). At distances of 2.5 million light-years (M31) and 3.0 million light-years (M33) from us here on Earth, these two galaxies are the most distant objects that are visible with the naked eye. Neither of the two looks like anything more than smudges on my photo, but they are big. They’re huge, in fact. M31 is a spiral galaxy that is the nearest major galaxy to our Milky Way. Recent estimates put the total number of resident stars at about 1 trillion, which is around twice the number of stars in the Milky Way. With an estimated 40 billion stars, M33 is the smallest spiral galaxy in what is known as the “Local Group”, after Andromeda and the Milky Way. The location for this photo was Taralga, a rural village of around 460 people, situated in the Southern Tablelands region of my state of New South Wales, Australia. I shot two overlapping photographs to create this image. Once on my Mac, the photos were given some adjustments to bring up their brightness and reduce digital noise, then stitched together in the program Autopano Pro. I then made a few more edits in Lightroom and Photoshop. For each of the two original images, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/4.0, with an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1606458000502-BYSKJU9FJ9CWSWW76JOX/galaxies-far-far-away.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Galaxies Far, Far Away On my last nightscape photography trip to Taralga, Australia, I was able to get some shots of the Milky Way’s core region not long before it set over the southwestern horizon. Once that favoured area of the heavens was–literally–out of the picture, I turned my attention to photographing some of the other galaxies that are visible here in the Southern Hemisphere. I recently posted one of those images, containing the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which are dwarf galaxies travelling through space with our own Milky Way galaxy. As well as those relatively-close massive collections of stars, planets, dust, gas and asteroids–and the odd black hole or two–there are a few other “islands universes” that are visible to naked-eye observers. I photographed two of these, the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy, as they hung low in the northern sky. Known in astronomical catalogues as “M31”, the Andromeda Galaxy sits around 2.5 million light-years from our position in the “Local Group” of galaxies. M31 is visible in my photo as a fuzzy-yet-distinct bright disc mid-way down the shot, and about one third in from the left. If you look up to the right, in the one o’clock direction from Andromeda, there’s a much smaller blur of light showing the position of the Triangulum Galaxy. Aka “M33”, this galaxy is nearly 3 million light-years away in space. The Milky Way, M31 and M33 are the three largest galaxies, respectively, in the Local Group. This image was stacked from ten single-frame photos, each of which I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 8 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1605526122719-TIXQ9KHQ33E777BNZAYB/not-a-cloud-in-the-sky...almost.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Not A Cloud In The Sky...Almost After nearly five weeks straight of clouds covering the skies at any location that I planned to shoot from, last Saturday night gave me a gem of a view of the heavens. The only clouds that I could see were the two dwarf galaxies captured in my photo, the Large (left) and Small (on the right) Magellanic Clouds. These concentrations of stars, nebulae, gas and dust are travelling through space with our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Looking like puffs of light in the heavens, the Magellanic Clouds are adored by astronomers, astrophotographers and casual stargazers throughout the Southern Hemisphere. The Southern Tablelands region of my state, New South Wales, had been a much-visited spot on the map for me during 2018 & 2019, but Saturday night was the first time I’d made it there in 2020. I did the 540 km (335 mi) round-trip in one night, stopping here at the Taralga Wind Farm for photos of the low-hanging Milky Way, and a few other features of our southern summer skies. The two brightest stars in the constellation of Centaurus are flanking the base of the turbine’s pylon–and its accompanying tree–close to the bottom of their circuit of the South Celestial Pole. An abundance of atmospheric airglow coloured the background sky, and you can see the crimson hues of the Eta Carina nebula dominating the lower left-hand corner of my shot. I lit the foreground of the scene with an LED bank as I shot the photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, with an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1602588353943-L78XN6QQ4OJP1EMKB1IZ/personal-favourites.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Personal Favourites While choosing a photo to post today, I spent possibly too much time deciding if I should select this one. I had a feeling that I’d featured these fluffy, floating orbs–the Magellanic Clouds–too many times throughout 2020, and didn’t want to bore anyone. After a quick flick through my published images for the year, I found that this will be only the third time since January that I’ve brought them to you, and I hope that you’ll enjoy another look. Despite their names, you’re not looking at clouds but two dwarf galaxies that are travelling through space with our Milky Way galaxy, at the relatively close distances of 163,000 light-years and 206,000 light-years from us, respectively. My photo managed to capture them both in the same frame, but that gap between the two irregular dwarf galaxies has been measured at around 75,000 light-years. Southern Hemisphere observers–and some from the lower northern latitudes–can see the Clouds in the night sky, even in light-polluted cities such as the one I live in, Sydney, Australia. To create this photo, I shot eleven individual images of this part of the sky, then combined (stacked) those in software so that I could reduce the amount of digital signal noise in the scene. For each one of the eleven frames, I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0 using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1600640563577-QAIBKTAA0LI82QU2MO2Q/nebula-in-the-north.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Nebula in the North Sometime around the year 964 AD, a Persian astronomer named Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi made the earliest recorded sighting of what we now call the Andromeda Galaxy, describing it as a “nebulous smear” [Source: Wikipedia]. Since then, this smudge on the night sky has been thought by observers to be a variety of astronomical objects. Astronomers have estimated it to be at a wide range of distances from the Earth. As recently as 2019 the mass of the “Andromeda Nebula” when compared to our home galaxy, the Milky Way, was revised in line with new data from measurements of both galaxies. Aside from the physical characteristics of the object, the ancient observer’s smear is renowned for its visual beauty. My little photo here doesn’t do justice to the details, colours or shape of the giant spiral that is moving through space, at a distance from Earth of 2.5 million light-years or so. Still, I do love to photograph M31 (as it’s commonly known) when I can and hope to see it someday from our Northern Hemisphere. The view of M31 there is much better than the atmospherically-blurred look that I get in my part of Australia. This photo of M31 was taken west of Nowra, Australia, and is what is known as a “stacked” image. I shot twelve consecutive “light” frames of the scene, then took another 12 with my camera’s lens cap in place (known as “dark” frames). Next, I processed the light frames in Adobe’s Lightroom Classic Software, then made use of an app called Starry Landscape Stacker to remove a lot of the digital noise present in the original shots. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 4.0 seconds @ ISO 6400, to capture the original images. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1596284107081-5M3RSXA2Y6Z06JSV4ZIT/sea-creatures-of-the-sky.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Sea Creatures of the Sky Not for the first time, the appearance of the two dwarf galaxies known as the “Magellanic Clouds” remind me of jellyfish, or similarly amorphous inhabitants of the ocean. Seeing them hovering over the Tasman Sea at Gerroa, Australia here in my photo makes that act of imagination a whole lot easier. The “Clouds” aren’t creatures, nor are they from the ocean, but are companions of our Milky Way galaxy, travelling with us through the Local Group of galaxies, yet visible to nocturnal folk here in the Southern Hemisphere. To the upper-left of the Small Magellanic Cloud is what looks like an overgrown star, but is a globular star cluster–a big ball of stars, pretty much–with the unromantic name of 47 Tucanae. This bright and slightly fuzzy orb that I included in the photo is about 120 light-years in diameter, making it a massive ball of stars, indeed. To produce this final photo, I shot two overlapping images & after editing those in Adobe Lightroom Classic, I stitched them together with the (now-defunct) application Autopano Pro. After stitching, I washed the composite frame through Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop (for noise reduction and improving some of the details). The two original frames that I took were shot with my Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1594556861234-I1V69XJGVCA3Y3PHIRR5/this-isnt-the-comet-youre-looking-for.jpg WIP-Galaxies - This Isn’t The Comet You’re Looking For Northern hemisphere folk have been enjoying a celestial show over the past week or more, in the form of a naked-eye-visible comet. The celestial sojourner has a name that is, per astronomical good-practice, totally unromantic and very clinical. "Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE" — or just NEOWISE for short, is what's written on its name tag. The name came from the NASA mission that discovered it, also called NEOWISE, for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. You can hit up Google–or your favourite search engine–to find thousands of photos of this beautiful addition to the northern summer's skies. OK, that Public Service Announcement out of the way, I can now go on to tell you about my less-exciting-than-a-comet photo. The image features the Milky Way's neighbouring galaxy M31, aka the "Andromeda Galaxy". I need to explain that the word "neighbouring" has a different scale about it in the realm of astronomy. M31 is around 2.5 million light-years from our home planet and is one of the most distant objects that mere mortals can see with our unaided eyes. That's not the kind of neighbour to whom you can pay a quick visit to borrow some tools or a cup of sugar, but in the scale of things in the universe, it's nearby. My photo was created by taking two shots of the same scene, which I then processed through what is known as "stacking" software to reduce the digital noise in the image and try to enhance the details of the distant galaxy. I took the two images using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. The software used to make the final stacked image is called "Starry Landscape Stacker". https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1585571056449-QKRGBJIZX6TRFZHBJ9AY/a-flash-in-the-green.jpg WIP-Galaxies - A Flash in the Green In early May of 2019, I trekked from my home in Sydney, Australia, to the rural region of Goulburn, in the Southern Tablelands region of New South Wales. The Eta Aquariids meteor shower was due to be at its peak on this date, so I was hopeful of photographing at least a few of the flashing, flying fragments as they burnt up in our Earth’s atmosphere. After around six hours of shooting single images, time-lapses and panoramas, I ended photographing only three short and dim Eta Aquariid meteors trails. Ironically, the meteor that showed up in today’s shot (on the lower left) wasn’t from that night’s shower but was one of the random flashes that happen multiple times daily around the world. There was an intense amount of green atmospheric airglow present in the atmosphere that night, easily visible in the photo. The two Magellanic Clouds–satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way–dominate right-hand half of the image. This photo is a single-frame shot that I captured with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1583233873146-5VD3RQVLOWAGL354ZH3Z/clouds-in-a-cloudless-sky.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Clouds in a Cloudless Sky I shot this photo last Thursday night, 27th February. The only clouds visible were the two galaxies you see in the picture, known as the Magellanic Clouds. Astronomers classify these two blobs of light as dwarf galaxies, and they travel through space with our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The Magellanic Clouds are a familiar sight to Southern Hemisphere folk who’ve spent even a little bit of time studying the night sky. The galaxies are easily mistaken for the meteorological objects after which they’re named. If you look carefully, you can see the smaller cloud–aka the Small Magellanic Cloud–reflected in the water that the tide had washed over the rock shelf at Black Point Head, Gerroa, Australia. With clouds and rain forecast for at least the next two weeks, I have to keep looking at photos like this to remind me that clear skies can come again. The photo is a single-frame image, captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1571029997253-UKS5G3ED5ORH5QAJ2ACG/messier-magic---marked-up.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Messier Magic In 1771 the French astronomer Charles Messier published a catalogue listing 110 nebulae and star clusters. He did this to help comet hunters discern between fuzzy blobs in the sky that were new comets, or already-discovered deep sky objects. Messier listed each object with the letter “M” (for Messier, of course) and a catalogue number. Unknown to Messier at the time was the fact that some of these “nebulae” were discreet galaxies like our Milky Way, located millions of light-years from us on Earth. My photo brings you three of these Messier objects, M31, M33 and M110. Apart from their dry catalogue names, two of these galaxies have the common names of the “Andromeda Galaxy” (M31) and the “Triangulum Galaxy” (M33). I captured this photo without the use of a telescope or telephoto lens. I shot nine pictures of the foreground and sky, plus twelve “dark” frames, which were combined in software to reduce the amount of digital noise present. For all of the twenty-one images, I used the same equipment and settings. These were my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1571527531325-SDZHW7VE0AZPSIUW7XFR/magellanic-moonlight.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Magellanic Moonlight Only a minute or two before I took this photo, the moon had started to make its appearance for the night. Although not yet clear of the horizon, the Earth’s silvery companion-in-space was already beginning to brighten the sky with its light. The Milky Way’s core was very low on the southwestern horizon when I shot this scene. I had quite a few shots of that part of the sky already “in the can”, so opted to snap off a few frames with the Magellanic Clouds featured over this old stone church. The stones are old, for sure, with locals having completed the building in 1859. I but I think I’m right in guessing, though, that the plastic water tank and corrugated metal roof might not be of the same vintage as the bulk of the structure. This photo is a single-frame image that I captured using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1576586541714-KHZUOPIKL17HMTEG9MM3/danjera-dam-delight.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Danjera Dam Delight The Danjera Dam near Nowra, Australia, is a popular campsite and especially so for freshwater fishing folk. Its seven-kilometre long catchment is stocked with rainbow trout and Australian bass and hosts plenty of eels. Also under the waters of the dam are the ruins of the old mining town of Yalwal, where gold was discovered in 1852. A bushfire in 1939 burnt almost the whole village, leaving only one residence, one shop and the Post Office. Completion of the dam in 1971 drowned the gully and with it the area’s gold-boom history. I have visited the dam a half-dozen or so times in the past two years, including on an ill-fated trip in early November, when I lost the memory card containing my last Milky Way core shots of the year. There were also several photos of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, on that memory card, so I had to go back one more time to shoot some more. This time I was very careful to make sure that the memory card made it home with me. As well as M31 there are plenty of stars visible in the sky, and a few reflected off the dam's surface, towards the bottom of the shot. Here is a photo of M31 in the sky over the dam, which I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1573129973854-JDYEBP8LBNXKXLEKF1U3/green.jpg WIP-Galaxies - Green Despite the drought that’s afflicted most of my home state of New South Wales, there is a lot of green in this photo. The poplar trees that had been bare during winter and earlier in our southern spring were well dressed in their foliage, and the paddocks behind them seemed to have had enough water to keep them looking just as green. On this night the sky was showing a lovely shade of green, too. That colour in the background sky comes from the atmospheric effect known as “airglow”, a feature of the night that our unaided eyes cannot see. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds–companion galaxies that are travelling through space with our Milky Way–are the two distinct, fuzzy objects that are hanging in the heavens between the two poplars. Although they’re visible all year round, the summer months down here below the equator provide some of the best opportunities to see and photograph the two stellar sidekicks. Photographed near the rural city of Nowra, Australia, in late October of 2019, I shot this single-frame image using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/to-be-sorted daily 0.75 2026-03-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1605133901418-XCQ4DVNPF71RDDNBWDTH/earth-vs-heaven.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Earth vs Heaven The ocean rock platforms at Gerroa, Australia, are one of my favourite destinations to visit for shooting nightscape photos. I usually head to the coastal town during the front end of Milky Way Core season (January through May). In those months I can point my camera to the east and capture the Milky Way’s central band and galactic core rising over the Tasman Sea, with the lights of a distant ship or fishing boat being the only possible source of light pollution. Last night (Tuesday 10th November 2020) was my first nightscape photo outing in a month, but being a weeknight, it meant that I couldn’t stay out too late, restricting how far I could travel. It would have been best to visit a site with little or no light pollution in the western sky, but Gerroa was my default choice for its relative proximity to home. Photographing the Milky Way at this time of year requires shooting towards the west, and the rural town of Nowra was spilling light in all directions. You can see its wasteful glow backlighting the landscape across most of the left half of my shot. The Milky Way doesn’t stand out the way I’d hoped due to all of that man-made glow. However, you can see some of its colour and wispy details in a line laying parallel to the horizon and reflected in the shallow saltwater pool in the foreground. I also captured the lovely beacons from the planets Jupiter and Saturn as they hung high in the sky, towards the centre of the scene. This photo is a single-frame image, and I captured it with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1605700769848-D06EZK1Y90AGAY1PBTD3/lights-for-the-living.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Lights For The Living The Stone Quarry Cemetery at Taralga, in the southern tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia, received its first occupant in 1865. One of the locals buried here, Colonel Edward Twynam, served in Australia’s army in both World Wars, and is reported to have been “well-liked in the district, and considered one of nature’s gentlemen.” Solar-charged LED memorial lamps atop some of the graves provide an eerie focal-point in my photo, and I Iike how they compete with the celestial lights above for the viewer’s attention. Stretching across the vertical centreline of my photo are the hazy-looking filaments of interstellar dust and gas that mark the central band of the Milky Way. These massive structures are only made visible by the backlighting of the hundreds of millions of stars that make up the bulk of our home galaxy. The gas-giant planets Jupiter and Saturn are keeping watch over the scene as they sit higher in the sky, at the top-right of my shot. My visit to this site last Saturday night (14th November) almost certainly marked the end of my Milky Way Core photography season for 2020. I still have other images from the trip to edit and post, and a few months of finding other night sky features to shoot. The photo is a single-frame image, shot with Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1606250576637-0CRKZ2A5GO15BZXX1RC7/low-and-leaving.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Low and Leaving The central band of the Milky Way looks hazy in today’s photo due to how close to the horizon that part of the sky was when I captured the scene. Spring in my Southern Hemisphere is nearly done, bringing more hours of sunlight every day as we move closer to the summer solstice. Sadly for me, those longer days mean fewer hours of darkness in which to photograph the stars. captured this scene at the wind farm near Taralga, Australia, a few weekends back, on what turned out to be the only cloudless night for close to a week. By the time the clouds gave way to clear skies again the Moon had begun another cycle, and its brightness was overwhelming the light of the stars, almost certainly ending my Milky Way photography season for 2020. Jupiter and Saturn are riding high up in the top right-hand corner of this image. These two planets will move closer to each other in the sky over the coming weeks, eventually looking like one very bright star sometime around December 21. This photograph is a single-frame image that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1606481610840-TLQK6QPTO3UT5OCUQQSU/under-the-twisted-limbs.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Under the Twisted Limbs Assuming that the skies in your location are free of clouds, for a few days around the 21st of December this year, you will see what looks like a very bright star low in the western sky, not long after sunset. Although this brilliant orb will seem like a star, the object will be the planets Jupiter and Saturn in very close proximity to each other in the sky. The two “gas giant” planets will be practising social distancing, remaining approximately 646.2 million km / 401.5 million miles apart despite how close they seem to be when we are then looking at them. When I captured today’s photo two weeks back, these planets who will star in December’s display still had a noticeable gap between them. You can see the glowing giants sheltering under the twisted branches of this eucalyptus tree on the ridge near Taralga, Australia. My photo is a single-frame image that I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 8 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1606651586624-QLTJ8IDUBZ689RXJG1NT/fading-signal.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Fading Signal Another shot from my visit to the Taralga Wind Farm in NSW, Australia, today’s photo shows the dregs of the Milky Way’s core region and central-band as they were setting in the western sky two Saturdays ago. I messed up with my lighting of the tree, so it’s darker than I intended, but its silhouette shows some of its misshapen frame and the way it leans to the north. Over on the right, you can see a transmission mast, pointing towards the lovely beacons of Jupiter and Saturn, our Solar System’s largest and second-largest planets. As well as the indistinct fuzz of the Milky Way on the horizon, the mast signifies something else that was subject to fading. The wind turbines at this farm aren’t visible in my photo, but they made their presence known by killing off the TV reception for the town of Taralga when they began service in 2015. The transmission mast–in fact, a retransmission mast–was erected by the owners of the installation to restore the service to the locals, who had green electricity to power their televisions, but nothing to watch. My photo is another single-frame iamge (my favourite format), that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1606822511939-1D90V3IN7XZSZWYP2HKY/a-cosmic-tuft-of-wool.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - A Cosmic Tuft of Wool A handful of sheep stood atop this hill, silhouetted by the lights of the rural city of Goulburn, Australia, while I photographed the starry and cloud-free sky at the Taralga wind farm in mid-November of this year. High overhead and looking like a tuft of wool, cut free and discarded by a shearer’s blades, the amorphous glow from the billions of stars forming the Large Magellanic is the standout feature of today’s photo. The background sky is showing a purplish tint, caused by the presence of what scientists call “airglow” in the Earth’s atmosphere, which human eyes cannot see, sadly. Dark nebulae in the Milky Way show themselves as dimmer patches in the sky near the horizon, as they block the light from stars more distant than these enormous bodies of gas and dust. I shot two overlapping frames to create this final image, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II Digital SLR camera fitted with a Sigma 35 mm wide-angle lens. Each photo was taken using the same settings, which were a shutter speed of 8.0 seconds, a lens aperture of f/1.6, and an ISO selection of 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1610446482602-D98J2T1BX5K61EHHZFE2/old-location-new-year.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Old Location, New Year This post is my first in nearly six weeks, due to bad weather (the grey dome that seems to follow me around), busyness in my business, Christmas, and some time away with my wife. I hope to use my photos of the night sky's wonders to bring some wonder, light, and even joy into your lives during this current circuit of the Sun. My initial post for 2021 is from a location where I cut my teeth on digital nightscape photography in 2013 and 2014, Tuross Head, on Australia's south-east coast. Over thirty years before then, I was shooting black-and-white star trails photos at Tuross during my mid-late teen years. This heritage-listed church hasn't heard worshippers' singing or prayers for several decades but is a landmark still beloved by locals and the region's many holidaying visitors. The narrow opening in the persistent cloud cover only lasted long enough to shoot thirty images, including eight that I used to create this vertical panorama. The portion of the Milky Way included in the photo stretches from the constellation of Carina, just above the church's spire, up through Canis Major and just squeezing in Orion near the top of the scene. To shoot each of the eight images in the final panorama I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.5, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1610970909022-D8P7JILA0QML7CIDVNRL/Fire+in+the+Western+Sky.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Fire in the Western Sky The Orion constellation is a well-known feature of my Southern Hemisphere's night skies, and the most familiar shape within the whole grouping of stars is commonly referred to here as "The Saucepan". A few minutes after the sky had entered Astronomical Twilight last Saturday morning (March 16th), I photographed Orion as it hung low over the mountains west of Berry, New South Wales, Australia. Not only did my shots capture most of the stars in Orion, but I was chuffed to see that the Great Nebula the constellation is known for, aka "M42", was also visible. If you pinch to zoom the photo on your phone or enlarge it in your web browser, you'll see the pinkish flame-like shape of the nebula in the top-left quarter of my shot. Y You can also see the stars Rigel and Betelgeuse at the far-left and far-right sides of the frame, respectively, and Betelgeuse's orange glow is reflected in one of the tiny pools in the lower half of the scene. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1611054143417-RM95F6L1E01IAM5KUY42/celestial-clang.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Celestial Clang Customarily used to summon worshippers to Mass or witnesses to weddings, I can imagine this church bell also being sounded to let people know of the majesty, wonder and glory on display in the sky overhead at night. The bell tower is out of sight from the two roads that intersect as they pass the St Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church at Gerringong, Australia, but I'm sure the clanging of the lone bell can be heard in all directions. Reaching upwards between the tower and the tree is a bright and dense stretch of stars marking out our Milky Way galaxy's central band. I caught the two "pointer" stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri, nudging the viewer's line of sight towards the Coal Sack Nebula and the Southern Cross. Higher in the sky to the right of the tower's top are the dwarf galaxies known as the Magellanic Clouds. My photo for today is a single-frame image that I shot using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.2, exposed for 20 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1611141227254-GVUR30W5EQYXFSF28T6K/clouds-with-a-stellar-lining.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Clouds with a Stellar Lining After driving 100 km (60 mi) from my home in Sydney last Friday night–and then a few hours of sleep in my car–it was time to point my camera to the southeastern horizon and get my first Milky Way galactic core photos for 2021. I captured the core's glowing mass, comprised of multiple tens of millions of stars, as it climbed above the Tasman Sea off Gerroa, New South Wales, Australia. The light from that immense conglomeration of stars is what's silhouetting the long cloud front hovering over the Sea's surface in my photo, making visible the things that humble human eyes couldn't see in the night's darkness. Reflected in the rock pool at my feet were stars of the constellation Scorpius, with Antares' distinct orange glow dominating the lower left of my shot. I was happy to capture a hint of the galactic core's glow as it reflected from the pool's surface, too. This image is a single-frame photo that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1611405230698-BFAJIY627QMLIXBQAL09/closer-in.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Closer In The last image I posted here, a few days back, captured the Milky Way’s galactic core as it was peeking above a cloud bank over the Tasman Sea. I used a 14 mm wide-angle lens for that shot so that I could include a lot of foreground features, as well as a large stretch of the Milky Way. Today’s photo was shot during that same session at Gerroa, Australia, on the 16th of January, but this time I used at 50 mm lens to make the centre of our galaxy look way more massive and imposing. Most of the light and colour that I captured in the sky here was generated by the stars, plus some atmospheric airglow in the Earth’s atmosphere. There is also a tiny amount of sunlight in my shot due to the start of astronomical twilight. I created this image by shooting two single-frame photos that were then stacked using the program “Starry Landscape Stacker”. For each of those two photos, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.2, with an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1611489568016-HO6E4FMD1L743ZP7Z75E/northwestern-summer-sky.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Northwestern Summer Sky If you’re from the Earth’s northern hemisphere, my title for today’s post is probably confusing you. For we who dwell in the better hemisphere, though, it’s normal to see the Pleiades, the Hyades and Orion in the northwestern sky during our summer nights, as I’ve captured in my photo. I photographed this scene at the disused St Stephen’s Church at Coila, near my holiday township of Tuross Head, Australia, in the first week of January 2021. It’s often nearly impossible to get any nightscape photos on that part of Australia’s southeast coast during the Christmas/New Year holidays, as the prevailing weather conditions seem to provide nothing but cloudy nights. I had a one-hour window in the cloud cover this night, doing my best to shoot only a few dozen images before the canopy closed over me. The gear that I used for this single-frame photo was my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.5, exposing for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1611748129383-EQJFWHVEQ7327O2L2PUX/along-the-dotted-line.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Along the dotted line Tuesday this week (26th Jan) was my country’s national holiday, Australia Day. I celebrated the start of the day with a nightscape photography session at my recent haunt, Gerroa, on the south coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia. A public holiday is often a great chance to sleep in, but instead, I drove 110 km and braved the 10-knot wind plus the predicted 92% cloud cover to capture as many shots as I could of the Milky Way’s core rising over the Tasman Sea. That cloud app was wrong, thankfully, and the only wisps in the sky stayed safely out of my field of view to the north, allowing me to click off about 140 photos in the session. The International Space Station was due to commence a pass from northwest to southeast at 4:40 am, about ten minutes after the first glow of the Sun invaded the eastern sky. The darkness of the night, in concert with the angle of the ISS’s orbit, resulted in the brightest reflection I’ve ever seen shining from the massive structure passing overhead. The streak on the photo showing the Space Station’s path is a broken line due to the slight gap between each of the nine photos used to create this composite image. To shoot each of those nine single frames, I used a Samyang 14 mm wide-angle lens, at an aperture of f/2.8. The lens was attached to my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, and I took each photo with an exposure time of 20.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1612092385462-3KADUADEUROQVIV6UPPZ/more-of-the-same%E2%80%A6beauty.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - More Of the Same…Beauty Wow, January has finished in what seems to have been almost a blink of my eye! For my northern hemispherical followers that means the warmer months are closer. On the better side of the equator, though, our summer still in full swing, but we know that winter lies ahead. The Milky Way’s core pops above the horizon at about 3:00 am at this end of January, leaving only an hour or so to photograph it before the Sun’s rays signal farewell to the night. That time of rising moves earlier by about an hour every two weeks, so you should expect to see more of the Milky Way in my photos, and at a slightly different angle, as February and March come and go. At the moment, with only a few weeks of the core’s visibility having taken place, a lot of my photos are looking the same. Today’s photo of the Milky Way’s core rising as the period of astronomical twilight was beginning, was captured at Gerroa, about 110 km (68 mi) south of my home in Sydney, Australia. The glow of the Milky Way’s core of stars, planets, nebulae and dust clouds reflects off the shallow sheet of water covering the rock platform in the foreground. As with other recent shots I’ve posted, I took several photos in succession and combined then in a process called “stacking”, to reduce the amount of digital noise in this final image. Each of the three photos I used in the stack was taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1612264560991-A48G4ROY8RB5F1B2N8ND/heavenly-lights-on-the-hill.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Heavenly Lights on the Hill "It was resolved on the motion of Mr J B Taylor that a committee be appointed for the purpose of building a stone Church". Extract from the minutes of the Gerringong Church Committee of 26-6-1880. In 1882 that resolution was fulfilled with the opening of the St Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church, which I photographed under the rising Southern Cross and the starry blobs known as the Magellanic Clouds. Gerringong is a lovely town located on the south coast of my home state of New South Wales, Australia, which I visited in early January of this year. Not visible in my photo is the source of the yellow light that floods over the church and its grounds, the nearby intersection, and everything else for hundreds of metres around. Photographing starry skies requires setting a camera's light-sensitivity–its ISO–to a number much higher than you'd use in daylight, but doing so makes every photon of light you capture seem more intense. I found it challenging to shoot the church and the twinkling skies while doing battle with the glowing monster suspended over the road. It took a lot of work in Adobe Lightroom to vanquish the venom of the overpowering orb, but I think I made good my victory. This photo is a single-frame image, for which I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1612697041808-7U2NBQTANDXWBL4Q8CS2/cloud-amongst-the-clouds.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Cloud amongst the Clouds One night in June of 2020–during one of the periods when travel within our state wasn’t COVID-restricted–I trekked to Seven Mile Beach (Gerroa, Australia) for what I hoped would be a long nightscape photography session. Sometime during the 100 km/60 mi drive, my cloud app didn’t notice the fluffy, floating mass that started to move across the sky at my destination. The canopy wasn’t covering all of the skies and did give me a few chances to capture some usable images, but it was frustrating to find that the drive was almost a waste of time. Although the photo I’m posting for you today isn’t cloud-free, it does have an attractive look about it. The subject of the image was the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. I was shooting this lovely object with my camera mounted on a star tracker. When the camera’s shutter was open and capturing the starlight from the galactic cloud, wafts of atmospheric cloud made their way into my shot. The lights from nearby towns gave the clouds their reddish hue as they passed over. This photo is a single-frame tracked image that I shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Canon 24-105 mm lens zoomed to 80 mm, with its aperture set to f/5.6. With the camera on a Skywatcher Star Adventurer tracking mount, I used a shutter speed of 68 seconds, with the camera’s ISO set to 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1613336835740-WEHRNWMQKEDK85004NW2/still-and-sublime.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Still and Sublime In mid-July of 2020, I stole a few days alone at my family's holiday shack at Tuross Head, on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Not long after midnight on my last day of the trip, I shot the photos that make up this vertical panorama of Milky Way over Tuross Lake. There was no hint of a breeze to disturb the water's surface, but the lake's tidal movement helped to stretch out the reflections of the stars, turning sparkling dots of light into streaks of reflected colour. Shining conspicuously near the top of the photo are Jupiter and Saturn, still five months away from their grand conjunction in December, which I missed due to a cloud mass that parked itself over my city and covered all points within a radius of about 300 km. The glow from my camera lens' anti-dew heater battery is responsible for the red spill on the sand at the bottom of the scene, matching the navigation light's hue out on the lake. This vertical panoramic image was created by stitching together nine single-frame photos, each of which I shot with my Canon EOS 6D camera, through a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1613507557211-1F9V4FWEF0GDDSN8Z68G/look-down.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Look Down Most of my nightscape images are composed, shot and processed with one intention in mind: I want people to go outside at night and look up. For today’s photo, though, I hope that you’ll look down and see the beauty of the stars as I captured their light being reflected in the shallow tidal pools at Black Head Point, Gerroa, Australia, in early January. The orange star that’s glowing intently in the pool, a little to the right of the centre of the image, is the red supergiant Betelgeuse, the tenth-brightest star in our Earth’s skies and the second-brightest star in the constellation of Orion, aka The Hunter. Most of the members of Orion are reflected in the pool as well, including the blue supergiant Rigel, to the left. The stars that make up both the belt and sword of this familiar pattern of celestial objects are seen as splashes of light between these two bright orbs. I captured this photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, using a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4. I left the shutter open for 15 seconds and had the camera’s ISO set to 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1614597920948-VTSS8UOY82KYH1NVFK40/orion-hunter-of-cows.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Orion, Hunter of Cows The constellation Orion–known as "The Hunter" to many cultures–was almost resting atop these three cows when I visited their outpost back on February 21st. Fellow nightscape photographer Geoff Sharpe had guided us to the unusual locals on a quiet dirt road near Harden, on the South West Slopes of New South Wales, Australia. Created by Australian artist John Kelly, the clique of cows is a reproduction of his sculpture, "Three Cows in a Pile," exhibited in Monte Carlo and Glastonbury in the early 2000s. The background sky's green colour was provided by the atmospheric phenomenon known as "airglow", and the myriad stars on-show were delivered by the clear, clean and dark night we were afforded. I took two photos to create this "stacked" final shot, and for both of those images, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.5, for an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1614769342348-LVQFDO4EXRJVJ1SWO4O6/breakin-some-rules.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Breakin' Some Rules Two Friday nights ago (19th Feb), I broke one of the rules (suggestions?) of nightscape photography and visited a location that I hadn’t scouted beforehand in the daylight hours. Being honest, I’ve broken this rule more times than I’ve obeyed it, and most of the time, it’s been worth it. At 8:30 that evening, hearing my lament that there were cloudless skies at my favourite coastal location, a mere 300 km (186 mi) drive away, my wife exclaimed, “you should go!” After checking that her offer was genuine, then scrabbling to get some clothes, food and gear together, I did what I was told and drove, drove, drove for nearly five hours. That broke some rule or other about being rested before a long car trip, I think. As you can see from my photo, the long drive; the climb down the rocky trail to the beach (more of a slide, really), and the knowledge that I would be a tad tired in a few hours was worth it for the glory of the Milky Way’s core region and these magical rock formations that welcomed me. The location is Cathedral Rocks at Mullimburra Point, Bingie Bingie (Australia), and I’m keen to visit and shoot here again soon. I took two single-frame photos that I then stacked together to reduce digital noise. For both of those images, I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.5, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1615197521500-Z7WNICPZKITB2VA96C5X/graveyard-greets-galaxy.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Graveyard Greets Galaxy This graveyard behind the St Mark's Anglican Church at Currawong, New South Wales, Australia, is relatively young compared to most rural resting places around our country. The oldest inscription on any burial plot or headstone at the site only dates to 1919, a little over one hundred years ago. I visited the church site in late February with Facebook-friend and fellow nightscape photographer Geoff Sharpe. Geoff had already left the site and was on his way back to town for some sleep when I was lurking amongst the graves with my camera, tripod and LED light bank. Apart from the sensibility of getting some sleep, Geoff was also astute enough to not lose his hotel room keycard, unlike my silly self. I slept in my car for the ninety unsatisfying minutes between my return and the opening of the hotel front office. The light from the background sky's atmospheric airglow, as well as the brightening Zodiacal Light, gave enough illumination to silhouette the landscape while my LED bank lit up the foreground. The few clouds near the horizon were polite enough to keep out of my photo's targeted region, the Milky Way's galactic core. Per a few of my recently-posted photos, I created this image by taking two single-frame shots and stacking them in software to reduce digital noise. I once again put my faithful Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera to use for those shots, and I'd attached it to a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens set to f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1615458310402-515J7DGCNYF1M7FR5FFH/testament.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Testament Local pickled blue granite was used to build the Currawong Anglican Church, which I captured here under a dark and starry sky late in February of this year. The building is one of the finest-looking examples of rural chapels that I’ve seen and stands as a testament to the dedication of the region’s residents over the last 100 years. The church was built on land donated by one local property owner, and other family members funded the construction. When the land and building faced disposal in the late 1980s after years of disuse and destruction by vandals and thieves, the local community once again rallied, saving and restoring the buildings and grounds. The Currawong Church was one of the shooting locations that I visited with Geoff Sharpe on the crazy weekend when I drove 1377 km to (try to) satisfy my obsession with photographing Australia’s night skies. I took eight overlapping single-frame photos to create a vertical panorama that includes the church grounds, the beautiful building and the superb sky. For each of those individual images, I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1615634082716-UQIV26RKIXNHBKMTQ0GU/got-milk.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Got Milk It's likely that Geoff Sharpe and I both had a chuckle at the irony of cows staring at the Milky Way as it rose east of Harden, NSW, Australia, when we lurked in the darkness with our cameras back in February. Cows->Milk->Milky Way. I'm a dad-joke tragic, apparently, so passing up that exercise in word-association wasn't going to happen. I've mentioned previously that the Australian artist, John Kelly, is famous for his sculpture known as "Three Cows in a Pile". This installation of Mr Kelly's iconic work marks the access to a major pastoral company's farm in the Harden area and is one of the least-likely landmarks you'd expect to find on a dirt road in the country. The galactic core area of the Milky Way is always an impressive natural wonder to see and photograph, so it's no wonder the cows couldn't help but gaze at it, too. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera to shoot this single-frame photo, coupled with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1616372008293-N8PP9QT4IE4RTSGFT06Q/the-sky-is-your-oyster.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - The Sky Is Your Oyster I had a multi-sensory experience when I visited this oyster farm on Tuross Lake recently. The visual component was a given, with the Milky Way rising over the hill across the lake from where the working punt was tied up. My ears were filled with the crunch of discarded shells being as I shuffled around, looking for a suitable spot to shoot from. The aroma of the rotting vestiges of oysters, still in those same shells, was something I’d not anticipated when heading to the location. Although my attempt at lighting the little bay and the tree-covered headland across the water didn’t work out as I’d hoped, I think I still did OK at featuring the punt as floated under the core of our galaxy, moving higher up the southeastern sky. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera (fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, set to an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200) to create this image. I took four single-frame exposures that I then stacked in the software “Starry Landscape Stacker” to make the final photo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1616414492310-FPH4X244O8PCY6RSUSSR/Barunguba+Beacon.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Barunguba Beacon Even at 22 km (13.6 mi) distant, the beacon atop the lighthouse on the island known to local indigenous people as Barunguba stands out in this image that I shot on Sunday, 14 March. Named “Montague Island” following its gazetting in 1790, Barunguba is a familiar landmark on the eastern horizon for people in this part of the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Somewhere on my bucket-list is a stay on the island, in the former lighthouse keeper’s cottages, with some Milky Way photography as part of the package. The Milky Way’s dense band of stars, nebulae and dust clouds stretches from the horizon up to the top right-hand corner of my photo. I also captured the intense glow of the heart of our galaxy–the galactic core–as the surface of the Tasman Sea was reflecting it on this still and clear night. Although I could have posted this image in its single-frame version, I opted to stack two of the successive shots I captured on the night. Each of those individual photos was taken using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.5, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1616845060717-RVPDCMBGRMBSRKY3RMKV/rising-and-reflected.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Rising and Reflected I remember my dad taking my brother and me fishing when we were kids and him passing on to us one of the rules of that pastime, "never tell anyone where you caught your fish." Thankfully, when it comes to the question of "where did you get that photo" I've experienced the opposite attitude from the nightscape photographers I've gotten to know on social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and a few others. The image that I'm bringing you today is a fruit of that more helpful mindset. Two weekends back, I was near the town of Braidwood, NSW, Australia, with a clear and moonless night ahead of me, when I recalled a location that fellow nightscape nutter Ian Williams had suggested to me in a conversation a couple of years prior. I'd saved it in Google Maps back then, so I had no trouble finding the spot when I decided to shoot there on that cloudless evening. Thanks to the night's conditions and Ian's generosity, I captured several images like this one of the Milky Way rising over and reflected in the Jembaicumbene Creek. That name is VERY Australian and is as meandering as the tiny waterway that bears its title. I shot the image with a 50 mm lens to emphasise the Milky Way's scale compared to the little creek, taking eight single-frame photos that I stacked together to reduce noise and enhance their details. For each of those eight shots, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera; a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.6; an exposure time of 6.0 seconds, with the camera's ISO set to 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1617017896867-EC5T8YABICBCIT9MOOF4/Oysters+Natural.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Oysters Natural The Magellanic Clouds–satellite galaxies of our Milky Way–are the southern sky's dominant features in my photo for today. Also commanding the scene is the colour green, caused by an electrochemical process in Earth's atmosphere known as "airglow". The marine growth on the side of the half-sunken oyster punt has added its much-brighter shade of green to my shot. I'd been photographing the rising Milky Way at a few locations on this night in mid-March, so I made sure to point my camera at another beautiful area of the clear, dark and windless sky. I've mentioned previously that this spot on Tuross Lake (NSW, Australia) is marked by the distinct odour of the morsels of oysters that cling to the not-quite-shucked shells. Oysters, very natural, if you don't mind! This photo is a single-frame image that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.5, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1617186224360-ERW7L14IE27LD09HGDVH/ancients.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Ancients At an estimated 400 million years old, the rock formations at Mullimburra Point, on Australia's southeast coast, are possibly the most ancient objects I've ever touched or clambered over. Lit up in the foreground of my photo for today is half of what's known as "Pyramid Rock". This granite formation looks to have been thrust up from below the sand on this small beach. Astronomers estimate that the universe is at least 11 billion years old, with most experts putting it at an average of 13.8 billion years. The rocks here might be the oldest objects I've ever touched, but the wondrous universe that I love to photograph, and to stand under and contemplate, is the oldest thing I've ever laid my eyes on. For sure, looking in the mirror each morning does sometimes make me second-guess that claim, but the heavens are arguably a tad older than the reflection that squints back at me. I used six identically composed/framed photos to create the final image that you see here to reduce the digital noise that would be visible in a single-frame shot. The settings that I used for each of those six photos were as follows. Camera: Canon 6D Mk II. Lens: Sigma 35 mm f/1.4 Art set to f/2.8. Shutter speed: 13.0 seconds. ISO: 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1618527000262-PDYXEOXJ2QEFB647NQGB/around-the-turn-of-midnight.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Around the Turn of Midnight A clear and dark night, a turning planet and plenty of free space on a memory card were the perfect ingredients to create this star-trails image that I shot last weekend. There was no breeze at ground level, but some air higher up pushed a few clouds through the area, breaking my colourful trails of light into smaller segments as they floated across the sky. Apart from one passing car that left the bright red mark on the dark via its tail-lights, I enjoyed the peace, quiet and solitude of my few hours on this bridge over the Moruya River around midnight last Saturday night. I hope that some of you viewing this photo can have times like that to refresh and recharge your own souls. I shot 108 single-frame photos that I combined in the free software “StarStaX” to create the trail effect that is the main feature of this image. For each of those shots, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.5, for an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1618834523613-65V2V5RJD3CW2K595CNS/circa-1889-circles.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Circa-1889 Circles Last Friday night, 16th April, I drove out to the locality of Kiangara in the New South Wales Southern Tablelands. There has been a church building on this site since 1889, as the sign in my photo indicates. The current chapel–erected and put into service in 1904–was a worthy structure to feature in the foreground of another colourful star-trails photo. If only our eyes would let us see these beautiful hues in the stars without needing the help of a camera! For nearly ninety minutes, my camera captured 298 photos of the old church and the much older stars in the open skies above. The combined glow from a “Lume Cube” LED lamp and the lights of vehicles passing by on the Lachlan Valley provided illumination of the church, the surrounding yard and some of the resident graves. The 298 frames that I used to create this final composite image were captured on my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 800. After I did some editing in Adobe Lightroom Classic, the photos were exported as JPG files which I then combined using the free application, StarStaX. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1618920716857-OFX9OKEMCKLTV5D976ED/Momentary+Meteor.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Momentary Meteor Although the Milky Way, the glorious green airglow in the background sky and the beautiful bluestone church were the features that I wanted to draw viewers’ eyes to when I shot this image, I find my own gaze being drawn to the bright green streak of light on the left. Signifying the vaporisation of a tiny piece of rock as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere, the flash of a meteor is a bonus for night sky photographers. The green hues of this death flash captured in my photo indicate that the vanquished visitor had a high percentage of nickel in its composition. I hope that the meteor enjoyed its view of Earth during that incredibly brief time in our vicinity. I created this final image from eight overlapping photos, stitched together using an app on my Mac. The church and yard were lit with an LED light bank as I captured the eight shots with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1619476031497-5BK9PD41HHFOLFR7NIPV/shimmering-sirius.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Shimmering Sirius When I drove to this backwater of Tuross Lake on a clear and still Sunday night two weeks ago, I was trying to photograph the fabulous and familiar constellation of Orion before it set. Bad timing–and the irresistible urge to photograph the Milky Way as it rose opposite where I initially had my camera pointed–meant that I only captured the portion of Orion you can see in today’s photo. The haziness of the sky near the horizon drained most of the colour from that part of the scene, but if you zoom in, you can still see the lovely pink colour of the Orion Nebula. Although Sirius–the brightest star visible in the night sky from anywhere on Earth–was too high above the horizon to include in this photo, its bright, blue-white light was shimmering as it reflected from the tidal flow of the lake. This photo is a single-frame image that I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1619614790470-W4CHO7DK4LA615B2KAK5/pretty-in-pink.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Pretty in Pink I don’t know what the weather conditions were in Paris on the 25th of January, 1752. Still, it’s a safe bet that the temperature on that northern winter’s day was a lot colder than what French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille enjoyed at his observatory at Table Bay, South Africa. That night, de Lacaille would make the first recorded observation of the lovely pink flames you can see in the upper right-hand corner of my photo. Known as the Eta Carinae Nebula, this 460 light-year-wide mass of gas is one of the largest diffuse nebulae visible from Earth. You don’t need to know any of this object’s history or classification to see that its colours stand out from the multitude of stars surrounding it in my photo. I didn’t use a telescope or star tracker to capture this image but instead shot a sequence of 19 photos using my camera on a fixed tripod. I used a Canon EOS 6D camera for each of those single frames, coupled with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f3.2, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 12800. Following processing in Adobe Lightroom, I stacked the 19 images (10 lights and 9 dark frames) in Starry Landscape Stacker for Mac. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1619785005065-2QXIJTCQMKZOOYPNRT18/Rising%2C+Falling.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Rising, Falling According to a February 2019 “Smithsonian Magazine” article, about 25 million meteors enter the Earth’s atmosphere PER DAY, making my photo a one-in-25-million image! The Milky Way’s galactic core region was rising in the southeast when I pointed my camera down this narrow connecting stretch of the Tuross River earlier in April this year, snapping off 410 photos over 1.5 hours to make a time-lapse sequence that I’m yet to edit and post. Capturing the meteor’s last flash of existence as it fell into our planet’s gaseous layers was something I only discovered after getting home and reviewing the night’s shots. I hope the meteor has a pleasant afterlife because it sure put on a good light show in its final act. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera to take this single-frame photo, and the camera was fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1619957923884-N1RJWDP9ZMI8POSZKFBA/defocussed.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Defocussed There are several methods that nightscape photographers use to ensure that the stars in our photos are sharp–“tack-sharp” as the worn-out term goes. After several years of trying my best to get those incoming photons to be pin-pricks, it was hard for me to shoot a photo like the one I’m posting today, in which the stars are intentionally OUT of focus! For my in-focus foreground element, I chose one of the more recent monuments in the Tangmangaroo Anglican Church’s graveyard–near Yass, Australia–with the rising Milky Way’s core blurred, but still colourful, in the background. I focussed on the distinct straight edges of the cross and its plinth, setting my lens to its shallowest depth-of-field to maximise the sky’s fuzzy look. I used the following equipment and settings to create this image: Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.4 aperture, choosing an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1620128861559-NZRV1M9XTV9COURCX5WR/oops.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Oops I thought I had my Lume Cube light pointed away from the camera as I was walking along this dirt road, but my photo shows that wasn’t the case. It’s been a long time since I took a selfie under the stars, and this accidental exposure will do me for the next couple of years. The Milky Way was looking glorious as it rose in the southeast, and I was using my remote trigger to shoot off some frames as I walked up to place the lamp under the tree. The green atmospheric airglow has given my photo a lovely background hue, and the haziness of this part of the sky rendered the scene with a softer look than I usually capture in such dark-sky areas. The high-beam headlamps from a car passing northwards along the Lachlan Valley Way here at Kangiara, Australia, cut through the darkness and made my little Lume Cube appear to be lighting up much more of the landscape than the LED lamp is capable of. This image is a single-frame photo that I shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1620474590674-BTJYJZ2BR74CRZ45DROI/magellanic-monuments.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Magellanic Monuments The Magellanic Clouds–the fuzzy and bright puffs in the top half of my photo–seem to be hanging in space over these two headstones in the graveyard of the Tangmangaroo Anglican Church near Yass, Australia. These celestial siblings are known as the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, respectively, and are dwarf galaxies that travel through our part of the universe along with our Milky Way. The light from the atmospheric feature called airglow was backlighting the scene with its bottle-green glow and was so intense that I needed to reduce its saturation when I edited the image before posting. I lit the monuments and foreground growth with some LED banks, and a passing truck’s high-beam lights shone through as I had the camera’s shutter open, giving a blue-white look to the tree and grasses behind the cross. I shot eight single-frame photos that I then blended in both Adobe Photoshop and Starry Landscape stacker to create a final image with the foreground elements and the beautiful starry sky all in focus. Each of the eight individual frames was shot using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1620736605691-Y1CXKBDEI46SF7KMIKPR/better-luck.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Better Luck Our media loves to hype up a meteor shower, and the 2021 Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower was as hyped here in Australia as it’s ever been. The Eta Aquariids doesn’t perform as well in the Southern Hemisphere as it does near the equator and further north, but I headed south last Friday night anyway, desperate to get back under the stars. My cameras shot off 380 photos over the 1.5 hours I was on Seven Mile Beach near Gerroa, Australia. For that effort and the 220-odd kilometre round-trip, I ended up with only four photos showing meteors. One of those turned out not to be an Eta Aquariid member, so my count for this famed shower was three meteors. The bright green streak of light in this photo is the best of the four meteors that I photographed, and its position in the sky near Jupiter at least adds another point of interest. The Moon had risen only a few minutes before the photo, its golden glow looking diffused due to the light sea fog that hung around for my visit. My photo for today is a single-frame image that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1621205697641-G1HCVPK9Z87F99Y3UX4B/patiently-cautious.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Patiently Cautious The next train wasn't due to pass through this crossing for over seven-and-a-half hours after I photographed it on Saturday night (15th May), but the signal light was in the "caution" state, per the railway system's rules. The amber-coloured beacon didn't seem as bright as it shows in the photo, which shows how much amber light was spilling over the rail corridor and surrounding farmland. There wasn't much of note in this area of the sky last night, but I managed to capture a few significant objects in my image. You can see the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy (midway down the left-hand side of the photo), the bright star Canopus (up and to the left of the signal light), and the open star cluster Caldwell 96 (up and to the left of Canopus). If I'd hung around for a couple of hours, the view would have been better, with the Milky Way's band standing vertical at the end of the tracks. I used a Lume Cube LED lamp to light the shot's foreground and captured the scene with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.6, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1621428590409-R88W353MJ6LSO7PSXU1G/headland-of-the-heavens.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Headland of the Heavens Gliding slowly and silently up towards the zenith, the centre of our Milky Way–its galactic core–provided a beautiful backdrop for the shapes and tones of the rocks that make up this southern headland at Gerroa, Australia, when I visited there last night (Tuesday 18th May). I’d driven to this location on the slim chance of being able to photograph the Aurora Australis, inspired by the intense activity of one week ago, which I missed out on due to needing sleep. There was no auroral activity last night, though, but with dark and clear skies and no wind to disturb my doings, I shot this and some other Milky Way images, then drove north for home. I took two single-frame photos to create this final shot, with one of those focusing on the rocks and the second one homing in sharply and squarely on the magic Milky Way. After some quick and simple edits in Adobe Lightroom, I blended the two shots in Photoshop to produce what you’re looking at now. My equipment and settings for the two original images were: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1621553468326-68LVQF1X4BI11VJ62YLV/Reflections+Above+and+Below.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Reflections Above and Below The green glow of squid trawlers out to sea–and over the horizon–was reflected off the low cloud bank that was slowly moving away from the coast when I captured this photo at Gerroa, Australia, earlier this week. I framed the shot to place the planet Saturn midway across the frame. After travelling close to 1.44 billion kilometres across space (about 895 million miles), the giant world's light was reflected by the seawater in the rock pool and up to my camera. The driftwood at the water's edge added an extra foreground feature to the scene. This photo is a single-frame image that I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1621889794418-OWNCH7GDWQH4YHG34UVL/the-last-train-to-bomaderry.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - The Last Train to Bomaderry There aren’t a lot of trains that run on the southernmost section of the South Coast Line in New South Wales, so I was pleased to have been able to “catch” this passenger train as it whizzed through the level crossing on Saturday night, 15th May, with the Milky Way rising in the background. The driver had to sound the train’s horn as he approached, and even though I knew that would be the case, I still jumped when he hit the button to send the sound waves screaming forth! Due to the brightness of the train’s lights, I shot two photos to create the final image that I’m posting here. The first shot was taken a minute or so before the train’s approach, with the camera set to catch the details of the Milky Way. After that, I quickly reduced the camera’s sensitivity so that the train’s much-brighter lights wouldn’t overwhelm the second photo. Next, I blended the two single frames in Photoshop. I used the same camera and lens for each photo; my Canon EOS 6D Mk II DSLR fitted a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens. The shot without the train was exposed for 10 seconds, at an aperture of f/2.4, with the camera’s ISO set to 6400. For the train photo, I changed the lens aperture to f/8.0 and dialled the ISO down to 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1627214934309-27DMR9Y0AW3AMU0MSVFN/ghostly-gum-and-a-couple-of-galaxies.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Ghostly Gum and a Couple of Galaxies With our city of Sydney, Australia currently in lockdown due to the COVID-19 Delta variant, I find it liberating to look at my night-sky photos. The images are a reminder that I’ll be back out under the stars once again–hopefully soon–breathing the fresh country air and appreciating how good life can be. I shot this photo of the ghostly remnant of a gum tree–an Australian eucalypt–under the Magellanic Cloud galaxies when I stayed at Tuross Head, New South Wales, back in early June. The purplish tinge of the atmospheric airglow that was prominent in the sky on the night provided a lovely backdrop for the blue-white wisps of light known as the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds. If you look at the sky over the top-left half of the tree, you can see some dark patches punctuating the brighter background. These disturbances are caused by a phenomenon known as gravity waves, which are not to be confused with the more enigmatic “gravitational waves” that were first detected in 2015. Today’s photo is a single-frame image that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1627777860240-LCGUHJLJNQ6VMSQA523R/wallaga-serenity.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Wallaga Serenity On the first night of a stay at my beloved Tuross Head (New South Wales, Australia) back in April of this year, I drove to the still and shallow waterway known as Wallaga Lake for a nightscape photography outing. Although it looks like waves are breaking on the distant shore, the bright and white streak stretching across the bottom of my photo was caused by the lights of a car as it lined up to cross the lake's single-lane wooden bridge. Through what turned out to be a haze-laden night, the Milky Way's core region commenced another of its daily climbs up the southeastern sky, flaunting its beautiful features for any who were watching. You can see the various colours of the stars, nebulae, dust lanes, and dark gas clouds concentrated in this section of our home galaxy in my photo. I shot this single-frame photo using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1627940567685-39IH8LNVP21NLF68HZQB/hay-in-the-shed-stars-in-the-sky.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Hay in the Shed, Stars in the Sky I shot today's photo in June of this year during another visit to my family's holiday shack at Tuross Head, NSW, Australia. My cloud forecasting apps had convinced me to stay in for this cold and dewy night, but a quick check outside before going to bed rewarded me with a sky clear of clouds. I had seen this hay shed earlier in the year during another outing and was keen to feature it in some of my photos, so I drove there for what would turn out to be my only nightscape photo session for this long weekend. Although fogged in a few times during my visit, I was happy to see the mist clear as I set up to shoot this vertical panorama. You can see the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy hovering low in the sky over the rear of the shed, with the bountiful band of the Milky Way stretching from the structure's front and up towards the zenith. In the end, there was a fine layer of fog higher up in the sky, which had the effect of making the Milky Way look more "milkier" than I prefer in the final photo. I shot this image by capturing eight overlapping photos that I then stitched together using software on my Mac. For each of those single shots, I used my Canon EOS R camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1628166919018-ENB21RW7DEFWHT1BHD7E/milky-way-mercy-mission.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Milky Way Mercy Mission While I was shooting a time-lapse sequence of the Milky Way rising over the Moruya River (Australia) in early April of this year, I heard the faint sound of a helicopter over the valley and mountains behind me. Ever the geek, I opened the Flightradar24 app on my phone to find that the inbound was a rescue chopper coming across from the Canberra Hospital, a flight of about 100 km (60 mi). Although the airborne ambulance flew directly to the nearby Moruya hospital, its return leg saw it taking off towards the river, creating the bright arc through the trees that my photo captured. A whisper of fog was clinging to the river’s surface, giving it a milky look to match the starry Milky Way dominating the heavens above it. Today’s photo is a stacked composite/blend that combines six shots from the 490-frame time-lapse sequence my camera was capturing. I combined the six frames in the program Starry Landscape Stacker to reduce digital noise and enhance the photo’s clarity. Using Photoshop, I also blended the individual frames to show the chopper’s light trail as a continuous streak, rather than the broken segments captured on each photo. I took each shot using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1628392279645-MJIMEF728AIEMAOQMQTP/envious.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Envious I guess you’re familiar with the expression that a person was “green with envy” when someone else received or achieved something special that they themselves didn’t. My photo today makes me envious of someone alright–I’m envious of myself for having been able to travel and take pictures like this only a few months ago. The COVID lockdown in my city isn’t due to be lifted before the end of August, and with no certainty about that happening, I’m lamenting having to miss out on getting away for some photography. The green colour in the sky and reflecting from the water in my photo is from what’s called “atmospheric airglow”. Sunlight hits atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere during the day, giving them a charge that they release at night in the form of light. One of the common colours that airglow gives off is green, making my photo look like I slipped with one of Lightroom’s colour-adjustment sliders. I shot two photos–one focussed on the sky and the other set to highlight the wharf’s railings–that I blended in Adobe Photoshop to create this final image. Each of those two photos was taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1629547286008-LQV5GB41CAW6JMI8FWKV/A+Worthwhile+Long+Wait.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - A Worthwhile Long Wait This panorama of the Milky Way arching over a long-abandoned silo in a fallow sugar cane field has been a long time coming. Located in northern New South Wales, Australia, my first sighting of the relic was in July of 2017. I didn't get the chance to photograph it until a year later, when I spent a couple of hours shooting several compositions, including this 53-image beauty. It's a little over three years since I shot those photos, and I'm only now posting the results, but I have no idea why it's taken me so long. The trees growing through the side and top of the decrepit structure remind me of the "life finds a way" line from Jurassic Park. The nearby city of Lismore is responsible for the yellowed burst of light at the right-hand end of the Milky Way's arch. As I mentioned already, this panorama was created from 53 individual photos, each of which I shot using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. My camera was mounted on a NodalNinja 3 panoramic head. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1629805178209-8SQLHK5V3BU341XJ60UX/friendly-invitation.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Friendly Invitation In September of 2017, fellow nightscape photographer Ian Williams invited me to visit him in Canberra, Australia’s capital city, for a night sky photography session. Following one of Ian’s nightscape workshops, we headed south through the town of Cooma, eventually stopping in one of the area’s characteristic rocky fields. Despite the near-zero temperature, we spent a few hours making the most of the ultra-dark and mostly cloudless night, shooting as many compositions as we could before our fingers almost froze. Although I’ve previously shared other shots from that night, the image I’m posting today has been languishing in the depths of my hard drive for nearly four years. As well as the Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way, I included Ian and his ghostly double in my 38-frame panorama. The galaxies M31 and M33 are also in the picture but are almost washed out by the yellow light-bloom from Cooma, 26 km distant (16 mi). Here are the settings and equipment I used to shoot each of the 38 frames that make up the panorama. Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1630494643324-V2V5ES774EL30CI2XV2V/not-according-to-plan.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Not According to Plan The total lunar eclipse of 26 May 2021–aka the “Super Blood Moon”–was an event I’d been planning to photograph for around six months. As it turned out, the weather and a transport problem on the night of the event had me starting my photography after the eclipse began and at a location that offered less than ideal lighting conditions. Due to a few factors after the eclipse, I’m only now posting any photos from the night, three months later. After totality ended, I saw on my phone’s flight-tracker app that a passenger jet would pass over my spot in the Royal National Park, so I grabbed a shot of the plane as it flew by. I captured this photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 50 mm @ f/6.3, using an exposure time of 5.0 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1630669922122-6EK4N9CYVJDWJCLTL3S3/morning-stars-and-the-morning-star.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Morning Stars and the Morning Star I shot today’s photo fourteen months ago, long before my city of Sydney, Australia, went into our longest and toughest COVID lockdown. It lifts my soul to look at photographs and recall the beauty that’s waiting beyond our metropolis, leaving me longing for when we can travel to our country’s beautiful rural areas and once again see the people and places that we miss. My photo shows the Pleiades, the planet Venus–the Morning Star–and the Hyades in Taurus, plus the familiar outline of the constellation Orion rising over Coila Lake at Tuross Head, New South Wales, Australia. The hint of peachy colour on the horizon foretells the imminent beginning of another day in paradise. This single-frame photograph was captured using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 5.0 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1630846599095-HIEJ8LUV75NF53NJZM9Q/hugging-the-hill.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Hugging the Hill My “must edit this” folder in Adobe Lightroom has come through again, giving me this photo of the Milky Way slipping over the headland at Gerroa, NSW, Australia, that I captured in June 2018. Mars was impossible to miss as it followed the Milky Way’s band towards the western horizon, shining in its orange glory in my shot. The beach at this headland is almost devoid of sand, with pebbles, stones and shell fragments covering the area above the waterline. Although I ended up with this (almost) square-format image, I shot 20 single-frame photos to create a four-row by five-column panorama on the night. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera for each of those individual frames, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1630931413241-W2BVFY68QXHOKMF1LK9K/june-morning-moon.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - June Morning Moon At the northeastern end of Sydney Harbour, Watsons Bay is renowned for its views of my city's most famous waterway. The sights here are excellent during the daytime or at night, even at the meeting of those two parts of each twenty-four hours, dusk and dawn. It was before dawn on a Saturday early in June of 2020 when I drove to the bay to photograph the Moon setting over Sydney's CBD skyline. My image for today is one of the many shots I clicked off that morning as I was periodically moving my camera and tripod along the bay's promenade to get the alignment of the Moon and the skyscrapers just how I wanted them. The photo is a single-frame image, shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm @ f/14, using an exposure time of 1/60 second @ ISO 2000. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1631449041196-BOAHXET0GWRV0IWZVOMF/half-a-circle.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Half a Circle You don't need to have followed me for long to notice that I've shot many of my images at the coastal town of Gerroa. Located 110 km (68 mi) south of my home in Sydney, Australia, Gerroa is the closest dark-skies destination that I can make a return journey to in one night. Taking in a sweep of 180 degrees of coastline, this nightscape panorama includes the Magellanic Clouds on the left, the grand arch of our Milky Way through the centre of the frame, and three planets to add extra interest. Mars is the bright orange orb at the top-right of my photo. Jupiter is close to the horizon–and reflected off the water–at the centre. Saturn lurks between Mars and Jupiter amidst the dust lanes and star clusters that populate the Milky Way's core region. I captured the sixty images that make up this panorama in June of 2018, sometime around 3:00 am. Each of the single frames was shot with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1631794721585-OL75D0IHJKKMWJ15UTEX/before-the-fog.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Before the Fog The 143-year-old Big Hill Uniting Church near Marulan, in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, is one of the many rural buildings I’ve been fortunate to have photographed under a starry night sky. When I visited the site one night in April of 2019, the air was saturated and almost raining dew on everything it wafted over. Air that’s so full of moisture means fog, and I was lucky to get the eight shots that make up this vertical panorama before there was too much mist to be missed, you might say. There’s a graveyard on the south side of the sanctuary, hidden from view in my photo, that’s on my list of sites to trek to next Milky Way season. I shot each of the eight individual frames that make up the panorama using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1632811398102-8BMJUGW6BIUVHKLZFHIE/tendrils.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Tendrils Made bare by autumn, these spindly tendrils seemed to reach out to the faraway light and warmth of the Milky Way as it climbed the eastern sky when I visited Bolong, Australia, in May of 2019. This image shows one of the things that leaves me in awe when I’m photographing the night sky. The trees in my photo are in silhouette because of the brightness of the starlight behind them. Those pinpricks of light that our eyes can often barely notice or resolve are streaming out luminance and colour aplenty, able to create art (in my opinion, at least) for any who go looking. To create this photo, I shot four individual images that I then combined in a process called “stacking” to reduce the amount of digital noise present. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera for each of those four shots, fitted with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1632919729974-YWW7L1SONFY7R8H3Z0TQ/across-the-silent-waters.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Across the Silent Waters Today’s photo is another that I found in my “to be processed” collection in Lightroom. The image is a vertical panorama that I created from nine single-frame photos. It captures the Milky Way and the planet Jupiter sliding down the southwestern sky at Nowra, Australia. A windless evening meant that the dark flow of the Shoalhaven River was ripple-free and happy to oblige me with a broad and dark mirror to bounce some starlight off. I missed out on photographing the setting Milky Way in this part of the sky in 2021 due to our COVID lockdown (now into its 14th week). I’m hoping for a more productive time next year! Each of the nine photos I used to create the final vertical panorama was shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, through a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1632050476419-F4OZDIAGSJTHXQF4L0QQ/nowra-hill-star-trails.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Nowra Hill star trails Late in October of 2019, I drove south to Nowra, New South Wales, for a nightscape photography trip. My first stop that night was on the northern slopes of Nowra Hill, where there is a cluster of telecommunications towers and the radar installation for the adjacent HMAS Albatross Naval Airport. The aviation warning lights atop the towers are a necessary part of the facility but aren’t very nightscape-friendly, resulting in the bright red glow you see in my photo. During the forty-five minutes that I was capturing the 201 shots used to create the final image, the Earth turned on its axis by a little over 11 degrees, resulting in the streaks of light here that we call “star trails.” To create this composite image, I shot the 201 single-frame photos with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/5.6, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. After some editing, I composited those 201 images with the free app “StarStaX” to create the trails. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1633383506608-SJJX4EZ84WIHIYQHCLVC/early-one-august-morning.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Early One August Morning Overshadowed in my photo by the Milky Way setting, Cambewarra Mountain rises to 617 metres (2024 feet), overlooking some of Australia’s best dairy country, including the hidden gem of Kangaroo Valley. Although it was a moonless night when I visited the area in August of 2018, the tree-covered prominence can be seen clearly in my photo, lit by the stray beams of street lamps and other light sources in the city of Nowra 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) to the south. Northern Hemisphere folk often tell me that they would love to visit a southern location to be able to see the Milky Way stretched out as I’ve captured it, at such a low angle to the western horizon. Maybe when international borders open up to tourists once again, I’ll get to see photos of our antipodean skies, taken by some of you people from the top of the planet! I shot twelve portrait-orientation photos to create this panoramic image. For each of those individual frames, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera fitted with a Canon 40mm f/2.8 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1633984761311-QOI9U90Z2N0V8L5TSNMK/core-in-the-creek.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Core in the Creek On a still, clear and very dark night back in March of 2021, I was blessed to be out photographing the starry band and galactic core of the Milky Way as it rose over mountains located southeast of Braidwood, Australia. Not only did I capture the glories of the stars, nebulae and dark dust clouds as they hung there in the sky, but the smooth waters of Jembaicumbene Creek provided me with a reflection of all of those wonders, too. A gasp of ground fog hung over the paddocks away towards the mountains while the beams spreading out from my LED light banks lit the lush grass along the creek’s banks and beyond. Atmospheric airglow lit the sky with the beautiful greenish hues you can see in my photo. After missing the last 15 weeks of Milky Way season due to my city’s COVID lockdown, looking at a picture like this reminds me that there’ll be plenty more chances to shoot the majestic Milky Way when the new year rolls around. I shot six single-frame photos that I stitched together in software to create this vertical panorama. For each of those individual images, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.6, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. The camera was mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1633984704951-4FACTEDFGM617MS8Q402/another-rising-milky-way.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Another Rising Milky Way Captured at the same location where I shot my previous post, today’s image is a single-exposure photo of the Milky Way’s rich and colourful galactic core climbing the southeastern sky near Braidwood, Australia. I don’t think my title above does the photo justice, but there are nights when I need to stop dithering over captions and get the photo posted! The rickety-looking timber bridge near the bottom of the frame is the place where I’d had my camera set up for a few hours already, as I shot single-frame and panoramic photos. Several nearby paddocks-worth of very noisy cows bellowed continuously to keep me company for all of that time. Shooting info for this photo is as follows; Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.6, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1634635936708-FZO04IQVGJ8US6M8SOTM/heading-for-the-horizon.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Heading for the Horizon Taken in November 2019, my photo shows the three percent illuminated Moon as it set behind hills near Nerriga, NSW, Australia, less than two days after the beginning of another lunar cycle. As well as the slender crescent of this very new Moon, I captured what's known as "earthshine." Sunlight that's reflected off our planet's oceans and clouds beams back into space and illuminates the portion of the Moon facing away from the Sun. I also caught the light trails of a passenger jet that passed over the location on its way from Sydney to Melbourne. The planet Saturn is up and to the right of those bright streaks on the left of the shot. Jupiter and four of its moons are between the jet and our Moon, all heading toward the horizon for another night. The photo is a single-frame image that I shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Tamron 70-300 mm lens zoomed to 218 mm @ f/5.6, using an exposure time of 2.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1635160054391-Q9SKDIXFYYA9AIE3DOYL/rising-rust.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Rising Rust In May of 2017, I photographed the Milky Way climbing up the sky over the Tasman Sea at Gerroa, Australia. The celestial wonders were reflected in the shallow pools formed by the tide rising over the extensive rock shelf that the headland is known for. Fossils dating from the Permian period were first discovered here by western scientists in 1847, and the location is still popular with amateur and professional geologists today. The background sky’s orange-brown colour was provided by the phenomenon known as atmospheric airglow, captured well by my camera but only visible as a greyish glow to my unaided eyes. You can see stars from the constellations of Scorpius and Sagittarius reflected from the water’s surface, as well as the red beacon from a second camera that I’d set up to shoot a time-lapse sequence. To create this vertical panoramic image, I shot six overlapping single-frame photos with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time for each frame of 13.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1635333226416-3WZWS3PIN38VYGL0NHWO/the-heart-of-our-home.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - The Heart of our Home When I stand at the ocean's shore, like here at Tuross Head, Australia, I always marvel at how vast the world's bodies of water are. Then I look up at the sky and see something infinitely more vast. As the late author Douglas Adams wrote, "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." Gazing at the centre of my photo, you're looking at the heart of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. At the speed of light, it would take a mere 27,000 years to travel to the black hole at the centre of that centre-point. Take some kids along for the ride, and you'd be hearing, "are we there yet?" for quite a while! I created this photo using a process called "stacking", which combines multiple shots of the same scene to remove digital noise and improve the quality of the final image. Next, I blended the stacked output with a single photo to show a foreground with some detail in the waves. For each of the blended 19 single shots, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, with an exposure time of 8 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1635595070205-YBK82P3EUJ09JI3JEYSS/fields-of-light.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Fields of Light In less than two days from when I’m writing this, the COVID travel restrictions on our city will be lifted. Hopefully, I’ll soon be able to take a drive to places where the skies are dark and welcoming. All I need is for the weather to cooperate! Today’s photo is from the last nightscape session I had before that lockdown began in June this year. The Milky Way’s starry band had flipped past vertical and was gently gliding towards the western horizon as I captured this scene. My LED light banks, perched atop fence posts, did a fine job of lighting the foreground, highlighting the beautiful remains of a once-flourishing tree. The headlamps of cars driving south on the Princes Highway lit the fields in the distance, and you can see the bright and bluish high-beam lights from a northbound vehicle as well. I shot seven overlapping photos in landscape orientation to create a vertical panorama of the fields and the sky. After stitching those shots using software on my Mac, I cropped the top of the image to make it easier to view on social media. I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera for each of those seven single frames, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1635763646996-CG8HOJ6B6GTUQBXJXB5B/timber-bridge-and-rising-galaxy.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Timber Bridge and Rising Galaxy Another of the satisfying and (imho) spectacular photos I captured near Braidwood, Australia, in March of this year, today’s post shows the Milky Way’s galactic core peeking over the distant mountains. I captured this scene a little before midnight. The photo is my attempt to convey how the serenity of the location, the charm of the long-standing timber bridge and the immensity of the heavens combined to give me one of the best photography sessions I’ve had in 2021. The dark nebulae stretching through the section of the Milky Way that reaches up from above the core are collectively known by many of Australia’s indigenous peoples as “The Dark Emu”, from the shape that they form against the starry background. This photograph is a single-frame image, shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/4.0, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1636025947399-XF1NVFZBYRHCBRZNOU4M/swathe-of-starlight.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Swathe of Starlight After waiting the best part of four months for my city’s Covid restrictions to be lifted, and this weekend presenting the last chance to photograph the Milky Way’s core for 2021, now the weather is against me! With the forecast showing rain and heavy cloud for the next week, I’ll have to keep trawling my hard drives for unposted images. Today’s photo is one of those unseen gems, shot in July of 2018. Mars was bright and orange on this night, dominating the upper left-hand corner of my photo. The gas-giant planet Jupiter is diagonally opposite Mars, hovering over the light bloom coming from the city of Canberra. Hanging low in the sky in the bottom-left of the scene are the Magellanic Clouds, two dwarf galaxies and year-round features of the southern hemisphere’s night sky. The Milky Way’s central band, including its galactic core, stretches up from the tree-line towards the top-right of the vertical panorama. The location for this photo was on Braidwood Road near Nowra, Australia. I photographed 54 overlapping images to create the final image, shooting each of those single frames with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1636284933392-X7G8TLXBUG309VL5L7SD/What+Was+and+What+Will+Be.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - What Was and What Will Be In May 2021, people in many parts of the world viewed a total lunar eclipse, including me here in Australia. My photo for today is a composite of nine frames from that event, shot with my DSLR camera while it was attached to my Skywatcher Dobsonian 8” telescope. In less than two weeks from now, we’re going to be treated to a partial lunar eclipse. Don’t let the adjective “partial” deter you from trying to view or photograph this one, though. The Earth’s shadow will cover 97% of the Moon’s face, which is very close to a total eclipse of our planet’s rocky companion. The event will begin on 19 Nov 2021 at 06:02:09 UTC. You can learn where this eclipse will be visible using the link at the end of this paragraph. If you’re viewing my photo on Instagram, you’ll need to type the link into your web browser manually, but it will be clickable on other social media sites. There’s a box on the page where you can input your own location and see specific information for where you’ll be. https://bit.ly/eclipsenov2021 Due to the exposure time and camera’s ISO settings being different for each of the nine shots in my photo, I haven’t included my usual technical info here. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1636803996043-YLQZ0XDXWAC9JZEJ2J3F/a-tiny-green-bauble.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - A Tiny Green Bauble In December of 2018, the comet 46P/Wirtanen made a close pass to Earth, coming as near as 12 million km to our planet. Sure, if you had to drive that distance in your car, 12 million km isn’t really “near”, but in the realm of astronomy, we almost bumped into each other! I’ve seen plenty of better photos of the comet than the one in today’s post, but for a single-exposure shot taken with a DSLR and a 24 mm lens, I think I did OK. The comet’s green colour indicates that the heavenly traveller contains large amounts of cyanide/cyanogen and diatomic carbon molecules. This visit was close to Christmas, so I preferred to imagine the comet being a lovely green Christmas bauble. Captured at St David’s Anglican Church at Burrawang, Australia, my photo was taken using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1637408155485-24F827HW89FJPFF7LQ5X/On+the+Eclipse+Bandwagon.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - On the Eclipse Bandwagon I've seen swathes of excellent photos online of Friday's lunar eclipse (early evening on 19th November in my time zone). With my location–my whole state–covered in clouds for the entirety of the event, it's been great seeing how it appeared for those with clearer skies.As the title of today's post says, I'm jumping on the eclipse bandwagon, bringing you a photo that I shot during a previous lunar eclipse. Captured at Gerroa, Australia, in July 2018, my image shows the totally-eclipsed Moon sharing the frame with the planet Mars and a portion of a satellite trail. The eastern sky was starting to brighten due to the coming sunrise–still about 30 minutes away–so the night sky's black was morphing to a more daylight blue. My photo is a single-frame exposure shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 161 mm @ f/5.6, using an exposure time of 1.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1637579974400-6O1KSPA0C3F6FDNH6BZ9/fog-and-flame.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Fog and Flame While one camera was facing east to capture a time-lapse sequence of the Milky Way’s core rising over the Tasman Sea, I hurried to the road that runs atop the levee across Wallaga Lake, Australia, to photograph heavenly gems in the western sky. Although the view to the east was clear, a sheet of high-level cloud was diffusing the starlight over the lake, rendering the twinkling suns as bright orbs rather than the pinpricks of light ordinarily visible. The constellation Orion was already halfway over the hills to the west, and the brightest star visible in the night sky, Sirius, was a glowing blue-white blob higher up in the heavens. If you zoom in, you can see the purple glow of the Orion Nebula lighting the clouds, and to its lower left, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse scraping the top of a distant rise. A single-frame image, my photo was shot using a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 8 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1637928314427-BJKQ76RLDECLP9UDA2E9/rural-resting-place.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Rural Resting Place The ancient and vast form of our Milky Way galaxy was rising in the south-eastern sky near Yass, Australia, when I photographed this scene at the Tangmangaroo All Saints Church in April 2021. A truck heading northwest on the Lachlan Valley Way made its presence known as its super-bright headlights illuminated the countryside, and my LED banks fought back as they lit the crumbling monuments in the overgrown graveyard. I created this image by combining two photos that had differing focal points. The first image was captured with the lens focusing on the background, and for the second shot, I ensured that the monuments were the sharpest features of the frame. Blending the two images into this final scene was done in Adobe Photoshop. I used the same camera and settings for both photos, namely my Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/3.2, using a 13-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1638218250191-39GMXX1IAF9WPCI79MKI/the-cows-are-in-the-meadow.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - The Cows are in the Meadow These cows were outside the meadow, it turns out, but I figured I’d steal that nursery-rhyme line for my title. One of my favourite formats from the nightscape photography genre is what’s known as a vertical panorama. I’ve previously posted a photo or two from this shoot I did with my friend Geoff Sharpe back in February of 2021 but still had this composition waiting in the wings. The quirky cows perched on the verge–and on each other–next to a rural road near Harden, Australia, seemed like a suitable choice for my vertical pano of the Milky Way rising into the early morning sky. The green atmospheric airglow and the rising core of our home galaxy seemed to hold the cows’ attention quite well. I shot seven overlapping single-frame images that I blended in software to create this final vertical pano. Each of those individual shots was captured using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1638440187207-E8F96MVXIYC4TI067RO9/level.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Level A windless night and clear skies provided ideal conditions for creating this image of the Milky Way laid out parallel to the horizon in the Jerrawangala National Park near Nowra, Australia. Seeing our galaxy laying level like this, over the Australian bush, with the still water of the pond underneath, reminds me of what a blessing it is to be able to stop working, take some time out and appreciate the beauty of Creation. The bright, white starlike object at the top right is Jupiter, again dominating the heavens with its glory. Jupiter was one of the first delights I enjoyed when I bought a telescope over 40 years ago, and I still smile when I look at the night and see its beautiful beacon beaming forth, even in the light-polluted city where I live. This image is known as a “stack”, created by taking multiple photos in a short period and combining them to remove digital noise to enhance the view. Each of the ten single-frame shots was taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1643266335375-DBHYIOAQQ5K5WMZT2ZGK/image-asset.jpeg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Moruya Milky Way The Milky Way’s galactic core, shining through the glowing green of atmospheric airglow, rising over the Moruya River at Moruya, Australia. I rarely shoot video in this vertical format, but since “the young people” seem to love this aspect ratio, I tipped my camera on its side, mounted it on my tripod and shot an hour’s worth of frames for something different. There are a few flashes from headlights as vehicles passed over the causeway where my camera was positioned, unfortunately. If you’re so inclined, you can watch for the meteor that flashes on the lefthand side a little before the 7:00 second mark; the mists that come and go over the river’s surface throughout the clip; and the Toll Rescue helicopter that took off from the local hospital at about 11 seconds from the start. All up, I shot 310 single photos that I combined in Final Cut Pro to make this video. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, for each of those shots, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1643265718550-ZCKYCIZM9M1WKE241J1G/gibbousness.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Gibbousness While waiting for the Sun to set last Friday night–in my vain pursuit to photograph Comet Leonard–I snapped this image of the 96% gibbous moon as it rose over Black Head Point at Gerroa, Australia. Clouds moved in from the west not long before sunset, robbing me of the chance to capture the comet, but I enjoyed the night out anyhow, being my first trip out of my city limits in six months. The image is a single-frame photo, taken with my Canon EOS 7D camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 191 mm @ f/32, using an exposure time of 1/50 sec @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1641852209089-2HRYYCJVXR8EDU2SEBZB/commencing-with-a-comet-and-covid.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Commencing with a Comet and Covid Welcome to 2022! That’s a late welcome, I know, but I mean it all the same. After a ten-day holiday with my wife and friends, then getting waylaid by Covid on my return home, I’m happy to be back to my passion, bringing you the wonders from above. Shooting nightscape photos wasn’t a priority for our driving holiday through Australia’s Snowy Mountains. However, I still stole a few hours to get out and try to capture Comet Leonard, the heavenly traveller that’s received much attention over the past month. It’s only now that I’m back and some of the Covid “brain fog” has cleared that I’ve had the time and concentration to process the shots I took. Today’s photo was shot on Monday, 27th December 2021, and is a stack of sixteen images showing the comet low in the western sky over the fields near Tumut, Australia. I was very excited seeing the comet and its tail showing up on my camera’s preview screen, I can tell you! I shot sixteen individual photos to create this final stacked composite image, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1641899007152-64NCSTIQPL4UH4YXVTOO/an-unfamiliar-view.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - An Unfamiliar View My title’s a little misleading, I guess. It’s not that I haven’t seen this part of the sky before–it’s a common sight in the evenings of our Australian summer. The location that I shot at, on the southeastern outskirts of The Australian rural town of Tumut, was somewhere new for me. This particular scene with the Magellanic Clouds, the Coal Sack Nebula, and the central band of the Milky Way over the lonely Tumut Plains Road was an unfamiliar view. I usually put a lot of effort into avoiding power lines in my shots, but in this case, I think the lonely pole and its delicate black strings across the starry sky add interest to the composition. I plan to revisit Tumut in 2022. With the offer of accommodation at the home of one of my cousins very much open, picking the right time to visit will probably come down to the weather and having an available weekend. This photo is a single-frame image, shot with my Canon EOS R camera, a Canon 16 mm f/2.8 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1642073656669-OVJ20GT690ET9IMO6GY9/leonard-again.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Leonard, Again How could I pass up the chance to bring you another of the images of Comet Leonard that I shot right at the end of 2021? I could only see the comet as a faint streak in the sky, even using averted vision, where you view an object by not looking at it directly. That unaided view was nothing more than a hint of how wonderfully my camera would capture the light from this visitor that won't return to our planet's skies for another 80000 years or thereabouts. There were only two nights when I could get out for some nightscape photography during our recent driving tour of the Snowy Mountains and Canberra regions of my state of New South Wales, Australia. Happily, I got shots of the comet on both nights, and this one was from the second night at Tumut, NSW. I created the image by shooting 19 individual frames and combining them using the "stacking" process, reducing digital noise and enhancing the scene's overall clarity. I shot each of those single photos with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera through a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 8 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1642249046533-CQDM9IXXPTCJTQXNIOAX/too-much-red.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Too Much Red? I was sure I’d charged my “Lumecube” LED lights before heading out to get some night shots while in Tumut, Australia, in late December. No matter how long I pressed the On button for though, I couldn’t get those little lights to shine. Rather than turn my car around so its front parking lights would give some glow to my foreground, I let the rear–and very red–parking lights do the job. That wasn’t a wise move, so I hope this photo will come to mind the next time I toy with letting rip with the red! In the upper-middle part of the photo, it seems the red light from my car has spilt onto the sky. The crimson tinges are from the Eta Carinae Nebula, an area of dark and bright gases located about 8500 light-years from Earth. The Southern Cross is hovering over the left side of the tree on the right of my photo, pointing down towards the midline of the scene. I shot this single-frame photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera through a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1642419362016-SRMYAN8X4VQRIMI9CI56/366-days-ago.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - 366 Days Ago With my seven-day Covid isolation now into its tenth day, I've not been able to get out and capture new nightscape images. Looking back yesterday at what I'd shot in 2021, I saw that on January 16th last year, I'd visited the rock shelf at Gerroa, Australia, to try to photograph the Milky Way's galactic core before sunrise. Sifting through the images that I hadn't already posted from that outing, I found a couple of shots that looked like they'd stitch together well into a square-format picture. The galactic core was rising behind the cloud bank off the coast, its brilliant cauldron of millions of stars lighting the sky as a forerunner of the imminent onset of twilight. The waves breaking at the edge of the shelf were glowing blue from the presence of bioluminescent organisms, adding to the wonder of the moment. The two single frames that make up this stitched image were taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera through a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1643259355653-ITC6H983HE613P7L9YS9/image-asset.jpeg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Horse Island Rising Core A breeze draws shapes on top of the water as the Milky Way's core climbs the southeastern sky over Horse Island at Tuross Head, Australia. I created this time-lapse sequence from 410 individual images captured over 80 minutes in April 2021. While my camera clicked away at the behest of its intervalometer, I took in the beautiful darkness above and around me, the sounds of the nightlife in the trees, and enjoyed the solitude afforded me. Each of the photos that makes up the video sequence was taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1643259918859-A8KDL0D4UJ5X7O3NTD6P/image-asset.jpeg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Wallaga Galactic Fog Today's post is the last of three time-lapse sequences I captured during a visit to the far south coast of my home state of New South Wales, Australia, in April 2021. I was blessed with three cloud-free nights during our four-night stay, and considering how long I spent in Covid lockdown for the rest of 2021, those three nights of photography were priceless. This video was the first of those time-lapses, captured at Wallaga Lake, an estuarine enclosure listed as the largest lake in the state's southern half and of significance to our indigenous Yuin people. I caught the Milky Way's core rising over the small dunes that mark the divide between the lake's waters and the Tasman Sea. You can see some wisps of cloud moving across the scene during the ninety minutes that my camera was capturing photos. Unfortunately, the lens suffered from fogging by the end of the sequence, blurring the footage. In total, I shot 491 single-frame images to create the time-lapse. I took each of those photos with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1643973161479-R5PN2TD0LDFSRD9SFB8K/a-meteor-in-the-middle.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - A Meteor in the Middle I was fortunate to capture a meteor’s glowing streak in the dead centre of this image when I shot it in May of 2021. Out on the horizon, you can see the green glow from a small fleet of squid-fishing boats, their lamps shining in all directions and lighting the bank of clouds above them. Above the second and third trawler lights, Saturn was slowly climbing the sky. You can see its glow reflecting across the surface of the ocean pools between the shell-laden beach and the line of breakers. The tendrils of dark interstellar dust and gas between the Milky Way and the top of the frame give the sky an untidy look as if dark cobwebs had built up to blot out the starlight behind them. This photo is a vertical panorama that I created from eight individual images. Each of those eight frames was shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1644319923910-J9AY782OUDZHAEG1TZHA/no-sign-of-spielberg.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - No sign of Spielberg I reckon this photo could be a scene of Steven Spielberg’s classic film, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” The mysterious oncoming light in the distance, the Milky Way stretched out above and the boom gates pointing skywards hint at something cosmic and strange. Given how few rail services run on this line, you’d probably have more chance of seeing an alien spaceship than a train, I’d say! Captured near the rural town of Berry, Australia, my photo combines elements from the hobbies of my childhood–railways and space–and from my later teen years when my interest in photography germinated. Clear and quiet nights like this one in May 2021 are an excellent chance to revel in the moment and enjoy making some art. I created this vertical panorama by shooting seven overlapping photos that I stitched in software on my Mac. Each of those individual frames was shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1645440166654-SMFG29UW51630WDGEHAO/night-or-day.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Night or Day The Moon was two days from its “full” phase when I captured this scene at Gerroa Headland, on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Look closely, and you’ll notice there are stars in the sky, despite the blue and daytime look of the image. Moonlight is simply the Sun’s light reflected from the Moon’s surface, and its rays are affected by the same “Rayleigh scattering” process that makes our cloudless daytime skies blue. Shining above the horizon on the right of the shot is the planet Venus, which was visible in the early evening sky when I took this photo in December last year but is now the “morning star” for those up early enough to see it. The equipment and settings I used for this photo are as follows: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/4.5, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1649594098668-SRP51ULCU2NWIZHK8XG0/at-last.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - At Last! Sunday night of last weekend (3rd April), I went out for my first nightscape shoot of 2022. Being in Covid isolation while I had it, then my son and finally my wife, contributed to being stuck at home, but by far, it has been the cap of cloud over my part of Australia that did the most damage to my plans. We’ve had our entire year’s average rainfall already! Getting out to shoot was liberating, even if the forecast of cloudless sky missed the mark a little. The green atmospheric airglow that night was pumping, evidenced by the colour of the sky in my photo and its reflection in the rock pools here at the Gerroa Headland, Australia. I sure hope I’ll be out again soon for more nightscaping. I shot six overlapping landscape-orientation frames to make this vertical panorama using my Canon EOS R camera, a Canon 16 mm f/2.8 lens @ f2.8, with an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1650887840741-FUVWTHLUCEBNUVDHDP33/not-quite-full.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Not Quite Full Although Easter Sunday in Australia this year marked the coming of the full Moon, there seemed to be some bites taken from the orb as it rose over the Tasman Sea, at least from my spot near the local landmark, One Tree Hill at Tuross Head. Earth's natural satellite's full and familiar face was unveiled once our planet's rotation made the Moon seem to climb higher up the southeastern sky, its shimmer lighting the faces of the few dozen people who'd come to watch the event on this holiday evening. Although I prefer photographing the night sky when the Moon is less present, I still enjoy trying to capture magic moments like this to bring to you. My photo is a single-frame image taken with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500 mm f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm @ f/6.3, shot at a shutter speed of 1/15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1652687025076-SYVI2FNLWSXF44K5WSAD/when-worlds-align.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - When Worlds Align The conjunction of Jupiter and Venus on May 1 this year was undoubtedly a sight to get up early for, or in my case, to still be awake for. Although I was staying at my favourite coastal town, Tuross Head (Australia), for the weekend, it was cloudy there on the night of April 30, so I drove to clearer skies, stopping at the lovely Cottage Beach on my way back to bed. Venus and Jupiter were so close to each other in the sky that they show here as one very bright star-like light, so bright that the surface of the Tasman Sea reflected it. Mars and Saturn are also in the shot, and I was lucky to be treated to the flash of a meteor near where the Milky Way’s galactic core is located in my photo. A column of light passes through the Venus-Jupiter position, taking in Mars and Saturn along the way and finishing up near the Milky Way’s centre. This phenomenon is known as the Zodiacal Light, sometimes called the “false dawn”. This image is a single-exposure photo that I captured using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens @ f/3.5, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1652873724042-DDWU4M9I01IFLDWHQS2U/train%27s-long-gone.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Train's Long Gone This railway station at Holts Flat, Australia, saw its last passenger service pass through in March of 1975. Opening in 1921, the line to the rural town of Bombala was deemed financially unviable and eventually closed by our state government. Many of the original rails and sleepers remain in place, rusting and rotting into memory. At 991 metres above sea level (about 3250 feet), this area sees its share of cold weather. When I visited the lilliputian location on April 30, there was ice coating the entrance gate to the ruins and relics, so I put on an extra layer of clothing, “manned up,” and spent an hour shooting the stars. Alpha and Beta Centauri, the Southern Cross and the Coal Sack Nebula are featured around the centre of the photo. You can see the Large Magellanic Cloud hanging over the hill behind the station, and the whole scene is coloured green from the presence of atmospheric airglow. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera (fitted with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8) for this photo. The exposure time was 30 seconds, and the camera’s ISO was 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1653137312166-NA1TFFVDWCP2K92HTEYA/airy-bandb.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Airy B&B As tempted as I was to stay the night on the rocky beach at Gerroa Headland (Australia) after finishing a Milky Way photography session, I left this airy B&B for someone else to shelter in, should they want to. I’d spent nearly five hours here anyhow, without the winds that often haunt the location, so I headed home at what was an early hour for me. On the left side of my photo, you can see the orange streak of a meteor’s death flash, broken by some clouds near the horizon. The swathe of the Milky Way’s central band stretches from the lower left to the upper right of the frame, dominating the shot with its bright core region near the centre of the frame. This photo is a blend of two images, one focusing on the sky and the other on the timber tent. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera for each of those two shots and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1653394911470-KTG7J44VJ327LEXGVC4D/yes-the-wind-blows-at-night.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Yes, The Wind Blows at Night “They don’t work in the dark, and neither do our wind farms.” So went the declaration by one of Australia’s national politicians in 2021 when offering reasons our country shouldn’t move to renewables-based electricity generation. The “they” being referred to were solar farms, and for the most part, it’s true that once the sun goes down, a solar facility stops generating electricity. As my photo from the Boca Rock Wind Farm in New South Wales, Australia, shows, wind farms do work at night, their turbine blades shifting in response to air movements. As well as causing the turbine to rotate, the wind on this last night of April 2022 blew a layer of high and thin clouds across part of the sky. The presence of this airborne moisture diffused the light from the stars on the left side of my shot. Typically showing as pinpricks of light in photos, the Southern Cross, Pointers and many other starry features here look like fuzzy orbs of colour. As much as I love shooting with cloudless skies, I think the moisture in the air has added a nice touch to the scene. I took six single-frame shots to create this vertical panorama. The gear and settings for each photo were the same: a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1655036067888-7JKS0PVFR04M7DW3RY35/lights-over-the-waters.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Lights over the waters In 2020 & 2021, Covid lockdowns kept me from going on as many nightscape photo treks as in previous years. The first four months of 2022 here on the east coast of Australia were cloudy and wet, and then I got ill, so I've made even fewer treks with my camera in the year's top half. On one of my rare trips this year, I shot this image of the Milky Way rising over Piccaninny Beach at Potato Point, New South Wales. The white glow from a lone ship beyond the horizon shows the line between the ocean and the heavens, while the richness of the Milky Way's central hub tells of the wonderfully dark skies on offer when you can get well away from the big towns and cities where many of us live. To create this image, I shot five individual frames that I stacked in the Mac app, Starry Landscape Stacker, to reduce digital noise. Each of those single photos was captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1655595603362-V8YJ2NR07O3WXOVH6WE4/strawberry-supermoon.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Strawberry Supermoon The June full moon rising over Jibbon Point at Bundeena, Australia, where we don't follow the northern hemisphere's conventions for full moon events, like this month's "Strawberry Moon'." The reason is simple: our seasons here are six months offset to those in the planet's northern half. The Strawberry Moon was so-named by the Algonquin Native American tribe in the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada, and describes the short strawberry harvesting season in the region, in the northern spring. The only thing close to strawberry about this full moon for me was the pink look of the clouds. Down here, this month's full moon was simply the June full moon–a boring but accurate name. It was a "supermoon," though, adding some extra interest. I find most full moons worth viewing or photographing, be they strawberry, chocolate or vanilla! I shot this single-frame photo of the full moon using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500mm @ f/11, using a shutter speed of 1/125 second @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1656325191862-I20ZQU694VWU6FLGKFZY/supermoon-express.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Supermoon Express A Qantas 737 on final approach to Sydney's Kingsford Smith International Airport rides over the rising Supermoon of June 2022. Photographed from Oak Park, Cronulla, Australia with Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500mm @ f/8.0, using a shutter speed of 1/400 sec @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1656542181909-159LH3DK8TPLRDTEEVQ3/spot-the-sunspots.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Spot the Sunspots With an online name of "Nightscapades," you'd be right to think that my astronomical photos would all be shot at night. Indulge me with this image that I most definitely shot in the daytime, through my 8" (200mm) Dobsonian reflecting telescope. The photo shows our local star, the Sun, sporting several unmissable sunspots. (I wonder if, on other stars, like Betelgeuse, they're called "betelgeusespots"). Caused by intense magnetic field concentrations on the Sun's surface, sunspots often generate solar flares and other energetic bursts that result in beautiful auroral displays here on Earth. I captured this image with my Canon 7D camera, attached to the prime focus of the telescope I mentioned above. The exposure time was 1/500th of a second at ISO 100. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1657453954048-E3K38K97ELUVTN4JLTU5/lunar-aviation.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Lunar Aviation With the weather people forecasting clouds for the upcoming full Moon of July 2022–a “supermoon”–it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to photograph our planet’s natural satellite as it rises over the east coast of Australia. That being the case, I created this collage of images from the supermoon that occurred in June of this year. My 13-year-old camera and 19-year-old zoom telephoto lens did a fine job of capturing shots of some aircraft lining up on their approaches to Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport, with the full Moon as a backdrop. Considering how much planning I do to get night sky photographs that don’t include the Moon or aircraft, it was satisfying to shoot some images that included both of those intentionally. The six individual images in the collage were shot with a Canon EOS 7D camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens zoomed out to 500 mm and set at f/7.1, with the camera's ISO at 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1657975835257-CV4QM6KQJNYH7HXHGFCT/magical-mirror.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Magical Mirror On the only cloudless night of a recent trip to the south coast of New South Wales–our last night before heading home–I got lucky with clear skies & the chance to shoot some nightscape photos. After grabbing some sleep between dinner & the setting of the Moon at about 12:30, I drove 30 minutes south from Tuross Head to Corunna Lake. A popular and busy water-skiing location by day, the waterway was still, serene and deserted when I arrived. I'd come to shoot the Milky Way low in the western sky over the lake but couldn't pass up capturing this superb southern view with its colourful reflections of stars on the water's surface. In the centre and near the bottom of my photo, you can see the squiggly images of "The Pointers", the stars Beta and Alpha Centauri. The unmissable orange reflection of the star Gamma Crucis stands out from the other mirrored lights on the lake on the left of the photo, with the source of these colourful streaks–the Southern Cross–hanging in the sky a little above the tree line. Near the left-hand edge of the photo, I captured the crimson hues of the Eta Carina Nebula as it scraped over the tree tops, and you can see the town of Bermagui's lights shining off the low clouds in the south. I shot this single-frame image with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.6, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1658234183711-VUZQRLQ0FNLZYG2AOFQW/volcanic-twilight.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Volcanic Twilight When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano (aka "Hunga") erupted on January 15th this year, I didn't consider that its ash cloud would still be doing laps of our planet many months later. However, the purplish hues in this morning twilight photo that I shot at Tuross Head, Australia, in early July are evidence that the aerosol particles released by the volcanic eruption six months ago are still floating around above the Earth. Poking through that purple are several stars and constellations familiar to people worldwide. Hanging in the sky at the centre of my photo is Orion, with the hazy blob of M42–The Orion Nebula–clearly visible. On the left-hand side of the scene, I captured the constellation of Taurus and the inverted vee of the star cluster known as the Hyades, with the bright orb of Venus hovering over the pine trees below that feature. Sirius, the brightest star visible in the night sky, balances the picture as it glows almost as brightly as Venus, but over on the right. The star cluster M41 shows as a few speckles up and to the right of Sirius. This photo is a single-frame shot captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1658407021552-9742IZ33CMIPCB65B91G/clouds-amongst-the-green.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Clouds Amongst the Green A privilege of living in the Southern Hemisphere is being able to look up at a cloudless, dark night sky and be treated to seeing the two dwarf galaxies captured in my photograph, the Magellanic Clouds. As their name suggests, this pair of white wafts appear to be small clouds hanging in the heavens, and indeed that's what I thought they were the first time I noticed them, many decades ago. Travelling through space with our Milky Way galaxy, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are 163,000 light-years and 206,000 light-years from Earth, respectively. On the night I captured this scene (back in mid-April of 2022), a massive amount of atmospheric airglow lit the Earth's atmosphere. Although my camera captured the sky's green tint, this electro-chemical phenomenon made the heavens appear greyish-black when I looked up—human eyes don't see colours well in low-light conditions. Adding to the green theme of my post for today, I also captured the verdant beacons of two marine navigation lights positioned in Tuross Lake, marking out the edge of the waterway's main channel. I shot twenty-two single-frame images that I then stacked in the Macintosh app "Starry Landscape Stacker" to minimise digital noise in the final photo. Each of those photos was captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.6, and an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1659271701835-YVPFL2659HMSRT5UEMRK/not-many-meteors.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Not Many Meteors With three meteor showers at or near their peaks and all close to each other in the sky, I headed south to Gerroa, New South Wales, last Friday night, 29th July. Despite all my planning and preparation–including charging more camera batteries than I would need for even two nights of shooting, let alone one–I came home with only three frames that included flashes from the pesky atmospheric flameouts. I’ve included the best of the three photos in this post, the last 186 frames taken on the night. Although I visited Seven Mile Beach at Gerroa as I’d planned, I made a stop at the railway level crossing on O’Keeffes Lane near the town of Berry before returning home. Jupiter dominated the northeastern sky, and the railway tracks looked seductive as they reflected the light spilling from a nearby farmhouse, so I positioned my tripod next to the line for this photo. Sometime during the twenty seconds that the camera’s shutter was open, a meteor disintegrated in the Earth’s atmosphere, showing up as a bright streak in my picture, in a line roughly between Jupiter and Mars. Despite my relative lack of success on Friday night, I’m pleased with this photo’s composition and how it links the hobbies of my youth–astronomy and railways–in a lovely scene from a clear and quiet night. This photo is a single-frame image captured with my Canon EOS R camera, a Canon 16 mm f/2.8 lens @ f3.5, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1659445939078-I3SC0QU62QUSTH52BQ0G/structures.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Structures I hope the builders of this wooden wonder had fun putting up their little structure on Seven Mile Beach near Gerroa, Australia. The steeple of sticks served as an interesting foreground feature for this photo of the Milky Way suspended in the cloudless sky last Friday night. As noted in a few recent posts, I visited the beach to try to capture shots of meteors that were part of the Piscis Austrinids, Southern Delta Aquariids or Alpha Capracornids showers around this date. Knowing that photographing meteors is a hit-and-miss proposition, I made sure to get photos of a few other night sky features, including the megastructure that is the Milky Way’s galactic core and central band, so I wouldn’t go home empty-handed. The bright glow on the horizon on the left of the photo is light spilling from the regional city of Nowra, 19 km (11.8 miles)distant. I captured this single-frame photo with my Canon EOS R camera, fitted with a Canon RF 16 mm f/2.8 lens @ f4.0 using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1659870105030-WRTOZFNIYNBLJH21572G/clouds-crossing.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Clouds Crossing I thought the boom gate at this railway crossing near Berry, Australia, looked like it was raised in salute to the Magellanic Clouds as they passed overhead during a recent late-night visit. My meteor-hunting expedition on this night hadn’t been as successful as I’d hoped, so I visited a few locations and got photos of other parts of the sky. As it turned out, not long after I took this shot, I got a decent image of the railway tracks and a meteor. I took two photos to create this composition, which I then blended in Photoshop. For the first shot, I focussed on the stars, and the second on the boom gate, to get a final image that was sharp overall. For both frames, I used a Canon EOS R camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/3.5, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1660105155475-GNAKV3MWJWIMSHAEARLW/orion-through-clouds.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Orion through Clouds The sky and foreground landscape look reasonably bright and colourful in this scene I photographed in April of 2022 at the Boco Rock wind farm near Nimmitabel, Australia. Unfortunately, the night was so dark I couldn’t see that I had my camera pointed at a cloudy section of the western sky. It wasn’t until I began editing my photos that I saw the brown haze caused by high-altitude clouds nor the grey shapes of other clouds closer to ground level. It took a lot of editing to draw some brightness and colour out of the original shots that make up this fourteen-frame stacked photograph. Maybe you can make out the shape of the constellation Orion in the photo, with the flaming torch-like glow of the M42 nebula at the top of the composition. Looking at the image on a screen larger than a mobile phone might help you make out the crimson arc of “Barnard’s Loop”, an emission nebula stretching approximately 300 light-years of space. As mentioned above, this photo was created by shooting fourteen single frames (10x lights and 4x darks) that I then stacked in the Mac application, Starry Landscape Stacker. I shot each of the 14 frames with a Canon EOS R camera, a Canon 50 mm f/1.8 lens @ f2.2, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1660398336238-ZSH54AQWTIW2DDZM3V2O/after-snooze-arch.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - After-snooze Arch In early July this year, my wife and I had a five-night stay at Tuross Head, on the south coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia. After dinner on the final night, with my weather app predicting a cloudless night, I drove to the edge of Tuross Lake, ensured I was warm and slept in my car for a few hours. My phone’s alarm did its job and woke me a little before moonset at 12:45 am when I prepped my camera gear to shoot the Milky Way as it slid down the southwestern sky. With plans to shoot at a couple of locations, I didn’t bother to get out my special mount to capture a panorama. Instead, using the tried-and-true method of estimating how much overlap I had between the frames I’d later use to stitch this final composition, I snapped away and got the shots I needed. There was auroral activity on this night, and you can make out the faintest of red glows on the left, where the Milky Way’s arch touches the shoreline trees. My panorama was created from eight single-frame photos using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, with an exposure time of 25 seconds per shot @ ISO 6400. The panorama was stitched in Adobe Lightroom Classic. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1660602810239-I2LTE2LVIEY4BWF112OW/almost-as-dark.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Almost as Dark Amateur and professional astronomers rate the sky’s darkness at an observing site using the “Bortle Scale.” Places with a Bortle number of 9–the worst you can get–are overwhelmed with an excess of artificial light that blocks out all but the brightest astronomical objects such as the Moon, the planets, bright satellites and a few stars. Sadly, most of the world’s population lives under such disappointing night skies. At the other end of the scale, Bortle 1 sites are prized locations, offering naked-eye views of galaxies, star clusters, atmospheric airglow and many wonders rarely seen by the masses. The shooting location for today’s photo, Tuross Head on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, is ranked a Bortle 2 destination, with skies almost as dark as you can get here on Earth. A windless, still night like I had when I shot this photo in early July 2022 means you also get to see and photograph reflections of the heavenly highlights on a watery surface. Tuross Lake did a fine job of quietly mirroring the lights above it. The pink glow from the Aurora Australis, active for a few hours on this night, added extra colour and beauty to the scene. I took eight almost identical photos to create this final stacked image, with the stacking process helping to remove signal noise generated by a digital camera’s electronics. My Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera did an excellent job capturing the images with an attached Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens set @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1661084718843-DVT39MUFIXDACTV7CPZ3/illumination-sources.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Illumination Sources On the last night of April 2022, I spent several hours photographing the heavens near Nimmitabel, Australia, covering a round-trip distance of over 500 km (310 mi) for my efforts. With 75 km to travel before returning to my weekender at Tuross Head, I stopped at the Cuttagee Bridge to shoot the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. The brightest objects visible in the night sky after the Moon, these two planets appear as one white orb hovering over the bridge in my photo, with their combined brilliance reflecting strongly off the surface of Cuttagee Creek. Also brightening the pre-twilight sky was the Zodiacal Light, its photons coming from sunlight scattered by dust between our Solar System’s inner planets. This ghostly glow is prominent in my picture, stretching almost vertically from the Venus/Jupiter point up through Mars and Saturn and continuing to the top edge of the photo’s frame. Seemingly backlighting the whole scene, but occurring only a hundred or so kilometres up in the Earth’s atmosphere, the phenomenon of atmospheric airglow was the source of the limelight tones in the sky and also reflecting from the little creek’s waters. Surprisingly, capturing so many astronomical wonders in one scene only required a single-frame image, using my Canon EOS R camera, a Canon 16 mm f/2.8 lens @ f2.8, with an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1662381173883-RM67QM5RN6933ZRV2EQA/eye-on-the-milky-way.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Eye on the Milky Way I don’t often shoot with a fisheye lens, so when I fit one of these optical oddities onto my camera, I do my best to photograph a scene that makes the most of the rounded view. The stonework and grounds of St Mark’s Church at Currawong, Australia, look marvellous when photographed with most lenses. Still, I enjoyed having the chance to create this single-frame scene of the Milky Way stretching across the western sky over the building, courtesy of my 7 mm lens. After nearly nine years of shooting nightscape photos with digital cameras, I’m still learning techniques others have mastered in much less time. Getting the foreground lighting right is one of those skills that I continue to struggle with, and I might well have lit the church too much in this photo, but I’m mostly happy with the result. Although I could have gotten away with a single photo to use for this post today, I decided to stack three frames, shot in succession, to enhance the final result. I captured each of the three shots with a Canon EOS R camera, fitted with a TTArtisan 7 mm f/2.0 lens @ f2.8, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1662853803622-V6ESIK1F1VIVPU8TZ45V/clear-and-quiet.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Clear and Quiet The amount of background noise present when you’re taking photos rarely makes a difference to how the shots turn out, but I much prefer not to have the distractions of traffic and other city sounds when I’m creating images. Bleating sheep and chatty frogs provided the soundtrack for my nightscape session when I recently visited St Mark’s Church near Young, Australia. Shooting photos on a quiet and cloudless night is an activity that refreshes my soul & mind! The glorious band of the Milky Way lays parallel to the horizon in the early hours of late August in my part of the Southern Hemisphere. Contrasting that natural beauty with the striking structure of this century-old sanctuary was an excellent opportunity worth feeling tired from the following day. I messed up my focus a little when taking the twenty-two shots that make up this stacked image, so the starry sky is not as sharp as I’d hoped for. Each of those not-so-perfect single frames was captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1662903315958-511DA5H9FG2R5S0O7T0X/garden-of-galaxies.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Garden of Galaxies Two point five million light-years away from Earth lives the object known as the Andromeda Galaxy, aka M31. The first known written record of this “island universe,” as galaxies were once known, is from the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, in 964 CE, when he described M31 as a “nebulous smear” or “small cloud” [Wikipedia]. One of the most famous galaxies, Andromeda is home to around 1 trillion stars and is visible to the unaided eye depending on the time of year and the observer’s position north or south of the equator. Another 0.8 million light-years distant again is M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, a mere try-hard with only around 40 billion stars to boast of. M33 is on the edge of naked-eye visibility due to its extra distance from Earth and smaller diameter than M31. I’m happy to have been able to photograph both of these galaxies during my recent visit to the rural area around Young, NSW, Australia, where there’s little light pollution and dry, stable air at this time of year. The Triangulum Galaxy is a mere smudge in my photo, looking like a blurred star, while M31 is unmissable as it hangs low in the sky over the garden on the grounds of the Iandra Chapel. One night I’ll get to photograph the Andromeda Galaxy through a telescope. On this late-August night, though, I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.6, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. I captured eight exposures of the sky and another eight “dark frames”, which I stacked in processing for noise reduction. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1664939722948-5IOEP6J976E3SWHR09O2/clouds-and-wind.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Clouds and Wind The Milky Way’s lapdogs, the dwarf galaxies known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, were nearing the top of their daily circuit around the south celestial pole when I photographed them last week. After a long session of photographing the Milky Way low in the western sky, I stopped to capture this windmill against the starry background, less than a five-minute drive from where we were staying near the city of Orange, in regional New South Wales, Australia. Despite almost no breeze at ground level, the wind whispering past the windmill turned its rotor fast enough that the blades appear semi-transparent, letting you see through them to the pinpricks of light far off in space. The soothing green hues of atmospheric airglow add to the agricultural theme of the scene. This photo is a single-frame shot captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. I lit the foreground with a single Lume Cube LED lamp. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1665056806335-GCR2WZ2V5AHZZ6D0DKY2/not-forgotten.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Not Forgotten On my recent holiday in the central-west region of my home state of New South Wales, Australia, I paid a late-night visit to this cemetery to photograph the Milky Way descending the southwestern sky. Located a little outside the town of Carcoar, the burial ground has been the resting place of deceased locals since the second half of the nineteenth century. The township is currently home to only around two hundred residents and is barely visible as you drive along the nearby Mid-Western Highway. It’s ironic, then, that at one time, Carcoar was in the running to be Australia’s national capital. The Australian National Trust has classified the entire town as a place of historical significance. Carcoar bills itself as “The Town That Time Forgot,” but based on the number of bunches of flowers and memorial lanterns left atop several graves in the yard, I think this village’s departed residents are very well remembered indeed. This photo is a single-frame image that I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. I used two Lume Cube LED lamps to illuminate the monuments. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1665144286474-S3ES9DIBCIQPCEO6D1NG/dam-timing.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Dam Timing Ideally, I should have waited another hour or so to shoot this photo of the Milky Way hanging in the western sky over the dam at Carcoar (NSW, Australia) to improve the balance between our galaxy’s band of stars and the curved structure below. The weather forecast predicted clouds moving in by that time, so I captured a few shots before moving on to another location. The dam wall’s full width was covered in a water curtain that plunged to the valley below, providing an agricultural flow to the Belabula River and the surrounding countryside. Above the landscape, the astronomical phenomenon known as the Zodiacal Light can be seen in my image, brightening the sky diagonally in the left-hand half of the scene. My favourite style of nightscape shot is a single-frame image, and today’s post is another example of the genre. I captured this scene using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1666519169903-RXJ93ATNWVB5TOMFNGPG/as-far-as-eyes-can-see.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - As Far as Eyes can See With Milky Way core season just about over for 2022 and half of the Australian continent presently living under skies that are delivering rain ranging from drizzling to pouring, the image I’m posting today is likely my last Milky Way panorama capture for the year. My wife and I had a short stay near the rural city of Orange, Australia, in late September, and only the last night of the trip was clear of clouds, despite things having been grey and ugly for most of the day. We’d visited this canola farm a few days earlier on the only sunny day of our break. I saved a pin in Google Maps in case I might have the chance to visit during canola season in coming years, not expecting the weather to oblige me this time. A layer of thin cloud was hugging the horizon on my arrival. Still, with that expected to clear within the hour, I experimented with my two Lume Cube LED banks, doing my best to illuminate the canola plants for the right effect. After seeing some of my nightscape photography heroes produce some inspiring photos of canola under the Milky Way in the past few years, I’m pleased to have done OK with this one of my own. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1666872331150-OM5PNJPXU8CWQ9DGNAHO/heavenly-humus.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Heavenly Humus The signage on the truck in my photo says, "Compost for Soils. Nitro Humus." I'm sure the stars don't need any fertilising, but the thought of having a truck full of chemicals to make the sky look lusher has a comic appeal. The vivid green field to the left of the road was planted with canola & was only a few weeks from bursting into the vibrant yellow that this region is known for in the Australian spring. On the day I photographed this scene, in late September, a persistent canopy of grey clouds didn't bode well for a session of nightscape photography. Happily, the clouds cleared an hour after dark, and the Milky Way's band of stars, dust lanes and nebulae showed themselves as they eased towards the southwestern horizon near Cowra, Australia. This photo is a simple single-frame exposure, captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1667214912758-4F4H0LKLJ7T3A2WH4BIL/towards-summer.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Towards Summer After capturing the Milky Way setting over the canola fields north of Cowra, Australia, in late September, I turned 180 degrees to see what the eastern sky offered. As we move towards summer here in Australia, our skies will have a different roll call of celestial features for photographers to contemplate and capture, so it’s good to look to the east now to see what’s ahead. The Magellanic Cloud dwarf galaxies were on the upward segment of their daily circle around the South Celestial Pole, two puffs of light in a relatively featureless area of the southeastern sky. Aldebaran, the red giant star in the constellation Taurus, was only a small way above the horizon, over on the left of the scene near the white burst of light from a car’s headlamps. Electrically energised particles in the Earth’s atmosphere lit the sky with their green glow, providing a fine match for the fields of pre-bloom canola prominent in this photograph. On the horizon to the right of the trees flanking the road, you can see the purple glow from a thunderstorm battering my home city, around 220 km (136 mi) distant. I shot this single-frame photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, matched with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1668514305740-OFIB2KRE0M6LL378SJVL/rising-and-shrinking.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Rising and Shrinking I'm disappointed to have taken so long (a week is almost an eternity in the world of social media) to make my first post from last Tuesday's total lunar eclipse. A combination of the busyness that comes with being self-employed; some health problems; and a list of around-the-house jobs that needed attending to all kept me from editing and posting any photos until now. In hindsight, I could have stayed at home in Sydney to photograph the eclipse from my balcony since the clouds where I'd driven to–Seven Mile Beach, Gerroa–thwarted my plan to capture shots of the eclipsed Moon peeking over the horizon. I set my camera's intervalometer to grab sequential shots of the Moon at five-minute intervals. You can see how the eclipse progressed to totality as the Moon climbed the northeastern sky. I used my Canon EOS R camera fitted with a Canon 50 mm f/1.8 lens to shoot the photos that make up this composite image, employing a range of shutter speed and aperture settings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1670151731893-4ZBQOUUF6KXV5QR58NY3/the-road-back.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - The Road Back It’s been too long since I posted a night sky photo! Today’s shot is from the last nightscape photography session I had–aside from the night of the total lunar eclipse in early November–at the end of September. We were staying near the regional city of Orange, Australia, where you don’t have to travel far to find dark, light-pollution-free skies. The house we were minding was only a ten-minute drive from the centre of Orange, and I captured this scene another five minutes down the road from there, on my way back from a long photography session. Shot with a 24 mm wide-angle lens, the photo displays a stretch of the sky with several prominent southern-summer sky features. Near the left is the open star cluster, the Pleiades, aka “The Seven Sisters”, showing many more stars than its name suggests. To the right of the Pleiades is the upside-down “v” that outlines the Hyades cluster in the constellation Taurus. Aldebaran is the brightest star in this constellation, seen glowing at the bottom-right of the inverted “v”. Almost directly below Aldebaran is the planet Mars, easily mistaken for the red giant star but definitely not as far away from Earth. A little right of the centre of my shot is the constellation Orion, with its famous M42 “Orion Nebula” showing itself conspicuously in Orion’s sword. Sirius–the brightest star visible in the night sky–and its parent constellation Canis Major, complete the string of stellar features near the right-hand side of the frame. To photograph this nocturnal scene, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, utilising an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1670499376492-OQFRQT9WSS1HOSHS3239/bubbling-blue.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Bubbling Blue When I visited Seven Mile Beach at Gerroa, Australia, to photograph the total lunar eclipse of November 8th, 2022, I was treated to another natural wonder. As totality approached, I saw that the breaking waves looked brighter than the rest of the water and wrote it off as being due to the moonlight making them stand out. It's a tad embarrassing to admit that it took me a few minutes to realise that the purpose of driving 110 km to be on this beach–seeing the Moon's light dimmed by the Earth's shadow–meant the waves had to be glowing for another reason. Of course–bioluminescence! Now I was torn. Should I stop shooting the eclipse to shoot some frames of the glowing waves or keep clicking away at the heavenly sight? Today's photo is evidence of my choice to pivot my camera to capture the beautiful waves as the constellation of Orion rose in the east and the light from Sirius, the sky's brightest star, reflected from the horizon to the water's edge. The single-frame photo you see here was shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1670931303091-MFZURS48KH0C5KLQNPMA/image-asset.jpeg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Lunar Splendour and a Tiny Ice Giant November's total lunar eclipse was an event that left me with a cache of images still to process. Today's photo is a single-frame shot from that night, captured when the "totality" phase was in full effect. To the unaided eye, the Moon was barely visible in the sky, with all of the direct sunlight that usually gives us a full Moon being blocked by our home planet. I have increased the photo's exposure to show you the red-brown hues refracted onto the Moon by the Earth's atmosphere, giving rise to the "Blood Moon" moniker. The lack of bright moonlight made it possible to see faint stars that would usually be lost in the Moon's glare, and I captured some of those in the shot. Also visible to my camera was the ice-giant planet Uranus, which you can see arrowed in the photo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1672608044886-IFURXLCDKB0M31IE945O/twenty-twenty-three.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Twenty Twenty-Three Welcome to 2023! Although today’s photo was shot in late 2022, I still think it’s appropriate for this time of year. It’s summer here in Australia, when plenty of people spend nights on beaches, taking in the sound of the ocean, sitting near a fire and enjoying time with family and friends. For you people in the colder half of the world, my photo can help you look forward to thawing out as the Sun moves up towards your latitudes and hints at the warmth and life that spring and summer can bring. I wish you the very best for 2023 and hope you get plenty of opportunities to get outside, look up, and take in the wonder. This photo is a single-frame image, shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera attached to a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens zoomed to 64 mm @ f/8.0, using an exposure time of 5.0 seconds @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1672659058618-CVKAD1UV7XBCMUBH394O/the-night-and-its-colours.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - The Night and its Colours Sometimes I imagine how the night sky would look to us humans if our eyes could see the nuances of colour and light that digital cameras can capture. Human eyes are limited in how many colours they can detect in low light, so what looks like a black or charcoal-grey night sky is often full of colour from atmospheric airglow. The pinpricks of light that we call stars and glowing nebulae in space might all seem white, but there's a range of beautiful hues beaming throughout our universe. My photo for today has captured some of those unseeable colours by combining multiple time exposures in a process known as "stacking." You can see a range of greens in the background (actually, they're in the sky's foreground here), indicating the presence of airglow in the Earth's atmosphere. Moisture in the air in the form of high and thin clouds shows itself as an orange smear in my shot, and close to the centre of the scene are the lovely crimson hues radiating from the Eta Carina Nebula. Tuross Lake was smooth and still when I sat on one of its beaches to shoot the component photos for this image in April of 2022. You can see the green airglow reflecting off the water's surface and silhouetting the lake's southern shore. For each of the nineteen images I took to create this final scene, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2, utilising an exposure time of 13.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. After processing the images in Lightroom, I used Starry Landscape Stacker to combine the individual frames into the final result I'm showing you today. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1672794674853-1V9W0B4CTVRWNCGPZ7DX/crux-and-co.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Crux and Co The best-known feature of the night sky in my part of the world is the Southern Cross in the constellation Crux. Featured on the flags of five nations, the “Cross” is an asterism–a pattern of stars that make up a familiar shape and include stars from other constellations. Where I live in Sydney, Australia, the Southern Cross is a “circumpolar” feature of the night sky, which means that it never sets below the horizon. At the bottom of the image are the two brightest stars in the constellation Centaurus, namely Alpha and Beta Centauri. The common name of this pair of lights is “The Pointers” because you can use them to find the Southern Cross. Most of the items that are captured in my photo are naked-eye visible. I shot several photos in succession to bring out more sky features, resulting in you seeing the contrast between the Milky Way’s dark nebulae and dust lanes versus the billions of bright stars. I created this detailed image by shooting twenty-one single-frame images edited in Adobe Lightroom and then stacked using the Starry Landscape Stacker application. The shooting information for each of those single images is as follows: Camera: Canon EOS 6D Mk II Lens: Sigma 35 mm f/1.4 DG Art Exp time: 10 sec Aperture: f/1.8 ISO: 1600 Light frames: 11 Dark frames: 10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1673161644583-U5ERRBQDT19HUMP1Y0AM/its-behind-you.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - It's Behind You I guess this is barely a “nightscape” photo since the Sun hadn’t set when I shot it, but I think a touch of artistic licence is allowable. On the night of the total lunar eclipse (8th November 2022), I arrived at Seven Mile Beach, Gerroa, with time to spare before the event began so I could get my cameras in position. While the sky was still bright from the sunlight, I captured a few shots of the Moon rising over Gerroa Headland, 4 km (2.5 miles) from where I sat on the sand. Although the Earth’s shadow had started to darken the Moon’s surface, the difference wasn’t yet visible, with or without the clouds that intermittently blocked my view. The “forced perspective” effect from using a long focal-length lens has made the Moon seem much more prominent and closer than it looked to me and, no doubt, to the people watching it from the headland. This photo is a single-frame shot, taken with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens zoomed to 500 mm @ f/6.3, using an exposure time of 1/100 seconds @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1673436711298-3LDCKZN1A4CSO1O3E4KJ/a-timely-light.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - A Timely Light On the last weekend of April 2022, I visited the coastal town of Tuross Head (Australia) for a weekend of photography. On Saturday afternoon–the last day of the month–I studied weather and cloud forecasts, then set off for the Boca Rocks Wind Farm, around 210 km away and at an elevation 1075 metres (3526 feet) higher than my coastal accommodation. With daylight saving having ended a month prior, astronomical twilight began at 6:45 pm, allowing hours of shooting at the wind farm’s Class 1 Bortle dark skies. Almost as soon as I pressed the trigger button on my camera’s remote to capture this shot, a car crested a hill on the nearby rural road and lit up the turbines brighter than my LED banks could ever hope to do. The Magellanic Cloud galaxies were showing themselves brightly against the dark sky, and close to the horizon on the right-hand side of the photo you can see a reddish glow shining through the thin clouds to the south. I checked several Facebook aurora group pages and confirmed that the glow picked up by my camera was the northern edge of the Aurora Australis. I captured this single-frame image using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1674128195796-2ENDESMTXN1B40IX5LEX/chapel-of-the-cosmos.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Chapel of the Cosmos About 28 kilometres (17.4 miles) north of the town of Young–the Cherry Capital of Australia–is a sizeable heritage-listed homestead called Iandra (that's a capital "i' at the start of the name, not an "L"). Constructed between 1880 & 1910, the building on the estate is known to locals as "Iandra Castle." Just 535 metres south of the castle proper is the estate's chapel, built of sandstone with a prominent flèche (spire) that makes it easily visible from the nearby Iandra Road. After scouting the location in daylight, I drove back to my hotel in Young for a few hours of sleep. With this evening being the third and final night of my stay in the town, I made sure not to sleep through the multiple alarms I'd set. After my snooze, I returned to the church site to shoot several different compositions that included the chapel and the setting Milky Way core, as well as some stacked photos of the Andromeda Galaxy that I've posted previously. The strong breeze that had cleared the sky of clouds upon my arrival persisted, giving some movement to the churchyard's trees, which show in my photo as blurry shapes contrasted with the clean lines of the chapel's walls and roof. Above and to the right of the flèche, you can see the crimson hues of the Lagoon Nebula, aka M8. I shot this single-frame photo with my Canon EOS 6D camera through a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. For foreground lighting, I used two Lumecube LED lamps. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1674760757589-VE07E0AQHSWFV0XH0VV5/first-light-2023.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - First Light 2023 You don’t always have to stay up late to take nightscape photos. Sometimes you have to get up early instead! If you want to photograph the Milky Way’s core rising at the beginning of the calendar year here in the Southern Hemisphere, you go to bed at a reasonable time and wake up to your alarm disturbing you in the small-numbered hours of the morning. Today–Thursday, 26 January–I did just that to capture my first Milky Way core photos for 2023. For the next few nights, I’m having a short break at Tuross Head, on the southeast coast of New South Wales, Australia, where getting to locations like this one means a five-minute drive rather than one of my usual multi-hour expeditions. The end of astronomical twilight was officially twenty minutes away when I shot this scene, but the hint of peachy hues near the horizon suggests that my timing might not have been right. You can see the brilliance of the Milky Way’s core reflecting off the Tasman Sea, slightly above and to the left of the man with the bare and shiny head. I shot this single-frame photograph with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera through a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1676201266558-2LDSNDIFNDDZA48M8002/night-meets-morning.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Night Meets Morning Late in January, I spent a long weekend on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, taking in the sights, relaxing after a busy start to 2023 at work and, of course, making photographs. My friend and fellow photographer Ian Williams was also staying on the coast, and at his invitation, I spent the night with him at his father’s home, only twenty minutes drive from where I was staying. The Glasshouse Rocks, sedimentary formations that dominate the south end of the beach, are popular subjects for landscape, nightscape and drone photographers. Ian had produced some beautiful images at this beach a few nights before, and I’m grateful to him for opting to take me there so soon after his previous visit. We started shooting shortly after 3:00 am, capturing plenty of shots under the area’s dark skies and twilight and post-sunrise landscapes. The photo I’m posting today is a composite that features the pink and peachy colours of the early twilight; the Milky Way’s galactic core and the Dark Emu (as recognised by Australia’s indigenous peoples); the lighthouse on nearby Montague Island/Barunguba beaming its photons between the two Glasshouse Rocks; the planet Mercury peeking over a cloud bank out to sea, and the Magellanic Cloud galaxies, visible on the right-hand side of my photo. The International Space Station (ISS) was passing over the southeast of Australia during our time on the beach, and you can see its light trail below the Magellanic Clouds. Despite having an orbital speed of somewhere near 25000 km/hr (15500 m/hr), the ISS moves across the sky slowly when viewed from the ground, and I had to shoot seven 30-second photos to capture this small portion of its arc across the heavens. Each of the seven photos I took to create this final composite image was captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera through a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/4.0, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. I layered and masked these photos in Adobe Photoshop to create the continuous trail of the ISS. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1676616572391-Z0YF1ASH1SGMDSTBFBMN/mercurial-mirror.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Mercurial Mirror As much as the dark of night enchants and entrances me, there’s something serene about seeing the stars in the twilight sky at either end of the day. After spending the hours between 3:00 am and the beginning of astronomical twilight imaging the Milky Way against the clear and dark skies at Narooma, my friend Ian Williams and I began shooting the glows and hues to be seen only in the change from night to morning. The lighthouse atop Barunguba (Montague Island) kept true to its 15-second rhythm, caught here in my photo shining between the two large Glasshouse Rocks, and several stars were still visible against the glow of the brightening sky. The light of the planet Mercury reflecting off the beach’s wet sand made me gasp when I looked at my camera’s preview screen once the shutter had closed. Often difficult to see due to its proximity to the Sun, Mercury is our solar system’s smallest planet and makes one orbit of the Sun every 87.9 days. This image is a single-frame photo captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera coupled with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 6 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1676978134617-97FW1ROKNGL0RB49U1TB/not-from-round-here.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Not from 'round here Nearly everything you see while looking at a cloud-free night sky is in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The Moon and the naked-eye visible planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) are neighbours of our Earth in the Solar System. Beyond these local friends, every star–from bright Sirius to those only visible using averted vision–is a more distant member of our local community. You can count the naked-eye objects located beyond the solar system on one hand (even a Simpson’s hand). Two of these extra-galactic companions are visible year-round from where I live in the Southern Hemisphere. Named for the explorer on whose round-the-world voyage western eyes first saw them, the “Magellanic Clouds” are dwarf galaxies travelling with the Milky Way as we orbit in the Local Group of galaxies. I photographed the wispy wonders in the pre-dawn sky at Narooma, Australia, in late January 2023. To create this scene, I shot fifteen single-frame photos (10x light and 5x dark, for those who care) and used the app Starry Landscape Stacker to reduce digital noise in the final image. For each of those individual shots, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2, opening the shutter for 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1677392081351-690WU9NQIJRVVDRO60JO/from-the-other-side-of-the-sky.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - From the other Side of the Sky #During this coming week (Sun 26th Feb), the planets Venus and Jupiter will appear very near each other in the western sky after sunset. At their closest, the two shiny dots will be separated by about half of one degree, close to the apparent diameter of the full Moon. Today’s post is an image I shot on 1st May 2022 at at Cuttagee Beach, on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. On this occasion, the meeting of Jupiter and Venus took place in the morning sky, before sunrise, and the two white lights were a mere 0.2 degrees apart as viewed from Earth, which is less than half the gap of this week’s alignment. Mars and Saturn were also visible on this morning and, like Jupiter and Venus, were flanked by the band of white known as the Zodiacal Light. You could also see the Milky Way’s central band stretching from the northeast horizon and up towards the zenith. To create this vertical panorama, I captured 7 overlapping single-frame photos, each in “landscape” orientation, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.5, with each shot exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. After editing each frame in Adobe Lightroom, I used Autopano Pro to create the final panoramic composite. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1677757882453-ZYODBBHDB3PR8LUT1TPM/jupiter-and-venus-hanging-out.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Jupiter and Venus Hanging Out Seeing the close conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in tonight's post-sunset sky was a treat after so many days of grey clouds, showers and the occasional thunderstorm recently. The apparent separation between these two planets was only 0.5 degrees–roughly the full Moon's width as seen from here on Earth. The actual separation was a mere 645 million kilometres (400 million miles) or so, but as I looked at them, they seemed like friends hanging out together. My photo caught the planetary pair setting over the old fisheries research buildings at Hungry Point in Cronulla, Australia. If you pinch to zoom in on your phone or enlarge the picture to full-screen on your computer, you can see three of Jupiter's moons stretching up and to the right of the orb. I heard on a podcast this week that recent discoveries have brought the total count of Jupiter's moons to 92. Considering how that number keeps increasing, Jupiter will soon have more Moons than there are Marvel movie sequels! For this single-frame photo, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera attached to my 17-year-old Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 313mm @ f/5.6, using an exposure time of 2.0 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1677843375782-VQD23F66CODONBGUC76Z/oh-yeah.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Oh Yeah The title of today’s photo comes from what I said when I saw the image on my camera’s preview screen, standing on the beach at Glasshouse Rocks, Narooma, Australia, in late January. My shooting companion, Ian Williams, was elsewhere on the beach capturing stunning compositions of his own and likely being just as wowed upon seeing what his camera had rendered. I shot this scene using a 50 mm lens to give a sense of the immensity of the Milky Way against the foreground features, and I think I achieved that goal. There’s always a hazy look to the sky the closer you get to the horizon, so being able to bring out the wispy filigrees of the dust lanes and dark nebulae that characterise our galaxy’s centre presents a challenge. To help draw out those finer details, I shot with a high ISO setting (the camera’s sensitivity to light) and took eleven consecutive photos that I then stacked during processing. The onset of astronomical twilight was only ten minutes away when I shot my eleven-frame sequence, and you can see a hint of orange already colouring the sky behind the hill. I took each of the eleven frames used to make the final composite image with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.5, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1678535465574-3TMBYI33GBVV22TBTKGO/vivaciously-vertical.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Vivaciously Vertical 1080x1920 I’ve had only two opportunities to photograph the night sky so far in 2023. Since some of the shots from those outings were similar, today’s post is from my “Work in Progress” album in Lightroom. Captured on May 1st, 2022, on my way home from an overnight session, my photo shows the Milky Way standing almost vertically over the road bridge at Cuttagee Beach on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. Apart from a gorgeous beach that’s met by the outflow of Cuttagee Lake, the location offers very dark skies during moonless nights, allowing you to see and photograph myriads of stars and the wispy dust lanes, nebulae and other features sprinkled throughout the Milky Way’s central band. Although our eyes can’t detect the colours of the night sky’s atmospheric airglow, my camera had no problem seeing and recording the green hues present on this night. The airglow was so bright it silhouetted the few clouds drifting low in the southwest sky. To create this vertical panoramic image, I shot ten overlapping landscape-format photos that I stitched using the Autopano Pro app after editing in Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, and Topaz DeNoise. Each of the ten frames was captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1678795730672-QL71AVZYPIAZJ11GQQSL/corunna-calm.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Corunna Calm Visit Corunna Lake in the daytime, especially on weekends during Australia’s hotter seasons, and the water will be abuzz with ski boats, fishing boats and leisurely canoes. A night-time visit during our winter months offers almost no sound or motion other than from the wind ruffling the water’s surface, the shrieks of possums fighting in the trees that encircle the lake, and the shutter clicks from a nightscape photographer’s camera. That quieter atmosphere was what I sought when I parked my car on the boat launching ramp at Corunna Lake in early July 2022 at about 4:00 am. After taking some test photos and readjusting my tripod and panoramic mount, I shot the 44 frames that made up this 2.3 GB image of the Milky Way setting in the southwest and reflected off the water. I used a Lume Cube LED lamp to light the foreground (which took a LOT of test shots to get right), and it did well to illuminate the weed-covered rocks and show the boat ramp disappearing under the water. I shot the 44 single frames used to create the panorama using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.6, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1678967573452-9I2PFINM8VKLJSLWF253/mauve-morning.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Mauve Morning Since 1881 the lighthouse on Barunguba (Montague Island) has cast its photons all around to warn of its rocky location, and you can see the light on the horizon here on the left side of my photo, some 22 km (13.6 mi) to the southeast of where my camera tripod stood. To my eyes, at least, the sky looked like a shimmer of white pinpricks sprinkled on the black velvet noticeboard in the heavens. As you can see from this image, that expanse was more mauve than black due to atmospheric airglow doing strange things with electrons high above the Earth. Looking up and to the right of the lighthouse in my shot, the deep crimson floral burst of the Eta Carina nebula dominates the night. A few of the many dark nebulae of our Milky Way were doing their best to block the starlight coming from behind them in the right-hand half of the image. The wonderfully dark night skies here at Tuross Head provide the simplest but richest astronomical experiences for anyone who’ll look up, even without binoculars or a telescope. I photographed this scene at 5:30 am on a winter night in July of 2022, using a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8 attached to my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera. I opened the camera’s shutter for 13 seconds and set its ISO to 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1680211498672-I7GY9FZDHDNYE78YP00J/foam-and-lights.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Foam and Lights The Eta Aquariids meteor shower happens in May each year and is one of those astronomical events that the press and media all seem to have stories about, telling us how good it’s gonna be. One night in May of 2021, I sat on the sands of Seven Mile Beach at Gerroa, Australia, shooting a time-lapse, hoping to capture some of the flashes of fairy light. Of the 312 shots in my sequence, only six caught any meteors. Before packing up and making the 110 km drive home, I took a few simple images of the Moon as it rose over the Tasman Sea. In this shot I’m posting today, the sunlit portion of the Moon was a fat crescent. The Sun’s light reflected off the Earth’s clouds and seas, known as “Earthshine”, lit up the parts of the Moon where, you might say, the Sun didn’t shine. If you zoom in on the photo, you can make out some of the Moon’s seas in the earthlit portion of its orb. Shining green from the chemicals mixed within it, a fisherman’s glow-float was lying on the sand, giving another point of interest to my composition. Piles of foam, frothed up by recent storms along the coast, stretched along the beach like dirty meringue atop a vast dessert. This photo is a single-frame shot captured with my Canon EOS 6D camera and a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1681560348258-YS2KSYX3UHFIPJUNMD8T/thankful-hopeful.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Thankful. Hopeful I hope the rest of 2023 is better for me for shooting nightscape photos. I've only had three sessions so far, for which I'm thankful, but illness, weather, and personal and family commitments have kept me from spending nights doing what I love. One of those three outings was in January at Narooma, on the south coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia. I was privileged to be led to this spot on the beach, at Glasshouse Rocks, by fellow nightscape shooter Ian Williams. We spent around four hours on the beach, shooting the Milky Way's core—while Barunguba's lighthouse shone its beam towards us every 15 seconds—until sunrise and beyond. I know today's image is similar to those I've already posted from that night, so I'm hopeful for some clear nights when I revisit the locale next week. I shot seventeen frames in succession for today's photo, then stacked the images in Starry Landscape Stacker after some processing in Adobe Lightroom. Each of those seventeen shots was captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera coupled with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1681938259268-EJUJT3O7ODNTMRQTUO3Z/hey-mate-shut-the-gate.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Hey Mate Shut the Gate I’ve seen plenty of “Shut the gate” or “This gate must be kept closed at all times” signs when travelling in rural locations, but this one on a farm gate near Moruya, Australia, was a first for me when I came across it last night. Sure, the sign won’t win any prizes for poetic excellence, but it’s short, simple, practical and a nice nod to the Aussie sense of humour. As you can see from my photo, the sky was alight with the green hues of atmospheric airglow. I intentionally focused my lens on the sign and used a shallow depth of field so that the stars and sky were blurred. I’ve long admired photos in this style by a friend and fellow nightscape photographer, Richard Tatti. Using abandoned farm equipment or even items like an old kids’ tricycle for his sharply focused foregrounds, Richard has mastered the art of making the out-of-focus night sky a beautiful backdrop for his eye-catching images. You can see how Richard works his magic here: https://bit.ly/thetrike I shot today’s photo using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.2 and an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1682245504078-BU1RHS8Z1VYKNLUNZAHH/doubly-partial.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Doubly Partial It would have been amazing seeing this week’s total solar eclipse from Exmouth in Western Australia. From my location on the southeast coast of Australia, though, the event was a partial eclipse, meaning the Moon’s path between the Sun and my viewing position only obscured a small portion of the Sun’s disc. Unfortunately, the eclipse was partial for me in another sense. Clouds covered the sky for nearly ninety of the one hundred and twenty minutes of the eclipse. When the clouds thinned out, I got a few images, including this one shot at the point of maximum eclipse. The clouds gave the Sun its mottled look and possibly made this a more interesting photo. In the enlarged inset, you can see the sunspot area known as AR3282, and the two large blobs at either end of this feature are about the same size as the Earth. I’d hoped for better–and more–shots than I captured, but something’s better than nothing, right? I captured this photo with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera attached to my SkyWatcher 8” Dobsonian telescope—with a Thousand Oaks solar filter fitted—using an exposure time of 1/160 second @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1682767249243-MMSW4EMPZ5F2RNLTL4K5/red-sky-at-the-blue-pool.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Red Sky at the Blue Pool From my home in Sydney, Australia, at 34 degrees south latitude, seeing the Aurora Australis is a near-impossibility. Last weekend, though, I was holidaying about 300 km south of Sydney (186 mi) at 36 degrees south in a dark rural area. I put aside my plans to photograph the rising Milky Way core when I learned that the aurora was photographable from my location. This outburst had started around 24 hours earlier, but due to a cloud-covered sky, I missed not only the beginning of the display but also the peak that happened around 5:00 am before dawn. This was a legendary event from the photos and videos I've seen. I captured the tail-end of the same show on Monday night, 24th April 2023, which was still good enough for this first-timer. The coloured lights weren't naked-eye visible, but my camera had no trouble capturing the fancy photons. My idea of trying to capture the aurora in the sky, and its reflection in the local attraction known as the Blue Pool, paid off. I shot this image with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera attached to a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2, shooting with an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1682855588281-9SNSCCIP83RA2A1RVNXQ/hobbitish-heavens.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Hobbitish Heavens Perhaps because I live in an area of my city of Sydney, Australia referred to as "The Shire", my mind went straight to the world of the Hobbits when I chose to edit and post this photo. I think the lush grass, striking trees and bumpy track wouldn't be out of place in that other Shire. The Milky Way was making its way up the southeastern sky near Bodalla, Australia, when I photographed this scene using a fisheye lens on the 20th of April, 2023. The Magellanic Clouds, companion galaxies of our Milky Way, can also be seen in my image near the pair of trees on the right of the shot. Adding to the scene's "Hobbitness" is the sky's deep green hue due to atmospheric airglow. I photographed this fantasy world scene as a single shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens @ f/5.6, using an exposure time of 49 seconds @ ISO 12800. Due to the high ISO, I needed to use a noise-reduction tool while processing the photo, so I tried the new AI Denoise tool in Adobe Lightroom Classic. I settled on 35% noise reduction after seeing that 50% took too much detail from the image and 15" barely removed any noise. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1682942904646-TA5YGXLMXQFP1JUXXTWR/the-horns-of-the-moon-in-the-bosom-of-gulaga.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - The Horns of the Moon in the Bosom of Gulaga Did you know that the Moon has horns? Despite having been keen on astronomy since my childhood in the 60s & 70s, I only learned in the last year or so that the pointed ends of a crescent moon are called its “horns.” Those horns were fine and sharp when I captured this scene on 22 April 2023, with the Moon having only 4% of its sunlit surface visible here on Earth. As the Moon glided down towards the southwest this night, it slipped towards the embrace of Gulaga, the 806 metre / 2644 ft high extinct volcano, the best-known landmark in this region of New South Wales, Australia. Gulaga has significant cultural and ancestral importance to the local indigenous Yuin people, especially the Yuin women. Wikipedia cites Gulaga as “regarded as a symbolic mother figure providing the basis for the people’s spiritual identity.” What better place for the Moon to head towards to find rest and protection for the evening? Photographed from the cemetery at Tilba, Australia, I captured this scene with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens zoomed to 500mm at an aperture of f/8.0, using an exposure time of 1/15 second @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1683286748477-GA4PII7VLXVIWJMNP9W7/upward-driftwood.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Upward Driftwood Sometimes I struggle to find names for the photos I post. I think today's title sounds like a yoga pose, but the log pointed to the sky, so I came up with "Upward Driftwood". I didn't need the pillar of driftwood standing on the line between the grass and the sand to make me lift my eyes to the heavens, but it's an excellent visual cue for my photo. Captured in late April on the fine sands of Baragoot Beach near Bermagui, Australia, this photo shows how colourful the night sky actually is and what we would see if our eyes worked better in low light levels. I'd had a similar experience only a half-hour earlier, photographing the Aurora Australis at a spot a few kilometres to the north. There, too, all my eyes could see was a less-dark sky than usual, but my camera had caught the crimson curtain generated high above the South Pole. The Milky Way, rising here over one of the "Three Brothers" islands, stains the sky with its plume of stars, nebulae and dust lanes. I photographed this scene in a single shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1683979083136-ZBBMHJTU0C8E3WKN67B1/lonely-lines.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Lonely Lines Having only ever known city living in my nearly 60 years, I value times when I can get away to the country or the coast for a break. Alongside the slower pace of life, the fresher air and a chance to take in many surprising moments, the dark skies and quiet roads are some of my favourite reasons to escape. A recent south coast sojourn served up several such serene stops. This flat and straight section of road near Bodalla, Australia, has so little traffic on it at night that spending long periods standing in the middle of the road–or lying on it as I’ve done at least once before–to take photos is something you can almost take for granted. The Milky Way’s core region had risen in the southeastern sky shortly before I arrived, and the distorted view through my camera’s fisheye lens makes our galaxy’s band of stars seem to arch across the sky and the bitumen. The Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy is almost centred in the scene, to the right of the row of poplars planted next to the road. I was fortunate to have cloudless heavens for five of the eight nights I was in the area, and on every one of those nights, the sky’s predominant colour was the subtle green generated by atmospheric airglow. I couldn’t see the electrical wires hanging overhead, showing as black scores on that green sky in my photo. As is often the case, though, perfection is elusive, and the wires’ presence in the shot isn’t too distracting. Shot as a single frame, this night sky photo was taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens @ f/5.6, using an exposure time of 45 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1684325964819-T5X8XD73L1AUAP8M6EDB/bare.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Bare While folk in the top half of our planet enjoy spring, we’re well on our way to winter down here, down under. Most of Australia’s trees don’t shed their leaves, but plenty of imported species get naked each autumn. This foliage-free tree was happy to be a foreground feature for this photo I took last Friday night, 12th May 2023, at Jaspers Brush, Australia. I composed this shot with the Milky Way’s core behind the tree, rather than in the open, to try something I don’t usually do. There’s still no missing the yellowish hue of the heart of our home galaxy, 27000 light-years distant, glowing in the night sky. At this location, the Milky Way rises over Cullunghutti, aka Coolangatta Mountain, a recognised and declared place of great significance to the region’s First Nations people. As with most of my photos, I shot this scene using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera. I used a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, and the exposure time was 10 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1684757129783-6OWTPOAEWCK248Z1HMN1/star-of-the-show.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Star of the Show Standing abandoned, rusting and neglected in the long grass, this earthmoving vehicle looked like it would appreciate some attention, such as posing for one of my nightscape photos. I don’t know why this and the half-dozen or so other metal monsters were left to the elements at the Jaspers Brush Airfield, Australia, but I did my best to restore some of their collective dignity. With the Milky Way climbing the southeastern sky over Coolangatta Mountain, I made my best effort to provide foreground lighting and backlighting of the cabin to give a sense of an implement standing by for some destruction or construction, as the case may be. A light ground fog in the background added some atmosphere while another abandoned device lurked on the right of the shot, waiting for its turn to shine, or rather, to be shone on. I blended two near-identical single-frame shots to create this image, with one shot exposed for the tractor and the other trying to capture the Milky Way’s delightful details. Each photo was captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera & a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1685186217741-91CLP94PJRGUC32GFLQO/moon-numbers.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Moon Numbers How many songs, stories, poems or ponderings have been written about the Moon? There would be too many to count, but enough that I don’t feel bad for not being able to come up with a new reflection now. Instead, here are some facts about our planet’s celestial neighbour that were true when I captured this photo last 24th May 2023. • Proportion of the Moon lit by the Sun 19% (as viewed from Earth) • Distance from the Earth 403,182.305 km (250,525.87 miles) • Diameter at lunar equator 1,738 km(1079.94 mi) • Mass 7.34767309 × 10^22 kg (1.61988463 x 10^23 lb) I hope you’ve noticed that the Moon is visible in the daytime and not only at night. That was the case when I snapped this image using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, attached to my SkyWatcher 8” Dobsonian telescope, using an exposure time of 1/250 second @ ISO 100. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1685449085213-55NB6QPGBL0NHR6327RX/a-sanctuary-and-some-shivers.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - A Sanctuary and some Shivers We don’t encounter below-zero temperatures where I live in Sydney, Australia’s most populous city. However, when I visited the area around Captains Flat near Canberra (Australia’s capital city) a few weeks back, my car’s thermometer proudly displayed “-3ºC” alongside an icon of a snowflake. Brrr! Sure, it was cold, but crisp, cloudless nights this time of year provide clear and stable air for capturing lots of stars in your nightscape photos. The structure framed by trees and the rising Milky Way in this photo is the St Thomas’ Anglican Church, a 149-year-old sanctuary that now only sees services held monthly. It’s a grand building I wouldn’t have known about had I not scouted the area for shooting locations a month prior. Even then, though, I thought the trees were too close to the building to be able to get an effective composition that included the Milky Way, but I was glad to prove myself wrong. The whole scene looks like it was meant to be! I captured this single-frame image with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. For foreground lighting, I used two Lume Cube LED lamps. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1685657605609-MLAPU3CFEVFXEXDHI13E/a-bridge-a-wombat-and-the-milky-way.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - A Bridge, a Wombat and the Milky Way The long-abandoned railway line to the Southern Tablelands town of Captains Flat, Australia, has the distinction of being one of the shortest-lived branch lines in its resident state of New South Wales. The 34 km (21.1 mi) long track was opened in 1940 to provide passenger and freight services to support the town's copper mining operations but closed after only 28 years in August 1968. The Captains Flat railway had one last gasp in August of 1969 when it was used for location shooting of the feature film, Ned Kelly, starring Mick Jagger! A few weekends back, with my 20-odd kg camera pack on my back, I stumbled down the hill from the road bridge that runs parallel to this rail viaduct, looking for a relatively flat spot to put my tripod and camera gear. "Mate, look out for wombat holes. They're everywhere here," was the warning a passing farmer had given me a few minutes earlier. Once I'd set up and started taking photos, I was startled to hear a grunting sound nearby. I looked up and saw the source of the noise. The biggest wombat I've ever seen had come out of its hole to find out who'd come into its domain on this cold night. After a short staring competition, the wombat returned to his digging, and I kept capturing shots like this of the Milky Way's core rising in the southeast. This single-frame image was shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. I lit the bridge and foreground with two Lume Cube LED lamps. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1685795309743-BJ3AC53VJPK0L7MBQVKM/fog-and-foliage.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Fog and Foliage I spent a few hours driving between locations the night I captured this scene, trying to avoid the ground fog that seemed to be chasing me around the Eurobodalla region of Australia’s southeast coast. Some mist had stubbornly settled at the spot where I shot this scene, but it was only thin and added a lovely soft feel to the receding rural road in the lower left of my photo. The autumn-affected tree that dominates the foreground isn’t native to Australia. Still, its flamboyant foliage added a lovely touch of red to the overall green hues visible in the tree, the nearby paddocks and the airglow-illuminated sky. Looking at the image now, I find my gaze shifting between the colourful flora and the magnificence of the Milky Way’s core rising over the hill in the distance. If you can zoom in on the scene, you’ll see a brick chimney standing alone, the only remains of a farmhouse that was obliterated in the fires that overran our eastern coastline in early 2020. This photo is a stitched panorama created from seven overlapping frames I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1685879830128-7KMGF2S80X42ARGQDEU7/maybe-one-day.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Maybe One Day Although first released in 1954, Frank Sinatra's 1964 version of the song "Fly Me to the Moon" is the best-known rendition of the famous composition (Note: there were well over 100 versions recorded before Sinatra's). NASA astronauts played the track from a cassette tape recording during the Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 space missions due to how closely linked to the Moon missions the song was in its day. Growing up during the "space race" of the 1960s and early 70s, I expected that being able to fly to the Moon would be an everyday opportunity by the time I was an adult. As it turned out, I was more than a little off-target, and since I'll reach the 60 yr-old mark in mid-2024, I've put a Moon flight onto my life's "maybe one-day" list. Captured in June of 2022 (clouds obscured the June full Moon of 2023), I shot this photo with my Canon EOS 7D camera and Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens. The lens was zoomed to 500 mm at an aperture of f/7.1, while the camera's shutter speed was 1/320 second @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1686227078159-W8L5PPBYIYEN3Q3UW0SV/not-making-a-noise.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Not Making a Noise “Quietness is the beginning of virtue. To be silent is to be beautiful. Stars do not make a noise.” James Stephens, Irish poet, 1880–1950. It was easy not to make a noise as I stood here at the Cuttagee bridge on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, looking at the stars in April this year. Nature was providing a wonderful soundscape already and did not need any effort on my part. To my left was the repeating thud as waves flopped onto the beach at the edge of the Tasman Sea while soothing bubbling and gurgling calls issued from the hasteless flow of Cuttagee Creek as it passed under the old bridge to join that same watery expanse. Augmenting the aural beauty was the scene in the sky, with starry points of light, a star cluster or two, and the powder-puff wisps of the Magellanic Clouds wordlessly telling of their wonders to all who would hear. I created this image by shooting two overlapping photos and stitching them together. Both frames were shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1686314140614-BXJNOSHYP9N2X8O73H8Y/moon-mountain-monument.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Moon, Mountain, Monument Only two days after the beginning of another lunar cycle, the Moon’s slender but bright arc stood out against the twilight tones in the sky over Gulaga, the sacred mountain that broods over the landscape near Bermagui, Australia. A granite cross, marking the memory of a long-passed local, offered itself as another sacred feature for this photograph captured in late April of 2023. Although adjacent to each other in my field of view, these three elements stood apart from each other by great distances. While the cross was only a couple of metres from my camera, and Guluga another 8 km behind that, the Moon was alone in the coldness of space, orbiting our planet at a distance of around 385,000 km (240,000 mi). Although so far apart, I think these three “m” objects belonged together. To capture this photo, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera attached to a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 266 mm @ f/16, using an exposure time of 1/5 seconds @ ISO 200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1686657202500-DZ1Q3UWMPDXNE1T3VBRO/calm.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Calm Its flow paused by the turning of the tide, the Moruya River’s mirror-like surface offered twice as much Milky Way for me to photograph than I expected when I shot this photo in April 2023. The fine, bright points we see as stars have their reflections stretched and fattened by the slight movement of even the most still body of water and were captured here by my camera as colourful streaks. Across the river from my photo spot, the red glow of an aircraft obstruction light in the township of Moruya Heads carried on its task of warning pilots of the terrain near the nearby airport. I captured this single-frame photo with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1686833753796-CU36662CGH255NVZ9SL7/all-aboard-no-more.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - "All aboard,” no more Trains still pass through Mount Murray Station, but the station has been closed since passenger services ceased on the Unanderra to Moss Vale line in New South Wales, Australia, in the 1980s. Mount Murray was opened in 1932, and its elevation is around 780 metres (2560 ft) above sea level atop the Illawarra Escarpment. As I can attest from my recent nocturnal visit, the winter nights can get cold and windy up there! Considering the station is only 25 km from the port city of Wollongong, and 75 km from the outskirts of Sydney, Australia's largest city, I'm surprised at how well the Milky Way shows up against the background sky. I shot seven overlapping images with a wide-angle lens to create this photo, moving the camera from horizontal to vertical in the process, resulting in the band of the Milky Way presenting an unusual alignment with the horizon. For each of those frames, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera coupled with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1687263238379-P54QEWR97FJJXSKXMJQG/crosses-and-shadows-and-lots-of-stars.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Crosses and Shadows and lots of Stars On the third Sunday of every month, this tiny church building comes alive with people greeting one another, singing together in worship and, no doubt, listening to their minister's sermon. For the remaining days of the year, the weatherboard-construction sanctuary sits idle, a landmark for passing motorists to glimpse as they make their way along the Cooma Road. While visiting the Southern Tablelands region in April this year, I noticed this church and returned to shoot nightscape photos last Friday, 16th June 2023. The cloudless and light-pollution-free skies in the area let the starlight shine brightly, and two Lume Cube LED lamps did a fine job illuminating the one-hundred-and-ten-year-old building for my photo. I set the lens' focus to be on the church, giving a slightly out-of-focus look to the sky. Captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/13, I exposed this photo for 13 seconds at an ISO setting of 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1687436436467-BQCC4VPGWJH59ID80XNK/earth-and-sky-at-an-angle.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Earth and Sky at an Angle I found it satisfying to capture this image of the Milky Way's stretch of stars, dust and nebulae, rising in the southeast at close to ninety degrees to the foreground. Most of my photos from the first half of any year typically have the Milky Way at the same angle as here but with a horizon line parallel to the scene's bottom edge. The outline of this hill on the northern shoreline of the Murrumbidgee River near Cavan, NSW, Australia, caught my eye with its steep gradient to the horizontal, and the silhouetted limbs of a tree on its slope give another point of interest. The dark dust lanes in the Milky Way's wispy structure could almost be mirroring the spindly twists of the dead tree's bare branches as they point to the sky. I shot this single-frame photo using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0 using an exposure time of 10.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1687523337639-Q1BMTUAJ44Z8Q7ANC0ZH/ancient.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Ancient The location known as Cathedral Rocks at Kiama Downs is famous for its two massive structures that look like European cathedrals. Near these landmarks, many of the channels and rock pools along the shoreline offer plenty of interesting compositions for daytime and nocturnal photographers. I took advantage of one of these earlier in June of 2023. Much older than the ancient rock formations at ground level, the Milky Way’s galactic core was halfway up the sky when I was clambering over the rocks and trying to keep my feet dry this Friday night. Still, the composition that I ended up with shows the immensity and majesty of this most ancient of natural wonders dominating the night and left me feeling a sense of awe at the beauty of creation. Today’s photo was created using a photographic process known as “stacking”, using multiple shots photographed within a short time and then combined in software to reduce the amount of visible digital noise. I shot four single-frame images using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/4.0, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1687868412943-6OVWSTFA8JMOWWRWAHLW/two-puffs-and-a-streak.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Two Puffs and a Streak Seemingly suspended in the night sky over the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, the puff-like Magellanic Clouds dominate this scene I photographed in mid-June of 2023. These unimaginatively named galaxies—the “Small” and “Large” Magellanic Clouds—never set below the horizon in many areas of Australia and were at their lowest point in the sky when I snapped them. A lucky strike was the meteor that flashed for less than a second to provide the bright streak to the left of the Large cloud. The ambient temperature at ground level (about 800 metres / 2624 feet above sea level) was below zero degrees C as I stood beside my tripod. Several degrees colder high above my position, the moist night air shows a thin but noticeable fog in my photo that caused the background sky to look whiter here than I could see with my eyes. This photo was created by shooting ten frames of the same part of the sky and stacking them in the Macintosh app “Starry Landscape Stacker” to reduce digital noise and enhance the final image. I captured each of those ten shots using a Canon EOS 6D camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.6, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1688127939950-B9690L04GYD6LXDF4CFF/far-for-fog.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Far for Fog My wife and I spied the windmill in today’s photo in mid-April while driving south from our holiday spot at Tuross Head, NSW, to Tathra, another of the beautiful coastal towns in this part of Australia. After dark, I headed back to the spot a few days later, knowing that the windmill would be in the perfect position to feature it against the Milky Way rising in the distance. With dinner eaten, my camera and LED lamp batteries charged and several layers of clothes to keep me warm, I completed the 100 km (62 mi) drive. I arrived to discover that the windmill and everything for about 500 metres around it was covered in fog. There was next to no breeze, so the mist sat heavy in the little gully and did a fine but unwanted job of reflecting my LED lamps’ light at me and making the Milky Way hard to see. You can make out the Milky Way’s core region peeking above the horizon to the left of the windmill’s tower, showing an orange glow due to atmospheric refraction, in the same way that the sun and moon look extra-golden as they rise. This photo is a single-frame image, shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1689250247902-HQNURI191SKNAQ0NVO9Z/fruitful-sleeplessness-1.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Fruitful Sleeplessness I didn't plan to wake up at 3:45 this morning, unable to get back to sleep before my working day started, but some ongoing abdominal pain took charge, and that's what time my day started. Our winter in Sydney, Australia, has been unusually dry this year, and our skies have been clear for weeks now. Since I was forced to be awake, I made the most of things and captured some shots of Jupiter, the Moon and the Pleiades star cluster looking delightful in the pre-dawn sky. I took this photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 2.0 seconds @ ISO 200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1689415528928-T2320ZYHHDPH5YEXITYO/wonders-through-the-haze.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Wonders Through the Haze Airborne moisture and a hazy horizon made it difficult to get a sharp and clear image of the Milky Way rising when I visited Cuttagee Beach, Australia, in late April this year. Despite those challenges, I caught some of the majesty of our home galaxy’s core region as it climbed the sky. A prominent feature of this region of the sky is the Lagoon Nebula, aka M8, an interstellar cloud that shows in my photo as a distinctly pink blob about one-third of the way up from the bottom of the shot. At the bottom right, you can see a reflection of the yellowed glow of the Milky Way’s core area. Due to how much the hazy conditions dimmed the sky, I pushed my camera’s sensitivity setting, the ISO, up beyond what I normally use for nightscape photos. I shot nine images in succession using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f2.2, with an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 12800. The nine single shots were then edited in Adobe Lightroom and stacked using Starry Landscape Stacker. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1689509204186-U9MF8XHEZEEFP48MPJO2/A+Rookie+Error%E2%80%A6Ten+Years+In.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - A Rookie Error…Ten Years In Later this year, I'll mark ten years of shooting nightscape photos with digital cameras. I started taking pictures of the night sky with my mum's black-and-white film camera in 1978 and continued for a couple of years until study demands at school and other interests took over. In 2013, after devouring many online tutorials, I began shooting night sky photos with my Canon EOS 7D digital SLR. Now, ten years down the track and with over 110,000 images under my belt, it's humbling to know that I'm still learning and still capable of making basic errors. The panoramic photo I'm posting today is a heartbreaking example of making a "rookie error" long after I should be doing such things. Created from forty-one single-frame images, this photo captures the Milky Way arched over the Princes Highway near Bodalla, Australia, in early July 2023. Despite the remoteness of the location, the highway was quite busy on the night, and I had to re-take several frames due to car or truck headlights shining straight into the lens and ruining the shot. When I got home and loaded the images onto my Mac, I saw that the lens hadn't been focused on the stars! That is a definite rookie error. I'd checked and rechecked my focus several times before taking the shots for the panorama, but I must have bumped my lens sometime after the first row of twelve because all photos from that point on have blobs instead of pinpoint stars. "Live and learn" is the expression, I think. I captured each of the 41 shots used in this panorama with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.5, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1689596105151-OYQNR345PLDTZWA3DK63/skyward-spindliness.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Skyward Spindliness These sinewy and spindly poplars, with their leaves now dead and shedding, caught my eye while I was looking for a shooting location near Bodalla, Australia, in April of 2023. The long and thin branches seemed to intersect the Milky Way’s fine dust lanes, and I imagined that those terrestrial and celestial elements were intertwined in some bonding ritual. Stands of poplars are a common sight in along roads in the Australian countryside, despite the trees not being native to our land. The trees were imported from Europe by earlier settlers, but the sky they rise in front of is distinctly that of a Southern Hemisphere location. Across the fields behind the poplars are lights indicating the homes of local farmers, probably wondering who the strange man with the LED lamps was off in the darkness. I hope they took the time to look up and see the magic overhead! I captured this single-frame photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1689770408251-78B5OUK6FDFLPSCHJT54/wagonga-wharf.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Wagonga Wharf The coastal town of Narooma, in my state of New South Wales, Australia, is built on the shores of the Wagonga Inlet, a 6.9 square-kilometre lake that empties into the Tasman Sea. In the northwest reach of the inlet is the Wagonga Wharf, where I shot this photo of the Milky Way riding high over the still waters in early July 2023. The wharf was first used as an unloading point for sailing vessels and small steamers in the 1860s. The current structure was built in 1996. It was too late at night for me to capture the Milky Way’s core rising over the hills, so I shot the frames to create this tall and narrow image of the Milky Way higher up in the sky over the gorgeous spot. I think I can still hear the silence of the locale when I look at my photo! To create this vertical panorama, I shot seven overlapping frames with the camera focused on the sky, then one extra image with the wharf in focus. I blended the images in Photoshop and a stitching program to generate what you see here. For each of the eight photos that comprise the final scene, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera (Mark 1) and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1690028181855-80QOU7EUMXKV7PANN8RS/open-air-cathedral.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Open-air Cathedral Formed by the cooling of lava flowing to the sea millions of years ago and shaped by the erosive actions of the sea since then, the basalt columns at Cathedral Rocks near Kiama, Australia, have a majestic and inspiring presence. The outcrop in my photo today is the smaller of the two “cathedrals” at this location, yet it’s as fascinating and photogenic as its larger sibling. The Milky Way was making its way from the horizon towards the zenith, looking down on these ancient rocks as I shot multiple images to create this vertical panorama. Capturing stars in photos requires a longer shutter speed than used in daylight photos, and this has the added attraction of rendering the waves as smooth and blurred patches of white to contrast with the harshness of the rocks. The lights of two ships heading north to Port Kembla made bright dents on the otherwise straight horizon. I shot and then stitched five overlapping frames to create this final image. Each photo was captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1690545725545-5657DQPYLTA9IBFUD6Y8/green-all-round.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Green All ‘Round Even if such things were within my control, I couldn’t have done a better job of matching the sky colour to that of the grassy hills at Bodalla, Australia, when I captured this image in April of 2023. Atmospheric airglow can show itself in various colours, and green is the one I’ve seen the most in my night sky photos. Despite how black or charcoal grey the sky might look to our human eyes, there’s plenty of colour to capture in photos. Shining through that “background” hue (the airglow is actually happening in front of the stars and not behind them), the light of the billions of members of our Milky Way galaxy dot the dome of night. Dark dust and gas strewn between the stars and us on Earth make mottled smudges and smears on the heavenly canvas. I shot this scene with a 14 mm wide-angle lens on my camera, making the corners of the photo look stretched and distorted. Trying to compensate for this distortion, I leaned towards the tree while attempting to stand still for the twenty-five seconds that the shutter was open. Looking at the result here, I see that I leaned too far! The 14 mm lens I mentioned above was attached to my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and set to f/3.5. I chose an exposure time of 25 seconds, set the camera’s ISO to 6400, and used two Lume Cube LED lamps to light the foreground. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1691063061376-5WX4HQXKQL7HG2FNOSQM/photo-friendly-farmer.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Photo-friendly Farmer It’s a pleasant surprise when someone takes an interest in what you’re up to, standing next to a tripod on the edge of a farm next to a dirt road at the back of beyond on a mid-winter night. The farmer who pulled up his utility when he saw someone parked on the access road to his hay shed on the evening I shot this photo was keen to know why a guy was wandering around in the dark right next to that hay shed. “Photos,” I said. “Night sky photos.” After he saw my camera and some of the images I’d already shot, the farmer gave me his blessing and drove off into the night. I was glad for the interaction but was racing against the clock. The 83%-illuminated Moon was due to rise in about 45 minutes, so I had to get on with things. It took me quite a few test shots before I was happy with my foreground lighting (but I’m still unhappy with it) and pressed ahead to capture the remaining photos that make up this vertical panorama. I captured nine single-frame images to make up this final photo, using my trusty old Canon EOS 6D camera and Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1692102479418-G1WZFKVKWAYYS534S37Y/in-the-valley-of-the-night.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - In the Valley of the Night About two months ago, I spent the weekend in the southern tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. Beyond the southeastern corner of those tablelands is the Araluen Valley, named for the town that occupies the plains therein. After a 300 km (186 mi) drive from home, I got a few night sky shots up on the high plains, then followed the very winding road down to Araluen. Apart from a couple of test shots, the only photos I took on this visit were the forty that make up this panorama. My camera caught the overall bottle-green colour of atmospheric distortion across the sky. When you look at the right-hand half of the pano, where the arch of the Milky Way peters out, you can see a lighter shade of green, indicating more intense photochemical activity in the atmosphere. The reddish-pink hues closer to the horizon are from the Aurora Australis, which was very active that night. I was down in a valley when I should have been up on the high plains or up a mountain getting aurora photos! I reckon the aurora was worth missing, considering how my panorama worked out! I mentioned above that I captured forty single-frame photos to create the panorama you see here. For each image, I used my Canon EOS 6D camera fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1692533942094-OLM86PN12WMJYFKPE6Y7/as-it-is-in-the-heavens.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - As it is in the Heavens.jpg Please excuse my play on the line from The Lord’s Prayer that I’ve chosen as the title for today’s photo. Taken in April 2023 near Bodalla, Australia, this image made me think of how similar things on Earth can look to some of the immense structures in our Milky Way galaxy. Certainly, there’s a massive difference in scale between the tree’s dead, angular branches and the dark, angular shapes of what astronomers call “dust lanes.” Still, looking at the twisted shapes in the sky in the top-left of my photo, they look similar to the dead branches that frame them. Or, perhaps, I overthink things! Whatever the case, looking at our universe through something more earthly increases my sense of wonder for creation. This photo is a single exposure, captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1693056480331-E8TK6J9KG1JDZSZR10LG/the-crown-of-cuttagee.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - The Crown of Cuttagee Cuttagee Beach is one of the dozens of beaches on the “Sapphire Coast” region of New South Wales, Australia, so named for the blue hues of the waters along that coast. Looking at this panorama that I shot in late April of 2023, the dominating colour is more green than blue, caused by what’s known as atmospheric airglow. Human eyes can’t see colour in low light, so to me, the shaded sky looked more “light black” than the distinct hues my camera caught. Earlier in the night, the Aurora Australis had been very active, and I got photos that showed a vivid pink/red colour in the sky at a location north of this beach. The auroral activity had dropped off significantly when I was capturing the photos for this pano, but there’s a faint hint of pink on the horizon to the right of the centre, where the lights of beachfront houses are glowing. I might not have been able to see all of the colours my photo displays, but there were plenty of stars to look at, and the peace & quiet were soothing. I shot this 44-image panorama with my Canon EOS 6D camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 13.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. The stitched panorama was a 1.38 GB file with dimensions of 21476 x 10738 pixels. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1693055430654-0MEQM46999QHGAIR3N20/on-its-end-at-the-end-of-my-night.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - On Its End At The End Of My Night Midnight was only minutes away as I shot the eight frames I combined to create this tall, narrow image on a cold and clear night in June of 2023. Although the sky looked cloudless, my camera caught some thin cloud near the horizon that mixed green atmospheric airglow with the fading crimsons near the horizon, the last gasp of this night’s auroral activity. Those blended hues add extra interest to the sky while not distracting from the splendour of the number of stars visible in this dark sky location between Braidwood and Cooma in New South Wales, Australia. In actuality, I shot nine photos to create this panorama, using a technique called “focus stacking” so that the grasses and fence in the foreground were as in focus as the starry sky above. I used my Canon EOS 6D camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.6 mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head for each of those nine photos. The exposure time was 13.0 seconds per shot, with the camera’s ISO set to 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1693224738634-2QTUHVM86DWDS8XGRNN2/simply-starry.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Simply Starry I get a lot of enjoyment out of creating images that show off the wonders of the night sky. Browsing through my posts, you’ll often see me feature the Milky Way’s galactic core or the enchanting dwarf galaxies known as the Magellanic Clouds. Now and then, I like to include the Moon in my shots, and far less often, I’ll give you a photo of the Sun that I’ve captured with my telescope. Today, though, I’ve opted for a much simpler scene to post. This photo takes me back to being a boy and looking up at the dark sky when we were out of the city. I didn’t know any constellations or asterisms other than Orion or the Southern Cross, but looking up and encountering far more stars than I’d ever seen made me feel a sense of wonder. I hope I can imbue you with some of that wonder today. My simple single, as I call such shots, was taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1693466287693-HKW4GOW0AKARLW0D0VBD/more-mount-murray.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - More Mount Murray Earlier this year, I shared a photo featuring the disused, ninety-one-year-old Mount Murray Railway Station under the rising Milky Way. That image was well received here and in a few railway groups on Facebook. While ferreting through my “WIP” folder (Work In Progress) in Adobe Lightroom this week, I remembered I’d shot another vertical panorama of the lovely old station when I visited the location early in June. In today’s photo, we’re looking down the tracks towards the industrial city of Wollongong and its urban sprawl and busy shipping port, Port Kembla. The lights from my state’s third-largest city have rendered the sky above them white through the trees in the distance. Despite that glare, I still caught plenty of detail in the core region of the Milky Way. I created this image by shooting seven overlapping frames, each captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1693570130721-EEKW8MB1OZKJ4ETYTS4S/seaside-cathedral.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Seaside Cathedral The two large basalt formations that reach skyward at Jones Beach, north of Kiama, Australia, are collectively called "Cathedral Rocks." I posted a photo of the smaller structure in July of this year, and I captured today's image of the larger "cathedral" under the rising Milky Way the same June night I shot the previously posted scene. Light from the LED lamps I'd placed near the edge of the rock shelf that I stood on combined with the photons spilling from streetlights and homes in the suburb of Kiama Downs to illuminate the rocks, the distant headland and the water surrounding the rocky island. The five single-frame photos I shot and then stacked to create this image were all captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1693829263158-EEM5H6W654QOHKED9OZR/murky-molonglo-milky-way.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Murky Molonglo Milky Way Today's photo is the second I've posted from my visit to the abandoned Captains Flat railway line in the Monaro region of New South Wales, Australia. I'd scouted the location during the daytime a few months before making the long drive from my home on a Friday night in June 2023. Constructed in 1939, it's a credit to the architects and builders that the bridge is still standing, with the piers and girders in good condition. The same can't be said for the structure's rotting sleepers and rusting rails. Although the sky looked free of clouds to my eyes, the scene my camera captured showed a thin moisture layer that discoloured the night's atmospheric airglow and changed the tones usually seen in the Milky Way's core region. I plan to return to the Molonglo River site sometime in the first half of 2024 to try to capture the same scene without the murkiness you see here. Unlike my previous post from this site, today's photo is a stack of seven single-frame images, each captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.6, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1694344516819-4M6MH2Q9T7G8MJ937F4D/galaxy-and-sanctuary.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Galaxy and Sanctuary The Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy travelling through space with our Milky Way, looked like a blissful bloom as it hung over St Mark's Anglican Church at Currawong in New South Wales, Australia, in August of 2022. Estimated to be made up of over 20 billion stars and with a radius of around 32,000 light-years, this relatively small galaxy is roughly 160,000 light-years from Earth and is visible with the naked eye to Southern Hemisphere observers. Having seen the Large cloud and its companion, the Small Magellanic Cloud, I understand where the name came from. The church at Currawong was built between 1918 and 1919, so it's young as far as "old" churches go. The bluestone granite blocks were quarried locally and formed into the walls of the building by volunteer labour on donated land. I created this image by shooting twenty consecutive photos of the scene (10x lights, 10x darks), which I processed in Adobe Lightroom and then stacked using Starry Landscape Stacker. Each of the ten light frames was captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. The ten dark frames were shot with the same settings while the lens cap was in place. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1694952652593-5V4HR5FRM8INRLEZ0WVY/balancing-act.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Balancing Act The 5%-illuminated Moon was slowly gliding down to the western horizon tonight, seemingly balancing on the boom of a construction crane a few hundred metres from my home. The Moon wasn’t as close as the crane, obviously, moving through space in its orbit around the Earth, nearly 399,000 km (248,000 mi) away. Lights from the intersection near the construction site provided plenty of glow to make the crane’s formwork visible. While I enjoy the long car trips I take to get to dark skies for my Milky Way images, it was nice only to have to walk from my desk to our balcony to photograph this scene. I shot this single-frame photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera attached to a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm @ f/7.1, using an exposure time of 0.6 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1695211914716-1H7B58UPNECLQFSK4AJ8/gaseous-light-and-rocks-and-water.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Gaseous Light and Rocks and Water The most massive of the planets in our solar system, Jupiter, is one of the “gas giant” planets. As far as we know, Jupiter is almost wholly comprised of gases, and all that gas makes it an excellent reflector of the Sun’s light. After the Moon and Venus, Jupiter is the brightest object regularly visible in Earth’s night sky. Jupiter had not long risen when I captured today’s photo of it ascending the sky off Gerroa, Australia, with its gorgeous glow reflected by the headland’s tidal rock pools. I lit the foreground with my LumeCube LED lamps, giving the rocks and gravelly beach a yellowed look, adding to the other-worldly feel of the entire scene. I captured this single-frame image using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1696677276397-ZS4QH88UL4MX5THP4UPL/night-falls.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Night Falls Today’s post is from a visit to Carrington Falls, in the Southern Highlands region of my state of New South Wales, Australia, early in September. The Milky Way was moving towards being parallel with the southwestern horizon when I captured this three-frame vertical panoramic image at the top of the falls. Not far past the rocks and flowing pool in the photo’s foreground, the waters of the Kangaroo River reach the edge of the escarpment and plunge 160 metres (520 ft) to the valley floor below. On the horizon, you can see the distant glow of the town of Marulan, nearly 60 km (37 mi) away. I used my Canon EOS 6 Mk II camera to capture the three images that make up the final panorama, coupled with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1697971835676-V7UVWK35F6H5QWBND0KA/cliffhanger.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Cliffhanger My nightscape photography expeditions have been less frequent than I’d hoped for this year. With the Milky Way’s core almost gone until early 2024, this image I captured in mid-September might be my last shot of this part of the sky for 2023. The starry band of the Milky Way was hanging over the top of the landform known as Black Head at Gerroa, Australia when I captured this 30-frame stacked image. I lit the cliff face with two Lume Cube LED lamps, and light spilling from the town of Nowra—23 km (14.3 mi) distant—was responsible for the backlighting of Coolangatta Mountain, at the bottom left of the scene and the waters of Berry’s Bay in between. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1698659912997-6O3O8XCGV3F65PW4F8B7/lights.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Lights In mid-September this year, I ventured south to Gerroa, a lovely coastal location here in Australia, for what looks to have been my final Milky Way core photo session for 2023. The rock platform surrounding the headland at Gerroa has fascinating features that draw amateur and professional geologists and fossil hunters by day and keen nightscape photographers in the darker hours. You can see some of the tessellated features in the shallow rock pools that the rising tide filled during my time there. At this time each year, you can photograph the Milky Way as it sinks towards the southwestern horizon, forming the arched shape I captured in this 55-frame panorama. Although the distant towns of Berry and Nowra are much smaller than the metropolitan areas of Kiama, Wollongong and Sydney to their north, they still pump out plenty of stray illumination in all directions, as you can see from the bright and white “light domes” along the distant horizon. The location is a 110 km (68 mi) drive from my home in Sydney but still far enough from civilisation to avoid such light pollution. I shot the frames that make up the panorama using my Canon EOS 6D Mk I camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1698922388925-WL95Q9JCBBNPJW1FXTSK/over-the-falls.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Over the Falls The shallow, dark waters pooled at the top of Carrington Falls, Australia, reflected the light emanating from the Eta Carinae region of the Milky Way, stretching upwards, as I photographed this scene in early September of 2023. Despite being a very popular hiking and picnic location, I had the hooting of owls, the rippling of the pools and the distant crashing of the waterfall to myself this Saturday night. Since I didn’t have my panoramic tripod head with me, I resorted to first principles, using my camera and a standard tripod, plus good old dead reckoning to ensure I had good overlap between the nine frames that make up this vertical panorama. In the end, I misaligned things and came close to missing out on the lovely circle of stars near the bright-orange star Antares at the right-hand edge of the frame, but I’m pleased with the final result. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1700478913535-FIZ10NOEAPU4N9S7UCP6/the-hall-and-the-heavens.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - The Hall and the Heavens This abandoned building is tagged on Google Maps as “Cullinga Hall/School?” So far, I’ve not found any further details of the building’s history, but it’s a very photogenic structure that posed nicely for me when I visited last Monday night, 13th November. Located in the Riverina District of New South Wales, Australia, the old hall isn’t far from the towns of Wallendbeen and Cootamundra, in an area that farms wheat, canola, cereal crops, sheep, wool, fat lambs and cattle. The Large Magellanic Cloud was prominent in the sky, seen here at the top-right corner of my photo. The second-brightest star visible in our planet’s night skies, Canopus, was sending forth its photons and appears here down the centreline of the shot. Atmospheric airglow tinted the sky a lovely green hue, which looks like a colourful canvas sprinkled with stars, even though the stars are much further away in space. I captured this shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400, and I lit the foreground with two Lume Cube LED lamps. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1699183422103-UEK3U2DOG7DRGX011VGC/cloudy-water.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Cloudy Water The Murrumbidgee River flows for around 1485 km (923 mi) and is the second-longest river in Australia. I photographed the starry southern sky over and reflected in the river from the northern approach of the Taemas Bridge, about 40 km (25 mi) northwest of Australia’s capital, Canberra, on a night in mid-June of 2023. Looking across the river in my photo, you can see the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds–satellite galaxies of our Milky Way–hanging listlessly over the rolling hills, with the larger of the two “clouds” reflected in the Murrumbidgee below. Also reflected in the water is Canopus, the second-brightest star visible in the Earth’s night skies, and a scattering of other stars from this region of the heavenly sphere. I hope to return to the bridge in 2024 and try to capture a “Milky Way arch” panorama. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1699353877564-X2F18ZBSOVZLXB1U1Q0I/imposter-syndrome.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Imposter Syndrome I’ve been wowed by the hundreds (thousands, more likely) of photos online in the past few days, showing the beauty of the major auroral event last Sunday night, 5/6 November. As per most Sunday nights, I was at home in Australia’s largest capital city, Sydney, with no view to the south and lots of light pollution, so I missed out on the skyborne light show. My photo today isn’t, sadly, from that auroral display. My shot was taken during a similar event in April of 2023. Call me an imposter for jumping on the Aurora bandwagon, but I had no other images to post. I captured this scene at the Blue Pool, one of the tourist attractions of Bermagui, on the southeast coast of Australia. The photo is a single exposure, shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/4.0, using an exposure time of 5 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1700306907671-BEVWJ64N6R1N5KQVUQUT/in-the-twilight-zone.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - In the Twilight Zone I shot today’s photo last Monday night, 13th November, at 9:05 pm, seventeen minutes before the beginning of astronomical twilight*. Shooting then meant there was still sunlight refracting in the Earth’s atmosphere to make the sky bright enough to silhouette the horizon but not so much that the stars, dust and gas formations in the Milky Way couldn’t be seen. I planned to shoot this scene with the windmill being much more prominent in the foreground, but a barbed wire fence, lots of long and spiky grass and wheat, and a drainage ditch kept me from getting close enough to the structure to do so. * Did you know there are three twilight periods, both after the Sun sets and before it rises? At sunset, “Civil twilight” begins, and the sky gradually darkens but is still bright enough for us to see without artificial lights such as headlights, streetlights, etc. Astronomers regard civil twilight as when the Sun is just below the horizon to when its centre is six degrees below the horizon. “Nautical twilight” occurs when the Sun is between six and twelve degrees below the horizon following sunset or between twelve and six degrees below the horizon before sunrise. “Astronomical twilight”–my favourite kind of twilight–begins when the Sun is from twelve to eighteen degrees below the horizon after sunset or between eighteen and twelve degrees before sunrise. Captured north of Young, NSW, Australia, I shot this scene with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1700564642350-DMYVBT5WDLKBOIUUD4M8/milky-way-moos.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Milky Way Moos Where else would you find cows but in the Milky Way? This pile of three cows marked the entrance to the Romani Pastoral Company’s property near Harden, NSW, Australia and seemed happy to pose for my photos while the Milky Way set behind them. Contented cows, you might say! The Milky Way has a yellow/brown tint in this photograph, caused by the refraction of light by the Earth’s atmosphere, in the same way the moon looks yellowed when you see it close to the horizon. I was happy to get this end-of-season image of the Milky Way, having driven for over four hours to reach the location. I’m fortunate to live in this part of the world, where we can see and photograph the Milky Way’s core region from partway through January until almost the end of November each year. I shot eighteen stacked frames using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens to create the image I’m offering you today. For each of those shots, I opened the lens to f/2.5 and used an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1701341772673-RGB9HFAK49E4B3XVEFGR/nocturnal-harvest.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Nocturnal Harvest While I was enjoying my time photographing the wonderful night I was afforded in mid-November this year near Harden, NSW, Australia, many of the local farmers were occupied with their wheat harvest. The lights of one of the massive pieces of agricultural machinery pointed in my direction as I took this photo of the Milky Way’s galactic core edging closer to the horizon. The inherent haziness of the sky in the space between the horizon and roughly ten degrees above it made it impossible to get a sharp and detailed image of our galaxy’s dust lanes and dark nebulae. Still, I’m happy with how the overall scene looks. This photo is a single-frame image, shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1720351959482-3AYDJ4E9A0MOGRUAHVPE/reaching-and-rising.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Reaching and Rising After eight frustrating months, I’m finally bringing you my nightscape photos again! I hope to inspire you with the beauty my camera and I see in the Australian night skies. Shot on June 30, 2024, near Tuross Head, Australia, this five-frame panoramic image captures the Milky Way’s galactic core, climbing the sky over a lonely eucalyptus tree that seems to be reaching up to touch the stars. I captured the five images that comprise this panorama using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1720779157028-UIVIUBYG8FKS7YTPATQO/gerroa-green.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Gerroa Green As black as the night sky might seem, plenty of colour shines in the heavens. Caused by charged particles emitted from the Sun interacting with various atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, this “airglow” is easy to see in photos taken with digital cameras, including smartphones. Green was the dominant airglow shade when I shot this vertical panorama of the Milky Way rising over the Tasman Sea at Gerroa, Australia, in April 2024. As well as the stars and airglow in the sky, you can see the lights from a fishing trawler peeking over the distant horizon. I shot seven overlapping frames to create the final image I’m posting here, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0, with an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1722513794453-1T9YEGSLYGZLSZ83TI2W/closer-to-home.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Closer to Home I love my long car trips to capture nightscape photos in locations with what I consider “dark” skies, but sometimes, it’s more practical to visit a spot closer to home and make the most of the situation. Last Friday night, July 26th, I settled for a thirty-minute drive to the cemetery in Helensburgh, Australia. The cemetery is located about halfway between my state’s largest and third-largest cities and receives lots of light pollution blazing from the north and south. The blue hue in the sky is due to that light pollution, which overwhelmed any of the colours I normally capture, created by atmospheric airglow. Despite those circumstances, I managed to tease plenty of Milky Way detail out of this nine-frame vertical panorama, which was shot with a Canon EOS 6D camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds per frame @ ISO 3200. I mounted the camera on my Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head, which I’ve had for ten years as of this month. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1722772250307-8KUV9YPZIH6FJ3DK9UKC/Serenely+Satisfied.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Serenely Satisfied What a treat it was to photograph the sky last Friday night or, I should say, early Saturday morning. I captured this shot of the Milky Way and its reflection in the Tuross River (New South Wales, Australia) sometime around 2:30 a.m. at my fourth and final location for the night. Despite the water flowing quickly due to the outgoing tide, its surface was almost mirror-perfect, with only a thin layer of fog to slightly blur my view. I’d love it if our eyes could see the beauty of the night sky’s colours like my camera can capture these scenes, but I’m grateful for the chance to freeze a beautiful moment in time, see it via a screen, and pass it on to you. I shot this single-image photo with my Canon EOS 6D camera and a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1723033019478-I2QH6KXDW9ZMD7AP0HIS/gasp.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Gasp! Sunday night, the 4th of August, I lamented on Facebook that it was just my luck to have auroral activity being forecast on a night that was predicted to have solid cloud cover for all of my state of New South Wales. This was the last of a four-night stay at Tuross Head on the southeast coast of Australia. Giving up hope, I went to bed early to try to catch up on the sleep I’d sacrificed for an eight-hour photo session two nights prior. Checking my phone after a nature call at 1:00 am, I saw posts from photographers further south than me who were still out capturing the promised Aurora Australis outburst. Ignoring my bed’s beckonings, I rugged up and drove to the nearby “One Tree Hill” location. Looking to the west, I could see a portion of the Milky Way’s core region peeking out from the clouds, so I hoped that there might be other clear spots. Facing south, I could see that between the clouds things looked brighter than in the other parts of the sky. A few test frames later, I was hammering my camera’s shutter button as I snapped as many photos of the aurora as possible. The pink hues backlighting the clouds and reflecting off the ocean look pretty spectacular, I think! I shot this twelve-frame panorama on my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, using a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4 and an exposure time of 8.0 seconds per frame @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1723376039999-5YHKFXV59MS8W2DGWY7I/brighter-bridge.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Brighter Bridge No, I wasn’t looking for trolls under the bridge when I shot this scene early in June this year! The Milky Way’s core had crossed the meridian for the night and was on its way down the sky to the western horizon, but still riding over the superstructure as I lurked below with my camera and tripod. I’d already snapped a few shots, with the underside of the bridge lit up by my Lumecube LED lamps, when I heard a vehicle approaching from the south. The car’s headlights did a fine job illuminating the metalwork, but their beams left most of the foreground in shadow, so I blended two differently-lit frames in Photoshop to create what I’m posting here today. Both photos comprising this image were shot with mainly the same settings: a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds. The photo with the bridge lit by the car was taken at ISO 3200, and the other image at ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1725657832203-Y7ELODSF782K4Z2NYA3Q/the-dark-emu.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - The Dark Emu Spotting the Dark Emu in the Australian night skies comes easily for me now, but my brain wouldn’t cooperate for many years despite several people trying to show me the big bird’s outline in the Milky Way. Australian Aboriginal traditions retain at least two origin stories explaining how the Dark Emu came to be at home in the heavens. In addition to this lore, the Dark Emu was important to our indigenous peoples in providing food, with the bird’s position at night in particular seasons of each year indicating when the harvesting of emu eggs would be viable. I still smile in wonder with each nocturnal sighting, happy that I have at least this small link to my country’s first and most ancient inhabitants. Seeing the shape stretching downwards, behind, or above the Southern Cross is a treat! To create this image of the Dark Emu, I shot sixteen single-frame photos, each with an exposure time of 15 seconds and an aperture value of f/2.2. My Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera was fitted with a Rokinon 24 mm lens for these photos. I stacked the images to reduce digital noise using Starry Landscape Stacker. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1725277036753-5QPFZP2EBTII3KRSY6VT/what-a-blast-4x5.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - What a Blast! Not long after arriving at my photo spot at Bodalla, NSW, Australia last night (1st September), I clicked off a test shot for a star trails session I was about to run and while the shutter was open, boom! This is the brightest and longest-lived fireball I’ve ever seen. If you look at the trail you can see the meteor started off an orange colour, then burst into the bright green before changing back to orange as it faded. Captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1725622435043-H0XBFASZFW6FJMDBWZ1V/international-space-spookiness.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - International Space Spookiness I've seen the International Space Station (ISS) move across the dusk or night-time sky dozens (hundreds?) of times. Despite all those sightings, I still get a spooky feeling when the ISS appears out of a hazy horizon to begin a pass of my location. Last Sunday night, 1st September 2024, I got that spooky feeling again as the reflected light of the ISS started moving slowly up from the southwest horizon at Bodalla, Australia, where I’d positioned my camera so the bare limbs of a dead tree would break the ISS’s trail. The space station orbits our planet at about 28,000 km/h (17,500 mph), but its glide across the western sky was so slow that I had to take nine twenty-second-long exposures to create the composite image I’m posting today. Each of those nine frames was captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 3200. I blended the single frames in Adobe Photoshop after editing in Lightroom. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1725711116200-2IRL08P0J5TFPGW5ZN4I/moon-musings.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Moon Musings Be the moon and inspire people, even when you’re far from full  — Kamilla Tolnø It is a beautiful and delightful sight to behold the body of the Moon  — Galileo Galilei The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to  — Carl Sandburg My photo of the 10% illuminated moon is a single-frame image, taken with my Canon EOS 7D camera, a Sigma 50-500 mm f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm @ f/9.0; using an exposure time of 1/20 second @ ISO 200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1725954049284-FVEP37PTG9INTC0IUBGT/bridge-to-midnight.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Bridge to Midnight I shot this image in early June 2024, a little after midnight. I’d spent the hours since astronomical twilight looking for a location to shoot the Milky Way as it climbed up the eastern sky over the Eurobodalla region on the southeast coast of Australia but was thwarted by fog or clouds at almost every spot I visited. With midnight and the pending vertical orientation of the Milky Way approaching, I stopped at this little wharf at Narooma, which I’d scouted out on a previous visit. Surprisingly, this vertical panorama turned out quite well (imho), considering how quickly I set up my camera, tripod, panoramic head, and LED lamps once I arrived. The alignment of the Milky Way’s southern end with the wharf’s vanishing point was a remarkable coincidence of nature, for which I’m grateful. I shot eleven images to create this panorama. Two of those shots were of the same field of view; one focussed on the nearby railing and the other on the distant island and Milky Way. After blending those two photos in Photoshop, all ten frames were stitched to create the vertical scene I’m presenting today. Each of the eleven images was captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1727087732044-5XAYVU1AZTQ0BFV268P8/Almost-super+Moon+and+a+Planet%2Binfo.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Almost-super Moon and a Planet Last week, one of our city’s TV news channels talked about how many people were at the beaches, “viewing tonight’s rare astronomical event,” the supermoon. Sure, it’s so rare that there are four supermoons in 2024! Still, it makes me happy when more people take the time to look at the wonders in our night skies. I wasn’t thinking about the next night’s event when I shuffled my camera, tripod and 500 mm zoom lens onto our balcony last Tuesday to photograph the 99.2%-full moon. The yellowish orb looked enchanting as it rose, so I shot several frames to process by “stacking”, to get a final image with more detail visible. After processing the photos, I found I’d also caught Saturn, the mighty ringed planet, in my shot. The sky was still bright as the sun hadn’t yet set, so Saturn’s not looking very sharp or bright in the image, but it’s there! This image of the moon and Saturn was created from sixteen single-frame photos, each taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera through a Sigma 50-500 mm f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm @ f/8.0, using an exposure time of 1/100 second @ ISO 200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1727871037534-FJHIU0Z3DEP7ATGRW2OL/that-comet-at-cronulla.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - That Comet at Cronulla I shot this photo of That Comet on Tuesday morning at Elouera Beach, Cronulla, Australia. I’m calling it “That Comet” because typing “Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)” all the time is too much. Also, someone will ask me how to pronounce the name, and saying “That Comet” is much easier. I captured this image with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens zoomed to 161 mm @ f/5.6, using an exposure time of 1.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1728112382651-MWSP0UZVGMDAXH2KQQDM/like-a-wheel-within-a-wheel.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Like a Wheel within a Wheel My post today is a “star-trails” image showing the movement of the stars around the South Celestial Pole over three hours. As you probably know, our planet Earth rotates on its axis once per day, making the sun and moon appear to rise in the east and set in the west. The same thing happens to the stars each night—as the hours pass, stars seem to move across the sky. If you mount your camera on a tripod, face it towards the point in the sky over due south or due north (depending on which hemisphere you live in) and leave the shutter open for a while, you can capture this movement. I shot the 494 images that make up the final image with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/4.0, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1728386487685-10SU4BK0SJ34QHLCMBT3/tiangong-and-tsuchinshan%E2%80%93atlas.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Tiangong and Tsuchinshan–ATLAS I know that’s a tongue-twisting title, but they are the two items of interest in my photo today—the Chinese Tiangong Space Station and the head and long-stretching tail of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). Sunlight reflecting off the space station scribed an arc on the sky as it moved from the top-right to the bottom-left of the scene at Oak Park Beach in Cronulla, Australia. The beautiful—but much fainter—tail of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS stretches up toward the left from the comet’s head, not far above the clouds at about 2/3 of the way across the image and fading into the brightening sky as it crosses the space station’s path. In less than a week from now, we should be treated to the sight of the comet as it appears in the evening sky, not long after sunset. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1730023918099-I0CIFMEX0YA9T50MUH1C/lots-to-see.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Lots to See It’s been a while since I’ve posted any night sky photos, but I’m back today, bringing you an image packed to the gills with heavenly wonders. Captured in one of the wind farm areas near Goulburn, Australia, on Sunday, October 20th 2024, my photo includes a few features you can see throughout any year and one that might never again be seen from Earth. The majestic central region of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, extends across the top half of the scene. I was happy to capture so much detail in this part of the sky, considering that astronomical twilight had yet to end. Venus is the planet in our solar system that reflects the highest amount of sunlight, and you can see it living up to that accolade in the bottom left-hand corner of this image, looking very white, bright, and large. Caused by sunlight reflecting off dust particles in the solar system, the Zodiacal Light is responsible for how bright the sky is from the area between the two wind turbines and stretching up to include Venus, the orange star Antares, and touching on the band of the Milky Way. For me, though, the best object featured in my photo is the beautiful and mystical comet—officially named “Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)”—showing itself as a glistening white streak over in the bottom-right of the frame. Originally calculated as having an orbital period of 80000 years, later observations suggest the possibility that this traveller might never return to our region of space. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1732361597903-7E3ZPT33AC81V6ZDYXU8/roll-on-deodorant-or-robot%3F.jpg 1. ALREADY POSTED-TO BE SORTED - Roll-on Deodorant or Robot? The title for today’s post is courtesy of my wife. When I showed her the photo, those were the things she thought this stark, concrete building could have been. It’s a weather radar tower, one of several that provides data for mapping and predicting precipitation around my city of Sydney, Australia. Whatever you think the building could be, I reckon it looks pretty ugly! The Milky Way’s galactic core was moving down the sky towards its setting for the night, partially blocked from view by the tower’s radome. Flanking the brutalist structure is the brilliant white orb of Venus on the left and the wispy white streak of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) to the right. https://nightscapades.com/wipplanets daily 0.75 2021-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591963038605-YGZ1O40L5HEDGY0VH6X7/more-colourful.jpg WIP-Planets - More Colourful Due to the way human eyes are structured, we typically don’t see colour in low-light conditions. Our eyes have two types of light-sensitive organs, the “rods” and “cones” that you might remember from science at school. The rods are sensitive to dim light but don’t detect colours. Conversely, the cones are good at seeing colour but don’t function well in dim light. To our eyes, then the overall tone of the night the sky looks black, or a deep shade of grey. Unlike eyes, film and digital camera are excellent at detecting both the light and colour of the sky after the sun has set. My photo for today shows this well, with the sky’s deep green colour and the just-risen Moon’s yellow hues being unmissable. The phenomenon known as “atmospheric airglow” is responsible for giving the green tint to the heavens, but I’ve shot many photos where the sky is more of a rusty-orange colour. Less than an hour after I captured this scene, the Moon was higher up, and there was no hint at all of the yellowed light you see here. The planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, were leading the Moon up through the night, (hopefully) adding more points of interest to my shot. I took the photo at Seven Mile Beach near Gerroa, NSW, Australia, with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2 using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1599741944297-BHSLSY0VL5WEZ68H21TL/two-hours-to-sunrise.jpg WIP-Planets - Two Hours to Sunrise Not a ripple, a breaking bubble nor the flick of any fish’s tale was unkind enough to shatter the perfect mirror offered to me by the surface of Coila Lake when I visited there one morning in July of this year. The Sun was two hours from breaking the eastern horizon, but there was ample light from other astronomical objects to brighten the sky for my photograph. The planet Venus had ventured into the sky before I arrived at the lake, outshining everything else in this scene, but soon after I took this shot the Moon cleared the clouds below Venus and became the centre of attention. Above and to the left of Venus, you can see an area of sky that is brighter and whiter than anywhere else, caused by what astronomers have named the “Zodiacal Light.” Know commonly as the “false dawn”, this immense cloud of interplanetary dust is most prominent in this part of the sky in the late-winter and spring months here in the Southern Hemisphere. The star cluster the Pleiades, or “Seven Sisters”, is further to the left of Venus, and the famous constellation Orion is at the same altitude as the Pleiades, but to the right of Venus. You can see Orion’s belt and sword reflected by the lake, in the bottom half of the photo. This image is a single-frame capture that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1594302844664-04C9A3FMGXMFG81YI09B/venus-and-twilight.jpg WIP-Planets - Venus and Twilight Until my short session last Thursday morning at Coila Lake, on the southeast coast of New South Wales, Australia, I hadn’t done much twilight nightscape photography. A friend and former workmate had direct-messaged me the day before, asking about the orange star that she’d seen near the planet Venus in the eastern pre-dawn skies. That message came to mind as I had my camera pointed in the opposite direction, photographing the Milky Way’s core region setting over Tuross Lake, so I repacked my gear in the car and moved to this spot right on Coila’s edge. As you can see, the twilight tones were sublime, and the almost imperceptible breeze kissing the lake’s surface diffused the photons streaming out from Venus and that orange star, Aldebaran, captured here in what is becoming one of my favourite photos from recent months. Aldebaran’s colour and glow are lost in the glare of Venus, but I can see the orange streak of the star’s reflection at the bottom of the frame, to the right of the bright, comet-like beam coming from the second planet out from the Sun. In the top left-hand corner of my photo is the open star cluster known as The Pleiades, or “The Seven Sisters”. Although there are plenty more than seven members of this sparkling cynosure, that’s the number of stars most people can make out in relatively dark skies. As with most of my photos, this image is a single-frame image. I captured the scene with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1593864996822-0EWDW65Q1AXB5L1CV4G7/image-asset.jpeg WIP-Planets - Night Fades to Day The surface of Coila Lake was almost totally still when I composed this shot in the cold air of last Thursday morning (3rd July). A peach-coloured smudge on the horizon signalled that astronomical twilight had begun, meaning I had little time remaining to photograph the radiant glow of the planet Venus and its starry companions. Along with Venus, I captured the sparkling star cluster known as the Pleiades (to the left of Venus); the red giant star Aldebaran; the famous constellation of Orion, and the brightest star in the sky, Sirius. Aldebaran is a little lost in the glare of Venus, but if you look at the planet’s reflection on the top of the water, you can see Aldebaran’s mirrored image nearby. A little to the right of the centreline of my photo, only a tad above the horizon, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse is spawning a lovely streak of reflected light stretching out from the lake’s eastern edge. The final feature of note in my photo is the presence of some Zodiacal Light, an indistinct glowing band that’s passing down through Venus and towards the rising Sun. This photo is a single-frame image that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1592830434703-ADHFGRV69JMWAIB17CDA/colours-from-sky-and-sea-reprise.jpg WIP-Planets - Colours from Sky and Sea (Reprise) In late April of this year, I posted a photo entitled “Colours from Sky and Sea”, which showed the planets Jupiter and Saturn rising above the Tasman Sea at Seven Mile Beach, Australia. Jupiter’s light was so bright that you could see its reflection shining from the water’s surface in my photo, and the background sky was tinged green by atmospheric airglow. Today’s photo is a similar composition, but this time with a different colour palette. When I took this photo on Sunday night (21st June), the airglow was purple rather than green. This change in colour is due to the photochemical reactions that cause the phenomenon occurring at different levels in the atmosphere to where the green hues happen. Jupiter’s reflection stretches from the horizon and in towards the camera, which I set at an angle that would let the photo capture the mirrored image of the Milky Way as well. The squiggles of blue and white on the water in the lower third of the shot are distorted reflections of individual stars. My tripod’s legs did get a little wet when I captured this photo, although I was standing back on some dry sand, shooting via remote control. I used the following equipment and settings to create this single-frame image: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1592659473551-0KJ8OQX8U1S7G7RGPO31/almost-nothing-to-start-the-day.jpg WIP-Planets - Almost Nothing to Start the Day I set a new personal record this morning (Sat 20th June) when capturing this shot of the Moon in the eastern twilight sky. The Moon's illumination was only 1.7%–almost nothing–which is the thinnest sliver of Moon that I have ever photographed. Having such a small amount of crescent to feature in a photo makes it hard to see, I know, but I hope that the overall colour and look of the shot makes up for that. The Moon isn't the only object of note in my photo, with the planet Venus also showing itself against the twilight-blue background. Look up towards the top of the frame, and you can see the bright white dot of light that Venus appears to be in the morning sky at present. If you have access to a telescope, high-magnification binoculars or a super-telephoto camera lens, you will see that Venus is also a white crescent of light at present. I shot this single-frame photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens zoomed to 98mm at an aperture of f/8.0, using a shutter speed of 1/6 second @ ISO 200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1587819814264-9QLY5FC55UTDMFGJG1BW/colours-from-sky-and-sea.jpg WIP-Planets - Colours from Sky and Sea Our solar system’s most massive planet, Jupiter, was about 739 million kilometres (460 million miles) from the Earth when I captured this photo at Seven Mile Beach, Australia. Saturn, the planet known for its beautiful system of encircling rings, was orbiting further out in space at a distance of 1.48 billion kilometres (920 million miles) at that time. These two “gas giant” planets are the two bright spots visible in my image, appearing to hover over the Tasman Sea. The light coming from Jupiter was intense enough for it to be reflected off the water’s surface, visible to human eyes and the camera, as you can see here. Saturn is the less-bright spot below and to the right of Jupiter, and its usually yellow-white light reddened by atmospheric refraction. The background sky colour has a green hue, created by the atmospheric phenomenon known as “airglow”, and this is also reflected in the shallow foreground wash along with some of the stars. Giving the blue colour to the more distant waves is the glow of bioluminescent marine organisms. The agitation from each breaking wave stirred up the little critters, causing them to glow in the dark. The whole scene was beautiful beyond belief, once more leaving me open-mouthed, humbled and in awe of the Creator. The photo is a single-frame image that I shot using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, with an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1603621796004-1ZIXIYH7UTAKZQNY6RZP/a-touch-of-colour.jpg WIP-Planets - A Touch of Colour The purple background colour in my photo is from what scientists call “atmospheric airglow”. Astronomers & photographers refer to it simply as “airglow”, and it’s a common feature in my night sky photos. Despite what our eyes tell us, the background sky isn’t black at night but has a tint from airglow. This atmospheric feature can show as green, orange or purple hue (like here), and even sometimes a combination that looks like the sky is rusty. I captured the scene back in June at Seven Mile Beach, Australia. The photo shows the Milky Way’s galactic core region rising over the Tasman Sea, having cleared the coastal clouds that were moving further out to sea. As well as the airglow and the details of the Milky Way’s central band, you can see the light from our solar system’s most massive planet, Jupiter. The reflection of Jupiter was riding the waves, stretching from the horizon to the sand, and you can see the bright glow of the planet backlighting the clouds just below its position in the sky. To shoot this photo, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1585225174652-FOTCV9NCG03OTIQ3LKHK/enforced-urban-astronomy-marked-up.jpg WIP-Planets - Enforced Urban Astronomy We’re not yet under official COVID-19 lockdown here in the state of New South Wales, Australia, but lots of folks are staying home as much as they can. Add to that the fact that, at present, I still have work coming in so couldn’t skip the sleep I’d miss if I went out for a midweek photo session, and you’ll understand the title of today’s photo. The amount of light pollution in my city makes it just about impossible to photograph the Milky Way as I can in dark skies, so I’ve been concentrating on shooting the changing formation between the planets Jupiter, Mars and Saturn in the predawn eastern sky. Mercury has made its way into some recent photos, too, but today’s shot features those first three planets that I mentioned. If we go into lockdown, you can expect to start seeing pictures of my ceiling. Shot from my balcony in Miranda, Australia, this photo was captured using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.6, using an exposure time of 1.6 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1597413853289-WZAPEU28XM6FJYR03H52/sweep-of-night.jpg WIP-Planets - Sweep of Night Gum trees in Australia don’t usually have yellow-coloured trunks like the one in my photo is sporting. The mustardy hue here is due to the nearby road intersection that is illuminated by two sulphur-vapour safety lamps. The arc of white light coming over the hill marks the headlights of a car that is driving towards that same intersection. I captured Jupiter and Saturn making their way up the eastern sky, seen here to the upper-left of the towering tree, standing out prominently against the otherwise unremarkable night sky. There’s plenty of breathing space in the photo, and that’s what drew me to this particular shot as I scrolled through my Lightroom library tonight, looking for an image to brighten your day. I hope you have a great day, whatever part my photo plays in that experience. The shot is a single-frame image, captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591963038605-YGZ1O40L5HEDGY0VH6X7/more-colourful.jpg WIP-Planets - More Colourful Due to the way human eyes are structured, we typically don’t see colour in low-light conditions. Our eyes have two types of light-sensitive organs, the “rods” and “cones” that you might remember from science at school. The rods are sensitive to dim light but don’t detect colours. Conversely, the cones are good at seeing colour but don’t function well in dim light. To our eyes, then the overall tone of the night the sky looks black, or a deep shade of grey. Unlike eyes, film and digital camera are excellent at detecting both the light and colour of the sky after the sun has set. My photo for today shows this well, with the sky’s deep green colour and the just-risen Moon’s yellow hues being unmissable. The phenomenon known as “atmospheric airglow” is responsible for giving the green tint to the heavens, but I’ve shot many photos where the sky is more of a rusty-orange colour. Less than an hour after I captured this scene, the Moon was higher up, and there was no hint at all of the yellowed light you see here. The planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, were leading the Moon up through the night, (hopefully) adding more points of interest to my shot. I took the photo at Seven Mile Beach near Gerroa, NSW, Australia, with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2 using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://nightscapades.com/wipmagellanic-clouds daily 0.75 2021-04-20 https://nightscapades.com/wipgalactic-core daily 0.75 2021-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591621278709-PW5FZAP8FJQGXAJGN9EH/driftwood-on-the-shores-of-the-sky.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Driftwood On The Shores Of The Sky The planets Jupiter and Saturn were hanging low in the eastern sky, their reflections gleaming so brightly off the surface of the Tasman Sea, when I shot this photo back before “lockdown” became part of our everyday vocabulary. The sinewy driftwood provided a natural sculpture, a set-piece that drew the line between mortal me sitting on Seven Mile Beach (New South Wales, Australia) and the infinite beyond. The majestic presence of the Milky Way was dominating the heavens, like an intricate tapestry hanging on the wall of a cathedral or castle. For almost as long as I can remember, I have been like the character of Vincent (or Jerome, his alter-ego) in the movie “Gattaca”, always longing for the stars, ever looking upwards. With beauties like this to behold, can you blame me? The photo is a single-frame image that I captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1605133901418-XCQ4DVNPF71RDDNBWDTH/earth-vs-heaven.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Earth vs Heaven The ocean rock platforms at Gerroa, Australia, are one of my favourite destinations to visit for shooting nightscape photos. I usually head to the coastal town during the front end of Milky Way Core season (January through May). In those months I can point my camera to the east and capture the Milky Way’s central band and galactic core rising over the Tasman Sea, with the lights of a distant ship or fishing boat being the only possible source of light pollution. Last night (Tuesday 10th November 2020) was my first nightscape photo outing in a month, but being a weeknight, it meant that I couldn’t stay out too late, restricting how far I could travel. It would have been best to visit a site with little or no light pollution in the western sky, but Gerroa was my default choice for its relative proximity to home. Photographing the Milky Way at this time of year requires shooting towards the west, and the rural town of Nowra was spilling light in all directions. You can see its wasteful glow backlighting the landscape across most of the left half of my shot. The Milky Way doesn’t stand out the way I’d hoped due to all of that man-made glow. However, you can see some of its colour and wispy details in a line laying parallel to the horizon and reflected in the shallow saltwater pool in the foreground. I also captured the lovely beacons from the planets Jupiter and Saturn as they hung high in the sky, towards the centre of the scene. This photo is a single-frame image, and I captured it with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1604319195773-L7XQP6Y1R5YV7OLA0642/lucky-lighting.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Lucky Lighting From what I remember of the night that I captured the scene, I was labouring to find a composition that showed the majesty of the dead tree and also included the Milky Way’s galactic core. While I was squinting at my camera’s Liveview display to see if this framing would work, the high-beam headlamps of a vehicle on the nearby dirt road blared across the spot and lit up the dead tree, as well as most of the living ones that surrounded it. Thankfully, I clicked the shutter button and let the camera record the scene as you see it here. When I look at the photo, the negative space in the image isolates the tree and draws me eyes to its well-lit form, and then up to the celestial canopy of the Milky Way’s stars, nebulae and dust lanes. The top of the tree seems to reach up to touch the sky, tying heaven and earth together. The next time I visit this location–near Bodalla, Australia–I will make sure to see if the lifeless limbs are still stretching skyward. This photo is a single-frame shot that I captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1600003197047-BSTB8PWZZ9TW4LFEL9SJ/productive-perseverance.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Productive Perseverance There are lots of factors that need to be in sync for me to make the final decision to go out on a nightscape photography shoot. Last Friday night (Sept 11) those ducks were all in a row for me, as the saying goes. The weather forecast included cloudless skies; the Moon wasn’t due to rise until around 2:00 am on Saturday; the Milky Way would be in the western sky for hours on end, and I could sleep in once home and the daylight hours came around. Despite all of that fortune, there were several times on my outbound trip that I found myself wanting to turn my car around and go back home. The gnawing self-doubt that assails me during most of my waking hours was once again urging me to give up, to head for home and to stop kidding myself that any of my photographs are worth looking at, let alone posting online. After working on today’s photo, though, I’m glad that I pushed through. Being able to capture and share the beauty that I saw in the sky–and the wonders that only the camera can record–reminds me that perseverance often pays off. The Milky Way was very low in the southwestern sky over this man-made pond in the Jerrawangala National Park when I shot the two frames that I used to create the final stitched composite image. You can see the stretched reflection of the red supergiant star Antares on the muddy pond’s surface, with the star itself hovering over the eucalyptus trees in the distance. I captured the two individual photos that make up this final image with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1603799409944-M8IORHFL4GRMARHP8XVX/what-a-treat-that-was.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - What a Treat That Was Too much moonlight and too many clouds have kept me from shooting any new nightscape photos recently. In times like this, the frustrated photographer is motivated to trawl through their unposted images to see what treasures might be hiding on one’s hard disk drive. I found this gem in a folder of photos shot on my trip to Tuross Head, on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, in September of 2018. After capturing a total of zero frames on the Friday night of this weekend of photography, I was blessed beyond all belief with what Saturday delivered. The sky was cloudless, the air was still, and the shallow water at the lake’s edge was hosting a bloom of blue bioluminescent critters. You can see the central band and galactic core of the Milky Way looking glorious over the southwestern horizon, with the planet Mars reflecting the Sun’s light from its orange-coloured surface. The distant mountains are visible courtesy of the atmospheric airglow that offered me the gorgeous green background colour that dominates my photo. This image was created by shooting four overlapping photos and stitching them into the final scene using software on my Mac. I captured the four frames using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1601298039271-DDMLV9F24I64B5CK8WSX/shiny-and-still.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Shiny & Still October is nearly upon us and with it the dwindling number of hours that the Milky Way’s core region is visible in the western sky. Our Southern Hemisphere daylight hours are increasing, too, making it more of a challenge to get out, get shooting and get some more Milky Way magic for the year. Back on September 11, I was out in my car, hundreds of kilometres from my home in Miranda, Australia, searching for a new location to capture Milky Way images before the season vanishes completely. Realising that I was spending too much time driving and not enough shooting, I eventually returned to this small storage pond that I had visited several times in the past three years. The absence of any breeze left the pond’s surface still, rendering it a magical mirror to double the splendour of the Milky Way’s shiny spectacle. This photo is a stitched image that I created by shooting seven overlapping frames that I then composited in software. I shot each of those seven frames with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1600173304354-2N6CYMC8KN7I9DC2AH1W/boneyard.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Boneyard The array of farming and earthmoving equipment sprinkled across this field near Nowra, Australia, makes the scene look like a mechanical graveyard. Some of the vehicles seemed to be in working order, but as I explored the area, I saw that most of the items were broken, rusting, missing parts and appearing to be very much abandoned. Useable or not, all of these inanimate inhabitants were treated to the grand spectacle of the night sky’s wonders on this night in June of 2020. Jupiter and Saturn made their way up and across the Australian sky, trailing the grand swathe of the Milky Way as they displayed their beauty for my camera to capture. You’ll have to squint and zoom to see Saturn since it had only cleared the horizon–to the left of the distant shape of Coolangatta Mountain–a minute or so before I snapped this shot. I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera for this shot, as well as the Rokinon 24 mm lens that’s served me well for several years. My camera’s shutter speed was set to 15.0 seconds, and I chose an ISO setting of 6400 with the lens’ aperture at f/2.4. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1599138973651-DZ97WIUU91U5HSZXAN57/almost-a-fornight.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Almost a Fortnight The photo on the right of this composite image is the shot I posted yesterday (02 Sept 2020), taken next the rural airstrip at Jaspers Brush near Nowra, Australia. Captured at the same location, the other half of the image shows how the scene looked under the Moon’s light, a little over two weeks earlier. On my second visit, I forgot to check to see which lens I’d shot with previously, so there’s a difference between the field of view of the two photos. My efforts at lighting the foreground features of the right-hand image via LED banks were OK, but their results don’t compare to the consistency of brightness and the vivid colours that the moonlight gave me on my first visit. dHere are the settings that I used when shooting each photo: - Left: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4x, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. - Right: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1599051499107-6GKCFU34DVPN6SFEYVZF/best-seen-at-night.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Best Seen at Night I’ve not yet visited this location near Nowra, NSW, Australia, during daylight hours. My two car trips here took place after the sun had set, in May and June of this year. Although the area was in darkness, my LED headlamp was bright enough to let me see that the oily look of the water that I’ve captured in this photo is how the irrigation channel looks even in sunlight. As the title of my shot describes it, the area is best seen at night! Peeking from under the trees near the centreline of the frame–and reflected from the channel’s surface immediately below–is the planet Jupiter, rising into the hazy night over the dairy farming region. Jupiter’s ascension of the sky followed a few hours behind that of the central band of our Milky Way galaxy, glowing in its glory across the top left-hand corner of my photo. Less than thirty minutes after I captured this scene I had to pack my gear and leave due to clouds that came in from the southwest and covered the sky for the remainder of the night, according to the weather records. The photo is a single-frame image that I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598965780335-QI5HRPPVT2O5XOSGWMW3/it-is-what-it-is.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - It Is What It Is From time-to-time, I post photos that have had little editing done to them, or even none at all, so that you can see how close to “final” I try to shoot my original images. Today’s post almost qualifies for the category of “none at all”. The only adjustments I made to this image were 1) I took two single-frame, overlapping photos and blended them into one composite or “stitched” shot, and 2) cropped that final image to trim off some of the warped edges. I didn’t sharpen, lighten, darken, de-noise or colour-adjust either the original or final images. For sure, there are more photos than not which I edit before posting, for a variety of reasons. It’s very satisfying, though, to shoot in a dark area, with a good-quality lens, and with some foreground lighting (too bright in this case, imho), and to then see that for the most part, you got things right “in-camera”. I captured this scene of the Milky Way setting over the hill at the ocean rock platform at Gerroa, Australia, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, utilizing an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598359150934-PJTB0ZFZ7FJPCQROXWZF/galactic-driftwood.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Galactic Driftwood There was an abundance of driftwood covering the sands of Seven Mile Beach (New South Wales, Australia) when I visited last Sunday night, tossed ashore by the intense low-pressure weather system that had given the coast a beating recently. Industrious hands had fashioned this structure out of the longer pieces to they'd found scattered around, giving me an unusual feature to use in the foreground of my photo. I had waited for the Moon to set before trying to shoot some Milky Way images to add to my catalogue, but there was still enough lingering light from the recently-departed orb to brighten the sky near the horizon. After testing a few different alignments of the timber temple and the strip of the Milky Way high in the western sky, I chose this one that has the main lines of the earthly and heavenly structures in parallel. The camera I used to capture this photo was my Canon EOS 6D Mk II, fitted with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8 using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1597669829739-OP0NX24FK4OPM5AH2U0M/leaning-in.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Leaning In My favourite old tree on the access road to Tuross Head, Australia, seems to be leaning in for a closer look at the Milky Way's galactic core as it rises in the eastern sky in this photo that I shot in July this year. Maybe the tree's not so much trying to look closer, but to listen harder to the wisdom streaming from the stars, "day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge" (Psalm 19:2). My photo also captured the two planets that have dominated the night sky for most of this year, Jupiter and Saturn, which are shining like Christmas baubles on the upper-left branch of the tree. The silhouette of my tiny chariot, the Suzuki Swift, is on the horizon near the left, blending into the fence line. I'm looking forward to my car taking me out under the stars again, serenaded by the sounds of frogs chatting about what the night might hold. This photo is a single-frame image that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1597237458340-781PIS24V9L8ZOOP6133/a-quiet-beach-after-midnight.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - A Quiet Beach After Midnight No waves lapped the shore of Tuross Lake as I sat on the sand a little after 12:30 am on this Monday in late July. The distant clumps of cloud barely moved position the whole time I was there. Apart from my intermittent motions when pressing my camera’s shutter button, repositioning the tripod or changing lenses, the only movement noticeable was that of the lake’s water moving towards the ocean as the tide ebbed. I’d loved to have captured this scene with no clouds present, but the stars, planets and details of the Milky Way’s central band still dominate the photo. The light spilling from a nearby streetlamp was enough to illuminate the sandy shore and the copse of trees behind it, but the beach was still dark enough for me to stumble a couple of times while walking back to my car. Jupiter and Saturn were trailing the Milky Way down towards the southwestern horizon while the red and yellow navigation lights on the lake stood sentry for any boaties who might be out for a late-night angle. I shot this single-frame photo with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1597150566432-CSWE2DNZPU2EB3H3GZXY/planetary-frame-up.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Planetary Frame-up A lot of twisting, turning, squinting and squatting went into lining up my camera so I could capture the planets Jupiter and Saturn framed by the superstructure of this bridge. I’m sure I won’t win any accolades for composition or the like for the photo, but I’ve had a long day at work so didn’t have much time to choose and edit a shot to post tonight. I picked this one because it required next to no work to get it ready to post. If nothing else, the photo shows how insanely amazing it can be to photograph the heavens at a truly dark site, enabling you to capture colours and details that your eyes can’t render. I find something special in contrasting the natural wonders of the night sky with a banal, lifeless piece of human engineering such as a bridge. The location for this photo was under the Princes Highway bridge over the Tuross River near Bodalla, Australia. To shoot the image I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1597064696067-XI8UDW95K5N92DT5JFL9/got-a-light.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Got a Light? I don’t know the name or final destination of the driver of the car that provided the foreground lighting for this shot, but if we ever meet, I’ll make sure express my thanks for their efforts. I heard the vehicle coming in the distance and tried to get some glow from the headlights on the tops of the poplars, but mistimed it and got almost a full dose of its high-beam mini-suns. There’s a subtle tone of green atmospheric airglow in the photo and the dry night, coupled with the deep darkness that this location provided, delivered an almost overdone blast from the Milky Way’s core region. Jupiter and Saturn, the two “gas-giant” planets in our Solar System, can be seen hanging out together in the centre of the frame. Today’s photo is a single-shot image, taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1575201936860-XHVY3F1TNB3LX9984RVA/the-iss-over-the-cemetery.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - The ISS over the cemetery One night late in October of this year, I made one of my epic nightscape photography journeys to the Southern Tablelands region of my state of New South Wales, Australia. The first photo location for the night was at the St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church at Windellama, southeast of the rural city of Goulburn. In the past few weeks, I have posted some photos of the church itself, and the World War I memorial that is located in the churchyard. There is also a cemetery in the grounds, covering more of the plot of land than the church and war memorial combined. The oldest headstone inscription dates to 1854. As I was setting up my tripod and camera to find a composition that would include the Milky Way and some of the gravestones, I noticed a slow-moving and bright light climbing up the sky from the northwest. A quick check of the “Sky Guide” app on my iPhone confirmed that this was the International Space Station on its way over my part of Australia. It shows in the photo as a bright, white streak of light, up and to the right of the central monument. On the horizon to the left of the monument, you can see an intense white glow, indicating the position of Australia’s capital city of Canberra, around 75 km (46 mi) away. This bloom of light pollution reaches up and blends with the astronomical phenomenon known as the Zodiacal Light, continuing up and to the right through Jupiter and the Milky Way’s core area. This photo is a single-frame image that I shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1574511665855-84XPTGLCHRCS10BKE63M/to-honor-the-memory.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - To Honor The Memory I don’t want to say much about this photo of the Milky Way and Jupiter ruling over the St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church at Windellama, Australia, and the war memorial that stands in the church’s grounds. Instead, I’ll give you the words that are inscribed on the face of the stonework. They remember and try to convey the love for country, and the sacrifice, of those who heeded the call. The men all died in France, about the furthest they could have been from this quiet rural area in Australia. ERECTED BY THE RESIDENTS OF WINDELLAMA TO HONOR THE MEMORY OF THE DISTRICT BOYS WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE GREAT WORLD WAR 1914 – 1919 The stars look down in honour. I photographed this scene with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1574340850294-NUBWZV0KTGNU0PPX44XJ/from-the-corner-of-my-eye.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - From the corner of my eye At rest in the Lowther Cemetery in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, Australia, are approximately 160 souls. The verdant tract of countryside stands out starkly against the otherwise parched paddocks that are typical of too many parts of Australia right now. Dedicated descendants of some of the departed, or perhaps the caring hands of other locals, look to be regular visitors to the site to water the grass, trim the yard and bring dignity to the dead. I stopped to shoot Milky Way photos at the cemetery on a one-night road trip in late October of this year. The graveyard hadn’t been on my location list for the outing; I noticed the site in my peripheral vision as I zoomed past. On the return journey from the highlands town of Oberon, I took the turnoff into the short dirt road leading to the gravesites and disused church. The gas giant planet Jupiter looms large and luminous in the sky not far above the horizon, its orb inflated by the diffusion from a thin layer of cloud towards the southwest. The core of the Milky Way and its filigrees of dust stretch from left to right, soon after to be obscured by the horizon as our planet turned steadily on its axis. To create this photograph, I shot three individual and overlapping frames, which were then blended using a process known as “stitching”. For each one of those three images, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with the camera’s ISO set to 6400 and the shutter left open for 15 seconds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1573216985490-I68ZU8I35B5A657U2OU0/shots-fired-photographer-scared.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Shots fired, photographer scared! The shallow valley near Nowra, Australia, where I captured this photo is isolated, sparsely populated and very, very quiet when there’s no wind blowing. On the night that I visited, in late October of 2019, the lack of wind rendered the area still and silent. The clear air gave me fantastic conditions to photograph the Milky Way and Jupiter as they began to merge with the southwestern horizon. There is a farmhouse out-of-frame on the right, on the far side of the valley from where I set up my camera. The people who live in that house have at least two dogs, and those dogs have EXCELLENT hearing, I discovered. Any time I made a noise, like when I scraped my tripod’s leg along the road accidentally, the dogs would bark. They would bark, and keep barking, and then bark some more. After around five minutes of the dogs continually barking, I heard the owner’s voice bark back, telling them to shut up. When the dogs kept at it, the owners’ voice barked some more, too. A moment after that, I saw a muzzle-flash and then heard the delayed report from the man’s gun. Was he shooting at me? Was he shooting at the dogs? Whatever the guy was doing, another muzzle flash and its accompanying blast let me know that he was doing it again. What should I do now? Should I duck, or run, or bundle my gear into my car and leave? The gunshots had the desired effect and quieted the dogs, so I waited a few minutes and went back to my kind of shooting. For this “shot”, I used a canon rather than a gun. That “canon” was my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1572956684037-CEGZ2RG3AYYYCWAZEONW/navy-and-red.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Navy and red Several months ago I got it into my head that I’d like to photograph the Milky Way, low in the southwestern sky, setting over the antenna installation atop Nowra Hill, Australia. The site hosts an aircraft radar antenna as well as some small communications towers. Behind the hill is the facility known as HMAS Albatross, aka Naval Air Station Nowra, serving as a military and civilian airport. I had my opportunity a few weeks back, with the weather, the moon and my availability all synching to beckon me to make the 150 km drive for probably my last Milky Way shoot for the year. For once I had enough time before dark to scout the location, so I used the “PhotoPills” app on my phone to line up exactly where the Milky Way would be setting. Despite my planning–and even having time for dinner before the shooting was to start–I didn’t account for one thing. The airfield itself, behind the hill, has lots and lots of bright, white lights that provide visibility for humans. That light shines in every direction, including upwards, I realised after looking at some test shots. Even the lights installed to point towards the ground contributed to an enormous light bloom in the sky, as their beams bounced off of the white concrete and back upwards. So, although I managed to get some Milky Way detail in my photos, most of the good stuff was lost in the light. This photo is a single shot image, taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Canon 40mm f/2.8 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1572759453225-96CSCV0HJPBLSLFZMZSP/windellama-milky-way.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Windellama Milky Way Based on the countryside surrounding the inland city of Goulburn, Australia, rural life in the 19th century seems to have included building a lot of small, local stone churches. As with this image’s subject–St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church at Windellama–photographing these old, purpose-built community focal points gets me thinking about what life in the localities that they serve might have been like, and what place worship would have had in the lives of the church members. For this single-frame image, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1597064413191-YXNZZL41XFG7SQRMYS4Z/got-a-light.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Got a Light? I don’t know the name or final destination of the driver of the car that provided the foreground lighting for this shot, but if we ever meet, I’ll make sure express my thanks for their efforts. I heard the vehicle coming in the distance and tried to get some glow from the headlights on the tops of the poplars, but mistimed it and got almost a full dose of its high-beam mini-suns. There’s a subtle tone of green atmospheric airglow in the photo and the dry night, coupled with the deep darkness that this location provided, delivered an almost overdone blast from the Milky Way’s core region. Jupiter and Saturn, the two “gas-giant” planets in our Solar System, can be seen hanging out together in the centre of the frame. Today’s photo is a single-shot image, taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1572604954991-PSYD53DMTM6H1M7672L9/invincible-invisible.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Invincible invisible The motionless blades of this towering turbine give no hint of the force that the wind was flinging at me as I tried to photograph the Milky Way on Saturday night, 26th, October. With the turbine locked into its “stowed” position, the structure looks to be in a peaceful and serene location. In reality, the wind was gusting at around 40 km/h (24 mi/h), making it difficult for me to steady my tripod. After driving about 160 km (100 mi) to get to the spot, near Oberon, Australia, I couldn’t bear the thought of going home with no shots at all, so put up with the southwesterly blast. Despite the forecast of a cloudless night, some of the dreaded fluffy floating fiends started to move in not long after astronomical twilight ended. Along with the discreet clouds, a higher level of moisture in the air, in general, did its best to filter out a lot of the colours that are usually evident in my Milky Way photos. For this single-frame photo, I used one of my favourite gear combos, made up of my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1572001014089-JT1I2VD0XVX8C55LE1XW/arboreal-silhouettes.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Arboreal Silhouettes I love it when atmospheric airglow and the light of the stars are bright enough to silhouette terrestrial objects like these bare trees, which I photographed near Nowra, Australia, in May of 2019. I shot the two photos with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1571606227571-8ES9GDFMXL4OOVAYGFCM/remains.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Remains Dead and decimated, the remnants of a pine tree sit atop the small hill in the grounds of the Pomeroy Uniting Church. Out of shot, a stand of pines acts as a windbreak for the stone sanctuary and a few nearby farms. Low, very low in the southwestern sky hangs the remains of another season of Milky Way chasing, an obsession that has captivated me for the past five years. The bright and white planet Jupiter will kiss the horizon ahead of our galaxy’s central band, seemingly dragging the mass of stars, dust and gas in its wake. Although my photo looks like it’s a single-frame image, I used two overlapping shots to create the final composition. The 50 mm lens that I used is like a giant vacuum cleaner that sucks photons out of the sky and onto the camera’s sensor. That feature made this my optic of choice for capturing the Milky Way’s light and colours. However, the framing that I had in mind for the image couldn’t be achieved with a single photo, so using this lens required a two-shot overlapping and stitched photo. That lens is my Yongnuo 50 mm f/1.4 unit, which was attached to a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera. I had set the lens to a little less than its maximum aperture at f/1.8, using an exposure time of 8 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1571136252689-UYSQK1EXJAMP5CIVC1PI/north-by-northwest.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - North by Northwest Since reviving my interest in the nightscape photography craft, back in late 2013, I've shot over 95% of my images at locations south of my home in Sydney, Australia. As I live on the southern outskirts of my city, it makes sense to head south for my shoots. I do break out of that mould sometimes, though. Early in October of 2019, I drove northwest of Sydney to the rural location of Bilpin, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. A small, thin cloud wafted across Jupiter's place in the sky as I started shooting. This misty morsel gave the planet a wider and brighter appearance in this photo than it seemed to my eyes. The Milky Way's core was following Jupiter towards the western horizon, grazing the tops of the tall eucalypts at the edge of the Mountain Lagoon. I could have captured this scene with a single image, but opted for a 5-shot vertical panorama, using a 50 mm lens fitted to my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera. I set the aperture to f/2.0 and exposed the photo for 6.0 seconds. I had the camera's ISO set to 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1570777715023-4ZOBN5Y8CEZR43MSK2UP/just-missed-jupiter.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Just missed jupiter Jupiter had partially slipped below the tree line only a few seconds before I captured this photo. You can see it peeking above the trees, halfway down and about 1/3 in from the left of the shot. The Milky Way's galactic core is the dominant feature in the top of the photo. Our galaxy's centre is a beautiful sight, with its bright mass of stars contrasting against the dark dust lanes that look like dirty smoke in the night sky. When the Milky Way is low to the horizon like this, it's hard to get a sharp and well-defined image, but I think I did OK. I captured this image with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1570192283509-TOUONYK44SFATEYA48ZC/watching-the-season%27s-ebb.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Season's ebb Last Saturday night (28th September) was the first time in five weeks that I’d been out for a nightscape photo session. Having such a long gap between shoots was hard enough of itself, but knowing that Milky Way season is almost at its end for 2019 made the wait all the more difficult. I’ve been out twice more since Saturday, so have plenty of images in-store to post this month. Today’s photo was shot from the second of those three outings, when I drove to an area west of Nowra, Australia. You can see how low in the west the core of the Milky Way was when I set up and took this shot, not long after 9:30 pm. The planet Jupiter was unmissable, positioned almost in the centre of my photo. After so long between sessions, I’m surprised that I could remember how to set up and shoot at all. I managed to get it all together, though, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569372854618-9AUKQ34A20IIJ1MI10O2/twas-once-a-windmill.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - 'Twas once a windmill Looking at this photo, I realise that this is a windmill that doesn't mill in the wind any longer. The rotor blades are twisted out of shape, and the beast's tail is laying askew at the tower's base. It's one dead and forsaken device, but that makes for a better photo, I think. The relic is located near Goulburn, Australia. An air ambulance en route to one of my state's other rural centres left its light-trail on the photo, to the right of the windmill. Since the air ambulance is as much a part of rural life as are the fields, fences and farming paraphernalia in the photo, I left the light-trail in the image. I employed my Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8 to capture this single-frame photo, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567316939425-BS5UJPBC4ZXR6P3LBZJL/light-on-the-hill.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Light on the hill This 160-year-old church, sitting atop a hillock west of Goulburn, Australia, looks at home under the lights of the Milky Way, I think. I had the site to myself when I visited recently, giving me the freedom to create a composition that contrasts the little building with the immense universe around it. I lit the outside of the sanctuary with an LED bank that I'd set to a warm (yellowish) colour temperature. To create the light shining from within the church, I used two other LED panels that were set to give off a very pure white light. The building was designed to look good from the outside. It's the light from within that should make a church known to its community. This photo is a single-frame image that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568863786985-QS9WH2TB20BZV983DS7P/over-the-top.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Over the top The title of this photo describes the position of the Milky Way and Jupiter above the bare poplar trees here alongside the Princes Highway near Bodalla, Australia. The phrase also applies to the fact that I was out shooting photos at 2:00 on a Monday morning. After this, I would have only a few hours sleep, then have to drive for over four hours to get back to Sydney for a client appointment. The dividing line between dedication and obsession becomes less distinct each time I cross it! I didn’t do any stitching, stacking, or blending for this photo. The shot is a single-frame capture, taken using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. Lighting was provided by a Litra Pro LP1200 bi-colour LED unit, hand-held by yours truly. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1586870015862-9D2VK2I0PGZ0IQZ1BOUJ/as-the-moonlight-faded.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - As the Moonlight Faded The same natural process that makes the daylight sky look blue–Rayleigh scattering–works just as well to give a blue hue to a moonlit night. Although our eyes can only see this colour when the Moon is very bright and the air clear, photographs like this one show the blue up quite well. On the night that I shot today's photo, I could barely see the sand and grass behind the beach, despite how bright things look here. There's a patch of moonlight visible on the sand, and you can see that some of the waves are lit up as well. The Milky Way is visible in my photo, with some of its colours pushing through that same background blue. I also captured the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in the picture, towards the centre of the frame. As it had been a while since I'd featured myself in a photo, I walked out onto the sands of Seven Mile Beach at Gerroa, Australia, and stood in the right place to be seen, but without stealing the show. Once again, I made use of my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera to shoot the sky for you. I had the camera fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1586696467439-CGC5ZLZAVIUK95WKJNO2/risen-indeed.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Risen, Indeed As I have mentioned a few times recently, I am longing to get out of home, and back under the celestial canopy, once the authorities lift the COVID-19 restrictions. The Milky Way’s galactic core, replete with stars, gas and immense clouds of dust, had risen to its highest point in the night sky when I photographed it earlier this year at Gerroa, on the southeast coast of New South Wales, Australia. I want to see this again! With today being Easter Sunday for the majority of Christians worldwide, a common greeting is to say “He is risen”, to which the proper response is “He is risen, indeed!” If you identify with the Christian faith, another faith, or have no belief in God at all, please take the time to look up at the sky tonight. Use that moment to consider the blessings in your life, particularly the people that you live with, those whom you work with, and the ones you see in passing during each day. As much as you can, be thankful that you are sharing your life with them at this time. This photo of the Milky Way was taken by me with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1586522224282-B6JTW7EM0Z7XII4C2W34/shades-of-the-sublime.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Shades of the Sublime The region of the sky featured in my image crosses the constellations of Scorpio and Ophiuchus. In the lower-left quarter of the shot is the area of space known as the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, a dark nebula of gas and dust in which new stars are being formed. Look at those colours! There are so many wonders for us to behold. I created this image by shooting thirteen six-second long pictures of the sky, plus eleven "dark" frames. The dark frames are used to help reduce the digital noise in the image when all of the photos are combined in a software process called stacking. To capture each one of those twenty-four frames I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1584562813861-I3U5QM5N0CVS6WK6I8L9/Silos+%26+Stars+smaller.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Silos & Stars This photo from Tirrannaville, Australia, is a mix of things industrial and natural. The industrial components are impossible to miss–the silos and adjacent generator unit, plus the power pylons and high-tension cables on the left, all backlit by the blaring lights from the nearby Wakefield Park speedway. The green fields behind the silos and the dominating presence of the rising Milky Way can be seen playing their part for the “natural” team. This photo is the fourth shot that I’ve posted, on consecutive days, from one night of photography that I did in April of 2019. All up, I made a round-trip of nearly 600 km (372 mi) in my car, stopping at five different locations that night. Yeah, I was tired the next day. There had been no sign of any clouds on my drive to this first location. As you can see from the photo, there were plenty of clouds in the sky when I arrived. Within an hour, though, they were headed off to the eastern horizon and didn’t interfere with any other shots. As with the other three photos I’ve posted from that trip, I took this single-frame image with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera. I chose my Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens for the shot, with the aperture set at f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1584445950766-A5OFXMKGOSX85AMMH0OS/big-sky-at-big-hill.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Big Sky at Big Hill The little plaque on the front of this stone church at Big Hill, NSW, Australia, reads: “1878. To Commemorate Centenary. BIG HILL CHURCH. 1978”. With us now being in 2020, the church has occupied its plot of land for 142 years. While not every night in that time would have been cloud-free, the building has nonetheless seen plenty of dark and starry skies during those years. Although there was a hint of fog in the sky when I arrived at Big Hill on my visit in April of 2019, by the time I was taking this & a few other shots of the church, the night had cleared up completely. Jupiter was riding high above the scene, next to the Milky Way’s core, and a touch of atmospheric airglow gave the sky the slightly green colour you see here. The photo is a single-frame shot, taken with Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1584272214835-NW1A4K0RK1OTB4S0Q3OS/open-road%2C-open-skies.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Open Road, Open Skies Another photo from my 2019 trove, I captured today’s image on an empty and quiet rural road near Goulburn, Australia. I should correct that first sentence. There was no traffic about, and no hint of wind to create any rustling of leaves in the treetops. There was one noise that persisted, though. I could hear the sound for the whole of the 45 minutes that I took photos along the straight stretch of road. Those barking dogs were set on annoying me, I reckoned, and they did their best to make sure that any people within earshot would wonder if they should go out to see what the problem was. Luckily, nobody ended up coming to see me and ask what I was doing, lurking in the dark at 2:00 am. I was left to myself to photograph the Milky Way and the planet Jupiter as they rode high in the sky, with the green background of atmospheric airglow to colour the celestial scene. In the distance, towards the road’s vanishing point, the Small Magellanic Cloud hung low in the sky that was slightly yellowed by the light pollution from the city of Canberra. This photograph is a single-frame image that I captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1584187935833-RMPE2XV61CA1GHDPYLOF/celestial-flower.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Celestial Flower When I shot this photo, in mid-April of 2019, I aimed to make the foreground foliage and the galactic core of the Milky Way seem to be only a matter of metres apart. In reality, that gap from the treetops to the stars, dark dust and gas structures at the centre of our galaxy is around 27,000 light-years. Somewhat closer to us here on Earth is the planet Jupiter–glowing white here through a slight haze that moistened the Autumn air–orbiting our Sun at an average distance of 760 million kilometres. Due to the way that I lit the foreground, the pine tree that was closest to the camera looks very bright and has taken on the yellow tone that my LED lantern was putting out. I see those golden branches as the petals of a flower, with the taller tree canopy and the band of the Milky Way making up the stellar stamen, dispensing photons of pollen into the night. The location was Big Hill, New South Wales, Australia. All of that is opinion and art. The facts of the photo are that it was taken with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1583671611515-QG0IJW4J8ZAAR4BJEDJ8/knowledge-and-practice.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Knowledge and Practice I did a lot of astronomy & night sky photography back in my teen years in the late 1970s & early 80s. After that, I kept an interest in things astronomical, but I devoted my photography sessions to subjects more earthly. Note to self: why didn't you try to photograph Halley's Comet in 1986? It wasn't until 2013 that I pointed my Digital SLR camera towards the skies, after being inspired by Aussies such as Mike Salway and Mark Gee. As it turns out, I discovered this weekend that my memories of that personal photographic history were flawed. While looking through photos from 2009, trying to find some bird photos that I remember being pleased with, I found ten images that had I'd shot in October of that year. These ten frames were all captured with my Canon EOS 350D camera, using a 50 mm "nifty fifty" lens. I recall taking the camera outside at our holiday house at Tuross Head, Australia, which is the place where I shot lots of my film-based photos back in the day. Fuzzy as my memory is, I have a few flashbacks about not putting much time into the shots and guessing at the settings I'd need to capture some of the colours in the stars. When I loaded the images onto my Mac and looked at them in Apple's "Aperture" software, I was disappointed at what I saw but didn't delete the files, in case I might come back to them one day. Now, with lots of knowledge about shooting and editing nightscape photos, and with editing tools that weren't available those eleven years ago, I've been able to see what I captured. Not only did I photograph stars, but I also shot lots of Milky Way dust lands and gas clouds, plus the purple colours that signify the presence of the Triffid and Lagoon nebulae. The photo was taken with Canon EOS 350D camera, fitted with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens @ f/2.5, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1583147285083-T6N0HIGFNO7WVUU04N30/the-man-with-the-bright-light.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - The Man with the Bright Light My first Milky Way photography outing for 2020 took place in the very early hours of the 1st of February at Cathedral Rocks near Kiama, Australia. This night turned out to be one of the hottest and most humid nights of this summer, resulting in a hazy sky that made it hard to get sharp, clear photos. I had two additional challenges that night. The first was a regular foe, that of tiredness. We’d been to a wedding earlier in the evening but with the skies forecast to be clear for just this night, then clouded out for at least a week, I took on the tiredness challenge. The other thing, or things, that I had working against me had wings–mosquitoes. There were lots and lots of mosquitoes. There was one more factor that ended up being more of a help than the challenge I initially thought it would be. A man bearing a bright light came walking across the sand from the parkland behind the beach. I called out to him, flashed my LED headlamp, then called out again, but he didn’t respond. My concern was that his light would ruin the shot that I was in the middle of taking, but it turned out to enhance it. There is a white streak along the base of the cliff at the right-hand side of my shot. This glow shows where the torch-bearer made his way across the sand and onto the rock platform. For this single-frame photo, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1582634015426-EA6T9NJSI81HV7JR6Y25/season%27s-dawn.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Season's Dawn For about a month now I’ve been enviously enjoying Milky Way core photos by friends and other photographers on social media. It wasn’t until the first of February that I was able to get out for a shoot, and then it’s taken me over three weeks to find time to edit and post any of the photos. My first Milky Way shoot for 2020 was at the same location as my first for 2019, Cathedral Rocks near Kiama, Australia. As with plenty of my expeditions, I was greeted by a partly-cloudy sky at the end of my long drive (90 km/56 mi). That meant I didn’t get to photograph the Milky Way until the clouds had cleared away, nearly an hour after arriving. The up-side was that I snapped some shots like this one that included colours in the pre-dawn sky. The planet Jupiter is the brightest object visible in my photo left of centre in the lower half of the shot. Another of the planets, Mars, is lurking near the top-left corner. This image is a single-frame photo that I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Canon 40mm f/2.8 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1574771782357-WIZ1A1DB22XJFXKIV9JB/rocks-and-reflections-in-the-river.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Rocks And Reflections In The River Oops! It wasn’t my intention to light up the rocks for this photo, although I did mean to light them up. I kind of forgot that I was shooting a time-lapse, while I was flicking about with my torch to see if there were any fish swimming around the rocks. Yes, I did see some fish swimming around the rocks. [Oh, for those who still use Imperial units, a “torch” is what you’d call a “flashlight”… even when it’s not flashing]. This shot is one of the 440 images that I captured for the time-lapse, which I’ve posted here recently. The photo worked out OK, showing off the rocks under the surface of the Shoalhaven River at North Nowra, Australia. I also captured the stars reflected on the water’s surface; the slightly moonlit shore on the western bank of the river; plus Jupiter and the Milky Way hanging in the sky, just above the tree line. It was a peaceful scene to take in as I sat listening to the water moving with the outgoing tide. I shot this single-frame photo with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1594763020679-ILTHHGSB59KY53S9I8C2/blame-it-on-the-moonlight.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Blame It On The Moonlight Despite the yellowed horizon and the colourfully bright sky here in my photo, you can still see the wisps of dark gas and the dust lanes that characterise the galactic core region of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. I can understand why you probably think the brightness of the background is due to the Sun's light because this does look like a post-sunset scene. However, the time was 4:58 am when I captured this scene at Tuross Lake, Australia, eleven mornings ago, making it a mere eight minutes since the Moon had set for the day. Glowing at 93% illumination, and only two days from being full, there was still lots of the Moon's light on display for my camera to capture, giving the image a near-daylight look. Yes, you can blame it on the moonlight, it seems. Less than fifteen minutes later the moonlight was gone, too, and the sky had darkened enough for me to shoot some of my usual Milky Way core scenes, but only for around half an hour, after which the real twilight would begin. As with most of my favourite shots from this wintry morning session, I captured this scene with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, through a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.2, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1593261685067-ZOES67P7AX282AHJ7VK0/earth-reaches-sky.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Earth Reaches Sky I almost deleted the original of this shot, which was in landscape format and didn’t seem balanced. Cropping it down to the square aspect-ratio made me see it differently. The angled, bare branch at the very top of the towering trunk appears to be reaching across space to the strand of dark interstellar dust in the sky, whose shape is a mirror-image of the spindly limb’s form. None of the trees on Earth, no matter how tall, will ever touch the stars, but I love it when they try! I shot this single-frame image near Seven Mile Beach, New South Wales, Australia, with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1592573336512-CO001WO4AXVAG9N7OC0Y/moving-heaven-and-earth.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Moving Heaven & Earth Judging by the ratio of rust to metal on the dozer in my photo, and the amount of greenery growing around it, it’s some time since it has moved. I guess it takes a lot of imagination to think of it moving heaven or earth. Despite that, l think my caption is fitting. The section of Milky Way that is hanging in the sky over the dozer includes an arrangement of stars–an “asterism”–that’s familiar to people like me who live in the Southern Hemisphere. That asterism is the Southern Cross, in the constellation of Crux, and I think it’s the feature of the heavens that I tend to look for first when I’m outside at night. The intensely bright glow behind the tractor is light pollution spilling out from the rural city of Nowra, Australia, a few kilometres south of where I captured the photo at Jaspers Brush airstrip. You can see the two Magellanic Cloud galaxies in the lower half of the scene, not too far above the tree at the left. I shot the photo last Sunday night, 14th June, using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, with an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1592486043254-A6VIV2MTY51WLMRVTFZN/stars-and-planets-gates-and-fences.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Stars and Planets. Gates and Fences The planets Jupiter and Saturn were low in the eastern sky when I shot this image last Sunday night, 14th Jun 2020. These two “gas giants” are a feature of the early-evening eastern sky at present. They’re a little below the centre of my photo, between the trees and not very high over the horizon. I composed the scene so that the Milky Way’s familiar stretch of stars, gas and interstellar dust dominates the sky in the top half of the photo. The small cattle-yard in the foreground struck me for its confused and thrown-together look, which seems to be sympathetic to the hotchpotch of demountable buildings and derelict vehicles further back in my shot. I like the haphazard feel of this farm scene, especially as it is contrasted with the patterns and order of the constellations passing overhead. This image is a single-frame photo that I captured near Nowra, Australia, with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.5, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1583496810385-S4VHV9YNZL2V6YGP1IIT/emu-emerging.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Emu Emerging For over 60,000 years, the indigenous peoples of my country, Australia, have made practical use of their knowledge of the night sky. In western or classical astronomy, the recognisable patterns in the heavens–the “constellations”–consist of imaginary shapes that are loosely formed around prominent groupings of stars. To the Wiradjuri people and several other indigenous nations, the constellations were instead marked out by the dark gas and dust clouds visible in the Milky Way. One of these constellations is called the Great Celestial Emu, aka the Celestial Emu or the Dark Emu. For my international followers who aren’t familiar with Australia’s fauna, an emu is a large, flightless bird. The second-largest living bird after its relative the ostrich, the emu is endemic to Australia and can be found across most of our country’s mainland. I have marked the rough outline of an emu on my photo, showing you where in the sky it can be seen. According to @astrokirsten Kirsten Banks, Wiradjuri woman, astrophysicist and PhD candidate, the Great Celestial Emu was significant because “the emu’s position in the sky signals at what point during the year is best for emu egg collection. When the emu, known as Gugurmin in Wiradjuri language, is on the eastern horizon just after sunset, this indicates that the emus are currently nesting. So, at this time there are no emu eggs to collect. Later in the year, Gugurmin makes its way up higher into the sky. Once its body is directly overhead after sunset, it’s time to go collect emu eggs.” As well as the emu you can see a more earthly form at the lower right-hand corner, the green arc from a fisherman’s glow-float he cast it into the water at Black Head Reserve, Gerroa, Australia. To shoot this single-frame photo I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1583413019728-MMQLWTS07YKHF66SHGRA/a-closer-look.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - A Closer Look One of my photography goals for 2020 was only to post images that I shot this year and to try to use photos that I'd shot within a month or two of when I post them. I've only been out three times to photograph the night sky since the 1st of January and didn't end up with many photos at all. With the full moon less than a week away, and rain forecast for at least the next week anyway, I'm going to have to start posting shots from previous years pretty soon. Before that happens, I offer you another shot from last week's visit to the ocean rock platform at Gerroa, on the south coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia. Taken with a 50 mm lens, the photo offers a zoomed-in look at the Milky Way's galactic core and its reflection in the tidal pools that cover the siltstone and sandstone outcrop. When you view celestial objects through the atmosphere so low on the horizon, they don't appear as sharp or as vivid as when you see them higher up in the sky. That accounts for why the Milky Way's core doesn't look as detailed and distinct as in photos taken when it's overhead. I hope you enjoy viewing the picture as I've presented it. The photo is a single-frame image, captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1596809664680-YYS0HGV9297H4Q55UOUK/jupiter-at-my-feet.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Jupiter At My Feet Wriggling and blue, the streak of reflected light beaming from the most massive planet in our Solar System, Jupiter, grabs your eye as you look upon this photo. The stars, dust lanes and dark nebulae of the Milky Way look like a huge dirty smudge across the horizon, ready to set for another daily cycle. There was almost no breeze at all when I shot this photo on July 3 this year, in the short but productive 50-minute period of darkness between the setting of the almost-full moon and the beginning of astronomical twilight. If you zoom in on the image, you can see sharp and distinct reflections on the lake of several stars low on the horizon. This image is a single-frame photo that I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1583060034316-KU5IOQET0U7OJCRCKMKK/upon-further-reflection.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Upon Further Reflection These tidal pools on the rock shelf at Black Head Point, Gerroa, Australia, are popular with small fish, crabs and other molluscs that feed and breed when the waters wash in. They also make great mirrors for reflecting the light of stars, planets, and the vast gas and dust structures in the Milky Way. It continually amazes me that the light from the Milky Way’s galactic core can travel the 27,000-odd light-years between its location and us here on earth, but still have enough energy to be reflected from the surface of a watery mirror. Over on the right, you can see the light from a headlamp worn by one of the men who were fishing from the southeast end of the headland’s shelf. These guys fish with green-glowing floats on their lines, which make a colourful arc in photos as they cast their lines. If you time it right you can get a green arc without the glare of the headlamp. Obviously, I didn’t time things right because I got a bit of an arc but more of the bright, white light the fisherman was wearing. I shot this single-frame image using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591621278709-PW5FZAP8FJQGXAJGN9EH/driftwood-on-the-shores-of-the-sky.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Driftwood On The Shores Of The Sky The planets Jupiter and Saturn were hanging low in the eastern sky, their reflections gleaming so brightly off the surface of the Tasman Sea, when I shot this photo back before “lockdown” became part of our everyday vocabulary. The sinewy driftwood provided a natural sculpture, a set-piece that drew the line between mortal me sitting on Seven Mile Beach (New South Wales, Australia) and the infinite beyond. The majestic presence of the Milky Way was dominating the heavens, like an intricate tapestry hanging on the wall of a cathedral or castle. For almost as long as I can remember, I have been like the character of Vincent (or Jerome, his alter-ego) in the movie “Gattaca”, always longing for the stars, ever looking upwards. With beauties like this to behold, can you blame me? The photo is a single-frame image that I captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591191868864-5ZCHCMVZG11WY9GXIPK5/unveiled-by-moonlight.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - Unveiled by Moonlight I captured this scene during my first post-isolation nightscape photo trip last Friday night, 29th June. If not for the light of the waxing Moon that was a few hours from setting over the mountains west of Jaspers Brush, NSW, Australia, most of the landscape you see in the shot would be in darkness. The dusky-coloured central band of the Milky Way was well on its way up the eastern sky, bright enough to show itself through the partly-moonlit night. The two most massive planets in our Solar System, Jupiter and Saturn, were trailing the Milky Way on its journey across the heavens, shining so brightly that you can see their orbs reflected from the surface of the agricultural irrigation channel in the foreground. Since the Moon’s light is reflected sunlight, all of the earthly elements in the photo have the same colours as they when lit by the Sun during the daytime. If only our human eyes could see these colours and features between sunset and sunrise, perhaps we all might spend more time outdoors during those hours! I shot this photo using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4x, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1587994712763-ZW8JOBWYJ1SS62VRL2UV/the-lonely-picnic-grounds.jpg WIP-Galactic Core - The Lonely Picnic Grounds I’ve not visited this picnic area during the daytime. Still, I can guess that it’s a popular destination, being only about a 160-metre walk to Seven Mile Beach (why didn’t that get renamed when Australia went metric?) in New South Wales, Australia. It’s somewhere I’ll have to visit again once our leaders lift the COVID-19 travel restrictions. A few wallabies were hopping around looking for food on the night that I shot here earlier this year, but as best as I could tell, I was the only one present who was doing any stargazing. The Milky Way was a superb sight, and I couldn’t miss the brightness of the planet Jupiter as its light blasted out from just over the top of a tall eucalypt. The distinct green tone of the sky that the photo has captured, caused by atmospheric airglow, was only visible as a greyish glow to my ageing eyes. I would love it if we could see these colours in real-time, and wonder if that might get more people out to see what it is people like me find so fascinating when we look up at night. This is another of my single-frame images, shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/wipfisheye daily 0.75 2021-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1602502260433-KBBEF3NU1LWNVFZC7LYO/horizontal.jpg WIP-Fisheye - Horizontal Here's a view of the Milky Way that people in many parts of the world don't get to see. In the Southern Hemisphere, at this time of year, we see the starry & dusty stretch of the Milky Way parallel to the western horizon an hour or so before midnight. I captured this photo with an 8mm fisheye lens, resulting in the Milky Way's presence not dominating the scene. Two of the Milky Way's companion galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, are showing as fuzzy patches of light in the top-left quarter of my photo. At the edge of the pond, on the right, you can see two red lights, showing the position of a second camera that was shooting a time-lapse sequence that I will use to create a star-trails image sometime soon (or so I hope). Up to the left of those red orbs, and above the Milky Way, the gas-giant planets Jupiter and Saturn glow steadily as they, too, make their way to the western horizon. This photo was taken by me last Saturday night, 10th October, which was a month to the day since my previous visit to this site southwest of Nowra, Australia. I shot the single-frame photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens @ f/5.6, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1602502260433-KBBEF3NU1LWNVFZC7LYO/horizontal.jpg WIP-Fisheye - Horizontal Here's a view of the Milky Way that people in many parts of the world don't get to see. In the Southern Hemisphere, at this time of year, we see the starry & dusty stretch of the Milky Way parallel to the western horizon an hour or so before midnight. I captured this photo with an 8mm fisheye lens, resulting in the Milky Way's presence not dominating the scene. Two of the Milky Way's companion galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, are showing as fuzzy patches of light in the top-left quarter of my photo. At the edge of the pond, on the right, you can see two red lights, showing the position of a second camera that was shooting a time-lapse sequence that I will use to create a star-trails image sometime soon (or so I hope). Up to the left of those red orbs, and above the Milky Way, the gas-giant planets Jupiter and Saturn glow steadily as they, too, make their way to the western horizon. This photo was taken by me last Saturday night, 10th October, which was a month to the day since my previous visit to this site southwest of Nowra, Australia. I shot the single-frame photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens @ f/5.6, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1596374247244-UP6IB7ZP9SJHCQLXEY7K/laid-out-in-awe.jpg WIP-Fisheye - Laid Out In Awe The beauty of the night sky was laid out above me as I sat in this field near the Princes Highway at Tuross Head, Australia, a few weeks ago, so I made use of my 8 mm “fisheye” lens to try to capture the entire view in one photo. A location with skies as dark as Tuross Head offers means that you’re able to see & photograph far more detail in the Milky Way than you can in more built-up areas. It’s a soul-refreshing and humbling thing to lay back and ponder the universe as I did on this night. I hope that you all get to do the same at least once in your life. This image is a single-frame photo, shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens @ f/4.0, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568588259377-NZAUZ8AV0FBMB6O1D85R/water-level.jpg WIP-Fisheye - Water level Here's a fisheye lens view of the Milky Way heading for the southwestern horizon over the Shoalhaven River in New South Wales, Australia. The tide was flowing out, but with the river being so wide and deep at this part of its seaward journey and the total absence of wind, the surface provided an almost perfect mirror. I captured the photo with Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens @ f/4.0, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567316897264-EQSACEA33G0UFEL4FPUF/church-in-the-round.jpg WIP-Fisheye - Church in the round It's almost cliché to say that seeing the world through another's eyes can help you to understand a point of view that's different to your own. In my experience, the advice is worthwhile, and I challenge myself to keep on doing that every day. Therefore today's photo is a look at the night through the eyes of another–those of a fish! Well, a fisheye lens at least. The first fisheye lens was created by placing a photographic glass plate at the bottom of a bucket of water, using a "pinhole" aperture to let the light through. The first such photo was taken in 1905 by American physicist and inventor Robert W Wood. Photographers used the bucket-of-water method until 1922. That's not the kind of lens you could carry in your pocket! I used a more conventional fisheye lens to shoot this photo of the Milky Way standing almost vertical over the 160-year-old Merrilla Uniting Church west of Goulburn, Australia. The Southern Cross is not too far above the tip of the church's finial piece, and the Magellanic Clouds seem to be hanging in the sky to the left of the building. The white glow shining from behind the church is light-spill from Australia's capital city, Canberra. At the upper left-hand corner, you can see the light from the nearby Goulburn city centre. I shot this single-frame photo with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens @ f/4.0, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1592226223363-MKI9QO9RRIETOOW9DDFE/the-circle-above-me.jpg WIP-Fisheye - The Circle Above Me With intra-state travel restrictions lifted in New South Wales (my state in Australia) and a weather forecast that included a cloudless night, Sunday night (14th June) was shaping up to be a good night for some photography. I had planned for a slightly late start to my workday on Monday, so with Mrs Nightscapades' permission, I set off for some hours under the stars. The two locations that I visited proved to be just the ticket for a frustrated nightscape photographer, and this one, at a picnic area in the Seven Mile Beach National Park, has an almost-circular aperture of trees that open up to reveal the view overhead. My 8 mm "fisheye" lens was able to capture the vista in a single shot, albeit with some of the foreground objects cut off a little. You can see the Milky Way stretched across the image, running from roughly northeast at the bottom to the southwest near the top. The planets Jupiter and Saturn are conspicuous in the sky at the lower right-hand corner of the frame. Upside down at the top-left is the little bush toilet that I featured in a recent post. This photo is a single-frame image that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye lens @ f/4.0, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://nightscapades.com/wipconstellations daily 0.75 2021-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1604663056627-O501KE4PEU2RXYXXHYIA/things-that-clouds-do.jpg WIP-Constellations - Things That Clouds Do I captured today’s photo on the same night as one I posted a few days back. I noted in that shot’s caption that I tried in vain to find a cloudless sky on that night (December 30, 2018), and here’s further proof. The constellations of Orion and Taurus–which includes the star cluster we call the Pleiades–seem to have some bright, colourful and obese members in my photo, courtesy of the thin cloud layer that dogged my quest for clarity. The yellowed light reflecting from the not-so-thin cloud cover that’s hugging the horizon was spilling up to the sky from the town of Cooma, located a straight-line distance of 90 km (56 mi) from where I stood to get this photo, near Tuross Head, Australia. I captured this single-frame image with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4 using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1604663056627-O501KE4PEU2RXYXXHYIA/things-that-clouds-do.jpg WIP-Constellations - Things That Clouds Do I captured today’s photo on the same night as one I posted a few days back. I noted in that shot’s caption that I tried in vain to find a cloudless sky on that night (December 30, 2018), and here’s further proof. The constellations of Orion and Taurus–which includes the star cluster we call the Pleiades–seem to have some bright, colourful and obese members in my photo, courtesy of the thin cloud layer that dogged my quest for clarity. The yellowed light reflecting from the not-so-thin cloud cover that’s hugging the horizon was spilling up to the sky from the town of Cooma, located a straight-line distance of 90 km (56 mi) from where I stood to get this photo, near Tuross Head, Australia. I captured this single-frame image with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4 using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1603885929822-WLO3PH5YZZ09PEYNJWCQ/hazy-hues.jpg WIP-Constellations - Hazy Hues My photo today is another from my vault of "I'll get to them someday" shots, captured in December of 2018 near Bodalla, Australia. I remember this being a night when I burned up more time trying to outrun clouds than shooting images of the sky. My efforts weren't all in vain, though. The thin layer of airborne moisture that wafted into the area on my arrival served to enhance the colours of the stars. To the left of the largest tree, I caught the familiar shape of the Southern Cross. Below and a little to the right, the two "pointers", Alpha and Beta Centauri, are showing more like glowing blobs than the usual pinpricks of light that stars seem to be when we look at the night sky. The Large Magellanic Cloud–the only cloud that I had hoped to see through my viewfinder–is conspicuous in the top right-hand corner of my shot. The photo is a single-frame image that I took with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4 using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1599974458811-HQS1CZN4PDLQPPV9D4WK/contented-cows-and-constellations.jpg WIP-Constellations - Contented Cows and Constellations According to the scant information I turned up searching online, the expression to be “as contented as a cow” came from an early-1900s advertising slogan that was used by a dairy company to promote their milk. Wherever the saying came from, I thought these cows and bulls looked contented last night (Friday 11th September) when I photographed them under the clear and calm skies near Nerriga, Australia. The bottle-green hue of the background sky in my image comes from a phenomenon called “atmospheric airglow”. This natural colouring of the night occurs in several shades, but this green is my favourite. The dark blotches and streaks on the sky aren’t smudges on my camera’s lens, but show the presence of dark gas clouds–nebulae–that are light-years away in space. These structures block the light from the millions of stars behind them and have been used by Australia’s indigenous people for navigation, seasonal indicators and cultural markers for many millennia. Around one-third of the way up from the bottom of the shot, and about one third in from the left, you can see a crimson-coloured blotch of light, shining from the Eta Carinae nebula. My photo is a single-frame image, captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591015467157-HY39WK0AU79HK0U0ZLGA/after-a-long-wait%E2%80%A6.jpg WIP-Constellations - After a long wait… After all that social distancing, busy weekdays & weekends at work, then seemingly endless days of clouds and rain, last Saturday night offered a chance to get out for some nightscape photos. The Moon was due to set just after midnight, but I left home at around 7:00 pm to give myself time to enjoy a long drive and scout some new locations for future shoots. The sky was cloudless for the first half of my 290 km (180 mi) round-trip expedition, allowing me to get a dozen or so photos of the Moonlit countryside around Berry, New South Wales, Australia. I then drove to the spot I had in mind for my post-Moonset Milky Way photos, parked my car and slept for about an hour. Waking a couple of minutes before midnight, I was unimpressed to see that a canopy of high, thin clouds had moved in from the west. Sticking to my photographic philosophy that "every shot is practice for the next one", I decided to snap away anyhow. Fog and thin clouds do wonders for enhancing the colours and brightness of the stars in photos, and today's post is an example of just how much difference that airborne moisture makes. Featured in the image are the stars Alpha and Beta Centauri, aka "The Pointers", plus Crux, the "Southern Cross". The clouds are evident in the top half of the shot, but I don't think they ruined my night. This single-frame photo was captured using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1585396265096-YT9LX5FMSMFHP01UZBU7/january-jewels.jpg WIP-Constellations - January Jewels I remember the night that I shot this photo of Orion, Taurus and the Pleiades star cluster in the west near Tilba, Australia. It was, in fact, the evening of the first day of 2019. Despite being in the middle of our southern summer, it’s not unusual to have weeks on end of cloudy nights in January there on the coast. On this New Year’s night, I had driven for nearly two hours to find a location with a clear view of the stars, eventually stopping on this hill overlooking the eponymous Tilba Lake. The clouds managed to stay away only long enough for me to shoot nine photos, a far cry from the hundreds that I’d typically click off in a session. The unmissable orange glow at the bottom right-hand corner of the photo is from sodium-vapour safety lights on the nearby Princes Highway. Even at a place like this, hundreds of kilometres from any major city, there’s still some artificial lighting intent on upsetting the night photographer’s plans for dwelling in total darkness. Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4 using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1582889634752-A51FSGTD72SLEX38C38R/twinkling-pool.jpg WIP-Constellations - Twinkling Pool Despite having an early start for work the next morning, on Thursday night (27th Feb) I drove 110 km/68 mi to the ocean rock platform at Gerroa, on the southeast coast of New South Wales, Australia. The weather forecast was for clear skies until a little after 1:00 am, but I got lucky & even when I left for home at 2:30 there was no hint that the forecast would turn out to be accurate. When I arrived I still had a couple of hours before the Milky Way’s core rose in the southeast, so I put in some time getting shots of other features of the nocturnal skies that grabbed my eye. This shot took a lot of effort–read moaning and groaning as my knees resisted my call to squat down–so I am pleased with how well it came off. My photo shows the constellation Orion at the top-centre of the scene, with its familiar shape reflected in the small rock pool right at the bottom of the frame. The red star Aldebaran was close to the western horizon after having made another crossing of the sky during the previous twelve hours. The photo is a single-frame image, captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.0 using an exposure time of 13.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591706253394-D096NFHY9CRSO96MNTSG/even-a-dunny-looks-good-under-the-stars.jpg WIP-Constellations - Even A Dunny Looks Good Under The Stars “What’s a dunny?” I hear you ask. Every country and culture has them, in one form or another. Pretty much any Aussie can tell you that a “dunny” is a toilet. Yes, I admit it’s a strange name, but since when was local slang not weird at some time? Whatever you call it in your culture, a toilet isn’t often something that’s regarded for its looks. Under a starry sky, though, I reckon that even a dunny looks good. This little outdoor dunny sits in a picnic area in the Seven Mile Beach National Park, Australia. I can’t speak for its cleanliness, smell or the comfort of its seats, but I’m sure this dunny is appreciated by those in need of its facility. The dark nebulae and gas clouds of the Milky Way are prominent in my photo. The smaller one near the middle of the shot is known as the “Coal Sack Nebula”. The Southern Cross is just below the Coal Sack, and below that familiar asterism is the dense region of the Eta Carinae Nebula. Those of you interested in taking photos of the night sky might appreciate the shooting data that I provide with each of my photos. I captured the shot using Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/wipunsure daily 0.75 2021-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598272735097-549BEFSHZ67O5RWZTFI7/answering-the-nights-call.jpg WIP-UNSURE - Answering the Night's Call The Moon was close to setting in the western sky when I shot this photo at Seven Mile Beach, NSW, Australia, on Sunday night. Our planet's rocky neighbour in space was only shining at 18 per cent of its maximum illumination. That was enough light to let me photograph the sky's colour, the waves at the western edge of the Tasman Sea, and the driftwood temple that had been erected on the sand. The white arc encircling the person standing on the beach, mobile phone in hand, provides a record of their movements during the mere 15 seconds that my camera's shutter was open. Although the eastern sky is relatively featureless at this time of night through these winter months in our Southern Hemisphere, the sprinkling of stars in the heavens still adds atmosphere to the scene. This photo is a single-frame image, shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598272735097-549BEFSHZ67O5RWZTFI7/answering-the-nights-call.jpg WIP-UNSURE - Answering the Night's Call The Moon was close to setting in the western sky when I shot this photo at Seven Mile Beach, NSW, Australia, on Sunday night. Our planet's rocky neighbour in space was only shining at 18 per cent of its maximum illumination. That was enough light to let me photograph the sky's colour, the waves at the western edge of the Tasman Sea, and the driftwood temple that had been erected on the sand. The white arc encircling the person standing on the beach, mobile phone in hand, provides a record of their movements during the mere 15 seconds that my camera's shutter was open. Although the eastern sky is relatively featureless at this time of night through these winter months in our Southern Hemisphere, the sprinkling of stars in the heavens still adds atmosphere to the scene. This photo is a single-frame image, shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/3.2, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1595114668416-7CKK0WULEKNI3Z0B7CD6/image-asset.jpeg WIP-UNSURE - Blue Bio This weekend I’m having a short solo break at Tuross Head, on the southeast coast of New South Wales, Australia. After a 4.5 hour drive on Friday afternoon, with the sky covered in cloud for the whole trip, I arrived at the house to a surprisingly unobscured view of the stars. After unpacking, a quick meal break and a nature stop or two, I set off to shoot the night sky, stopping on the way at this little beach on the lake’s edge. Straightaway I could see blue sparkles in the water, meaning that I had won a round of bioluminescent bingo. As things turned out, the clouds you see on the right-hand side of my photo moved in and covered the whole sky within twenty minutes of my arrival. That would usually leave me grumpy and disappointed for the rest of the night but the beauty of the blue bio more than made up for the lack of stars. This photo is a single-frame image that I shot with Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1577013231347-UPHEG5PF1EH6OA192SBB/Bushfire+Bauble.jpg WIP-UNSURE - Bushfire Bauble After over six weeks of being covered in smoke from multiple bushfires around our state, Sydney’s stained skies have brought us reddened sunsets, yellowed light and an almost apocalyptic gloominess almost daily now. Don’t the fires know it’s Christmas? Photographed at Kirrawee, New South Wales, Australia, using a Canon EOS 7D camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 500mm @ f/16, using an exposure time of 1/320 second @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567315719895-A58Y8Z4BC5PJ3EG82MSZ/from-another-dimension.jpg WIP-UNSURE - From another dimension Did Marty and Doc Brown flash into, or back from, the future in an aquatic version of the DeLorean? That’s what these streaks of light reminded me of when I first looked at the photo on my iMac. The picture is one frame from a 440-photo time-lapse sequence that I photographed on Friday, August 23rd, near Nowra, Australia. For most of the time that I visited, the river and far shore were too dark for me to make out any details. The river’s surface was very calm and, as you can see, very reflective, giving me the chance to capture the stars shining in the sky and the water. A little over an hour into the shoot, I heard the sound of an outboard motor coming from further up the river. I could also see a beam of light shining intermittently onto the distant tree-covered banks. Not long afterwards the engine’s noise quickly grew from a whine to a mild roar as the boat rounded a bend in the river, heading towards me. As the boat shot along the calm, flat river top, the driver flashed on his hand-held spotlight to see where he was going. He powered it on for about two seconds, swept it from bank to bank, then turned it back off again after taking in the scene. Then, after around ten seconds of darkness, the rapidly-moving mariner would repeat the cycle. My lovely and still mirror-surfaced river took nearly ten minutes to settle down after the boat passed. The photo is a single-frame image, shot by me with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/wipiss daily 0.75 2021-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1587644032969-D2UKPBRADE75KILRF7P5/The+ISS+in+the+Twilight.jpg WIP-ISS - The ISS in the Twilight The International Space Station (ISS) made a pass over my part of Australia tonight (Wednesday 22nd April). Fortunately I was able to get to a spot that’s not far from home, and whose location on an exercise path meant that it was OK to be at. The whole day was an example of how wonderful Autumn can be here, and I was happy that the predicted afternoon clouds failed to materialise. This was the longest ISS flyover that I’ve ever seen, lasting for a little under seven minutes. I wasn’t able to capture the entire traverse of the sky from northwest to southeast in one shot. What I did instead was to frame up the image, shoot off a few photos, then move the camera to offer a different view and take several shots of that vista. After looking through what I’d captured I chose the two photos that I combined to make up this final image. The two shots that I used were taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/10.0, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 100. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1587644032969-D2UKPBRADE75KILRF7P5/The+ISS+in+the+Twilight.jpg WIP-ISS - The ISS in the Twilight The International Space Station (ISS) made a pass over my part of Australia tonight (Wednesday 22nd April). Fortunately I was able to get to a spot that’s not far from home, and whose location on an exercise path meant that it was OK to be at. The whole day was an example of how wonderful Autumn can be here, and I was happy that the predicted afternoon clouds failed to materialise. This was the longest ISS flyover that I’ve ever seen, lasting for a little under seven minutes. I wasn’t able to capture the entire traverse of the sky from northwest to southeast in one shot. What I did instead was to frame up the image, shoot off a few photos, then move the camera to offer a different view and take several shots of that vista. After looking through what I’d captured I chose the two photos that I combined to make up this final image. The two shots that I used were taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/10.0, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 100. https://nightscapades.com/wipvideos daily 0.75 2021-04-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1573824825135-DISTNV1KGMJD7IMDQJIR/IMG_6290.jpg WIP-Videos - Ruins & Sky Smoke from bushfires, the need to wake for work early tomorrow morning (I don’t usually work on Saturdays) and a few other conspiring circumstances kept me from getting out tonight for some nightscape photography. As disappointing as that was–there are only a few days left in 2019’s “Milky Way Season”–this gave me time to edit and post another time-lapse movie for you to (hopefully) enjoy. It has taken me a little over a year to get around to working on this piece, having captured the photos for it in early November of 2018. The abandoned stone house is located on the grounds of the Gullen Range Wind Farm near Crookwell, Australia, requiring over 220 km (136 mi) of driving for me to visit. This outing was my last Milky Way shoot of 2018, in fact, so it was a relief to travel that far and find skies free of clouds and haze. As the video starts, you can see the Moon beaming from behind the trees, low in the southwestern sky. Once the Moon had set, I was left to photograph the riches of the Milky Way’s galactic core region as it, too, sank into the night. The sun had been below the horizon for a few hours by this time, but its light was still available hundreds of kilometres above the earth, evidenced by the shiny trails traced on the sky by orbiting satellites. If you look closely, you can see at least two points in the clip where satellite-pairs flash across the sky. I hope that the farmhouse is still standing when I revisit the location sometime in 2020. To create this time-lapse video I shot 354 still images with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1573824825135-DISTNV1KGMJD7IMDQJIR/IMG_6290.jpg WIP-Videos - Ruins & Sky Smoke from bushfires, the need to wake for work early tomorrow morning (I don’t usually work on Saturdays) and a few other conspiring circumstances kept me from getting out tonight for some nightscape photography. As disappointing as that was–there are only a few days left in 2019’s “Milky Way Season”–this gave me time to edit and post another time-lapse movie for you to (hopefully) enjoy. It has taken me a little over a year to get around to working on this piece, having captured the photos for it in early November of 2018. The abandoned stone house is located on the grounds of the Gullen Range Wind Farm near Crookwell, Australia, requiring over 220 km (136 mi) of driving for me to visit. This outing was my last Milky Way shoot of 2018, in fact, so it was a relief to travel that far and find skies free of clouds and haze. As the video starts, you can see the Moon beaming from behind the trees, low in the southwestern sky. Once the Moon had set, I was left to photograph the riches of the Milky Way’s galactic core region as it, too, sank into the night. The sun had been below the horizon for a few hours by this time, but its light was still available hundreds of kilometres above the earth, evidenced by the shiny trails traced on the sky by orbiting satellites. If you look closely, you can see at least two points in the clip where satellite-pairs flash across the sky. I hope that the farmhouse is still standing when I revisit the location sometime in 2020. To create this time-lapse video I shot 354 still images with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1573614717173-T1EO6LOEOELSGXJHK1VY/IMG_0834.jpg WIP-Videos - The Milky Way, Jupiter, and a crazy guy in a boat One Friday night in August of this year (2019) I returned to a location that I hadn’t visited since 2016, on the Shoalhaven River at North Nowra, Australia. I have already posted a couple of still images from this trip, and have a few others that I’ll get to eventually. Something else that I shot on the night was this time-lapse video of the Milky Way and Jupiter setting over the river. The sequence is made up of 440 single images that my camera took while I was shooting stills, plus grabbing a few stretches of sleep. The camera and my sleeping self, plus my massive backpack of gear, were all perched on a rock that only offered about 60 cm (24 inches) of solidity between the natural wall behind and the drop to the river below. The laser-beam-like flashes that you see moving across the sky are aeroplanes making their way from Sydney to Australia’s next-largest city, Melbourne. The competing airlines’ planes leave from Sydney in quick succession and follow parallel flight paths south, thus providing the lights that look like blasts from the X-Wing fighters in Star Wars. The time-lapse sequence also caught some meteors as they flashed to their deaths in the Earth’s atmosphere, and a few satellites as well. The “crazy guy in a boat” shows up pretty close to the middle of the movie, and I slowed down the video there to show how brightly his hand-held spotlight lit up the river and the bank. The stillness of the river’s surface was upset by the boat’s wake, causing the crazy reflections of the stars and Jupiter. As mentioned above, this time-lapse sequence was created from 440 individual photos, each of which I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/contact daily 0.75 2016-12-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482500396502-P790MXX8XLZQHM60K7NU/Farewelling+a+friend-brightened.jpg Contact - Farewelling a friend About five minutes before making the 90km dirive home from my nightscape session on Friday morning I watched as the Milky Way’s core kissed the horizon & said “goodnight” to my part of the planet. There are still a few months of Milky Way season to go for the year, though, so I hope to get more than my fair share of clear nights to be out making art like this to bring to you. Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/2016-picks daily 0.75 2019-09-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568104687234-LNSYD02HDDIA4UH50VV1/banner-2016.jpg 2016 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482143870463-TAJ04HY46KS343X8DRQ2/So+still+for+SquareSpace.jpg 2016 - So still! The tide was just past its peak when I was shooting this scene on a Friday night back in August of 2016. The water was flowing–ever so slowly–down the Shoalhaven River to make its way to the South Pacific Ocean, around 25km away. Despite this movement, the lack of any breeze made the top of the water into an almost perfect mirror. Up at the top left-hand corner you can see the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is a companion galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. The colourful arch of stars, dust and gas that stretches almost right across the image is that same Milky Way galaxy and its “galactic core” region. The planets Mars and Saturn were close to one another in the sky back in August and you can see the two of them, along with the supergiant star Antares, glowing orange just over the tree line near the middle of the shot. All of these celestial wonders can also be seen reflecting off the surface of the river, with a surprising amount of the Milky Way’s structure visible in the mirror image. Spilling red light all over the rocks at right is the tiny LED pilot light in a battery that powers the dew heater keeping my camera lens warm and free from fogging. This panoramic image was created by shooting 33 overlapping images, in three rows of eleven shots, then stitching the images together in the application “AutoPano Pro”. Each photo was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482139120890-R5FT7N5SIJ76TPG0WHW9/MW%2C+Mars%2C+Saturn+setting.jpg 2016 - Tuross trails Mars & the Milky Way setting over the Tuross River (Australia). Cameras are far more capable of capturing and rendering the colours that shine in the blackness of night than our human eyes. Capturing all of that colour adds up when you put together a number of images that were shot over a period of time, as in this image. This results in the coloured curved stripes–the “star-trails”–in the sky and the even more colourful reflections of the brighter objects on the river’s surface. The bright and wide orange reflection on the water’s surface is from the planet Mars as it set in the two-hour period over which the original frames were captured. This image was created from 470 original photos, each shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482141012664-L23F8UG81IJGFQVELH5Z/Blowing+the+clouds+away.jpg 2016 - Blowing the clouds away The wind farm near Tarago, Australia, makes for some interesting photographs. I set up this shot to make it seem like the turbines were trying to blow away the Magellanic Clouds. The site was one of those “Private property - No Trespassing” places so I couldn’t flash much light around to see where I was going. Somehow I moved around without tripping or dropping anything. The sky was showing a lot of orange airglow with a few green patches showing through. There was also moisture in the air contributing to the discolouration. Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm STM @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567755952526-JO394BO8J7HAA0YU1MF9/Dwarves%2Bdwelling%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bheavens.jpg 2016 - Dwarves dwelling in the heavens In a number of mythologies the dwarves are small human-like beings who live under the ground and in the mountains. Featured in J.R.R Tolkein’s writings of the 1930s and 1940s the dwarves are well known to humans, elves and other races of beings of their worlds. Compilations of Norse literature from the 1300s AD contain discussions of the origins of these mythical creatures. Much older than that, though, are the dwarves that dwell in the heavens. The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds are dwarf galaxies that are travelling with our Milky Way galaxy through our part of the Local Group of galaxies. In July, 2016 I captured these heavenly wonders in the south-eastern skies of Australia. The Large Magellanic Cloud’s reflection is shimmering in the Tuross River next to the lovely timber bridge. The colour tint in the sky is due to atmospheric airglow and moisture in the wintry night air. Shot with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482140227421-QZ5MU5IPCJE19CITNR8P/Gerroa+trails+50+percent.jpg 2016 - Circles in the southern sky The stars of my southern hemisphere cutting trails across the sky as they appear to orbit the South Celestial Pole over Seven Mile Beach, New South Wales, Australia. The orange glow on the right is from some cloud that blew in, lit by the light pollution from the city of Nowra, 22km away. The clouds interrupted the trails a little which is why they stop & start at lower right. The waves are blue from the presence of bioluminescent organisms in the water. Produced from 163 images taken over 45 minutes, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567756408273-2YGEEWOMW2J2T5MYHQ3J/The%2Bmonths%2Bgo%2Bso%2Bfast-smaller.jpg 2016 - Stacks of detail This shot of the Milky Way’s galactic core region, captured on Saddleback Mountain (Australia), includes quite a few interesting features. The “Dark Horse” nebula is one of the most prominent parts of the shot, although down here in the Southern Hemisphere it’s more often known as the “Galactic Kiwi” due to its resemblance to the national bird of New Zealand. Grouped down at the bottom of the frame is the bright orange supergiant star Antares, with Mars below it and Saturn across further to the right. In the same area as Antares is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, a star-forming region of space. You can see some of the yellow and blue gas clouds in the photo. This is a "stacked" image created from 32 individual frames. Stacking reduces the digital noise of the overall image and helps to bring out a bit more detail than a single shot would. The 13 frames were captured with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm @ f/2.8, 6 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482147571205-EEK72EX9SJXMCTRWHF3Y/The+one+that+didn%27t+get+away-smaller.jpg 2016 - The one that didn't get away! On the last weekend of July 2016, I was visiting the Blue Mountains, about 120km west of my home in Sydney, Australia. While out shooting Milky Way panoramas that night I missed out on catching two bright meteors that briefly left trails on the sky. I didn’t miss this one, though! With my camera set to take a photo every 25 seconds, I pointed it at the region of the sky where the meteors were radiating from. Briefly looking away from the sky and back towards my car, the landscape lit up so brightly that I thought there had been a flash of lightning. I glanced skywards to see the last gasp of a meteor as it burned up in the earth’s atmosphere. Like the two big-uns that I missed earlier this one left a trail on the sky for a couple of seconds. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1482925905298-6PGILALJS8LXAR6R5F1V/Ambulance+on+approach-Insta-FB-Flickr.jpg 2016 - Ambulance on approach Shot one day after its full phase, here is the 99% full Nov 2016 "supermoon" providing a backdrop for a Beech B300 Super King Air on approach to Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport (Australia). This aircraft is operated by the The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS), one of the largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organisations in the world. Perhaps one day their area of service will include the moon! Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 500mm @ f/7.1, 1/500 sec @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567757207351-OIMP3ENI3B69AR7HNBJS/Down%2Bin%2Bthe%2Bvalley-cropped%2Bsmall.jpg 2016 - Down in the valley I was like a little kid in a toyshop when I saw the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) on my camera’s LCD while reviewing this photo. M31 is easily visible to the naked eye in the northern hemisphere but not so much down here in southern Australia. The Andromeda Galaxy is the yellow-white smudge just over the hilltop about one third in from the left. Up and to the right of that is the green trail of a meteor burning up in our atmosphere. A bonus was also getting another galaxy, the M33 “Triangulum Galaxy” almost at the edge at the upper right. It’s quite faint and hard to see, but it’s there. M33 is the faintest galaxy visible with the naked eye. This night was the first night I’d ever seen M31 with my eyes, and that took a lot of doing, so a naked-eye sighting of M33 was out of the question. The dark green tint to the sky is from atmospheric airglow. Shot with a Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm STM lens @ f/2.5, 8 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567835519746-0ZN0WA7X25JMIXBOQVLX/cosmic-spray.jpg 2016 - Cosmic spray People from the northern hemisphere often comment on how they’d love to see the Milky Way’s core high in the sky like this. Come on down to Australia, or visit New Zealand, or get below the equator in Africa or South America and you’ll be in for this treat (at the right time of year). Some extra goodies in this part of the sky when I shot this were the planets Mars and Saturn. Mars is exactly mid-way down the photo at the left, shining a nice orange colour. Below and very slightly to the right of it is the whitish light that is Saturn. A single frame shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400.00 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567835752271-W06PQ51RPGUL6BUPO60C/southern-circles.jpg 2016 - Brightened Bridge This star-trails image shows the stars’ apparent movement across the sky over a period of about an hour-and-a-quarter. The central point that the stars seem to rotate about is called the South Celestial Pole. Cars & trucks crossing the unlit bridge over the Tuross River gave it and the water below the bright white glow that you can see,and also lit up the sand in the foreground. Reflected on the water’s surface are navigation lights on the bridge’s pylons and some of the trails from the starlight above. This single photo is made up from 153 individual shots that were compiled using the software “StarStaX. Each image was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/4.0, 25 sec exposure @ ISO 4000. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567835260729-AUG26R3AKR8USGG2CKW3/stop%2C-look%2C-listen.jpg 2016 - Stop, Look, Listen Shooting at a dark location means a couple of hours driving from home, checking Milky Way alignment and access to the spot, then setting up gear, taking test shots, checking alignment again, getting the foreground lighting right, then taking some production shots, checking again, etc, etc. Some or all of those actions get repeated multiple times through the night before driving home. That’s why it’s important to stop for a bit and look at what amazing things are above me; listen to the ambient sounds like the ocean and local wildlife; and enjoy the beauty of the moment. In this photo, Mars is the bright and orange point of light at top left and Saturn is below that, on a line pointing towards me. Captured 30/04/16 at Seven Mile Beach near Gerroa, Australia. Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 3200. https://nightscapades.com/welcome daily 1.0 2022-08-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568295845440-ZDSV1QC4PTSM3QDHR5YY/banner-home2.jpg Welcome - From another dimension Did Marty and Doc Brown flash into, or back from, the future in an aquatic version of the DeLorean? That’s what these streaks of light reminded me of when I first looked at the photo on my iMac. The picture is one frame from a 440-photo time-lapse sequence that I photographed on Friday, August 23rd, near Nowra, Australia. For most of the time that I visited, the river and far shore were too dark for me to make out any details. The river’s surface was very calm and, as you can see, very reflective, giving me the chance to capture the stars shining in the sky and the water. A little over an hour into the shoot, I heard the sound of an outboard motor coming from further up the river. I could also see a beam of light shining intermittently onto the distant tree-covered banks. Not long afterwards the engine’s noise quickly grew from a whine to a mild roar as the boat rounded a bend in the river, heading towards me. As the boat shot along the calm, flat river top, the driver flashed on his hand-held spotlight to see where he was going. He powered it on for about two seconds, swept it from bank to bank, then turned it back off again after taking in the scene. Then, after around ten seconds of darkness, the rapidly-moving mariner would repeat the cycle. My lovely and still mirror-surfaced river took nearly ten minutes to settle down after the boat passed. The photo is a single-frame image, shot by me with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/long-and-wide daily 0.75 2019-10-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568104081203-JTNTX3BEX9A3Y96AVA6I/banner-long-and-wide.jpg Long & wide - Luminous Maximus To say that there are a few sources of light in this photo is an understatement. I can name at least eight of them for starters. The first one that got my attention when I looked at the finished picture tonight was the atmospheric phenomenon known as “airglow”, which is providing the green background colour to the sky. Next are the thousands of individual stars that look like salt or fine glitter has been sprinkled across the scene. Thirdly, we have the legendary planet Mars, with its orange glow looming in the upper centre of the frame. The sand on the foreground shore was lit up by some LED banks that I mounted on small tripods behind the camera’s field of view. This night was the first time that I had ever photographed the blue glow of bioluminescent organisms in the water here at Tuross Lake, Australia. It’s visible at the waterline on the lower left. Distinct from the individual stars in the photo, the galactic core of the Milky Way, with its billions of suns all glowing together, is giving off a yellowish tone in the sky above the bioluminescence. OK, that’s six sources of light. Number seven is the white glow of lights at the Tuross Lakeside Caravan Park, in the distance on the right. Left of that you can see the headlights of a car driving in towards the town, with the deep yellow glow of some sodium fog-piercing lights marking the junction of the haven's only access road and the Princes Highway. Oh, I found a ninth one, although it’s hard to see if you're looking at this on your phone. It’s the green navigation light atop a marker buoy on the far side of the lake. It was very, very satisfying to see how well this photo came out after shooting the 18 frames that make it up, then running it through my panorama-stitching software before some de-noising and levels adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop. The file ended up taking up nearly 800MB of hard disk space. I shot each of the 18 individual frames with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1603023260493-KZAWMWJY65P8K4GFPO6Y/image-asset.jpeg Long & wide - One Bridge, Two Years Ago "I'll get to it one day." They might not be the exact words I mumbled to myself when I sat down to edit this panorama in September of 2018, but they fit the bill. The photos that I captured to make up the wide-format image had been shot a week earlier, during a nightscape photography weekend at Tuross Head, on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. All up I took over 700 photos during my stay, so, understandably, I still haven't processed them all. Despite how the bridge looks in my photo, it's a simple straight span across the Tuross River. The curved look is an optical effect resulting from shooting the panorama so that the Milky Way was at its centre. Riding above the Milky Way, I caught the red planet, Mars, drawing attention to itself as the brightest single object in the field of view. The two Magellanic Cloud galaxies seem to be floating in the sky over the distant bridge approach on the left of the vista. To create the panoramic image you're looking at I shot 57 single photos, in three rows, using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1603455780321-LM2AR6NPTUCIVNXKKN6P/murky-milky-mirror.jpg Long & wide - Murky Milky Mirror Even at night, with only the feeble photons of atmospheric airglow to light the landscape, you can see that the water in this agricultural dam is a very unappealing colour. The still air on the night left the pond's surface undisturbed, offering me a mirrored but muted view of the treeline, the Milky Way and the light coming from the planet Jupiter. Despite the dirtiness of the pool's contents, you can still see some hues of starlight reflected in the water. The Magellanic Cloud galaxies are conspicuous in the top-left corner of my panorama, keeping station as they travel through the Local Group of galaxies with our marvellous & majestic Milky Way. I've mentioned that Jupiter is one of the lights shining from the dark mirror, and you can see the source of that light in the sky above the dusty stretch of our home galaxy, as well as the planet Saturn up and to the right of Jupiter's bright beacon. It's frustrating that the clouds conspired to keep me from photographing the stars and planets during last weekend's New Moon period. With very few chances left to shoot the Milky Way's core region as the year draws to a close, so I'll be relying on my trove of shots from previous expeditions–like this one–to keep me posting here. I created this panoramic photo by shooting thirteen overlapping single-frame images, then merging them using stitching software on my Mac. For each of those individual shots, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera set to an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400 and fitted with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598708045675-93327OILT9C63DM7L3QM/Three+Galaxies.+Three+Planets.jpg Long & wide - Three Galaxies. Three Planets Three Galaxies: Our home galaxy, which we call the “Milky Way,” dominates my photo with its colourful and dust-fringed arch stretched almost the full width of the frame. I captured another two galaxies in this fourteen-shot panorama, namely the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These fluffy, puffy orbs seem like they’re floating in the sky in the left side of my photo, able to be blown away by the slightest wind. The two Magellanic Clouds are dwarf galaxies and companions or our Milky Way as it travels through what astronomers call the Local Group. Three Planets: Our home planet, Earth, is first on the list of planets visible in this scene that I shot at Seven Mile Beach, Australia, last Sunday night, 23 August. About one-third of the way from the right-hand edge of the photo, in the area of sky above the Milky Way, I caught the Solar System’s two most massive planets, Jupiter and Saturn, as they followed our home galaxy towards the western horizon. The fourteen single frames that I shot to create the panoramic view of these planets and galaxies were all captured with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1575634729914-LF0ISVLARYXGX55A1H3O/Beautifully+Bent.jpg Long & wide - Beautifully Bent Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to be home to at least 100 billion stars. If you or I could travel at the speed of light, it would take us close to 100,000 years to make a trip from one side of this "island universe" to the other. I think I'm not the only person who feels overwhelmed when trying to comprehend the immensity of these kinds of numbers. Perhaps it's because I can't grasp–or mentally "conquer"–the almost divine scale of astronomical objects that fascinates me and drives me to keep pointing my camera heavenwards. This panoramic view of the Milky Way arching across Tuross Lake, on the southeastern coast of Australia, is one of my attempts at bringing together the enormity of the astronomical and the familiarity of more terrestrial objects. Although the green, red and yellow navigation lights on the lake are bright and conspicuous, I find my eyes quickly drawn to the Magellanic Cloud galaxies (the white blobs in the sky at the left of the frame), and the grand arch of the Milky Way that dominates the majority of the photo. Almost directly above the yellow navigation marker near the centre is the white glow from the planet Jupiter, and you can see its reflection as a little white squiggle down where the water and sand meet. I photographed this scene in July of 2019, by shooting thirty individual images (in two rows of 15 shots each) that were then stitched together in software to create the final panoramic rendering. To snap each of those frames I used my Canon EOS 6D camera and a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1592225807454-NIG774IYF6SA32WIPEUD/seven-mile-arch.jpg Long & wide - Seven Mile Arch I’m not sure how long it’s been since I posted a Milky Way arch here. I’ve had this one in the can for several months now, so figured it was time to get it in front of some eyeballs. As well as the Milky Way my photo takes in two other galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Jupiter, Saturn & Mars are here as well, and I also caught a lot of green atmospheric airglow in the panorama. The location I captured the sky at on this clear night was Seven Mile Beach, near Gerroa, Australia. I shot 71 overlapping images, with my camera mounted on a “Nodal Ninja” panoramic head. I shot each of the 71 individual frames with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1570777562864-7EVD9X0YY92JFFVEXGP5/nines-better-than-none.jpg Long & wide - Nine's better than none After a five-week hiatus from night photography, I drove south to the Jerrawangala national park near Nowra, Australia, on the last Saturday night in September of 2019. Despite the forecast for clear skies, upon arrival, I could see that clouds were quickly moving in from the southwest. My haul for the night was just nine photos, thanks to the weather. Still, as today’s post title says, nine is better than none. Two of those nine images had overlapping fields of view, so I was able to stitch them together to create the panoramic photo you’re looking at now. It shows the Milky Way’s central band and core region very low in the southwestern sky, with Jupiter lighting the way towards the horizon. The two photos that I took to create this panorama were captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567287690908-WL8VQH9H33GQ10WY2577/three-galaxies-from-halfway-to-the-top.jpg Long & wide - Three galaxies from halfway to the top Australia’s highest mainland mountain is Mt Kosciuszko, located in the Snowy Mountains region in my home state of New South Wales. With its summit at 2228 metres (7310 feet) above sea level it’s by no means one of the world’s tallest mountains but it’s the best we’ve got. Just over 60km to the northeast of that mountain is the spot where I captured this panorama of my beloved Australian night sky. The elevation there is 1000 metres, about halfway to the top, you might say. There are three galaxies visible in this photo. The largest and most obvious is our own collection of stars, the Milky Way, with its galactic core area hovering over the western horizon just to the right of centre. Over in the top left of the scene are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, travelling through space with us on our journey through what is known as the “Local Group” of galaxies. Apart from the two Magellanic Clouds every other star, star cluster and wisp of interstellar dust in this photo is inside the Milky Way. Some clouds way off in the distance obscured some of the Milky Way over on the right of the image. This panorama was created from thirteen overlapping photos, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567288136224-GPFH862O70AP4W0GZSN7/a-night-of-lights.jpg Long & wide - A night of lights Sunday night (28th May) was a night of lights. The Aurora Australis was pumping in the Southern Hemisphere with some fantastic photos coming from places ranging from 35 degrees south and below.. I drove 100km south from home once I saw the reports and photos coming in but by the time I arrived the show was pretty much over. There’s some purple auroral glow on the horizon at the lower right of this image. On the horizon over towards the left-hand side is the glow from an electrical storm that was way out to sea but still very much visible here and north for about 200km. The lights of the stars in the Milky Way are arching up from near the storm, through the core region and off towards the right. A couple of ships out a sea show as white streaks from their navigation lights forming little trails during the time that the shutter was open. Atmospheric airglow gives the whole shot a slightly purplish tint, not related to the colours added by the auroral glow on the horizon. This single image is comprised of seven individual shots that were stitched together using Autopano Pro. Each shot was captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567290491796-EZZWVHJGV9476NKDVZ9O/galactic+reservoir.jpg Long & wide - Galactic reservoir Tallowa Dam, in the Kangaroo Valley (Australia), has a viewing platform that is very brightly lit all through the night. The spill from those lights is what has illuminated the hills on the other side of the lake. I used a hand-held LED light bank to show the foreground but my inconsistent light painting has resulted in grass that’s several shades of yellow and green. My favourite heavenly sight, the band of the Milky Way’s galactic core region, is reigning over the hills and is showing a lot of detail in the strands of interstellar dust. The row of yellow lights on the water’s surface serve as a warning to kayakers, hopefully to keep them from going over the dam’s spillway. This panorama that was created from 18 single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567294740806-6LCBYTR1E7Z4TGN5GVZD/going-going.jpg Long & wide - Going, going… I shot this panorama of the Milky Way in the west back on October 24th of 2016, from ten single photos that were stitched together using the Autopano Pro app. On the left you can see the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds as they circle the south celestial pole. Venus is just above the horizon a small way to the right of the centre of the photo, with Saturn above and to the right of that. Mars is up above the stretch of the Milky Way. The city of Nowra is responsible for the bright yellow lights on the horizon at the left of centre. Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567294992450-WFVP0AATD6HNE4KOXXS2/coila-mw-silo-arch-small.jpg Long & wide - Ruins under the arch These old silo ruins next to the Princes Highway at Coila, on Australia’s southeast coast, stand firm as the dome of the night sky moves overhead. Peeking out from behind a tree at left the Large Magellanic cloud, a companion galaxy of our Milky Way, is at the bottom of its circuit of the south celestial pole. The Small Magellanic Cloud is higher up above it, and just above that is the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, looking like a large star here. Just over the top of the silo are two similarly bright objects, the supergiant star Antares to the left and the planet Saturn almost dead-centre of the tower. The Galactic Kiwi is presiding over the scene higher up over the tower, under the wings of the Milky Way with its swirls and filaments of interstellar dust. The purplish colour of the sky is due to a high moisture content in the air and some atmospheric airglow. I’m still learning the art of foreground lighting as evidenced by the patches of light and dark in the grass between the camera and the silo. This is a stitched panorama created from 68 individual photos, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567258801314-TAX0U7AOCD1PVAI9Q8U7/the-sky-over-swan-lake.jpg Long & wide - The sky over Swan Lake Swan Lake, on the southeast coast of New South Wales, Australia, is one of the many places that I’ve heard of for years but not ever visited, until October of 2018. I was there on this Sunday night to try to photograph the Milky Way while it was low in the southwestern sky. A few minutes before I shot the last images that make up this panorama, the clouds moved in from the northeast to try and rain on my parade. Although this part of the coast is only lightly populated, the small holiday townships near the lake still produce their share of light pollution. Cudmirrah, over on the left, was pumping out white light, and near the middle of the shot, the yellow glow on the horizon is from fog-piercing lights on the Princes Highway, about 12 km (7.5 mi) distant. Some campers had a fire burning at the north end of the lake, and I love the little blossom of orange light that they added to the scene. Mars is riding high over the middle of my photo. The Small Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy, snuck into the lefthand edge, for extra interest. I hope to get back here again before this Milky Way season ends. I shot 24 single photos to create this panoramic image and took each of those frames using a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24 mm lens @ f/2.4, for a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567382036290-7SAYYK8BE503HDUWIUPO/waste-water-and-wonder-50-percent.jpg Long & wide - Waste, water and wonder Would I be correct in guessing that most countries are like Australia, where the rural roadsides are littered with manmade waste, to some degree? I hope that you can’t see them when you’re squinting at this photo on your phone, but there are several bottles and cans visible at the bottom of the frame. How lazy, uncaring about the natural environment, or just plain reckless, can people get? At least the waste doesn’t dominate the shot, but the bottles were some of the first things my eyes went to when I was processing this image. That’s the “waste” part of the title out of the way. The “water” that you see here is known as the Bamarang Dam, a small reservoir west of the rural town of Nowra in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It was a new nightscape photography location for me this year and I look forward to getting back there in 2018. What’s the “wonder”, you may be wondering? What else but the majestic arch of the Milky Way that dominates the scene. Hundreds of billions of stars, plus immense clouds and “lanes” of dust and gas are responsible for the structure that marks our galaxy’s place on our night skies. Over on the left are the Magellanic Clouds, two companion Dwarf Galaxies of the Milky Way that are like astronomical hangers-on, always there as our enormous “island universe” travels through the cosmos. This panorama was made from 30 original overlapping images. Each of the photos was captured with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm wide-angle lens @ an aperture of f/2.4. Each shot was exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567258811731-SZBK9IK7O00QRE1U737I/camera-vs-eyes-2.jpg Long & wide - Camera vs eyes You don’t have to look at this image for long to see how well lit up the foreground is. The fields are quite bright and very green, and there’s no mistaking the blue paint job on my car. When I was standing out on the road taking photos, though, things were very different. As I was avoiding using a light to see my way around, to protect my night vision, the only way I could see my car was from the blinking red light of its alarm. It wasn’t until I got home and looked at the photos I’d shot that I saw the cows laying out on the paddocks. Once or twice I stumbled down the little embankment next to the road because I just couldn’t see it. OK, why does it all look so bright in the photo? To be able to capture all of the details in the sky, such as the stars and planets, and the dust and dark gas in the Milky Way in a photo, your camera needs to take a long exposure, e.g. at least 10-15 seconds. As well as a long exposure time you need to set your camera to a high level of light sensitivity, its “ISO” setting, such as 1600, 3200, 6400 or higher. The combination of these two settings not only lets you gather lots of light from the sky, it also results in you capturing lots of any other light that is around. Out of shot and to the left, about 30km away, is the industrial city of Wollongong, pumping out wasted artificial light all night long. That light pollution spilt onto the fields where I was, bouncing off of the green grass and onto my camera’s sensor. Although I was disappointed to have driven about 100km (60mi) from home to escape the lights of Sydney, only to be bathed in the same stuff here, the light pollution was useful. The photo is a stitched panorama that I created using the application Autopano Pro. I shot 67 single and overlapping images to make up the pano. Each of those was photographed with this equipment and settings: Canon EOS 6D camera, Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567383586354-PX7TJZ12F414QIFL30D7/wispy-wonder-over-the-water-16x9.jpg Long & wide - Wispy wonder over the water The location I shot this at is Bamarang Dam, southwest of the regional city of Nowra, Australia, just over two hour’s drive from my home. The road sweeps around the eastern perimeter of the reservoir and the bushland falls away to give this view across the water. There are a few prominent colours in this image, arising from astronomical, atmospheric & earthly causes. In the astronomical realm, stretching from left to right across the middle 1/3 of the scene is the band of our Milky Way galaxy with its billions of stars and the wispy structures known as “dust lanes”. Right in the middle of the photo is the core, the centre, of the Milky Way. Above that is the greenish atmospheric airglow that’s caused by electrons of oxygen atoms in our atmosphere changing orbits and emitting energy as light. There is also some greyish discolouration of the sky in the sky between the Milky Way and the horizon that’s caused by moisture in the air. As for earthly causes you can see the orange glow behind the trees at the centre of the middle 1/3 of the photo. That was caused by the lights of the city of Goulburn, which is about 70km (45 mi) from where the photo was shot. This image was created by shooting and then stitching together 24 single shots, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm @ f/2.2, 10 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567384519340-0QNBN3TMESAR6CNETUBC/from-tree-to-tank.jpg Long & wide - From tree to tank Like the arc of water flowing from an ornamental fountain, the grand arch of the Milky Way in this piece seems to be emanating from the tree at left and spraying up across the sky before being caught in the water tank on the right. The lush fields and hills in this valley west of Katoomba, Australia, show a different shade of green to that of the atmospheric airglow that’s so prominent near the horizon from the left edge of the shot almost across to the centre. Morphing into a more bluish colour by the top of the image, the sky was very clear and still on this night in late July of 2016. Also on the left of the shot the beautiful and enchanting wisps of the Magellanic Cloud galaxies. They’re like ladies-in-waiting for their queen, the Milky Way, as she dominates the night. Behind the water tank, off in the distance, the glow from the lights of the city of Lithgow burn into the darkness. This is a stitched panorama, made up from 65 original images and coming in at almost 1.9GB for the full-res image. Each frame was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567761508485-QA9EI0WMR78MDH42UQZA/luminous-maximus.jpg Long & wide - Luminous Maximus This night in September of 2018 was the first time that I had ever photographed the blue glow of bioluminescent organisms in the water here at Tuross Lake, Australia. It’s visible at the waterline on the lower left. Distinct from the individual stars in the photo, the galactic core of the Milky Way, with its billions of suns all glowing together, is giving off a yellowish tone in the sky above the bioluminescence. High over the core is the planet Mars. I shot each of the 18 individual frames that comprise this panorama with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567426900430-ANIWUO4UPG9PJ0894E7P/straight-but-bent.jpg Long & wide - Straight but bent This panorama is made up from 45 photos, shot in three rows of 15 frames each. It shows the Milky Way arching over the western sky on the Toolijooa Road near Kiama, Australia. The foreground’s brightness is due to light pollution coming from the cities of Sydney, Wollongong and Kiama on the right and the city of Nowra on the left. To be able to show the view of over 180 degrees that this image covers, the normally-straight lines at the top and bottom of the photo are curved. For whatever reason our brains are OK with a horizon that looks normal (i.e. it's horizontal) even if other lines are bent. I could have warped the image so that the Milky Way was a straight band of stars but then the horizon would have been curved like a big smiley mouth. Each of the 45 shots was taken with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567472548571-EPDE1BVXXRR45JEYY42S/majestic-arch.jpg Long & wide - Majestic Arch I can't get enough of photographing the Milky Way in different settings, and including a waterway of some kind is one of my favourite compositions. Broughton Creek near Nowra, Australia, is a feeder tributary of the Shoalhaven River. When I visited on this night in 2015 the water’s surface was amazingly flat despite the movement of the tide. This panoramic image is made up from 16 single frames, stitched together with the application AutoPano Pro. 16 images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567472598176-DGJQRW2GT0LTM26ENH4P/so-still.jpg Long & wide - So still! The tide was just past its peak when I was shooting this scene on a Friday night back in August of 2016. The water was flowing–ever so slowly–down the Shoalhaven River to make its way to the South Pacific Ocean, around 25km away. Despite this movement, the lack of any breeze made the top of the water into an almost perfect mirror. Up at the top left-hand corner you can see the Small Magellanic Cloud, which is a companion galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. The colourful arch of stars, dust and gas that stretches almost right across the image is that same Milky Way galaxy and its “galactic core” region. The planets Mars and Saturn were close to one another in the sky back in August and you can see the two of them, along with the supergiant star Antares, glowing orange just over the tree line near the middle of the shot. All of these celestial wonders can also be seen reflecting off the surface of the river, with a surprising amount of the Milky Way’s structure visible in the mirror image. Spilling red light all over the rocks at right is the tiny LED pilot light in a battery that powers the dew heater keeping my camera lens warm and free from fogging. This panoramic image was created by shooting 33 overlapping images, in three rows of eleven shots, then stitching the images together in the application “AutoPano Pro”. Each photo was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567507879356-9UYWGQ8MCKREPLNLKNUJ/a-stitched-stretch-of-river.jpg Long & wide - A stitched stretch of river It was around 11:30pm when I finished shooting this panoramic image of a stretch of the Tuross River back in October of 2016. In the seventeen minutes between shooting the first frame (bottom left) & shooting the final frame to make up the pano (top right), a breeze disturbed the river’s surface, leaving me with only 2/3 of an image with stars reflected in the river. The Milky Way was setting over the trees in the right-hand half of the scene, signalling that our southern-hemisphere’s summer wasn’t far away. The Magellanic Clouds show their usually lovely wispiness at the centre-top, with the sky’s second-brightest star Canopus in a line with the two satellite galaxies. The bright navigation markers on the bridge spilled their light all the way across to where I was shooting, resulting in the red glow of the sand there at the bottom of the frame. Although I thought I’d hidden my camera heater’s battery pack out of sight the mini LED on its case shone a red spot onto the sand, adding an extra point for your eyes to be drawn to. A panorama stitched from 27 individual frames using Autopano Pro. Each frame was capture with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567509095124-MS6JAT5W1CLZLMOME4Y0/arc-from-a-spark.jpg Long & wide - To anyone who's tuned in TV transmitters send out their signals whether or not anyone is tuned in to watch and listen. In a similar way, the Milky Way broadcasts its beautiful image onto our skies every night. Weather permitting, the beauty is there to be seen by anyone who cares to look; to anyone who bothers to tune in. I love tuning in to this broadcast! Here in Australia it's now spring and we're heading for summer. This means later sunsets, more humid and less clear skies, and therefore less sharp pictures of the Milky Way as it sets through the thicker horizon. I’m gonna miss shooting this wonder over the summer months. Roll on autumn! Shot with my Canon EOS 7D, Samyang 24mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 5000. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567509848945-6JDITPXAS4BFZ2PJVUNJ/coila-arch-final-1920-x-640-posted-to-fb.jpg Long & wide - Somewhere special under the stars Tuross Head, Australia. I’m now in my mid-50s & have been visiting Tuross since for holidays since was 11. It's got two lakes and several beaches and by night has wonderfully dark skies. This is the first stitched panorama that I ever shot, in October of 2013. I didn’t have much idea of what I was doing and I hadn’t heard of panoramic heads for tripods at this stage. Shooting the 14 frames that make up the image consisted of my taking a shot, estimating how much I needed the next shot to overlap by, then moving the tripod to that position for the next shot. Centre of frame & just above tree line is Venus, also reflected on the lake. The processed panoramic image’s dimensions were 10000 x 3333 pixel, with a file size of 240MB. 12 original frames (10x portrait, 2x landscape), stitched in AutoPanoPro Mac, edited in PhotoShop CC & Aperture. Denoised via Topaz Denoise 5. Original RAW frames shot with Canon EOS 7D, Sigma 10-20mm (10mm) @ f4.0, 25sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567258849451-JGKPXCLMFRMDEY0ERQLY/three-for-one.-galaxies-that-is.jpg Long & wide - Three for one The Milky Way has several smaller galaxies that are travelling through space with it (well, with us, in fact). These are known as “satellite galaxies” or “companion galaxies” and of the approximately sixty that have been detected only two are visible with the unaided eye. Named the “Magellanic Clouds”, you can see them at the left of this image, looking like two hazy blobs in the sky. I always find it a bit of a buzz to capture the Magellanic Clouds in the same image as their much bigger brother and hope that you get the same buzz seeing the three galaxies together in a photo like this. Unless you’re shooting with a very wide-angle lens you can’t get all three galaxies into the one shot but you can use the process of “stitching” to finish up with such a wide photo. For this image I shot thirteen overlapping images and then used software to blend them (via stitching) into this single scene. Each of the photos that make up today’s image were shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567510605295-N6WEGHYF91F1EYHI6HBO/three-galaxies-and-a-beach-and-a-hill.jpg Long & wide - Three galaxies, a beach and a hill There’s no missing the Milky Way in this panoramic image that I shot on the beach at Black Head Point, Gerroa, Australia. The time was close to 4:00 am, so the central band and core region of our home galaxy were low in the western sky and in the perfect position to shoot a single-row panorama. The other two galaxies alluded to in the title of this image are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, the two fuzzy and white smudges at the extreme left of the scene. These two dwarf galaxies, which are travelling through space as companions to the Milky Way, live up to their names and look like little clouds handing in the night sky. Down to the left of the Large Magellanic Cloud is the white star Canopus, the second-brightest star in the night sky anywhere on Earth. Directly below this white beacon is a reflection of the star’s light, stretched across the shallow waters in a tidal rock pool. Gerroa is a great spot for nightscape photography. You can shoot the Milky Way when it’s rising, overhead and setting, all with an interesting landform or horizon in the photo. The drive isn’t too bad, either, taking me a little under 90 minutes to get there from my home in Sydney. This panorama was created from twelve overlapping images, each shot in portrait orientation and stitched together using the software Autopano Pro. I lit the beach and cliff face using a Tristar 2 SMD LED light, fitted with a 3200K filter. Each of the component images was photographed with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using a shutter speed of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567511685875-V7G9RAUYDJV2OIF2CJND/five-galaxy-panorama.jpg Long & wide - Five-galaxy Fiesta The Taralga Wind Farm in New South Wales, Australia, is a 51-turbine installation that can power around 45,000 average Australian homes per year. I chose the site as the foreground for a Milky Way panorama that I photographed between 1:00 & 2:00 am on Saturday 3rd of August, 2019. Like the title says, this image includes five galaxies, all visible to the naked eye, and I have also noted some other objects that were visible on the night. The five galaxies you can see in the photo are 1. The Large Magellanic Cloud, 2. The Small Magellanic Cloud, 3. Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, 4. The Andromeda Galaxy, aka M31, and 5. The Triangulum Galaxy, M33. I admit that the fourth and fifth of those are hard to see, but they’re there in the photo, and I could see them even with my 55-year-old eyes. Also captured in the picture is the globular cluster Omega Centauri, as well as the planets Jupiter and Saturn. The photo doesn’t show how cold it was on this night, but this was the first time I’ve seen a 0-degree Celsius reading on my car’s thermometer. I shot each of the 17 photos that make up the panorama using a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567511465157-GW4EYLQJJY6UM1M3XGQK/ststephens-wayo-goulburn.jpg Long & wide - Skies wide open I covered nearly 500km (310 mi) on the night that I shot this panorama. My first stop of trip was at the 19th-century church and its accompanying graveyard near Crookwell, Australia. The final composite image was a monster 65-image panorama that ended up saving out as a 1.8GB file! I know there’s a lot of empty sky in the photo, but I cropped it that way so I could include Mars up at the top-right of the scene. You can see the Magellanic Clouds and the globular cluster 47 Tucanae shining clearly on the left. 47 Tucanae is hovering a little to the top-right of the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Milky Way and its galactic core were low in the western sky, and there is a visible glow extending up towards Mars, indicating the presence of the Zodiacal Light. To create the full-size I captured 65 single images, each of which was shot with a Canon EOS 6D camera, using a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/star-trails daily 0.75 2019-09-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568104263627-L61ZV27S2WWUCMAQY8OY/banner-trails.jpg Trails - Coloured Cathedral Circles Once per day our planet Earth turns on its axis, rotating through 360 degrees. Divide that number by the 24 hours that make up each day, and you get a figure of 15 degrees of movement of the sky per hour. That’s not a great deal of motion, and it’s certainly too slow for you to see, even if you stand really, really still. A simple way to detect and record that movement is to set up a camera to take a long-exposure photo. Back in the days of film photography we'd use a camera’s “B” setting and lock the shutter open for an hour or more. With digital cameras, the most common method of creating a star-trails shot is to make the camera take lots of shorter photos that are in sequence, then use software to blend those individual shots into a final image. Today’s photo was made using this method, with the individual images taken over 2.5 hours at Cathedral Rocks near Kiama, Australia. In that time the camera clicked off 530 shots. Once I got home, I imported the photos into Adobe Lightroom for basic editing, then stacked (blended) them, using the free application StarStaX. To capture those 530 single frames I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with each shot exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1602678094927-U8DXG3WV4A4BW5S5CU0B/rings-of-light.jpg Trails - Rings of Light I captured the movement of the stars around the South Celestial Pole during two hours last Saturday night (10th October) at this location in the Jerrawangala National Park southwest of Nowra, Australia. Well, the stars weren’t moving at all. When we look above us at night, it seems that the Earth is still and the sky is moving. However, this apparent movement of the stars across the sky is due to our planet rotating on its axis, just as it has done for longer than humans can remember. When I was a teenager in the 1970s, I made images like this one–known as “star-trails” photos–by locking my camera’s shutter open for however long was needed to capture the streaks of light on a frame of film. In the digital era, though, a final shot like today’s required me to set my camera to take a lot of shorter-exposure photos that I then combined in an app on my computer. I combined 180 single frames to make this final image, and I shot each one of them with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.5, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1587472204864-DP4D3XVR43BRBFK7ZTTJ/seven-mile-segments.jpg Trails - Seven Mile Segments A mere 35 minutes of the Earth spinning on its axis under the night sky provided enough movement for me to produce this image of stars making trails over the Tasman Sea. My photo shows only a small segment of the long stretch of sand known as Seven Mile Beach at Gerroa, Australia. In the very early hours of an April morning, I made the 220 km (136 mi) return trip without engaging with any other person. I was in my own isolated and protected world. In my later teen years, in the late 1970s and early 80s, I made photographs like this using a 35 mm film SLR camera, with the shutter held open by a “cable release” device for the entirety of the shot. Now, several digital decades later, I set my camera to take multiple photos that are combined in software to deliver a final, colourful single image. Both methods required the same ingredients: a reliable camera; a properly-focused lens; the correct exposure settings; a stable tripod and, most importantly, patience. Thinking of my life then, compared to now and the experience that the whole world is sharing, I am happy after all those years the waves still break, the Earth keeps turning, and the beauty of it all still amazes me. I combined 81 single-frame photos to create the composite image that I’m offering you today. For each of those photos, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, with an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1575806139611-LPXZLV19BBG7RK86OPP1/stones-and-stripes.jpg Trails - Stones and Stripes My image for you today is the result of having set out to shoot a time-lapse sequence of a meteor shower in May of 2019. The Eta Aquariids shower usually shows up near the top of lists of “the best meteor showers to see in 20xx” [insert the year as you see fit]. In my attempts to photograph the heavenly fireworks show, though, I’ve not yet seen it live up to expectations. I did capture some short meteor trails in the 178 photos that I shot on this night, but they were so small and dim that they didn’t warrant the work required to make a time-lapse video. Instead, I opted to create a star-trails composite for you to view. At the top right-hand corner of the scene, the trails are forming tight circles indicating the point in the sky close to where the South Celestial Pole is located. Moving to the left from there, you see the trails start to form larger circles until they reach a place where they scribe straight diagonal lines on the image. Moving further left from there, you see that the stars’ trails are now describing more curved paths that are arcing towards the lower-left vanishing point, where the North Celestial Pole lies. There are a few satellite trails to be seen in the photo, and the keen-eyed might be able to see the points where meteors briefly flashed into oblivion. For each of the 178 photos that I shot to make up this final composite, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, shooting for an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1574195849868-8SCH56F1EH68TAFAHD2D/agar%27s-lines.jpg Trails - Agar's Lines I have photographed the night sky set against this dead tree near Berry, New South Wales, Australia, on a handful of occasions over the past four years. The tree is hard up against the edge of the asphalt strip named Agars Lane, a narrow and mostly straight rural road in the region. At a rough guess, I’d reckon that I’ve only ever seen five or six cars pass along the road while I’ve been lurking in the dark with my tripod and camera. In one of those “what are the chances of that” moments that life sometimes serves up, during the hour that I was shooting photos on this particular night, two cars drove along the road and passed each other right near the tree. Their headlights seemed to be set for “kill” rather than “stun”, with my night-vision being their target. It can take up to half an hour for a person’s low-light sight to reach full sensitivity and I didn’t want to have to set my internal timer back to zero and start over, so covered my eyes until the much dimmer tail lights were all that I could see. When reviewing the photos, later on, I saw just how intensely the headlights had lit up the area. Three pictures were so bright and washed out that they were unusable, but a couple of shots either side of those were images showing only a few of the tree branches illuminated. I used those photos to make up this star-trails composite, as well as the remaining darker frames, to give the tree its half-dark/half-lit look. The gaps that you can see in the trails show where I had to leave out the overcooked shots, but they don’t take away too much from the concept of stellar inscriptions on the night sky. My final, edited image here was created from 200 individual photos, and I shot each of those with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1574034029788-CL49OQMK2WX9J3E8VIDH/trials-and-trails.jpg Trails - Trials and Trails I created this star-trails image from 218 still-frame photos that I shot in late April of 2019. During the 100 km (60 mi) drive from my home in Sydney, Australia, to the rock shelf at Black Head at Gerroa, there was no hint of any clouds overhead to obscure the stars. As I looked at my test shots, though, I could see that there was a haze of cloud over towards the west, right where I’d pointed my lens. Still, I’d driven so far and didn’t want to pack up and head home straight away, so set my camera the task of shooting a series of images to create either a star-trails shot like today’s and/or a time-lapse video sequence. The clouds are what caused the breaks in stars’ trails, and also made it difficult to get the exposure settings right so that the ground and the sky were exposed correctly. In fact, the reflections of the star-trails in the rock pools show more colour and definition than the originals up above. The bright yellow blob of light towards the right of the scene is from the supergiant star Betelgeuse, whose broken streak you can see heading towards the distant mountains. During the period that the photos were being taken, several waves broke on the rock shelf’s edge, and you can see their plumes of spray frozen in time in my final composition. I also captured the light trails from a few Melbourne-bound aircraft, and the water’s surface mirrored two of them. I captured each of the 218 photos using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566729015554-19QJOWHY88QFHITZP56K/Tuross+Trails+with+Mars+LATEST+EDIT.jpg Trails - Tuross trails Mars & the Milky Way setting over the Tuross River (Australia). Cameras are far more capable of capturing and rendering the colours that shine in the blackness of night than our human eyes. Capturing all of that colour adds up when you put together a number of images that were shot over a period of time, as in this image. This results in the coloured curved stripes–the “star-trails”–in the sky and the even more colourful reflections of the brighter objects on the river’s surface. The bright and wide orange reflection on the water’s surface is from the planet Mars as it set in the two-hour period over which the original frames were captured. This image was created from 470 original photos, each shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566729195948-H8GW2I1IKGMNJ78AF6C7/Round+and+round.+Again+SMALL.jpg Trails - Round and round. Again I am so used to shooting my nightscape images in the autumn, winter and early spring months that I forgot to take something essential with me on this summer night in the first week of January. Insect repellant is a necessity if there are mosquitoes about and especially if you don’t enjoy being bitten by them. With none of the liquid in my kit, I took the only other measure I could and popped on a parka that lives in the back of my car. When the temperature is somewhere around 25 degrees C (77 F), and the humidity is in the low 70s, a parka isn’t what you want to be wearing. Still, it kept the mosquitoes at bay. I set my camera up to shoot this star-trails scene and let it run itself for 3.5 hours. The camera was set to take a 25-second exposure, close the shutter for 1 second and then capture another 25-second image, repeating the cycle until I turned off the camera. All-up I shot 463 single frames over those 3.5 hours, then used the software “StarStaX” to make the final composite photo. For each of those shots, I had my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera mounted on a tripod and fitted with a Samyang 14mm lens set to f/2.8. As mentioned above, the exposure time for each frame was 25 seconds, and I set the ISO to 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566728918678-9EK2UN66TEMGLHAB3JQ0/Tuross+Trails.jpg Trails - Smudges of light A light breeze was blowing across Tuross Lake while my camera shot the images used to make up this star-trails photo. The wind disturbing the water’s surface resulted in reflections that are wider, less sharp and brighter than the points of light in the sky that created them. Clouds moving across the sky during the shoot caused the trails to have breaks in them in a few places, bringing more beauty from disorder. The blue and white smudges on the water at the bottom left are from the stars Beta & Alpha Centauri, respectively. The pair of orange streaks that are right-of-centre and that start near the horizon are from the star Antares and the planet Saturn. Created from 194 single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566730568845-IJRGK8W0TLEAMDUBZCOP/Round+%27n%27+round+over+the+ruins.jpg Trails - Round 'n' round over the ruins The turning of our earth on its axis–its diurnal rotation, as astronomers call it–is what causes the sun and moon to seem to rise and set each day. This daily movement of our planet has the same effect on how we see the stars. They appear to move across the sky as the night passes. Some of these celestial hosts, called “circumpolar stars”, never disappear behind the horizon, and so appear to scribe complete circles across the heavens. To show this movement I set up my camera on a tripod and connected an interval timer, aka an “intervalometer”, so that the camera would take a 25-second long exposure, pause for one second, then take another shot. Rinse and repeat! Over one hour and ten minutes, my camera shot off 155 frames, which I then combined using some free software (StarStax) to create a single image that conveys the feeling that the stars have moved in circles on the sky. I took the 155 single frames using a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, with each frame exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567595316368-YBD6PKTE4JVF0M9186VZ/Tuross+star+trails+ca+1978.jpg Trails - Genesis of an Obsession So long ago! This image was my first star-trail photos, taken back in 1979 or 1980 at Tuross Head, Australia. I pointed the camera towards the Southern Cross and Pointers, with the South Celestial Pole being out of shot at the upper-left. The diagonal trail of light across the image is from a small aircraft that passed over during the time the shutter was open. I was a poor high-school student who was very new to this area of photography, so I made the most of the equipment at hand. The camera was my mum’s, and it was a no-name 35 mm non-SLR job. Unlike a lot of cameras at the time, it had a shutter lever, rather than a button, so there was no way to use a lockable shutter-release cable. I found that I could set the camera to “B”, press the shutter lever down, then tie a string between it and my dad’s tripod. The string would keep the shutter open for as many minutes or hours as I needed. I’m sure I have the original negative somewhere but can’t find it, so I scanned one of the prints I made at the time. Back in those days, I used to develop and print my black-and-white photos, turning our family bathroom into a makeshift darkroom as needed. The film’s ISO rating was 400, but since I can’t find the negatives for that roll of film, I don’t have any of the shooting data that I used to keep for all of my photos then. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733276277-ZS7GELIPG4BJKESTRYK2/Circles+in+the+southern+sky-Insta-FB-Flickr.jpg Trails - Seven Mile Circles The stars of my southern hemisphere cutting trails across the sky as they appear to orbit the South Celestial Pole over Seven Mile Beach, New South Wales, Australia. The orange glow on the right is from some cloud that blew in, lit by the light pollution from the city of Nowra, 22km away. The clouds interrupted the trails a little which is why they stop & start at lower right. The waves are blue from the presence of bioluminescent organisms in the water. Produced from 163 images taken over 45 minutes, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733453409-V560R1KY5RW6MQVEE9BQ/Coloured+Cathedral+Circles+SMALL.jpg Trails - Coloured Cathedral Circles My photo here was made by shooting multiple 15-second photos over 2.5 hours at Cathedral Rocks near Kiama, Australia. In that time the camera clicked off 530 shots. Once I got home, I imported the photos into Adobe Lightroom for basic editing, then stacked (blended) them, using the free application StarStaX, to create a single image that shows the trails of the stars on the night sky. To capture those 530 single frames I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with each shot exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733382903-D13U9N9WYW5T459AJC8O/Circles+of+Friends+SMALL.jpg Trails - Circles of Friends It’s not unusual for me to think of the stars as friends, or at least as familiar acquaintances. Orion has been a pattern in the sky that I’ve known since I was five years old, back in 1969, when an uncle pointed it out to me. I learned to recognise the other constellations and objects that I know in my early high school years when I was switched on to astronomy as a hobby. When I arrive at a photography location in the dark of night the first thing I do after getting out of my car is to look up and see where my familiar friends are positioned. Doing that helps to orientate me and to give me ideas for where to point my camera. If it’s circular star trails that I’m going to be imaging, for example, I find the Southern Cross and from that can work out where the South Celestial Pole is. Then it's a matter of making sure that you have an engaging foreground scene to use, plus enough coverage of the sky to capture some good-sized circles and then start shooting. That simple routine is one I followed on Friday night (07 Dec 2018) at the St David’s Anglican Church in Burrawang, a small rural town in my state of New South Wales, Australia. To create this circular-trails image I shot 329 individual photos over two-and-a-half hours. I used the same equipment & settings for each of the single frames, namely a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, a 25-second exposure @ ISO 800. To light the church’s exterior I used a small tripod-mounted LED bank that I'd fitted with a 3200K filter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567591395890-SQI2ZB32KQH5L22DPOQA/Saddleback+6D+trails.jpg Trails - Saddleback Streaks The peak of Saddleback Mountain sits at 600 metres above sea-level, just south of the coastal city of Kiama, Australia. I first visited there in late November of 2015 and tried a few star-trails images. This one is made from 264 photos that I shot that night. Stars at the upper right are appearing to turn around the South Celestial Pole. Those at the lower left seem to be rotating around the North Celestial Pole. At the bottom, about 1/3 in from the left, you can see the light trail made by a cargo ship heading down Australia’s south-east coast. Made up from 264 images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 5000. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733669348-QXX3U520SMSG9JABABVI/Mountain+trails.jpg Trails - Mountain trails The sky in the shot is blue because the moon was shining and showed the colour of the sky as we see it in daylight. The fields, grass and trees can be seen for the same reason. The clouds are pink from a combination of light pollution from the townships down off the mountain, the changing colour of the moonlight as the moon got towards setting and some errors introduced when processing the images that make up this final photo. I had planned to let the camera keep shooting away until after the moon had set, revealing more stars, but clouds put an end to that. This photo is made up from 62 individual shots, each 25 seconds long, that were captured in sequence. Using the free software “StarStaX” those 62 images were blended to form this single shot. Each shot was captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/4.0, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733955698-B419G8VLFLA1U835MWYC/Setting+stars+%26+a+mystery+solved+%28I+think%29+SMALL.jpg Trails - Setting stars Shot at Gerroa, New South Wales, the image you’re looking at was created from 594 single photos taken over a three-hour period. My camera was pointing due west to capture the constellation Orion and surrounding stars as they set for the night. A slight mess-up with the settings is responsible for the gaps in the star trails. I lit up the trees with a Litra LED lamp fitted with a 3200K filter and a diffuser. The 594 images used here were shot with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567592856883-KAUW7JOOLCHFHMZCSG9A/Same+place%2C+different+season.jpg Trails - Spinning silos I have featured these silos in a variety of static shots in the past few years. My visit here in early December of 2018 was the first time that I tried a star-trails composition. There is a fog-piercing light a few hundred metres along the road from the silos, and it provided the orange glow to back-light the scene. To create this image I shot 123 single-frame photos in 55 minutes. I captured each of those frames with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567593311439-PFTLYB8EAXW228GCENKI/Streaks+on+the+sky.jpg Trails - Streaks on the sky The 102 photos that make up this shot were taken over a period of 25 minutes, which equates to 6.25 degrees of turn by our planet. When I look at the photo it seems like there’s been much more movement than that because of the number of stars in the shot. In the centre of the scene, just above the rocks there, you can see an orange-brown stain on the sky. This is the part of the shot where the Milky Way’s galactic core was rising, and since this region of sky is dense with interstellar dust and gas you get the dirty sky look seen here. Out of the frame from the top right-hand corner is the location on the sky around which the stars seem to rotate as the earth turns, the South Celestial Pole. The further away from this point you get, the longer and straighter the trails seem to be. If you went far enough across to the left and out of the shot you’d see the stars as straight lines perpendicular to the horizon. Despite how complex the shot looks, it’s not hard to create such an image. Even - the most basic digital SLR (or mirrorless) camera can be used. I took 102 original shots, captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400 and stacked together using the free app StarStaX. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567647098596-NBK1QR16OU5LSVHG7GZ6/While+I+was+snoozing.jpg Trails - While I was snoozing With the moon not setting until nearly 1:00 on this morning in June of 2017 there was about an hour to wait for a dark sky after I arrived at my photo location, the “Grand Canyon Lookout” lookout in the Morton National Park, Australia. It had been a two-hour drive to get to the spot, which meant a two-hour drive home when I was done for the night. I was quite tired so I set my camera on its tripod, checked focus, tested the settings of my intervalometer and started the camera shooting a time-lapse sequence. Then I went to sleep in my car. My phone’s alarm was set to wake me about an hour from when I settled in to a comfortable position and drifted off. It was very cold in the car despite five layers of clothing, gloves and two layers of head covering, resulting in the alarm not being needed because my shivering woke me much sooner. Zero degrees C, read the car’s thermometer. I left the time-lapse sequence running for a while after I woke up then started on other shots. I’m yet to edit and compile the time-lapse but with the frames I got I was able to create this star-trails composite from 337 shots over two hours. The sky is blue and the landscape is lit because of the light from the setting moon. Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566734272614-Z8K9GIU2DTOASATN94TZ/Swan+trails.jpg Trails - Swan trails Living in a very light-polluted area means that I need to travel for at least 100 km (60 mi) out of my city to get somewhere with dark skies. Ideally, I should be scouting out new locations during the day and then returning later for a nightscape photography session. Due to the distances that I have to drive, plus my family & work commitments, I rarely have the time to do a daylight scouting trip as well as several hours of shooting at night. Most of the time I head out with a knowledge of where the Milky Way’s core will be at a particular time of night, and an idea of the kind of landscape features I want to include in my photos. There will be a few possible locations in my head as I leave my driveway, but there’s also lots of map-checking and imagining of compositions on the way. On this Sunday night in October of 2018, Swan Lake, on the southeast coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia, turned out to be a spot that ticked almost all of the boxes. The only one that didn’t score a ten was the light-pollution category, but the white glow from the tourist town of Cudmirrah, on the left of this photo, isn’t too bad. The photo is a star-trails composite shot, created by shooting several 25-second-long images and combining them in the app “StarStaX”. I shot the original frames for a time-lapse sequence, at high ISO, so I had to pull down the highlights and push up the saturation to finish with a trails image where the stars weren’t all white and not showing their true colours. Each photo used to create this image was taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, through a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566735397758-C9UVHUVDJ61RYX1JADSL/Trails+on+the+water+and+sky.jpg Trails - Circles on sky and water The still waters of this man-made pond provided a great natural mirror to photograph reflections of the stars one Friday night in July of 2017. The glow from my headlamp and red-light torch also reflected their photons off the shiny surface, creating the colourful smear at the lower left of the scene. For this shot, I took 323 photos over nearly 2.5 hours. I hadn’t visited this spot until my outing that night, noticing the location on Google Maps while at a prior stop. The satellite photo showed it to be a scar on the landscape, the remains of a road construction dig, including the pond, in a national park. Since it was the only water catchment for many kilometres around, it was worth stopping at to try to get some stellar reflections. I made this final image from 323 single photos, each shot as follows: Canon EOS 6D camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.4, 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. The images were combined using the free software StarStaX. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567660176372-TI1FTC9Z6IJWR17927Z3/Streaks+of+light+and+colour.jpg Trails - Gerroa Glory This view from Black Head Point at Gerroa, Australia, takes in the waters of Berrys Bay and the Tasman Sea, as well as nearly 30 km of coastline, and lots of sky. The tidal rock pools were slowly filling from the rising tide in the two hours over which I shot the individual photos that make up this star-trails composite. They acted as a shallow but still mirror to reflect and diffuse the colours of the moving stars. Each of the single images was shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, using a 20-second exposure @ ISO 6400. I used the free application "StarStaX" to combine the photos into the final image. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567671873501-OGE0VL2KQ1BWVR2UMBCT/trail-mix.jpg Trails - Trail mix There are many colours in the night sky but I often find that I don’t notice most of them until I see shots like this “star-trails” photo. It can be hard to discern the colours when you see stars as little points of light. Having the light concentrated like it is here helps you to see the mix of shades of white, orange, blue and yellow that are in the stars. As a background to all of that you can see the deep green colour of the atmospheric airglow. This image is made up from 85 separate photos and each one of those captured 20 seconds of the sky's movement. When you put the shots all together using a process called “stacking" you are adding each small movement of the stars to the previous one, giving you these apparent tracks or trails across the sky. Created using the free software “StarStax” from 85 original images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567678196722-G2UTUAGUPNT0FRQDTG5I/Rings+and+streaks+of+colour+and+light.jpg Trails - Lighting Rig I guess he just wanted to get in on the act, the driver of the 4WD who sped through the area where I had my camera set up shooting this star-trails image. He didn’t have any idea that his car was to appear in my photo, he was simply driving along this road that skirts the Bamarang Dam near Nowra, Australia. I know this because after he passed through he stopped the car, turned it around and came back to see what I was doing. “I hope you’re not setting up a police speed camera,” he joked. After I told him what it was I was up to and showed him some of the photos I’d already gotten he headed back off into the night. The LED bank on the vehicle’s bumper gave me some good foreground lighting, at least. If you spend even just a little time looking at this photo you can see the different colours of the stars. It’s cool that we can use a camera to let us see the wonderful colours up there above us. This star-trails image is made up from 205 single images that were shot over a period of just under two hours. Each individual photo was captured with Canon EOS 6D MkII, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 30 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566735372033-2WNGVOHI7N9CI5O7CE6K/Train+and+trails.jpg Trails - Trains and trails Trails on the sky from the stars, several aeroplanes, a satellite and a couple of meteors are underscored by the light-trail of a train passing through the crossing level crossing at Toolijooa, New South Wales, Australia. Star trails created in StarStax for Mac, from 78 original frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733097436-AS542CYL8VSK2D8CA0BH/Amphitheatre+of+the+stars.jpg Trails - Amphitheatre of the stars "Lights, camera, action!" They're the clichéd words used when speaking of filmmaking rather than taking photos. Still, I had all of these components in play to create this star-trails photo in the stony amphitheatre of the abandoned quarry at Bombo Headland, New South Wales, Australia. Lights? I used the warm tungsten beam of my trusty torch ("flashlight" for the Americans reading this); a round, white photographic reflector to spread that light over the rocks and cliffs; and the glorious glow of the stars above. Some ambient light from the Kiama lighthouse–out of shot at right–plus the sodium lamps, aglow at the nearby sewage treatment works, also helped to light the scene. Camera? My camera was mounted on a tripod, shooting a 20-second-long photo then waiting one second before grabbing the next shot. Over forty-five minutes, my faithful Canon captured 118 frames. Action? How do you show movement in a still image? The rotation of the earth in those forty-five minutes was enough to make the stars look like they are drawing lines on the sky. The blurring of the waves breaking in the small inlet also gives a sense of movement. I was walking around, placing the torch to light up various features of the quarry, providing a further idea of motion as the beams were recorded by the camera's sensor. Created from 118 single frames, each shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 8000. After shooting those 118 photos I imported them into my Mac laptop, did some editing in Adobe Lightroom then used the free “StarStax” application to put them together into one final image. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567679593338-CY8PMARR7LG7AZYA0MAT/braidwood-trails.jpg Trails - Braidwood Trails I shot this on January 4th, 2019, at Braidwood, Australia. We were holidaying on the south coast of New South Wales, where it was cloudy nearly every night of the seven full days that we visited. The drive to Braidwood takes about an hour and a half, and the cloud-cover forecast was favourable, so I headed inland and up the Clyde Mountain for some star time. I created this composite star-trails image by shooting 124 single photos, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera and a Samyang 14mm lens @ f/2.8. Each shot was exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 800. After a few adjustments in Adobe Lightroom I used the free software StarStaX to combine the single images into the final whirly scene. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567595309486-DF5VMXAQYPDORS4PIF47/moonlit-beach-and-starlit-sky.jpg Trails - Moonlit beach and starlit sky The sky is blue and the beach is lit up by the moon in this image, shot at Garie Beach in the Royal National Park, Australia, in March of 2016. Earth’s largest natural satellite was in the western sky and about half an hour from setting when I commenced shooting, after which it sank down into the west for the night. The large straight streak across the scene is from the lights of an aircraft that had flown out of Sydney airport, while the strip of light along the horizon was provided by two cargo ships plying their way through the Tasman Sea. I created the composited image from 312 single photos, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 3200 and blended in the free app “StarStaX”. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567681041631-UQL5SUA7PP79RYBQ1LOL/Trees+and+fractured+trails+SMALL.jpg Trails - Trees and fractured trails Looking at the star trails in here, I guess something messed up with my settings. Star trails photos like this are created by taking lots of photos in succession, with as little gap as possible between each shot and the next, and then combining them in a process called “stacking”. The aim is to create an image where the movement across the sky of each star looks like a streak of light, or a “trail”. Rather than trails, though, the stars in this image look like dotted lines with a break at regular intervals in each trail. This was probably caused by me not setting my intervalometer (interval timer) properly, resulting in the camera and intervalometer getting out of sync. I hope that you enjoy this photo anyway. Created from 111 single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/flickr daily 0.75 2019-09-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568104562122-QNTZOTLBM2DI0XKIU6JD/banner-flickr.jpg Flickr https://nightscapades.com/tall-thin daily 0.75 2019-09-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568104153659-85GJXWKXD20HEPDOD6SE/banner-tall-and-thin.jpg Tall & Thin - Gerroa Rising In a recent post I mentioned that during my visit to Gerroa, Australia, back on March 31st, the wind was gusting around 45 km/h. That much wind made it hard to shoot long exposures without the camera shaking and causing the stars to look like little squiggles, instead of dots. There were few places on the ocean rock shelf that provided some shelter, but they were close to the breaking waves, giving me something else to consider. What to do? One solution to this problem is to use a short shutter speed when taking photos. “Short” might make you think of shutter speeds like 1/1000 second, or even 1/125, but I’m talking somewhere below the 10-second mark. To do that you need a “fast” lens, that is, one that lets lots of light in, allowing for relatively fast shutter speeds. OK, I had one of those with me, a 50 mm lens with a maximum aperture of f/1.4. Yup, that’s fast. The issue with that lens is that at its fixed-focal-length of 50 mm, I wouldn’t be able to fit much of the scene into the frame. Again, what to do? I couldn’t move further away from my subject, the Milky Way since it already looks huge from Earth even at 27000 light-years away. Situations like this are where you pull out the good old panoramic shot. (I’m still not sure if it’s correct to call a stitched photo in a vertical format a “panorama”, but this is an art post and not an English lesson). I created the pano using eleven overlapping photos, providing enough coverage to capture the Milky Way and its galactic core, accompanied by Jupiter and Saturn, rising over the Tasman Sea, as well as the rock shelf and some of its little pools of water that were reflecting the stars. I shot the 11 single-frame photos that make up the final panorama using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4. For each shot, I had the camera set to an ISO value of 6400 and exposed each shot for 8.0 seconds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1606822511939-1D90V3IN7XZSZWYP2HKY/a-cosmic-tuft-of-wool.jpg Tall & Thin - A Cosmic Tuft of Wool A handful of sheep stood atop this hill, silhouetted by the lights of the rural city of Goulburn, Australia, while I photographed the starry and cloud-free sky at the Taralga wind farm in mid-November of this year. High overhead and looking like a tuft of wool, cut free and discarded by a shearer’s blades, the amorphous glow from the billions of stars forming the Large Magellanic is the standout feature of today’s photo. The background sky is showing a purplish tint, caused by the presence of what scientists call “airglow” in the Earth’s atmosphere, which human eyes cannot see, sadly. Dark nebulae in the Milky Way show themselves as dimmer patches in the sky near the horizon, as they block the light from stars more distant than these enormous bodies of gas and dust. I shot two overlapping frames to create this final image, using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II Digital SLR camera fitted with a Sigma 35 mm wide-angle lens. Each photo was taken using the same settings, which were a shutter speed of 8.0 seconds, a lens aperture of f/1.6, and an ISO selection of 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1596976775678-4B4K5UQSER8AMH7WF3UX/still-standing-under-the-stars.jpg Tall & Thin - Still Standing Under The Stars Although I have visited this area on the south coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia, since late 1975, it is only in the last five or so years that I’ve been making my way there to shoot nightscape photos. The old tree that I’ve included here in today’s photo has been the foreground feature for plenty of the shots I’ve taken on the access road to the town of Tuross Head. Thinking about it now, I don’t reckon I ever paid the tree any attention until I started to use it in my photos, but on each visit now I check to make sure that it’s still standing. The glory of being able to shoot in the dark skies like what the far south coast of New South Wales offers is something I hope I never take for granted. You can see so much of the dark dust and gas structures present in the Milky Way, as well as the seemingly countless stars that paint the darkness with brilliant flecks of beauty, even without a camera, binoculars or a telescope. Add to that some naked-eye-visible planets, such as Jupiter and Saturn, and you have ample reason to want to stand in a field on a cold night, as I did in mid-July this year, capturing this scene. The image is a vertical panorama, created by stitching together five original frames, each of which I captured with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.5, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1610446482602-D98J2T1BX5K61EHHZFE2/old-location-new-year.jpg Tall & Thin - Old Location, New Year This post is my first in nearly six weeks, due to bad weather (the grey dome that seems to follow me around), busyness in my business, Christmas, and some time away with my wife. I hope to use my photos of the night sky's wonders to bring some wonder, light, and even joy into your lives during this current circuit of the Sun. My initial post for 2021 is from a location where I cut my teeth on digital nightscape photography in 2013 and 2014, Tuross Head, on Australia's south-east coast. Over thirty years before then, I was shooting black-and-white star trails photos at Tuross during my mid-late teen years. This heritage-listed church hasn't heard worshippers' singing or prayers for several decades but is a landmark still beloved by locals and the region's many holidaying visitors. The narrow opening in the persistent cloud cover only lasted long enough to shoot thirty images, including eight that I used to create this vertical panorama. The portion of the Milky Way included in the photo stretches from the constellation of Carina, just above the church's spire, up through Canis Major and just squeezing in Orion near the top of the scene. To shoot each of the eight images in the final panorama I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/3.5, using an exposure time of 30 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598830089421-RPIZCZA41QM8848WQWA6/two-little-galaxies.jpg Tall & Thin - Two Little Galaxies My previous photo was called "Three Galaxies. Three Planets", and in the text, I noted that two of the galaxies in the title were the "Magellanic Clouds". Today's image features those two dwarf galaxies in more detail as I captured them in the sky over the Tasman Sea off Seven Mile Beach, NSW. The Large Magellanic Cloud is estimated to contain between a few billion and ten billion stars, and have a diameter of around 30000 light-years. Its sibling, the Small Magellanic Cloud, measures approximately 7000 light-years across and contains possibly several hundred million stars. Above the Small cloud, you can see the globular star cluster 47-Tucanae, and if you zoom in on the Large Magellanic Cloud, you'll see a green blob that is known to astronomers as the Tarantula Nebula. Although I could have fit this scene into one wide-angle photograph, I shot four overlapping images and stitched them together during processing. I took four single frames with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1593608262925-X69HDUGKWVGS2RVB61LA/jamberoo-jaunt.jpg Tall & Thin - Jamberoo Jaunt The 30th day of June is the final day of the Australian financial year, which often means a last-minute rush of people and businesses wanting their IT problems solved by their friendly “Always Apples” support technician, i.e., me! That tug on my time, as well as a few cloudy nights, has seen me trapped at home, wishing I was out photographing the night sky. Fortunately, though, I did get some time out last Thursday night, 25th June. I spent more of the session driving compared to how long I got to shoot photos, but some of the images I captured made that ratio worth enduring. This vertical panorama, created from shooting sixteen overlapping frames, shows why I was willing to be tired the next morning. The road, fences, paddocks and mountainside in the foreground are all lit by light pollution from the nearby city of Wollongong, and the cloud hovering over the mountain is illuminated by the rural town of Nowra, around 30 km (18 mi) to the southwest. Jupiter and Saturn are prominent in the upper left-hand corner of the scene, and the globular cluster Omega Centauri is on the right and about one third up from the bottom of the frame. I shot the sixteen photos that make up this panoramic image using m Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 3200. I didn’t have my panoramic head with me, so I used dead-reckoning to calculate the overlap needed for the photos. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1591602131517-GS3XDGIUBNLJI2TD15OG/one-last-look.jpg Tall & Thin - One Last Look There is a habit that’s overcome me on my nocturnal adventures. No matter how late the hour, or how long the trip home will take me, I have to sneak one last look at the sky before I get into my car. I could have taken only a handful of photos, or it could have been hundreds, but I still need that one last look. If clouds have muscled in on the unspoilt heavens, or if the view is as clear as it ever could be, that one last look is a must. So it was on this night when the Milky Way was glorious, and the planet Jupiter owned the sky between that galactic gem and the horizon. I took my one last look, a little after 1:00 am. Moonlight, the need for sleep, the restrictions of the pandemic and uncooperative weather have kept me from seeing this unfettered view for too many weeks. It’s good that I had my camera with me to capture this one last look. I shot this photograph at Seven Mile Beach National Park in my state of New South Wales, Australia. I used my reliable Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1599400773110-0E6HK9PN0G7RQIHPI0E4/privileged.jpg Tall & Thin - Privileged I chose the title for today’s photo because of how blessed I feel to be able to photograph scenes like this, and for the opportunities that I get to try to pass on that thrill to others. The time was a little after 4:15 am, one Saturday morning in July, as I sat on the sand at the edge of Tuross Lake (Australia), taking in the serenity and doing my best to capture the scene with my camera, to enjoy again when I like. Bioluminescent marine organisms in the shallow, sandy water gave away their positions by their telltale blue glow, seen as a stripe near the bottom of my photo. The king of all planets, the gas-giant Jupiter makes two appearances in this image, dominating the sky with its bright orb, as well by its stretched reflection atop the lake. The Milky Way’s stars, nebulae, gas clouds and dust lanes stain the sky above the horizon as well as the water below, with each apparition heading for the other as the Earth turned on its axis. Above and to the right of Jupiter, you can see our Solar System’s next-biggest planet, Saturn, standing out against the stars. To create the image that you’re viewing, I shot nine overlapping photos that I then stitched together in software. For each of those original individual images, I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, with an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1600088866088-LI5SKHPPSIO1BRGQA1MI/a-splendid-stretch-of-sky.jpg Tall & Thin - A Splendid Stretch of Sky It’s a shame that the time of year has passed for shooting these vertical panoramas featuring the Milky Way standing on-end. I’ve been luckier than many Australians, particularly in the state of Victoria, been able to move outside of a small radius from my home. Many of the photographers who inspire and encourage me have been in lock-down for many months and haven’t had the chance to stand under the night sky, let alone to photograph it. Today’s image was captured in July, on the ocean rock shelf at Gerroa, Australia, during one of my crazy one-night driving trips. The horizon is alight with the glow from street lights and other artificial illumination from towns along the coast, places that were only dimly lit and sparsely populated when I was a kid in the 1970s. Despite that, I was well able to capture the stars, planets, nebulae and dust lanes visible in this stretch of the sky in the Southern Hemisphere. From the crimson-coloured Eta Carina Nebula low in the sky over those light-polluted towns, up through the Milky Way’s galactic core area in the top one-third of the shot, there are innumerable celestial objects visible in my photo. The two gas-giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, can be seen in the top left-hand corner of this scene, standing off from the central band of the Milky Way’s streak upon the heavenly dome. I shot ten overlapping single-frame photos to create this composite image, capturing each of those frames using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.0, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598529528866-FMF34PSG9LNTL52EUMYU/dark-and-detailed.jpg Tall & Thin - Dark and Detailed It’s hard to beat dark, clear nights and a sharp lens for capturing the non-starry details of the Milky Way’s dust lanes and dark nebulae. The night that I photographed this scene, in late July of this year, was one of those times, and the Sigma 35 mm lens that I had mounted on my camera was the perfect tool to make the most of it. Of course, the brightness of the massive conglomeration of stars that makes up the Milky Way’s galactic core shows up well in such a photo, but that’s not what my eyes were first drawn to when I saw this image come together. Those dark features hide estimated millions of stars (billions?), which makes me wonder how bright the sky would look should the dust and gas somehow drift off into the wider universe. The planets Jupiter and Saturn are glowing to the upper-left of the Milky Way, and I caught the Southern Cross and several other familiar features in the lower half of the image. The lights on the horizon are those of coastal towns that are over 30 km distant from the rocky beach and headland at Gerroa, Australia, the location where I captured this scene. This style of image is a called a vertical panorama (or “vertical pano”) that I created by shooting twenty single frames, in two columns that each contain ten photos. These individual images were then blended–“stitched”–to make the final image. I captured each of the twenty single shots using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1598911837459-ZN4B7MVOB1ELOATPGK43/the-galaxy%27s-made-of-cheese.jpg Tall & Thin - The Galaxy's Made of Cheese Fans of the claymation short films, “Wallace & Gromit”, will tell you that it’s the Moon–and not the Milky Way–that’s made of cheese. There was a proverb, from the year 1546, that spoke of the Moon being made of green cheese. Apparently, this saying was used at the time to describe people who would be so gullible as to believe such a thing. I admit that it’s self-evident that the Milky Way is made of milk, of course! The long-defunct cheese factory in my photo, atop a small rise next to the Princes Highway at Bumbo, on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, gave me the inspiration for the name of today’s nightscape photo. The idea of photographing the former fromage factory, under the Milky Way, came from a friend I was visiting during June of 2019 on a long-weekend break on the coast. At around 1:00 am on my last night in the region before heading north to my home in Sydney, I visited the spot and captured the photos I used to create this vertical panorama. The overly-bright looking Milky Way is due to a thin fog that was moistening the sky at the time. To get the eight individual frames that make up this composite photo I used a Canon EOS 6D camera fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, mounted on a Nodal Ninja panoramic tripod head. I selected an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400 for each shot. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1571313194809-KCFTRMDED86879ET7QJ6/a-little-church-under-the-big-sky.jpg Tall & Thin - Little Church. Big Sky The St Stephens Anglican Church at Wayo, in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. The site was donated by a local landowner for use as a church and cemetery back in 1866. The current building’s stone structure was erected in the 1880s. As enduring as the stony sanctuary may be, it is dwarfed and humbled under the immensity and timelessness of the Milky Way. This image was one of a number that I shot during a visit in May of 2019, on a night when the atmospheric airglow was a mix of green and orange. Those colours are evident in the background sky in my photo. To create this vertical panoramic image, I took eight overlapping photos. After a few adjustments in Adobe Lightroom, I used the stitching software “Autopano Pro” to merge those eight frames into the final composition. For each of the single images, I used my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, choosing an exposure time of 15 seconds, with the 6D’s ISO set at 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1584188893872-755PBFLTLTMOS9LIOM6X/field-of-view.jpg Tall & Thin - Field of View With the cloud-cover that’s been a regular feature in my area for several weeks, and the full moon’s light washing out the Milky Way’s details in the early morning sky, what’s a photographer to do but draw from their reserves? Today’s image is from May of 2019, taken near the rural city of Nowra, Australia, showing the Milky Way’s core rising over the distant Coolangatta Mountain and its surrounding dairy country. One challenge with nightscape photography–well, with any style of photography–is to be creative with how you frame your shots. Rather than having the Milky Way’s core in the sky with only the ground to compare it to, I used an overhanging pine tree’s branches and fronds to obscure the sky just a little, trying to create a feeling of the trees revealing the heavenly wonders on display. I think I managed to get it just the way I wanted it, in the end. The vertical panorama was created by photographing eight overlapping images that were then edited in Adobe Lightroom, followed by stitching into the final single image using the now-discontinued software Autopano Pro. For each of those eight photos, I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1576384964544-HPZX8KAQZYTP17EA7EC5/Alignment.jpg Tall & Thin - Alignment I find it easy to imagine the people building this church, which was finished in 1903, using the line of the rising Milky Way to set the angle for their little building’s roof gable. There wouldn’t have been as much man-made dust in the air nor light pollution to dim their view back then, giving the locals an unobstructed vista of the heavens on a cloudless night. Mind you the air was clear and the night quite dark when I visited the small sanctuary in April of 2019, evidenced by how much of the fine details in the Milky Way’s dust lanes my photo has captured. The colours of a number of the nebulae in the star-forming region of Rho Ophiuchi have also shown up nicely in the photo. Not visible in the photo, and certainly lost to my eyes on the night, is the cap for one of my lenses, dropped as I was stumbling through the darkness, looking for an interesting composition to shoot. Perhaps if I make the 400+ kilometre round-trip back there one day, I might find my piece of protective plastic still laying in the grass. I used nine separate overlapping photos to create this composite “vertical panorama” image. My Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400, did a splendid job of sucking as much light out of the sky as possible to record each of those nine frames. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1575463707137-ZLZHFVFKB2GYNQFP8STN/windmilky-way.jpg Tall & Thin - Windmilky Way With the Milky Way’s galactic core now in the part of the sky where the sun is, it’s time to edit and post photos that I’ve shot throughout 2019 but not yet published. I will still try to get out and photograph the night magic of our southern summer, but with the craziness that leads up to Christmas, I’ll probably have lots of family and work commitments to keep me otherwise occupied. During one of my trips to the farmlands of Goulburn, Australia, back in April, I shot the twelve photos that make up this vertical panorama of the Milky Way rising over and dwarfing the old windmill on Braidwood Road. I’m still surprised at how much of the fine details of our galaxy’s dust lanes and dark nebulae I managed to capture with exposure times of only 6.0 seconds per shot. I didn’t use any image stacking, but I did make sure that my lens was focussed as sharply as I could get it! I photographed the original twelve single-frame images using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, with an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. For the photo nerds, no, I didn’t use a panoramic head, I used good old guestimation to get the right coverage of the field of view. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259322230-7FRI7ROI0WSZ0AKIKTH2/amber-airglow.jpg Tall & Thin - Amber airglow Something that amazes me is the fact that you can see details of the bright, starry galactic core of our Milky Way, reflected off the water. Those photons have travelled about 27,000 light-years across space but still have enough energy to bounce off the water’s surface. Single stars are mirrored, too, like the blue star on the middle right. Its reflection is far more prominent than the original blue dot itself. This photo was captured at Black Head, a landmark of the town of Gerroa, on Australia’s south-east coast. I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Canon 40mm STM lens @ f/2.8, for an exposure length of 10 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567338132550-HWYTS58PWLJCJVB3CH0Y/another-dam-fine-view.jpg Tall & Thin - Another dam fine view Luckily the wind that had been blowing for the previous two days abated enough for me to get some reflections of stars in the bottom-right of this pano, although they’re still not sharp. I actually got the stars of the Southern Cross reflected, and their colours show up much more prominently on the water’s surface than they do in the sky. Look how much detail there is in the galactic core, including the “dancing horse” or “dark horse” nebula, as well as other dust lanes around the galactic centre. You can see the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies at the lower left, above the bright glow from the lights of the nearby HMAS Albatross naval aviation base. Mars is a prominent feature, and Jupiter’s white light is disappearing into the trees about one third down on the right. A total of nine overlapping images were used to create this image, each of which I shot with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Samyang 14mm XP lens set at f/2.8. The exposure time for each frame was 25 seconds, with an ISO setting of 6400. I processed the panorama using the stitching software Autopano Pro. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259332687-HVR42STL8PUN6WO6M1AK/bend-and-stretch-reach-for-the-stars.jpg Tall & Thin - Bend and stretch, reach for the stars I’ve used poplars to frame the Milky Way in several shots over the past four years, and I continue to find them useful. Perhaps it’s because they’re not native trees to Australia, or because they are much taller than other trees of the same width. The warped perspective from using a wide-angle lens seems to be bending the trees towards the mass of light and gravitational attraction present in the galactic core. The location, southwest of Nowra, Australia, was another gem with clear skies, no wind and only three cars passing me in the two hours that I was lurking in the dark with my camera. I just managed to sneak Jupiter into the right-hand edge of the shot, but Mars and its blazing orange light dominate the relatively empty section of sky at the top left. This shot doesn’t quite nail the alignment I was after, and I didn’t manage to get the lighting even across all of the poplars, so I hope you find beauty and interest in it. I used the app Autopano Pro to stitch together five single, overlapping photos to create this final vertical panorama. For each photo, I used the following equipment and settings: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567338496738-7Q14U39QL5W6PS8WWZWI/centreline-small.jpg Tall & Thin - Centreline Take your pick, if you please, as to which centreline my title is referring to. The centreline of the Braidwood Road, or the centreline of the sky, in the form of the Milky Way? It took me several stops to find a location where this road lined up with the Milky Way in just the way I wanted. I was fortunate to have only one vehicle pass through while I was shooting here, which isn’t usually the case on this road. On weekends it’s particularly busy, so maybe it was quiet due to this being on a weeknight. The leaves on the trees have been blurred here due to the exposure time of 30 seconds for each photo and the strong wind that was blowing. Mars is very bright up at the top of the picture, but still not at its brightest for this year. If you know the southern skies at all, you might be able to make out the Southern Cross towards the bottom, next to the dark area known as the Coal Sack Nebula. Seven photos were taken to create this final image, with each picture in the sequence overlapping the one before it. The settings I used for each shot were: Canon EOS 6D camera, Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567338685930-EUWZNQDFYDVF0ROI3MKR/citrus-under-the-stars.jpg Tall & Thin - Citrus under the stars My wife’s sister and her husband live near the rural city of Lismore, Australia. Their property is in a place where there’s very little light pollution so I only had to walk out to their driveway to find a spot to shoot the Milky Way when visiting them a few years back. What a change that was from my usual expeditions of hundreds of kilometres on Friday or Saturday nights! Amongst the 100 or so shots I captured that night was this seven-image panorama, showing the Milky Way standing almost vertical over their fruit and vegetable garden. The orange fruit on his citrus tree adds some colour to this shot that I don’t normally see in a foreground. Just above and to the left of that tree you can see the Southern Cross and Pointers, with the planet Saturn showing as a white spot on the neck of the Dark Horse nebula. Created from 7 single frames, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259344331-QPB1DR264Q90PK5WLNNT/death-and-light-at-big-hill.jpg Tall & Thin - Death and light at Big Hill The predominant green colour of the background sky in this image is the result of the atmospheric phenomenon called “airglow”. To my eyes, the background sky colour looked grey rather than black–a sure sign of the presence of airglow. Our digital cameras excel at seeing and recording the shades of the night that we don’t discern, and this photo is a solid example of that difference. Can you see orange-brown hues in the sky in the top two-thirds of the image, looking like bruises on the dermis of the heavenly dome? These peculiar patches were caused by the fog that came and went during the couple of hours I was shooting here, mostly hampering but occasionally enhancing my photos. The brilliant glow from Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet, has been diffused but brightened by the same airborne moisture. That accounts for the large white spot in the sky that’s roughly half-way down my image. Dominating the foreground is the frame of the tired, expired and lonely tree that was so grand, and seemed to beckon to me, pleading to be featured in a photograph. Without the LED torch that I used to illuminate the tree and the paddocks, all you would see here would be the silhouette of this deceased and exhausted patriarch of the countryside. The photo is another example of a “vertical panorama”, an image that has been created by shooting multiple frames, covering the view from the horizon to the zenith, which I then blended, or “stitched”, into the final image. I captured each of the seven single frames using a Canon EOS 6D camera, with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f2.4, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567339013638-VZJSQ8CS3FSEEJN4XOF9/gerroa-rising.jpg Tall & Thin - Gerroa Rising I created this vertical pano using eleven overlapping photos, providing enough coverage to capture the Milky Way and its galactic core, accompanied by Jupiter and Saturn, rising over the Tasman Sea at Gerroa, Australia. A bonus was capturing some of the little pools of water that were reflecting the stars. I shot the 11 single-frame photos that make up the final panorama using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera fitted with a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4. For each shot, I had the camera set to an ISO value of 6400 and exposed each shot for 8.0 seconds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567339328849-OU2QTNSSMYZG6AXH5AW1/gravitational-anomaly.jpg Tall & Thin - Gravitational anomaly The movie “Interstellar” came to mind after I noticed how the use of a wide-angle lens had made the trees at the bottom of my photo look like they’re bending in towards the massive amount of gravity present in the Milky Way’s galactic core. The fields and farmhouse also seemed reminiscent of that movie, although I was fortunate to not encounter any mega dust storms in the area around Jamberoo, New South Wales, Australia. The photo is a vertical panorama that is made up by taking overlapping images and combining them in a process called “stitching”. I shot nine photos, starting with my camera pointing a little towards the ground and facing to the southwest. Between each shot I moved the camera upwards by 15 degrees, using a panoramic head to do so. Nine shots, each spaced fifteen degrees apart, gives a total sweep of 135 degrees of sky. If I’d shot another four photos I would have covered the view from horizon to horizon, and then some. Jupiter, our solar system’s most massive planet, is off at the right-hand edge of the photo and Mars is on the left, not far out from the treetops there. The glow on the horizon at the bottom of the picture is from the city of Nowra and the white, washed-out area at the very top of the photo is from the industrial city of Wollongong, about 30km to the north. I used the following camera equipment and settings to take the nine shots that comprise the panorama: Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm lens set to f/2.4, exposing each shot for 13 seconds at an ISO of 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567424409901-CVWAK439I3287SUT4DVZ/jerrara-core-3planets.jpg Tall & Thin - Rising Lights Jupiter, Saturn & Mars were lined up in the eastern sky when I captured this scene. The location is Jerrara, a dairy farming area on the southeast coast of Australia and a little over an hour’s drive from my home in the southern suburbs of Sydney. The vertical panorama was created from four overlapping images, each shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mark II camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, for an exposure time of 13-seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567339791067-EORZN3B4J5IS4AK6DLB6/jupiter-reflected.jpg Tall & Thin - Jupiter, reflected Our solar system’s most massive planet, Jupiter, was slipping towards the western horizon when I captured this scene at around 12:30 am on July 14 of this year. There was a stiff breeze blowing across the top of this man-made pond, causing the water to be anything but smooth, and so diffusing the reflection of Jupiter’s light. That light had travelled across close to 737 million km (458 million mi) of space to reach the pond’s shimmering surface before bouncing the few metres up to my camera. Dwarfing Jupiter in size, magnetic field, brightness and every other aspect is the central band and galactic core of our Milky Way galaxy, owning the top 1/3 of my photo. The sky was exceptionally clear and dark on this night, enabling me to capture lots of fine details in the wisps and filigrees of the Milky Way’s “dust lanes”. This photo was created from nine overlapping frames. I shot each of those individual photos with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. I used a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head, tipped on its side, to take the nine photos with enough overlap between them to create a smoothly stitched vertical panorama. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259368125-5N978B740LA9F2NC4PQ1/look-both-ways-before-crossing.jpg Tall & Thin - Look both ways In July of 2017 I visited this level crossing on a rural railway line and captured a couple of vertical panoramas. It’s probably too small to see here but I caught a meteor as it flashed across the Milky Way’s core region, just underneath the “Dark Horse” nebula, aka the “Galactic Kiwi” for we Southern Hemisphere folk. This vertical panorama was created using nine overlapping images that were each shot with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259373208-A0YH3IR4MOSH2L856IYP/monday-night-magic.jpg Tall & Thin - Monday Night Magic The Milky Way’s galactic core is unmissable in this image, with its beautiful glow and obscuring bands of dust and dark gas dominating the upper right-hand quarter of the frame. Jupiter’s stark white orb is also in the same sector of my shot. The two blots of yellow on the horizon indicate the locations of the city of Goulburn and the town of Marulan, situated 85 km and 65 km distant, respectively. Yeah, light pollution sucks. Dozens of photographers located in the states of Victoria and Tasmania, –both south of my state of New South Wales–photographed the Aurora Australis on this night. Did I capture some of this light show myself, showing as the pink colour just over the headland left of centre? I’ll wait for some of my more experienced online friends to burst that bubble before I get too confident. To create this image, I shot ten overlapping frames, with each one taken in “landscape” format. After downloading the shots and doing some editing in Adobe Lightroom, I stitched the ten into the final vertical panoramic format using the now-defunct application Autopano Pro. Each of the ten single images was shot using a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259385669-9AD2TEMT6Y5TH056MLN6/starlight-moonlight-city-lights.jpg Tall & Thin - Starlight. Moonlight. City lights. The 140+ year-old St Matthias Church looking lovely in the moonlight while the Milky Way is keeling over towards the west. With the 20 second exposures I used to capture the Milky Way’s detail, the camera caught light from the rising crescent moon and so the church and the grass around it look well lit up here. The moonlight was also bright enough to cast a selfie-shadow of me and my camera at the lower right of the shot. There’s a yellow-white glow coming from behind the church from the lights of Canberra, Australia’s capital city, about 50km (30mi) away. The large, bright and white orb above the power pole on the right is the planet Jupiter, very close to setting for another night. The sky looks a bit mottled and patchy due to fog that was thickening up and on the left you can see a few clouds that were drifting in and starting to ruin the party for me. After this it was time to drive home–with a safety sleep along the way–where I slumped into bed at 8:00am. This is a vertical panoramic image, created from 7 individual frames, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569551134535-8AQG3SKBMT6RWEJDGWZU/up-out-of-the-ocean.jpg Tall & Thin - Up out of the ocean The Milky Way and its core region as they rose over the Tasman Sea near Kiama, Australia on May 7th of 2018. The distinctive orange-purple colour of the background sky is caused by what is known as atmospheric airglow, which has also provided enough light to show the rocks below the water in the foreground. The bright white ball in the top left corner is the planet Jupiter, which only looks big in the photo because moisture in the Earth’s atmosphere had diffused its light. The bright orange “star” that can be seen hovering over the horizon at the bottom is the planet Mars, and you can see its reflection in the ocean pool below it. Another planet, Saturn, is about a quarter of the way between Mars and Jupiter, but harder to make out in the photo. Saturn’s reflection is easier to see than the planet itself, poking above the rock down at the bottom of the image. The tide rose substantially between arriving at this location and finishing shooting my photos, so I made the 110km drive home with one wet shoe and some partly-wet jeans after scrambling back to the main beach. The single photo that you see was created from seven overlapping shots, each of which was taken with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm wide-angle lens set to an aperture of f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. The camera was mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head atop a Manfrotto tripod. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259390982-SLXBTDNRYB0N1X7262BY/still-and-stunning.jpg Tall & Thin - Still and stunning I can almost hear once again the sound of the quiet that I enjoyed while I shot this scene at the beginning of June on the Tuross River, on Australia's southeast coast. The lack of breeze on the river rendered the water's surface a natural mirror to reflect the light from the sky and the foreground to where I had positioned my camera. As well as numerous stars, you can see the Large Magellanic Cloud–which is a galaxy and not a cloud at all–shining off the top of the water. At this point, the river forks off to the right into Bumbo Creek, which is broached by the wooden bridge that leads to lush and prized dairy paddocks. Beyond that bridge, you can see the fine layer of fog that hovered over the fields in the post-midnight hour. Ruling over it all, of course, is the central band and concentrated core of our home in the heavens, the Milky Way galaxy. My attraction to viewing and photographing this section of the sky isn't only the billions of stars concentrated there. The dark filament-like structures known as "dust lanes" that only make themselves visible by the millions of stars they obscure, also captivate me. I created this image by shooting nine overlapping images, with my camera mounted on a panoramic head that sets a fixed angle between each photo. After capturing the individual pictures and downloading them to my computer, I used some panorama-stitching software to blend the nine images into one. To shoot each of those nine photos I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567343075619-MHT8D1ZUFC4TECM2WY53/the-heavens-at-halfway.jpg Tall & Thin - The heavens at halfway Not quite halfway, but it was only a week after the midpoint of 2018 when I was out in the cold of an Aussie winter night, capturing the photos that I used to create this vertical panoramic image. Located near the rural city of Lismore in New South Wales, Australia, this old and former church building is blessed with dark skies on a moonless night. The lack of light pollution, as well as the dry and clear air on that evening, provided excellent conditions for revealing the wispy dust lanes and dark nebulae that characterise the core region of our Milky Way galaxy. As with so many of my photos from that year, Mars is a dominant player in the scene, looking big, bright and orange over at the top-left of the frame. The Large Magellanic Cloud is peeking out from the bottom edge of the church’s roof on the left, with its sibling the Small Magellanic Cloud making a more conspicuous appearance over the tree near the lower corner of the frame. The short tail of a meteor forms a triangle with Mars and the Small Cloud. For all of the interest that these celestial objects give to the scene, it’s our majestic, magic and magnificent Milky Way that my eyes go straight to, every time I look at this photo. As I mentioned above, this is a vertical panorama which I composited from ten single, overlapping images. For each of those individual frames I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, and a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. I had the camera mounted on a Nodal Ninja III panoramic head, tipped at 90 degrees to allow for the vertical orientation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567337994812-QND8T7V4VNC42A7JG7GW/another-uprising.jpg Tall & Thin - Uprising This image is a stitched vertical panorama created from five overlapping photos. The Milky Way was doing its thing for another night, while local fishermen did their thing on the rock shelf below. The white glow down there on the right is from the headlamps worn by the fishos, while the red arc is from where one of them cast his line into the water, its attached glowing float on heading for another session of bobbing on the waves. The big section of rock shelf closer to the camera was pock-marked with small pools of seawater, and some of them reflected starlight back towards me, only barely showing up in the photo. Each of the five images used to create the panorama was captured with a Canon EOS 6D MkII camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569544555662-1KF0H0O7WIJP307JO0M0/on-the-hill-since-1859.jpg Tall & Thin - On the hill, since 1859 I love how the yellowed hue of the LED bank that I used to light this shot has highlighted the colours of the stones in the church’s walls. The building is 160 years old and seems to be in excellent condition considering the extremes of temperature and persistent winds that it’s endured in that time. The building is located west of the Australian rural city of Goulburn, and the nation’s capital city of Canberra is the source of the glow on the horizon behind the church. The drought that’s affecting this area–and a large portion of our country–isn’t something about which the locals happy. For me, though, the dry air provided exceptional viewing of the Milky Way when I visited on this night in August of 2019. The green-blue airglow colour helps to make the stars stand out and is a nice contrast to the colours in the Milky Way’s dust lanes and gas clouds. I can make out the Dark Horse Nebula about one third down from the top, on the right-hand side of the image. This photo is another example of one of my favourite forms, the “vertical panorama”. I shot seven overlapping images that I stitched into one, using the now-defunct application Autopano Pro. For each of those individual photos, I used my Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4. I exposed each shot for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569068023450-A13K6J1K94JOH4AILN67/out-of-the-gap.jpg Tall & Thin - Out of the gap The Milky Way’s core region was just breaking the horizon in the gap at the entrance to the inlet at Bombo Quarry, Australia, when this image was captured in February of 2017. The moon was due to rise shortly after this and that explains the slightly orange tint starting to creep into the sky at the horizon. This photo is a stitched image created from nine single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569586819291-I00IU7EMG9A8L2ECH0ZW/relative-brightness.jpg Tall & Thin - Luminous Lismore My sister-in-law and her husband live near Lismore, a major rural town in an area that has plenty of flatlands, lots of grassy hills, and everything in between. The other thing the locality has, looking in most directions, is dark skies. The clarity and darkness of the night sky made it easy to photograph the Milky Way’s band of stars, dust and gas almost hugging the enormous leopard tree in the garden before stretching up to the northeast. Look to the top of the frame, and you'll see the familiar orange glow of the planet Mars. I repositioned my camera several times to capture Jupiter’s blue-white orb before it slipped behind the right-hand side of the tree. I mentioned that the skies are dark in most directions. The pink-white glow from the lights of Lismore, at lower right, is the reason for the “almost”. To create this photo I shot eight single overlapping frames and then stitched those together using software called Autopano Pro. For each photo that I shot I used the following settings: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, with a 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569587060580-LQ4ZWIXWHT8OQ59K9ZVW/%C2%A0A+sight+I+love+at+a+place+I+love.jpg Tall & Thin - At a place I love If you’ve read even a few of the blurbs that go with my photos you’ve probably seen me mention Tuross Head. Over forty years ago my family inherited a small holiday shack at this coastal township. My siblings, and our own families, still visit as often as we can. When I was learning about astronomy in my teen years I’d often spend hours outside staring up at the lovely dark skies while visiting Tuross. Although the area is a little more populated now than in the 70s the skies are still much darker than back in the city. The disused, heritage-protected church on this land near the town has featured in many of my nightscape photos. This vertical panoramic shot shows the Milky Way and its dust and gas “lanes” ruling this part of the sky. Not too far above the church you can see the Coalsack Dark Nebula, with the Southern Cross immediately to its lower right. Between the Coalsack and the church is a pinkish patch that includes the Eta Carinae nebula. I created this image from fourteen single images that were shot to overlap and form a vertical panorama. The shots were stitched together using Autopano Pro software. The final image was too big to fit on Instagram so I’ve had to crop some of the Milky Way from the top. Each frame was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569066644699-9ZZ1G7YCGZDCPUG71ERN/moonlight-feels-right.jpg Tall & Thin - Moonlight feels right When I took the shots that make up this vertical panorama the moon–at only 12% illumination and three days from New Moon–had been in the eastern sky for a little over an hour. That was just the right brightness to light up the foreground in this scene. The moonlight felt right, you might say. There is so much detail of the Milky Way’s dust lanes and dark nebulae visible in this image. They look like oil stains on the sky as they block out the light of the billions of stars behind them. The yellow glow at the bottom of the scene is from the lights of Australia’s capital city, Canberra, about 50km (30mi) away. At bottom left is the St Matthias Church, an Anglican place of worship built in 1875. It was around 3:30 am when I shot this, a time of day that so often brings with it the peace and quiet that regenerates my soul. The original vertical panorama was created from nine single shots, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568966328654-0XC2CXBRP5NO0OF8QT5U/milky-%28rail%29way.jpg Tall & Thin - Milky (Rail)way This is a vertical panorama created from nine separate images and shows the Milky Way rising from the north-north-east up towards the zenith (the point on the sky that’s directly overhead). The bright white band of light on the horizon at left is from the town of Berry, a little under 4 km (3 mi) away. A quick flash of my LED lamp–with its “warm” filter fitted–lit up the crossing gate and lights just enough to show their detail here. Created from nine separate images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568764784933-MG66F3XDUDR51PKHNKWT/gravity-well.jpg Tall & Thin - Gravity Well I’m a sucker for photographing the poplar trees that line Australia’s country roads, lanes, rivers and creeks. If I can include the Milky Way in a scene, then my day has been well-and-truly made. This copse of poplars, bereft of leaves at the start of winter, stands either side of the parched creek that meanders through the farmland at Big Hill, New South Wales, Australia. Poplars aren’t native to Australia, and in some of our states, have been deemed an “invasive species”. Still, they are quite photogenic, and I made the most of their spindly forms in this image. The bottle-green hues in the sky–caused by atmospheric airglow–offered a colourful backdrop for my photo. I created this image by shooting nine overlapping frames, moving the camera through an arc that started with it pointing south at the little bridge and down at a slight angle. The last photo was captured with the camera pointing over my head and towards the north, taking in the trees behind me. Each image was photographed through a 14 mm wide-angle lens, making the trees seem to be bending in towards the centre of the Milky Way. My thought was that the gravitational attraction of the hundreds of billions of stars amassed near our home galaxy’s core would be warping the trees in its direction. As well as the 14 mm wide-angle lens (a Samyang 14 mm XP set to f/3.2), I used my Canon EOS 6D camera mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head. Each image was exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569642266062-68A24L9ZI5ID9WPSYFXD/dam-fine-sky.jpg Tall & Thin - Dam fine sky Bamarang Dam is a secondary water reservoir, located about 10km southwest of the coastal-plain town of Nowra, on Australia’s southeast coast. The dam’s intake structure can be seen at the bottom-left, silhouetted by light spilling from the nearby HMAS Albatross naval aviation base and some coastal towns further off. In the sky above the inlet are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, companion dwarf galaxies that are travelling through space with our home galaxy, the Milky Way. You can see the Milky Way itself rising almost vertically from over the dam wall and up to the top of my image. The planet Mars is dominating the top left-hand corner of the scene, and Jupiter is slipping behind the trees on the right, still over three hours from setting for the night. The background sky colour is showing the green hue of atmospheric airglow. Each of the seven photos used to create this vertical panorama was taken using a Canon EOS 6D camera, with a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/3.2, for a 30-second exposure @ ISO 6400. The camera was mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head atop a Manfrotto tripod. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569631449792-GS73K5BPYYXU8FUJG3TC/Southern+Summer+Nights.jpg Tall & Thin - Southern Summer Nights This is what the summer sky looked like back January of 2017 at about 10:50pm, from a spot on the southeast coast of Australia, the Tilba Cemetery. The dense band of the Milky Way runs diagonally across the shot, from mid-left to lower-right, where it blends into the haze of the horizon. Dark nebulae and dust clouds in space block the light of the stars behind them. Canopus, the second-brightest star in the Earth’s skies, shines blue-white at the very top of the shot, with the Large Magellanic Cloud below it to the right, looking for all the world like a puff of cotton-wool floating on the breeze. Mid-way down the image and about one third in from the left is the crimson glow the of Eta Carinae nebula. The right-hand edge of this photo is almost on the line of due south. Created from two single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568543500477-3FPLZ65S5FISYAPA2SG7/seen-with-another%27s-eyes.jpg Tall & Thin - Seen with another's eyes In June, a friend of mine, a professional truck driver, said that he’d noticed this barn a few times on his trips down south. “You should use it in one of your night shots”, he suggested. Once he said it, the idea seemed too obvious to have missed thinking of myself. After all, I’ve driven past it probably hundreds of times in the 40+ years that I’ve holidayed in the area. Perhaps familiarity does breed contempt, as the saying goes. Thanks to my friend Kevin I took the 15-minute drive from my holiday shack to photograph this ageing construction at around midnight a few days later. The location–Bodalla–has exceptionally light-pollution-free skies, and I could make out most of the dark features in the Milky Way, even with my ageing eyes. This image is a single-frame photograph that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D camera, through a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569645233734-EPSUTABPTTVW8R50VJ08/milky-way-muster.jpg Tall & Thin - Milky Way Muster After several attempts at getting my composition right to include the cattle ramp in this paddock near Nowra, Australia, I shot off the images that comprise this six-image vertical panorama. The planet Jupiter–“the bringer of jollity”, as proclaimed by Gustav Holst–is the brightest object in the photo, in the top left-hand area of the image. Saturn’s yellowish dot is smack in the centre of the image, providing a second planet to include in the scene. The dense, intense and immense central band and galactic core of our Milky Way galaxy is by far the dominant feature of my photograph. To create this vertical panorama, I shot six photos, overlapping each frame with its predecessor. Shooting like this, then merging the photos using “stitching” software, means I can show a large stretch of the sky in one image. I shot each of those six photos with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462337349-UPVD0OCDA8VI0KG6S5DG/worth-the-chase.jpg Tall & Thin - Worth the chase Wind farms fascinate me, and since the Milky Way’s core was in the right place to include it in a vertical panorama over a wind turbine on this night, I couldn’t pass up the chance to shoot away. The bright glow on the horizon, to the left of the closest tower, is light pollution from the city of Sydney, approximately 160 km (100 mi) distant. As I mentioned already, this image is a vertical panorama, created from eight overlapping single-images. For those eight images, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567950013508-HCWBTBVPVAT6LSYK0B3A/48698842291_590647a245_k.jpg Tall & Thin - The Milky Way & the Wind Farm Early in August of this year 2019, I made one of my crazy 500 km round-trip treks to the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, my home state in Australia. The Taralga Wind Farm was the last location I visited for photos that night, arriving at about 1:00 am and then spending about an hour, shooting pictures. The whole night was cloud-free, but as the night ran into the early morning, the amount of moisture in the air increased. I could see from my photos that the deep green colour of the atmospheric airglow had morphed into the rusty colour in the sky that my photo has captured. The core region of the Milky Way, with its wisps of dust and interstellar gas, is looking glorious here. The planet Jupiter’s bright, white orb is hanging in the sky below. Saturn was also shining on this night, showing as an orange dot at the top right-hand corner of the scene. I shot seven landscape-format images to create the final single-image photo, using a panoramic head on my camera to ensure proper overlap between each frame. For each of those seven photos, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera and a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.6, exposing each frame for 6.0 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569649602303-9S2LG198H06FUUBKEMKM/magellanic-bridge.jpg Tall & Thin - Magellanic Bridge This rickety bridge over the Bumbo Creek at Bodalla, Australia, has loads of character and even more gaps between its planks. Walking across it in the dark is not for the faint-hearted! When I visited the location in January of 2019 the Magellanic Clouds–satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way–happened to line up right over the bridge. The stillness of the water in the creek provided a great mirror to reflect starlight from, and a little bit of illumination from an LED lamp helped make the bridge more visible. There was a lovely amount of green atmospheric airglow to provide a pleasant background colour to the scene. I created this photo by shooting ten overlapping images, then stitching those images into a vertical panorama. For each of the ten individual images I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm lens set to f/2.4, and an exposure time of 15 seconds per frame @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569660705976-EGIQOWPZ6UXQHCDM8QCN/ferdinands-field.jpg Tall & Thin - Ferdinand's Field Named for the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, the two glowing clouds seemingly suspended in the sky over this field north of Goulburn, Australia, are known as the “Magellanic Clouds”. For this image, I shot seven single-frame photos in quick succession, then used the software “Starry Landscape Stacker” to composite them into a final picture that had less digital noise and better definition than any of the contributing images. The equipment and settings that I used for each photo were a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.8, using an exposure time of 6.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. I set the camera on a fixed tripod, i.e. I didn’t use a star-tracker. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569687106765-DHDXNGJPH6JXPYHWCN9Z/clouds-in-a-cloudless-sky.jpg Tall & Thin - Clouds in a cloudless sky The Kialla Uniting Church is located northwest of the Australian rural city of Goulburn. The building was erected in 1903, but I’m not sure if it’s still in use. The clouds that I referred to in this post’s title are several. First up (first and second?) are the Magellanic Clouds, the two distinct blobs of white that are hovering over the roof of the church. These two wispy wonders are satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way, and between them, they are estimated to contain over 33 billion stars. For the most part, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are only visible in the Southern Hemisphere. Also present in this vista are the vast clouds of interstellar dust and gas that signify the central band of the Milky Way. A little to the left of centre at the top is the dark nebula known as The Coal Sack, making itself known by blocking the light of distant stars. There are lots of other dark nebulae in my photo, concentrated around the top left of the shot and I also captured the Eta Carinae nebula across to the right. I shot three single and overlapping photos that were used to create this final image. For each of those shots, I used the following equipment and settings: a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569726408457-FEVP2UODLGI6ZI3LO9NM/mist-the-milky-way-and-a-marine-mirror.jpg Tall & Thin - Mist & the Milky Way A fine and almost invisible layer of mist was hugging the surface of Tuross Lake when I sat on the small beach at Sandy Point at around 4:00 am on a Sunday, morning in July of 2019. As thin as that mist layer was, the air contained enough moisture to give a milky look to the water around the red and orange navigation markers whose light demands your attention when you first view this photo. I shot five overlapping photos to create the final vertical panoramic image that you see here. That composite image measured roughly 5800 x 12200 pixels and consumed almost half a gigabyte of disk space! Each of those five single photos was shot with my Canon EOS6D camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 8.0 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569726597656-DTHJQTHVHXQIXJLM5G8V/no-camping.jpg Tall & Thin - No camping? This has to be one of the worst-placed signs I’ve ever seen. If you’re going to get out and camp under the stars, wouldn’t you want to do it somewhere like this, at the Yalwal Dam, Australia? Sometimes life isn’t fair! This vertical panorama has quite a few of my favourite astronomical features in it. At the lower left, only just over the tree line, there’s a crimson area of stars that is the Eta Carinae nebula. Up to the right of that is the Coal Sack nebula, showing as a small dark mark on the bright starry background. The Southern Cross is immediately under the lower-right corner of the Coal Sack, with Alpha & Beta Centauri, aka “The Pointers”, up to the right. Our solar system’s most massive planet, Jupiter, is almost out of frame on the right, being kept company by the bright star Zubenelgenubi, in the constellation of Libra. Shining in its beautiful orange glory at the top and centre of my photo is Mars, which had passed its closest point to earth a couple of weeks before I captured it in this scene. Of course, the edge-on view that we have of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, totally dominates the photo, looking like a vast diagonal streak of light and dark stains against the starry sky. I shot nine overlapping frames to create this vertical panorama but only ended up needing seven of those to capture all of the features that I wanted to include. For each of those seven photos, I used the following settings: a Canon EOS 6D digital SLR camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens set @ f/2.4, a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1596633734745-JBM9EWALNBYC8WEIOBOL/What+Lurks+Beneath.jpg Tall & Thin - What Lurks Beneath The colours of the Milky Way, Jupiter and Saturn in the night sky are a beautiful contrast to the less-than-appealing green ooze lurking in the artificial pond at the bottom of my photo. Ugly or not, the mix of stormwater, silt and other unwholesome ingredients at least provided enough of a still surface to reflect some of the heavenly lights towards my camera. You can see Jupiter and Saturn at the bottom of the shot, atop the surface of the ooze. My visit to this fenced-off compound in the Seven Mile Beach National Park took place in June of this year, on one of the first nights that people in our state able to travel again following the lifting of some COVID-19 restrictions. I’m grateful that I was able to be out and about, especially as our neighbouring state of Victoria has seen a resurgence in coronavirus cases and is now under a very tight Level-4 lockdown. The image you’re looking at was created by shooting ten overlapping frames and stitching them in software to create a vertical panorama. For each one of those ten shots, I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569729943449-7I0727BVDN0TI3P3SCPP/pillar-of-dust-and-light.jpg Tall & Thin - Pillar of dust and light There are several things going on in this image, with the central band and core region of the Milky Way standing out–and standing up–down the centre of the photo. You can see the light from the hundreds of billions of stars that make up our galaxy, some of which are masked by the enormous dust lanes that stretch through the spiral arms of our “island universe”, as galaxies used to be called. Down at the left and not too far above the trees are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. These are dwarf galaxies that are travelling through space with the Milky Way, kind of like those folk who hover around politicians when there’s a photo opportunity. Higher up but still on the left-hand side of the frame is the planet Mars. Almost as bright as Mars, but definitely not the same orange-red colour, you can see our solar system’s most massive planet, Jupiter on the right. As well as being the biggest planet in our system Jupiter also holds the record for the number of moons that orbit it. The count is currently 79! I created this final image from eight overlapping single frames, each captured with the following equipment and settings: Canon EOS 6D camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens (manual focus) @ f/2.4, 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1596459212061-R3MF82VVW3IRIT6AMSUT/winters-night-picnic.jpg Tall & Thin - Winter's Night Picnic Picnics aren't usually fun if you're on your own, I'm told. Being alone in the picnic area at Seven Mile Beach, Gerroa, Australia, under this incredibly beautiful and awe-inspiring sky on a winter's night in June of this year, was a time I'd be happy to experience again. The Milky Way's core was almost straight overhead at this time of the night, although it doesn't look that way here due to the warping that a vertical panoramic photo brings with it. A little below midway down my image, you can see the Solar System's two most massive planets, Jupiter and Saturn, making their way up the eastern sky. The picnic grounds here are another location on my ever-growing list of places that I've only ever visited after dark. There was a slight wind breathing through the area on the night, keeping the air free of dust, helping me to make the most of the very dark skies that the region offers. The only disappointment attached to this nightscape photography trek was that I had to work the next day, limiting the time that I could stay before making the 110 km (68 mi) drive back to my home in Sydney. As I mentioned above, this photo is a vertical panorama, created by shooting ten overlapping frames that were then stitched into the final image using the application Autopano Pro. I shot each of the individual frames with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.4, using an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1588423351228-6GOCTGC4PRZEQSYX4UQO/tall-order.jpg Tall & Thin - Tall Order Fellow photographer & good friend Ian Williams http://bit.ly/imagesbyimw recently commented that I was well overdue for posting one of my favourite types of nightscape photos, a vertical panorama of the Milky Way rising. With movements currently restricted to essential travel only, that was a tall order. I was up to the task though and found some images that I hadn’t yet edited or posted. Ian, here is my answer to your challenge, a nine-shot vertical panorama showing the Milky Way stretching up and out of the southeast over the Tasman Sea, captured at Seven Mile Beach near Gerroa, Australia. The crescent moon was peeking over the horizon as I took the overlapping frames that make up the pano. As well as the yellowed Moon I caught the mighty Jupiter, our solar system’s most massive planet, in the scene, positioned in the middle of the photo at about 1/3 up from the bottom edge. If you draw an imaginary line between Jupiter and the Moon you can see two other planets that I’m happy to include here, being Saturn and Mars, respectively. The background sky has a green hue in my photo, caused by what is known as atmospheric airglow. Another astronomical wonder I captured here, but which is hard to make out if you’re looking at the photo on your phone, is the globular star cluster Omega Centauri, up in the top right-hand corner of the frame. Regular readers won’t be surprised to see that for each of the nine images making up this panorama I used my workhorse Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, fitted with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art lens @ f/1.8, with an exposure time of 10 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1595940596159-J8XAPHD6BVPQQM5GKUE3/earthly-and-heavenly.jpg Tall & Thin - Earthly and Heavenly There goes another month in which I'd set out to post a photo every day, but in which, until today, I'd only managed to get eight images online. It seems to be the year for things going awry, so I guess I'll chalk up another missed goal for 2020! Last Friday night (24th July) I put in a 227 km (141 mi) round-trip to the rock platform at Black Head Point, Gerroa, on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. I shot some vertical panoramas that I will post in due course, but today's post is this more straightforward image that features the crumbling face of Black Head itself, watched over by the Milky Way. Up on top of the headland, but out of the shot, local photographer & fellow night-nerd Jason De Freitas had staked out a position, capturing the Rho Ophiuchi region of the sky. I saw Jason's gear in place when I arrived, so after getting back to my car when I finished shooting, I tapped on his car window and said hi. I love that once I said I'd driven down from Sydney, and even without him being able to see my face, Jason asked, "Hey, are you Doug?" Have a look at Jason's photography on Instagram instagram.com/jase.film or the web at www.jasondefreitas.com. I created this shot by overlaying or ("stitching", as it's known), three photos. None of the three took in the whole scene that I wanted to capture, so I had to shoot each one and then let my software do the job of putting it all together. I captured each of those three individual frames using my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/4.0, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/instagram daily 0.75 2019-09-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568104778506-23VMN61COC7GGWQ30407/banner-instagram.jpg Instagram - Three galaxies and a beach and a hill There’s no missing the Milky Way in this panoramic image that I shot recently, on the beach at Black Head Point, Gerroa, Australia. The time was close to 4:00 am, so the central band and core region of our home galaxy were low in the western sky and in the perfect position to shoot a single-row panorama. The other two galaxies alluded to in the title of today’s image are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, the two fuzzy and white smudges at the extreme left of the scene. These two dwarf galaxies, which are travelling through space as companions to the Milky Way, live up to their names and look like little clouds handing in the night sky. Down to the left of the Large Magellanic Cloud is the white star Canopus, the second-brightest star in the night sky anywhere on Earth. Directly below this white beacon is a reflection of the star’s light, stretched across the shallow water of a tidal rock pool. I have come to love this headland and beach over the past six weeks or so. You can shoot the Milky Way when it’s rising, overhead and setting, all with an interesting landform or horizon in the photo. The drive isn’t too bad, either, taking me a little under 90 minutes to get there from my home in Sydney. This panorama was created from twelve overlapping images, each shot in “portrait” orientation and stitched together using the software Autopano Pro. I lit the beach and cliff face using a Tristar 2 SMD LED light, fitted with a 3200K filter. Each of the component images was photographed with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using a shutter speed of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/night-moves daily 0.75 2019-11-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568104448874-2K2YGY7SZ6D3JYXKC69I/banner-videos.jpg Night Moves https://nightscapades.com/photos-by-style daily 0.75 2019-09-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568111188357-CXJO886ZMHSL61W7398O/banner-photo-formats.jpg Photos: by style - Another uprising Although that title sounds like something from the news, giving details of a political/cultural or military revolt somewhere in the world, I called it that because I’ve posted a few images lately showing the Milky Way and its glorious galactic core seeming to rise from the ocean & up into the Australian sky. I recently spent three nights in a row driving the 110km (68mi) to Gerroa (on the south-east coast of New South Wales, Australia), photographing the Milky Way, Orion and a few other astronomical features for a few hours, then driving back home. With a few detours along the way, I clocked up nearly 700km over the Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings. That’s why I’m force-feeding you all with my shots from that location. I put in a huge effort to get those photos! This image is a stitched vertical panorama created from five overlapping photos. The Milky Way was doing its thing for another night, while local fishermen did their thing on the rock shelf below. The white glow down there on the right is from the headlamps worn by the fishos, while the red arc is from where one of them cast his line into the water, its attached glowing float on heading for another session of bobbing on the waves. The big section of rock shelf closer to the camera was pock-marked with small pools of seawater, and some of them reflected starlight back towards me, only barely showing up in the photo. Each of the five images used to create the panorama was captured with a Canon EOS 6D MkII camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568190555829-TGO275FOE715DRWHQMGU/long-and-wide.jpg Photos: by style - LONG & WIDE https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568115580460-G1NXRYV2CO2HCD43MPMA/tall-and-thin.jpg Photos: by style - TALL & THIN https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568115583574-HQ9PR6TA6CBJ463RDIDL/trails.jpg Photos: by style - STREAKS ON THE SKY https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568115592285-OFQ40COPA9KQT5XQ963V/videos.jpg Photos: by style - NIGHT MOVES https://nightscapades.com/500px daily 0.75 2019-12-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568326590178-348Y4V4CUNRUEA9BF7J1/banner-500px.jpg 500px - Reflectorama Did you see my Instagram Story yesterday & this morning? This is the shot I previewed there. It was cloudy for most of the day on Friday but I planned to get out of the city & look for somewhere with clear skies once work was done. As I was putting my gear into my car at around 7:00pm I noticed it had been raining & was still cloudy. I enjoy driving so I headed off anyway to see if I could find somewhere to shoot. It turned out that I only had to drive about 30 minutes from home & the skies were clear, although still too light-polluted. About 150km from home I got to this spot–only chosen during the drive & not planned beforehand–& did a quick scout for places with a good reflection of the sky. It took a few climbs up & down the 10-metre drop-off to get my gear in place at this spot. All up I was here for over four hours before climbing back up & heading for home again. When I got home it had been raining for quite some time so I was glad that I’d left town for the night. It was just after 4am when I crawled into bed, too tired even to download & check my shots. After a long sleep-in & family commitments all day Saturday I’ve still barely looked at many of the 616 shots that I took last night. A single frame, shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 8000. https://nightscapades.com/about daily 0.75 2019-09-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568449267318-R1NZ1DPVREJ01T2ED35K/narooma-night-selfie.jpg NIGHTSCAWHAT? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568450637030-H2OZLGSMPEKPDDBDOZ8P/Tuross+star+trails+ca+1978.jpg NIGHTSCAWHAT? Southern stars and a passing plane, circa 1979 https://nightscapades.com/2019-picks daily 0.75 2019-09-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568200508351-S7Z56Y5GOVVIVH6MUDEB/me-in-the-mist-after-midnight.jpg 2019 To-Date - Copy of Me, in the mist, after midnight It took a lot of deft footwork to get across that wooden bridge in the dark when I visited this section of the Tuross River earlier in June. This area is a Bortle Class 1 location, which means things are very dark and free of light pollution. It's so dark that I could make out the bridge's slats without the help of artificial light, using only the natural atmospheric airglow, and starlight, for illumination. That sounds very heroic, doesn't it? The reality is that although I could see without artificial light, I didn't want to chance a broken bone or a late night swim, so I used a dim LED lantern for guidance as I made my way across the bridge and back to the camera's position. The Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy is hiding in the top of the tree to the left of the bridge, and in the sky to the right, the crimson hues of the Eta Carinae region of the sky can be seen. The light mist over the fields and the river added a special magical quality to the scene. You mightn't be able to see me too well on the bridge, on the right-hand side, near the tree on the far bank, but I promise you, I'm there. I captured this image with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568464423880-BN8JOJTSRKCHBJM8AKWO/magellanic-bridge.jpg 2019 To-Date - Magellanic Bridge This rickety bridge over the Bumbo Creek at Bodalla, Australia, has loads of character and even more gaps between its planks. Walking across it in the dark is not for the faint-hearted! When I visited the location in January of 2019 the Magellanic Clouds–satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way–happened to line up right over the bridge. The stillness of the water in the creek provided a great mirror to reflect starlight from, and a little bit of illumination from an LED lamp helped make the bridge more visible. There was a lovely amount of green atmospheric airglow to provide a pleasant background colour to the scene. I created this photo by shooting ten overlapping images, then stitching those images into a vertical panorama. For each of the ten individual images I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm lens set to f/2.4, and an exposure time of 15 seconds per frame @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462340164-1V7PWY83VEONBH347KHX/the-colour-of-night-4x5-marked-up.jpg 2019 To-Date - The Colour of Night To capture this image I made use of a star tracker, a device that enables you to take photos with exposure lengths measured in minutes, rather than 30 or fewer seconds. In this case, I had the camera’s shutter open for two minutes (and one second), resulting in the capturing of the beautiful crimson hues of the Eta Carinae Nebula region. Wisps of dark interstellar dust dangle down below the nebula, and there’s no missing the opaque gases that make up the Coal Sack Nebula, left of centre down the bottom. Along with the iOption SkyTracker, I used the following equipment and settings to take this photo: Canon EOS 6D camera, Canon 50mm STM lens @ f/3.2, 121-second exposure @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462296846-K5R1SDQIZZW3X1N12O0G/round-and-round.-again-small.jpg 2019 To-Date - Round and round. Again. I am so used to shooting my nightscape images in the autumn, winter and early spring months that I forgot to take something essential with me on this summer night in the first week of January. Insect repellant is a necessity if there are mosquitoes about and especially if you don’t enjoy being bitten by them. With none of the liquid in my kit, I took the only other measure I could and popped on a parka that lives in the back of my car. When the temperature is somewhere around 25 degrees C (77 F), and the humidity is in the low 70s, a parka isn’t what you want to be wearing. Still, it kept the mosquitoes at bay. I set my camera up to shoot this star-trails scene and let it run itself for 3.5 hours. The camera was set to take a 25-second exposure, close the shutter for 1 second and then capture another 25-second image, repeating the cycle until I turned off the camera. All-up I shot 463 single frames over those 3.5 hours, then used the software “StarStaX” to make the final composite photo. For each of those shots, I had my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera mounted on a tripod and fitted with a Samyang 14mm lens set to f/2.8. As mentioned above, the exposure time for each frame was 25 seconds, and I set the ISO to 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568465961792-R8XLA9VK41TU201GWRF2/not-a-bad-start%2521.jpg 2019 To-Date - Not a bad start! One night in February I drove south for around 100 km to a spot that I’ve heard so much about but never visited, Cathedral Rocks, near the coastal town of Kiama, Australia. It’s a gross understatement to say that I struck gold by choosing this location. Not only did I have the famous rock formations to feature in my foreground, with the majesty of the galactic core rising in the southeast to dominate the frame, but I was treated to the presence of the planets Jupiter and Venus as they rose over the Tasman Sea. All of that happening on my first Milky Way shoot for the year was almost too much! The intensity of Venus’ light is unmissable in the photo, shining both low in the sky and reflected off the waves breaking on the beach. The unexpected bonus for the night was the light from bioluminescent organisms in the water turning the waves a glowing blue colour. I’m ridiculously tired from staying out late and only getting a few hours of sleep, but it was so worth it! I shot this single-frame photograph with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM lens @ f/2.8, using a 10-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462322809-7M2I8HJIHINJCR4HI83A/silos-full-of-stars.jpg 2019 To-Date - Silos full of stars Even though this is a rural locality–near Goulburn, Australia–there is a car speedway off to the east, and its carpark lighting seems to be left on all night. That was frustrating, but one of the lights did provide a nice “starburst” effect through the support structures that hold up the silos. Almost as bright as that light below the silos is the planet Jupiter, rising into the heavens and situated above the line between silos two and three (counting from the left). Like all photographs this one doesn’t convey the smells that were assailing my nostrils as I stood outside the compound, clicking away to try to get a few good shots. For this single-frame photo, I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568504877932-BAQGEU331L9QCFO10DJV/a-windmill-on-a-windless-night.jpg 2019 To-Date - A windmill on a windless night Is a windmill still a windmill if there’s no wind? Is it just a “mill”? There was no wind, nor even a breeze, on the night that I photographed this scene in April of 2019. The bright spot near the centre and about 1/4 down from the top is the planet Jupiter, its brightness contrasted with the enormous dark dust and gas clouds characteristic of the Milky Way’s galactic core. A little down and to the right of the windmill is the planet Saturn. This post is a single-frame image that I shot with Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Yongnuo 50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/1.6, using an exposure time of 6 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568505078904-4IBZTT6MFBUQHUQELNVD/coloured-cathedral-circles-small.jpg 2019 To-Date - Coloured Cathedral Circles My photo here was made by shooting multiple 15-second photos over 2.5 hours at Cathedral Rocks near Kiama, Australia. In that time the camera clicked off 530 shots. Once I got home, I imported the photos into Adobe Lightroom for basic editing, then stacked (blended) them, using the free application StarStaX, to create a single image that shows the trails of the stars on the night sky. To capture those 530 single frames I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, with each shot exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462310160-XRPBFZ0059IJ1PX4S4XG/silos-again.jpg 2019 To-Date - Twin silos When I visited the site and shot this photo (plus a bunch of others) in April of 2019, the Milky Way’s core had not long cleared the decrepit corrugated iron roof that straddles the two concrete cylinders. Much closer to Earth than our galaxy‘s centre, but looking here to be a bright spot in the dark nebula known as the Dark Horse or the Galactic Kiwi, Jupiter was also climbing into the evening sky. For this single-frame image, I pushed my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera’s ISO setting to 12,800, shooting through a Canon 40 mm lens at f/2.8 for an exposure time of 10 seconds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462246759-AF8JHFV4146ZJ3IQQDSD/cemetery-under-the-core.jpg 2019 To-Date - Cemetery Under the Core It’s been nearly impossible to find any details online about this cemetery near Pejar, New South Wales, Australia. The only information that I turned up suggests that the oldest headstone there dates from 1875, and the church that shares the same piece of land was built by locals in 1903. However old it is, the cemetery sure hasn’t been around as long as the Milky Way, seen here stretching up from the horizon to overshadow the countryside. The stars & planets, comets & asteroids, nebulae & dust clouds that make up our home galaxy are at their densest concentration in what is known as the galactic core, seen near the centre of this shot. Halfway down and about one quarter in from the left of the shot is the brilliant white light reflecting from the planet Jupiter. Another planet, Saturn, had not long risen when I took this shot. You can see it a little above the bloom of white light coming from behind the distant hills. This image is a single-frame photo that I shot with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4x, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462233670-33OGACS3CXDOWDK1L7U6/before-the-sunshine.jpg 2019 To-Date - Before the sunshine What kinds of things make up our solar system? big things like the Sun (which accounts for 99.8% of the mass of the solar system), as well as planets, dwarf planets (hello, Pluto), moons, comets, asteroids, meteoroids, and all of the bits of metal that mankind has sent into space. Those answers are all correct, and as well as this big stuff there’s also dust. LOTS of dust spread across the same plane in which the planets orbit the Sun. In the autumn and spring months, it’s common to see this dust lit up in the dawn or dusk sky, depending on the season and whether you’re located north of south of the equator. This glowing dust is called the Zodiacal Light, also known as the “false dawn” because it is so bright it does look as if the first/last rays of sunlight are visible. The glow is sunlight being reflected and dispersed by these minute dust particles. The Zodiacal Light is unmissable in this photograph that I shot this morning (10th June), and it is so bright that you can see that it’s lit up the water and some of the shoreline of Coila Lake, Australia. This lake is a non-tidal, enclosed waterway and its surface was all the more still due to there being no breeze at all, providing a perfect mirror to reflect the Zodiacal Light and plenty of stars. This image is a single-frame photograph that I took with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 13 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568542467409-D8QCBDHDN8O8IRGFNFSU/death-and-light-at-big-hill.jpg 2019 To-Date - Death and light at Big Hill The predominant green colour of the background sky in this image is the result of the atmospheric phenomenon called “airglow”. To my eyes, the background sky colour looked grey rather than black–a sure sign of the presence of airglow. Our digital cameras excel at seeing and recording the shades of the night that we don’t discern, and this photo is a solid example of that difference. Can you see orange-brown hues in the sky in the top two-thirds of the image, looking like bruises on the dermis of the heavenly dome? These peculiar patches were caused by the fog that came and went during the couple of hours I was shooting here, mostly hampering but occasionally enhancing my photos. The brilliant glow from Jupiter, our solar system’s largest planet, has been diffused but brightened by the same airborne moisture. That accounts for the large white spot in the sky that’s roughly half-way down my image. Dominating the foreground is the frame of the tired, expired and lonely tree that was so grand, and seemed to beckon to me, pleading to be featured in a photograph. Without the LED torch that I used to illuminate the tree and the paddocks, all you would see here would be the silhouette of this deceased and exhausted patriarch of the countryside. The photo is another example of a “vertical panorama”, an image that has been created by shooting multiple frames, covering the view from the horizon to the zenith, which I then blended, or “stitched”, into the final image. I captured each of the seven single frames using a Canon EOS 6D camera, with a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f2.4, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259390982-SLXBTDNRYB0N1X7262BY/still-and-stunning.jpg 2019 To-Date - Still and stunning I can almost hear once again the sound of the quiet that I enjoyed while I shot this scene at the beginning of June on the Tuross River, on Australia's southeast coast. The lack of breeze on the river rendered the water's surface a natural mirror to reflect the light from the sky and the foreground to where I had positioned my camera. As well as numerous stars, you can see the Large Magellanic Cloud–which is a galaxy and not a cloud at all–shining off the top of the water. At this point, the river forks off to the right into Bumbo Creek, which is broached by the wooden bridge that leads to lush and prized dairy paddocks. Beyond that bridge, you can see the fine layer of fog that hovered over the fields in the post-midnight hour. Ruling over it all, of course, is the central band and concentrated core of our home in the heavens, the Milky Way galaxy. My attraction to viewing and photographing this section of the sky isn't only the billions of stars concentrated there. The dark filament-like structures known as "dust lanes" that only make themselves visible by the millions of stars they obscure, also captivate me. I created this image by shooting nine overlapping images, with my camera mounted on a panoramic head that sets a fixed angle between each photo. After capturing the individual pictures and downloading them to my computer, I used some panorama-stitching software to blend the nine images into one. To shoot each of those nine photos I used my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462276055-Y6JDJU3ZK4NGE3FGRXLY/northerly-aspect.jpg 2019 To-Date - Northerly aspect On the last Friday night in June, I headed out from my home in Sydney, Australia, to the southern tablelands region of New South Wales. My first stop was at a farming locality known as Big Hill, a drive of about 180 km (110 mi) from home. With the Milky Way’s galactic core almost overhead, I pointed my camera northward to take in the view over the foggy fields of Big Hill. The few large puddles that formed the small creek in the foreground excelled at reflecting the starlight for me to capture. The Milky Way’s galactic core might not be in the photo, but there was plenty of interstellar dust-lane detail in the northern heavens to add interest to the scene. The distinctive green hue in the sky was generated by the natural phenomenon known as atmospheric airglow. To create this image, I blended three individual shots in a process known as “stacking”, which helps to reduce the amount of digital noise in the final photo and also removed unevenness in my foreground lighting. For each of those three single photos, I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462268640-7CBXVLO4I7QGO2EVLEA6/me%2C-in-the-mist%2C-after-midnight.jpg 2019 To-Date - Me, in the mist, after midnight It took a lot of deft footwork to get across that wooden bridge in the dark when I visited this section of the Tuross River in June, 2019. This area is a Bortle Class 1 location, which means things are very dark and free of light pollution. It's so dark that I could make out the bridge's slats without the help of artificial light, using only the natural atmospheric airglow, and starlight, for illumination. The Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy is hiding in the top of the tree to the left of the bridge, and in the sky to the right, the crimson hues of the Eta Carinae region of the sky can be seen. The light mist over the fields and the river added a special magical quality to the scene. You mightn't be able to see me too well on the bridge, on the right-hand side, near the tree on the far bank, but I promise you, I'm there. I captured this image with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462325961-5EJBI4CDNW31Q6Q7NTVR/southerly-aspect.jpg 2019 To-Date - Southerly Aspect As with my bookended original image “Northerly Aspect”, in this one, I am featuring a portion of the Milky Way that isn't as dense and bright as the oft-featured galactic core region. This southerly aspect of our home galaxy still has a lot of prominent features, though. You can see many dark nebulae and dust lanes that show themselves by obscuring light from the stars behind them. The Southern Cross is right in the centre of the image and the two stars that are known as the "Pointers", Alpha and Beta Centauri, are visible above the Cross. The intensity of the green atmospheric airglow on this night was the most I've ever seen, I think, and that's what has given the photo the coloured background sky. For today's image, I shot and stacked six individual images. I captured each of those six photos with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.8, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462289197-QU4HTZYRZHYRBHCCCJ82/over-the-top.jpg 2019 To-Date - Over the top The title of this photo describes the position of the Milky Way and Jupiter above the bare poplar trees here alongside the Princes Highway near Bodalla, Australia. The phrase also applies to the fact that I was out shooting photos at 2:00 on a Monday morning. After this, I would have only a few hours sleep, then have to drive for over four hours to get back to Sydney for a client appointment. The dividing line between dedication and obsession becomes less distinct each time I cross it! I didn’t do any stitching, stacking, or blending for this photo. The shot is a single-frame capture, taken using my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. Lighting was provided by a Litra Pro LP1200 bi-colour LED unit, hand-held by yours truly. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568462337349-UPVD0OCDA8VI0KG6S5DG/worth-the-chase.jpg 2019 To-Date - Worth the chase Wind farms fascinate me, and since the Milky Way’s core was in the right place to include it in a vertical panorama over a wind turbine on this night, I couldn’t pass up the chance to shoot away. The bright glow on the horizon, to the left of the closest tower, is light pollution from the city of Sydney, approximately 160 km (100 mi) distant. As I mentioned already, this image is a vertical panorama, created from eight overlapping single-images. For those eight images, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568543500477-3FPLZ65S5FISYAPA2SG7/seen-with-another%27s-eyes.jpg 2019 To-Date - Seen with another's eyes In June, a friend of mine, a professional truck driver, said that he’d noticed this barn a few times on his trips down south. “You should use it in one of your night shots”, he suggested. Once he said it, the idea seemed too obvious to have missed thinking of myself. After all, I’ve driven past it probably hundreds of times in the 40+ years that I’ve holidayed in the area. Perhaps familiarity does breed contempt, as the saying goes. Thanks to my friend Kevin I took the 15-minute drive from my holiday shack to photograph this ageing construction at around midnight a few days later. The location–Bodalla–has exceptionally light-pollution-free skies, and I could make out most of the dark features in the Milky Way, even with my ageing eyes. This image is a single-frame photograph that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D camera, through a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/photos-by-year daily 0.75 2019-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568636485399-C5W0BG88BY6PL8IR7E96/banner-by-time.jpg Photos: by YEAR - Not long after four For today's post, I have selected another of the images that I captured during my visit to Tuross Head, Australia, during the first weekend of July. Although I've already brought you a photo from the early AM hours of Sunday, July 7th, I like this one for how much more of the lake and the Milky Way it shows. The night had been clear from before I captured my first photo at 10:45 PM, through until I got this one, my last for the night, at 4:15 AM. I have mentioned the phenomenon of atmospheric airglow in lots of my photo descriptions. Due to airglow it's quite rare to have a truly black background sky. For most of this particular night the airglow was a purple-orange colour, see here both in the heavens and reflected from the surface of Tuross Lake. Also shining from that mirror-like stretch of water are the orange and yellow navigation markers on the lake; the planet Jupiter; the supergiant red star Antares, as well as some of the stars of the constellations Crux and Centaurus. If you're viewing this on Instagram, make sure to swipe or click to see the marked-up version of the photo where I have identified these luminaries. I photographed this single-frame image with Canon EOS 6D camera & a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568547888147-XW5I52FXRNPPES4H9A0B/2019.jpg Photos: by YEAR https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568812484248-VX6HGDTRYAA99MP9XHRT/2018.jpg Photos: by YEAR https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569122480953-VK4RQRKFICLNS3FGJLS5/2017.jpg Photos: by YEAR https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568547887059-RO0QHU0EDZMX6UBKY568/2016.jpg Photos: by YEAR https://nightscapades.com/2018-picks daily 0.75 2019-09-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568851013124-DOD71MVTS12T4IZ78RGM/banner-2018.jpg 2018 - Mt Cambewarra under Mars & the Milky Way Mt Cambewarra rises to around 680 metres (2230 feet) above sea level and provides views stretching for about 145 km (90 miles), over dairy farms, local and distant towns and out to the Tasman Sea. The nearest large town, Nowra, is only 9 km to the south (5.6 mi) and was pumping out lots of ambient light when I visited there about ten nights back. That wasted illumination is what is lighting up the foothills and southeastern face of the mountain in this single-frame photo. Shot at around 1:30 am, my photograph captured the bright orange planet Mars riding over the Milky Way at it tipped past the horizontal, low in the southwestern sky. You can see the yellowed glow of lights from the town of Cambewarra, namesake of the mountain that dominates its northern horizon, directly under the Milky Way’s core region. A strong wind blew for the entire time I was stopped here taking photos, so I’m surprised at how sharp the trees are that I used to frame the shot. I took this photo with my faithful Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/3.2, using a 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567424409901-CVWAK439I3287SUT4DVZ/jerrara-core-3planets.jpg 2018 - Rising Lights Jupiter, Saturn & Mars were lined up in the eastern sky when I captured this scene. The location is Jerrara, a dairy farming area on the southeast coast of Australia and a little over an hour’s drive from my home in the southern suburbs of Sydney. The vertical panorama was created from four overlapping images, each shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mark II camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, for an exposure time of 13-seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785916250-3T1KUWJK3JKYDA9IUHHP/last-one.-i-promise.jpg 2018 - Blood orange In the same way that the bending (refracting) of light at sunrise and sunset gives the sky a red colour, sunlight refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere tints the Moon with this copper-coloured visage during a lunar eclipse’s “totality” phase. Shots like this of the orange-red moon against a black sky are probably the most common type of photo I’ve seen of total lunar eclipse events. My preference is to capture images that include a terrestrial scene in them as well as the moon. Still, I find something engaging and intriguing about these moon-and-sky shots, and so chose to include this one of the total lunar eclipse of July, 2018. Captured with a Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 500mm @ f/6.3 with a 0.8-second exposure @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567337994812-QND8T7V4VNC42A7JG7GW/another-uprising.jpg 2018 - Uprising This image is a stitched vertical panorama created from five overlapping photos. The Milky Way was doing its thing for another night, while local fishermen did their thing on the rock shelf below. The white glow down there on the right is from the headlamps worn by the fishos, while the red arc is from where one of them cast his line into the water, its attached glowing float on heading for another session of bobbing on the waves. The big section of rock shelf closer to the camera was pock-marked with small pools of seawater, and some of them reflected starlight back towards me, only barely showing up in the photo. Each of the five images used to create the panorama was captured with a Canon EOS 6D MkII camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259332687-HVR42STL8PUN6WO6M1AK/bend-and-stretch-reach-for-the-stars.jpg 2018 - Bend and stretch, reach for the stars I’ve used poplars to frame the Milky Way in several shots over the past four years, and I continue to find them useful. Perhaps it’s because they’re not native trees to Australia, or because they are much taller than other trees of the same width. The warped perspective from using a wide-angle lens seems to be bending the trees towards the mass of light and gravitational attraction present in the galactic core. The location, southwest of Nowra, Australia, was another gem with clear skies, no wind and only three cars passing me in the two hours that I was lurking in the dark with my camera. I just managed to sneak Jupiter into the right-hand edge of the shot, but Mars and its blazing orange light dominate the relatively empty section of sky at the top left. This shot doesn’t quite nail the alignment I was after, and I didn’t manage to get the lighting even across all of the poplars, so I hope you find beauty and interest in it. I used the app Autopano Pro to stitch together five single, overlapping photos to create this final vertical panorama. For each photo, I used the following equipment and settings: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567339791067-EORZN3B4J5IS4AK6DLB6/jupiter-reflected.jpg 2018 - Jupiter, reflected Our solar system’s most massive planet, Jupiter, was slipping towards the western horizon when I captured this scene at around 12:30 am on July 14 of this year. There was a stiff breeze blowing across the top of this man-made pond, causing the water to be anything but smooth, and so diffusing the reflection of Jupiter’s light. That light had travelled across close to 737 million km (458 million mi) of space to reach the pond’s shimmering surface before bouncing the few metres up to my camera. Dwarfing Jupiter in size, magnetic field, brightness and every other aspect is the central band and galactic core of our Milky Way galaxy, owning the top 1/3 of my photo. The sky was exceptionally clear and dark on this night, enabling me to capture lots of fine details in the wisps and filigrees of the Milky Way’s “dust lanes”. This photo was created from nine overlapping frames. I shot each of those individual photos with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens @ f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. I used a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head, tipped on its side, to take the nine photos with enough overlap between them to create a smoothly stitched vertical panorama. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567259322230-7FRI7ROI0WSZ0AKIKTH2/amber-airglow.jpg 2018 - Amber airglow Something that amazes me is the fact that you can see details of the bright, starry galactic core of our Milky Way, reflected off the water. Those photons have travelled about 27,000 light-years across space but still have enough energy to bounce off the water’s surface. Single stars are mirrored, too, like the blue star on the middle right. Its reflection is far more prominent than the original blue dot itself. This photo was captured at Black Head, a landmark of the town of Gerroa, on Australia’s south-east coast. I used a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Canon 40mm STM lens @ f/2.8, for an exposure length of 10 seconds @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567343075619-MHT8D1ZUFC4TECM2WY53/the-heavens-at-halfway.jpg 2018 - The heavens at halfway Not quite halfway, but it was only a week after the midpoint of 2018 when I was out in the cold of an Aussie winter night, capturing the photos that I used to create this vertical panoramic image. Located near the rural city of Lismore in New South Wales, Australia, this old and former church building is blessed with dark skies on a moonless night. The lack of light pollution, as well as the dry and clear air on that evening, provided excellent conditions for revealing the wispy dust lanes and dark nebulae that characterise the core region of our Milky Way galaxy. As with so many of my photos from that year, Mars is a dominant player in the scene, looking big, bright and orange over at the top-left of the frame. The Large Magellanic Cloud is peeking out from the bottom edge of the church’s roof on the left, with its sibling the Small Magellanic Cloud making a more conspicuous appearance over the tree near the lower corner of the frame. The short tail of a meteor forms a triangle with Mars and the Small Cloud. For all of the interest that these celestial objects give to the scene, it’s our majestic, magic and magnificent Milky Way that my eyes go straight to, every time I look at this photo. As I mentioned above, this is a vertical panorama which I composited from ten single, overlapping images. For each of those individual frames I used a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, and a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. I had the camera mounted on a Nodal Ninja III panoramic head, tipped at 90 degrees to allow for the vertical orientation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567338132550-HWYTS58PWLJCJVB3CH0Y/another-dam-fine-view.jpg 2018 - Another dam fine view Luckily the wind that had been blowing for the previous two days abated enough for me to get some reflections of stars in the bottom-right of this pano, although they’re still not sharp. I actually got the stars of the Southern Cross reflected, and their colours show up much more prominently on the water’s surface than they do in the sky. Look how much detail there is in the galactic core, including the “dancing horse” or “dark horse” nebula, as well as other dust lanes around the galactic centre. You can see the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies at the lower left, above the bright glow from the lights of the nearby HMAS Albatross naval aviation base. Mars is a prominent feature, and Jupiter’s white light is disappearing into the trees about one third down on the right. A total of nine overlapping images were used to create this image, each of which I shot with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Samyang 14mm XP lens set at f/2.8. The exposure time for each frame was 25 seconds, with an ISO setting of 6400. I processed the panorama using the stitching software Autopano Pro. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733955698-B419G8VLFLA1U835MWYC/Setting+stars+%26+a+mystery+solved+%28I+think%29+SMALL.jpg 2018 - Setting stars Shot at Gerroa, New South Wales, the image you’re looking at was created from 594 single photos taken over a three-hour period. My camera was pointing due west to capture the constellation Orion and surrounding stars as they set for the night. A slight mess-up with the settings is responsible for the gaps in the star trails. I lit up the trees with a Litra LED lamp fitted with a 3200K filter and a diffuser. The 594 images used here were shot with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785866496-7YWON8TYV86U2DMSCJP7/a-photo-from-september-to-remember-in-november-4x5.jpg 2018 - Limbs alight I had visited this location, near the dairy town of Bodalla, several times over the past four years and I’d noticed these dead trees still reaching skywards while I was photographing other foregrounds. On this shoot, in September of 2018, I made a point of including the lifeless limbs in several photos. The yellow wire across the track wasn’t visible in the dark, but I somehow managed to avoid tripping over it during my fumbling footfalls. The bright white object near the horizon is the planet Jupiter, still surrounded by some Zodiacal Light. This image is a single-frame photo that I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785878446-J5VKGJ9XWZ24QTKDVW0Q/australia-rock-2x3.jpg 2018 - Australia Rock Hopefully, my international followers have a least heard of Australia, if not visited here. The location of this photo was Narooma, a beautiful town on the south-east coast of the state of New South Wales, Australia. If you look at a map of Australia and then at this photo, you will see why this rock formation–actually the hole in it–is known as “Australia Rock”. The distinctive shape weathered out of the rock is very popular for daytime photographers and is a something I’ve wanted to feature in a nightscape photo for some time. The Milky Way’s galactic core was rising at just the right time for me to stumble over the rocks, dodge a few ocean pools and then precariously balance myself and my tripod to line up the hole to frame this shot. Less than five minutes after this a cloud front blew in from the south (right-hand side of the scene) and ended my shooting session. This photo is a single image taken with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II, Canon 40mm @ f/2.8, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. The foreground was lit with a Manfrotto "Lumimuse" 3-led handheld lamp. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785862065-XVND8R78U938JHXC0WE1/a-shining-sea-of-stars-2.jpg 2018 - A shining sea of stars Way out to sea and just over the horizon a cargo ship moves down the coast, its lights seeming to answer the fluorescent spill from a street light near the photographer’s position. The endless thud of waves crashing over the rocks beats a slow rhythm to mark time for the stars of the Milky Way as they make their nightly crawl across the roof of the sky. In my late childhood and early teen years, I spent lots of hours clambering over these rocks with my siblings, looking for shells, driftwood & unusual pebbles during holiday times. The location is Tuross Head, on the southeast coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia. My children, now in their twenties, have also enjoyed many holidays at this place of peace and relaxation. None of them nor my wife have ever joined me on an outing to see and photograph the wonders of the night sky, either here or anywhere else. They’re missing out on so much! This image is a single-frame photograph, captured with a Canon EOS 6D MkII camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, with a 13-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785879483-PINBLH2Y2LL29TCST127/beyond-the-gate.-give-or-take-2.5-million-light-years%21.jpg 2018 - Beyond the gate One of the most enthralling objects appearing in the astronomy books in my high school’s library was the Andromeda Galaxy. These were long-exposure images of this body of around one trillion stars, about 2.5 million light-years from Earth, captured by some of the largest and most legendary telescopes of the 20th century. Even though M31 is best seen much further north than my latitude of 34 degrees below the equator, it’s still possible to photograph this little glowing fuzzy blob low over the northern horizon. However, I didn’t use a telescope–big or small–to get this photo. This image is a single-frame photo, captured with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Canon 40mm lens @ f/2.8, and a 10-second exposure @ ISO 12800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785895759-MERY14I8TSMPC2E2YCBC/eclipse-%28verb%29.-to-obscure-or-block-out.jpg 2018 - Eclipse. "To obscure or block out" Apart from a few brief exceptions, this title describes my experience of the total lunar eclipse of late-January, 2018. The eclipse of the moon was itself eclipsed/obscured/blocked out by clouds that covered the sky from just before the eclipse started until I got home at 2:30 the next morning. In case you’re wondering, yes, I did try hard to find some cloudless locations. How hard? 685km of driving (426mi), multiple stops to check the situation and update the weather satellite feed on my iPad. 10.5 hours from leaving home to returning and getting into bed. Better luck next time, perhaps? A focus-stack of five shots, captured with Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 500mm @ f/10.0, 1/60 sec @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785890692-ETMAFBPMP3XE2C19FERY/dam-fine-sky.jpg 2018 - Dam fine sky Bamarang Dam is a secondary water reservoir, located about 10km southwest of the coastal-plain town of Nowra, on Australia’s southeast coast. The dam’s intake structure can be seen at the bottom-left, silhouetted by light spilling from the nearby HMAS Albatross naval aviation base and some coastal towns further off. In the sky above the inlet are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, companion dwarf galaxies that are travelling through space with our home galaxy, the Milky Way. You can see the Milky Way itself rising almost vertically from over the dam wall and up to the top of my image. The planet Mars is dominating the top left-hand corner of the scene, and Jupiter is slipping behind the trees on the right, still over three hours from setting for the night. The background sky colour is showing the green hue of atmospheric airglow. Each of the seven photos used to create this vertical panorama was taken using a Canon EOS 6D camera, with a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/3.2, for a 30-second exposure @ ISO 6400. The camera was mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head atop a Manfrotto tripod. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785908902-SSNPMIRKFMLDFVZA1QQT/in-the-cold-light-of-night.jpg 2018 - In the cold light of night I don’t remember what the exact temperature was when I visited this shallow valley at Burrier, west of Nowra, Australia, in August of 2018. However, I do remember that the air was cold and that I was wearing multiple layers of warm clothing plus a beanie, a hoodie, gloves and had a couple of heat packs in my pockets. This photo from that night is a stitched vertical panorama, made up from five overlapping images that I shot in the cold. The Milky Way almost bisects the scene diagonally, coming between the bright light of the planet Mars at the top and that of Jupiter below, just near the trees. I did some lighting of the foreground grass, road and trees with an LED lantern. Stray light from a nearby farmhouse did the job of lighting the fields and the thin fog that had drifted across them. For each of the five photos that make up this image, I used a Canon EOS 6D camera mounted on a Nodal Ninja 3 panoramic head, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, with an exposure time of 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785917070-6EETQNGZY10GO40ECCUQ/inner-light.jpg 2018 - Inner Light In general, artificial light is not the friend of astronomers and astrophotographers. When it gets in the way of our observing or our photography, we refer to it as “light pollution”, a name that doesn’t have any hint of positivity at all. For this photo, though, I used artificial light in the form of my LED Lenser headlamp/torch to make some inner light seem to beam and burn out from the windows of this little church. Of course, the celestial lights above the church are the reason I was at this spot taking photos, but I didn’t want to pass up the chance to give this old house of worship some inner light to brighten the scene. Although I could have captured this with a single image, I used nine shots from a 65-frame panorama that I was creating on the night. I photographed each of those nine images with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566734272614-Z8K9GIU2DTOASATN94TZ/Swan+trails.jpg 2018 - Swan trails Living in a very light-polluted area means that I need to travel for at least 100 km (60 mi) out of my city to get somewhere with dark skies. Ideally, I should be scouting out new locations during the day and then returning later for a nightscape photography session. Due to the distances that I have to drive, plus my family & work commitments, I rarely have the time to do a daylight scouting trip as well as several hours of shooting at night. Most of the time I head out with a knowledge of where the Milky Way’s core will be at a particular time of night, and an idea of the kind of landscape features I want to include in my photos. There will be a few possible locations in my head as I leave my driveway, but there’s also lots of map-checking and imagining of compositions on the way. On this Sunday night in October of 2018, Swan Lake, on the southeast coast of my state of New South Wales, Australia, turned out to be a spot that ticked almost all of the boxes. The only one that didn’t score a ten was the light-pollution category, but the white glow from the tourist town of Cudmirrah, on the left of this photo, isn’t too bad. The photo is a star-trails composite shot, created by shooting several 25-second-long images and combining them in the app “StarStaX”. I shot the original frames for a time-lapse sequence, at high ISO, so I had to pull down the highlights and push up the saturation to finish with a trails image where the stars weren’t all white and not showing their true colours. Each photo used to create this image was taken with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, through a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, exposed for 25 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785931323-RX0MICE566M00EM87AVK/lines-and-lights.jpg 2018 - Lines and lights I did my best to line up the dominant elements of this photo in a zig-zag shape that starts at the top-right of the frame with the bright stars Beta and Alpha Centauri. Moving down and to the left is the thick line of stars and interstellar dust and gas of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Following the horizon across to the right-hand side, a new sight-line begins, with the rock shelf at Black Head, Gerroa, marking the edge of the water. The planet Mars is glowing not far above the horizon in the middle of the scene, with its bright orange signature colour reflected across the water. Jupiter stakes its claim as the brightest object in my photo, which is proper for the most massive planet in our solar system. In a line between these two and about one-quarter of that distance up from Mars, the planet Saturn is almost washed out by the light from our galaxy’s core region. Shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.4, using a 30-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568786033664-TE0Y2F6WYJLVBAXJ9IH9/the-riches-of-orion.jpg 2018 - The riches of Orion This image of Orion and its surrounds was created using the iOptron SkyTracker and my unmodded Canon EOS 6D plus Canon 40mm STM lens. The photo shows lots of stars and some significant deep-sky features. I expected to be able to photograph M42 (Orion Nebula) and got it but it’s overexposed here. The one feature of this part of the sky that I was wanting to capture was Barnard’s Loop and I’m happy that I achieved that goal. As well as these two wonders I snagged the Witch Head Nebula (very faint), the Running Man Nebula, IC434 & the Horsehead Nebula, plus the Flame Nebula. The Rosette and Lambda Orionis Nebulae, the much smaller and fainter vDB 38 Nebula and the Christmas Tree Cluster are also visible. The source images for this composite were as follows:Lights: x49 frames Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm STM f/2.8 lens @ f/3.2, 60 second exp @ ISO 1600Darks: x5 frames Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm STM f/2.8 lens @ f/3.2, 60 second exp @ ISO 1600Bias: x15 frames Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm STM f/2.8 lens @ f/3.2, 1/4000 second exp @ ISO 1600. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785931321-NQQFTGOXDHGGNLCTV5CS/luminous-maximus.jpg 2018 - Luminous Maximus This night in September of 2018 was the first time that I had ever photographed the blue glow of bioluminescent organisms in the water here at Tuross Lake, Australia. It’s visible at the waterline on the lower left. Overhead, distinct from the individual stars in the photo, the galactic core of the Milky Way, with its billions of suns all glowing together, is giving off a yellowish tone in the sky above the bioluminescence. High over the core is the planet Mars. I shot each of the 18 individual frames that comprise this panorama with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785948178-KGL4ABX108HX4PI7CBRI/mt-cambewarra-under-mars-%26-the-milky-way.jpg 2018 - Mt Cambewarra & the Milky Way Mt Cambewarra rises to around 680 metres (2230 feet) above sea level and provides views stretching for about 145 km (90 miles), over dairy farms, local and distant towns and out to the Tasman Sea. The nearest large town, Nowra, is only 9 km to the south (5.6 mi) and was pumping out lots of ambient light when I visited there about ten nights back. That wasted illumination is what is lighting up the foothills and southeastern face of the mountain in this single-frame photo. Shot at around 1:30 am, my photograph captured the bright orange planet Mars riding over the Milky Way at it tipped past the horizontal, low in the southwestern sky near Mt Cambewarra. I took this photo with my faithful Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/3.2, using a 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568786017830-29HHYL06YDCEIEVH9K6I/the-red-orb.jpg 2018 - The Red Orb On the eastern coast of Australia we missed out on seeing the July 2018 total lunar eclipse all the way through. The point of maximum eclipse was reached at 6:21 am, and the Moon then set at 6:55 am. Although I took lots of photos that featured Mars as well as the Moon, I’m particularly taken with this one showing the fully-eclipsed moon on its way to setting behind Seven Mile Beach, Australia. It's going to be nearly three years before the next total eclipse that's visible from my part of the world. Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 161mm @ f/5.6, 1.0 sec @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785967679-UBMWZ1SCRPTP745YHYP3/relative-brightness.jpg 2018 - Luminous Lismore My sister-in-law and her husband live near Lismore, a major rural town in an area that has plenty of flatlands, lots of grassy hills, and everything in between. The other thing the locality has, looking in most directions, is dark skies. The clarity and darkness of the night sky made it easy to photograph the Milky Way’s band of stars, dust and gas almost hugging the enormous leopard tree in the garden before stretching up to the northeast. Look to the top of the frame, and you'll see the familiar orange glow of the planet Mars. I repositioned my camera several times to capture Jupiter’s blue-white orb before it slipped behind the right-hand side of the tree. I mentioned that the skies are dark in most directions. The pink-white glow from the lights of Lismore, at lower right, is the reason for the “almost”. To create this photo I shot eight single overlapping frames and then stitched those together using software called Autopano Pro. For each photo that I shot I used the following settings: Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, with a 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785971707-YKKCN2JXT0QTURPOG05O/stars-and-wind-and-light-2.jpg 2018 - Stars and Wind and Light The Pleiades star cluster–aka “The Seven Sisters” and “M45”–is a beautiful sight in the eastern skies of my Southern Hemisphere from mid-winter through until late in autumn. You can see it here in my photo, between the wind turbine’s supporting pylon and the left side of the frame. In roughly the same position on the opposite side of the tower is the inverted vee-shape that is the most recognisable portion of the constellation of Taurus, The Bull. The wind turbine–which was idle on this night, despite others nearby turning in the wind–did cut a slightly scary shape against the night sky. In the dark, it had me thinking of the “fighting machines” in HG Wells’ “War of the Worlds”. Apart from the stars in the sky, and the headlamps of a passing car that lit up the turbine, the only other source of light I could see was the horrible, yellow-green brightness on the eastern horizon. That ghostly glow is light pollution from the city of Sydney, whose central business district is a distance of 160 km (100 mi) from where I took the photo. This image is a single-frame photo that I shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, using a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens @ f/2.2, with an 8-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785992752-NODP601VYYUSCELKMBR1/straight-outta-camera-2x3.jpg 2018 - Straight Outta Camera Shot at close to 10 pm on a night in June of 2018, this scene has the Milky Way’s central band and its galactic core positioned between two rows of trees as it climbed towards the zenith. The Milky Way here serves as a dividing line between the evergreen trees on the left and the leafless deciduous ones on the right. This stop was a hunch-stop, if you will, and paid off with some OK photos. The photo is a “sooc” shot, that is, straight-out-of-camera. The only editing I have done is to crop the photo down to fit on Instagram. I was ready to light-paint the trees and grass with a hand-held LED lamp when a car passed by on the road behind me and lit the whole area just the way I needed. Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785997611-BOELQUC8T3NR13ERLLPV/thanks-for-the-inspiration-16x9.jpg 2018 - Thanks for the inspiration! I dedicate this photo to my fellow Australian nightscape photographer, Richard Tatti http://facebook.com/nightscapeimages. Richard lives in an area of Australia that seems to have more than its fair share of derelict, abandoned and very photogenic farm equipment and vehicles, which he uses in many of his nightscape images. I’d failed to find any similar relics during my rural road trips, but while driving in the daytime near Nowra, New South Wales, I spotted this abandoned cart under a tree, about 50 metres from the highway. I quickly saved the GPS location, and in early 2018 made my way there after shooting at another spot about 20km away. Being near a highway the tree was lit up by passing traffic, and I got in close to light the cart with my LED lamp. You can see thick fog in the background in front of the mountain near where Mars had just risen. The moon was peeking above the eastern horizon, giving the white glow that is silhouetting the skyline. The Milky Way was its usual beautiful glowing band of light and colour in the Aussie night sky. This single-frame image was shot with a Canon EOS 6D Mk II, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, 20-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568786017830-S4X0VDEG8OOLOTWSK0XS/the-dead-amongst-the-living-copy.jpg 2018 - The Dead amongst the Living The starlight that our eyes detect is what has reached us at the instant we are looking, after having travelled through space for varying distances over proportional lengths of time. If a star is four light-years away, then we’re seeing the light as it was four years ago when it left that star. If a hundred light-years distant, then our view is of one hundred year-old light. A simple look at the numbers says that at least some of the stars in this photo are dead now, despite looking alive and alight to us. As with the trees, there are many dead stars amongst the living. A single frame, shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 30 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568785952999-EUFDX0NMTG57V8JH7F5X/prepping-for-summer.jpg 2018 - Clouds in the treetops The Magellanic Clouds, the two large, fuzzy and misty blobs in the sky in my photo, are usually high on the list of summer nightscape targets. For most of where Australia’s population lives, the Magellanic Clouds are visible all year round but don’t get as much photographic fame as the Milky Way’s core does. I photographed these two dwarf galaxies in early September, 2018, as they seemingly hung in the air over the Norfolk Island pine trees at Tuross Head, Australia. I also captured some satellite trails at the right-hand edge of the shot, as well as a meteor trail flashing between two of the pine trees. I created this image from two slightly overlapping single photos, which I shot with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, through a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 15-second exposure @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568786033197-7352WK2IUBHJJM1KHY8P/tuross-bioluminscence-01.jpg 2018 - Tuross Blue My photo for today is from Tuross Head, Australia, shot in September of 2018. It was taken when most of the Milky Way’s core region was in the hazy part of the sky below ten-degrees elevation. The planet Saturn was low in the west (about 1/3 in from the right of the shot), and you can see its reflection coming right across the lake to the sand in the foreground. The blue light at the lake’s edge is from bioluminescent organisms in the water. I enhanced the intensity of the glow by throwing and splashing water that I’d scooped from the shallows. This photo is a single-frame image that I photographed with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.8, using a 15-second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/2017-picks daily 0.75 2019-09-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568946713905-0CKEKSCVV5F9UEJEFN0C/%25E2%2580%259Cwe-all-travel-the-milky-way-together%252C-trees-and-men%25E2%2580%259D-.jpg 2017 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568935541148-23C2YOJU26R1BS0E552X/moonrise-under-the-milky-way.jpg 2017 - Moonrise under the Milky Way Most of the times that I photograph the Milky Way I intend for it to be the main feature of an image. Choosing moonless hours of the night is a must for that to occur. Sometimes, though, you can use the moon’s glow to add a special element to the scene, as I did with this photograph from early in 2017. The location was Gerroa, Australia. On the night, I did shoot a lot of Milky Way images up until around 9:30 pm, when the moon was due to rise. Rather than pack up and head home as the sky started to brighten from the lunar glow, I stayed on the beach and got some frames of the Milky Way plus the moon just as it peeked over the horizon. I rather like the result!. Photographed with my Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, using a 10 second exposure @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567678196722-G2UTUAGUPNT0FRQDTG5I/Rings+and+streaks+of+colour+and+light.jpg 2017 - Lighting Rig I guess he just wanted to get in on the act, the driver of the 4WD who sped through the area where I had my camera set up shooting this star-trails image. He didn’t have any idea that his car was to appear in my photo, he was simply driving along this road that skirts the Bamarang Dam near Nowra, Australia. I know this because after he passed through he stopped the car, turned it around and came back to see what I was doing. “I hope you’re not setting up a police speed camera,” he joked. After I told him what it was I was up to and showed him some of the photos I’d already gotten he headed back off into the night. The LED bank on the vehicle’s bumper gave me some good foreground lighting, at least. If you spend even just a little time looking at this photo you can see the different colours of the stars. It’s cool that we can use a camera to let us see the wonderful colours up there above us. This star-trails image is made up from 205 single images that were shot over a period of just under two hours. Each individual photo was captured with Canon EOS 6D MkII, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 30 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568935496998-NKDB9MT4VZHP24K7AV3V/in-orbit-over-down-under.jpg 2017 - In orbit down-under Captured in the very wee small hours of a Saturday morning in August of 2017, this photo captured the International Space Station passing over the opening to the Minnamurra River in southeastern Australia. The moon had risen and even though it was only 6% illuminated that was enough to light up the scene for me. Out on the horizon is the light-trail of a cargo ship that was moving down the coast carrying a load of who-knows-what to who-knows-where. This single image is a composite of seven original shots, each capturing 13 seconds of movement of the ISS across the sky. I used the free software “StarStaX” to overlay the seven photos and then filled in gaps in the ISS’ trail using Photoshop. The original photos were taken with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568966328654-0XC2CXBRP5NO0OF8QT5U/milky-%28rail%29way.jpg 2017 - Milky (Rail)way This is a vertical panorama created from nine separate images and shows the Milky Way rising from the north-north-east up towards the zenith (the point on the sky that’s directly overhead). The bright white band of light on the horizon at left is from the town of Berry, a little under 4 km (3 mi) away. A quick flash of my LED lamp–with its “warm” filter fitted–lit up the crossing gate and lights just enough to show their detail here. Created from nine separate images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568962390211-NXO1A7MU3TI9G9PJ8M33/%E2%80%9Cwe-all-travel-the-milky-way-together%2C-trees-and-men%E2%80%9D-.jpg 2017 - Together through time & space “We all travel the Milky way together, trees and men” That quote is by John Muir, the Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the USA. In the US he is known as “Father of the National Parks”. Muir loved the outdoors & nature and spoke wide and far about the joy that came from being human and experiencing creation. I feel that way when I’m out at night, standing under and photographing the stars. Those times are spiritual, invigorating, inspiring and totally sublime. I’ve done my best to convey that in this photo, viewing the complexity of the Milky Way through the simple branches of a dead tree. Two adjoining shots were stitched together using Autopano Pro 4.4 to create this 16x9 view. Each frame was captured with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 40mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 8000. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568967164062-4UD52GQOVYDRXV5LMNF5/look-both-ways-before-crossing.jpg 2017 - Look both ways In July of 2017 I visited this level crossing on a rural railway line and captured a couple of vertical panoramas. It’s probably too small to see here but I caught a meteor as it flashed across the Milky Way’s core region, just underneath the “Dark Horse” nebula, aka the “Galactic Kiwi” for we Southern Hemisphere folk. This vertical panorama was created using nine overlapping images that were each shot with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568967440428-SCKL31O4WLI2M1MI1T6U/citrus-under-the-stars.jpg 2017 - Citrus under the stars My wife’s sister and her husband live near the rural city of Lismore, Australia. Their property is in a place where there’s very little light pollution so I only had to walk out to their driveway to find a spot to shoot the Milky Way when visiting them a few years back. What a change that was from my usual expeditions of hundreds of kilometres on Friday or Saturday nights! Amongst the 100 or so shots I captured that night was this seven-image panorama, showing the Milky Way standing almost vertical over their fruit and vegetable garden. The orange fruit on his citrus tree adds some colour to this shot that I don’t normally see in a foreground. Just above and to the left of that tree you can see the Southern Cross and Pointers, with the planet Saturn showing as a white spot on the neck of the Dark Horse nebula. Created from 7 single frames, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568945574776-BG50MY1T53R4HUP563A3/img_5956-edit.jpg 2017 - Other-worldly moonrise Despite the brightness of the moon I still managed to get quite a bit of colour and detail around the Milky Way’s core region in this image that I captured at Kiama, on Australia’s east coast in February of 2017. The moonlight spilling across the basalt towers and boulders in this deserted quarry gave me the feeling of this having been shot on another world orbiting a star other than our Sun. My camera with its red LEDs and the tripod legs invoke the image of a probe sent from earth to investigate the surface of this exotic world. The light of the moon shining into the lens caused the red spot to the right of centre. This is s single shot captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568985304547-DMGLDIBSZ01WAK4T4LDQ/capital-capture.jpg 2017 - Capital capture This panorama of the night sky was shot in April of 2017 at a place called Tharwa, in the Australian Capital Territory. Just as the US has the District of Columbia for its national capital, Australia’s capital city of Canberra is located in the Australian Capital Territory. Arched overhead is the glorious Milky Way and its galactic core. The two white blobs hovering above the horizon on the right are the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of our Milky Way. The lovely bottle-green colour to the background sky is caused by atmospheric airglow, which has similar colours to the aurora but is caused by a different process. This panorama is made up from 42 images that were stitched together using the software Autopano Pro. Each shot was captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568985487881-OJAPW7ELDTURMCDSJDW8/three-galaxies-from-halfway-to-the-top.jpg 2017 - Three galaxies from halfway Australia’s highest mainland mountain is Mt Kosciuszko, located in the Snowy Mountains region in my home state of New South Wales. With its summit at 2228 metres (7310 feet) above sea level it’s by no means one of the world’s tallest mountains but it’s the best we’ve got. Just over 60km to the northeast of that mountain is the spot where I captured this panorama of my beloved Australian night sky. The elevation there is 1000 metres, about halfway to the top, you might say. There are three galaxies visible in this photo. The largest and most obvious is our own collection of stars, the Milky Way, with its galactic core area hovering over the western horizon just to the right of centre. Over in the top left of the scene are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, travelling through space with us on our journey through what is known as the “Local Group” of galaxies. Apart from the two Magellanic Clouds every other star, star cluster and wisp of interstellar dust in this photo is inside the Milky Way. Some clouds way off in the distance obscured some of the Milky Way over on the right of the image. This panorama was created from thirteen overlapping photos, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568985673228-91ODR9Q1SE6D9HPOBUMP/starlight-moonlight-city-lights.jpg 2017 - Starlight. Moonlight. City lights. The 140+ year-old St Matthias Church looking lovely in the moonlight while the Milky Way is keeling over towards the west. With the 20 second exposures I used to capture the Milky Way’s detail, the camera caught light from the rising crescent moon and so the church and the grass around it look well lit up here. The moonlight was also bright enough to cast a selfie-shadow of me and my camera at the lower right of the shot. There’s a yellow-white glow coming from behind the church from the lights of Canberra, Australia’s capital city, about 50km (30mi) away. The large, bright and white orb above the power pole on the right is the planet Jupiter, very close to setting for another night. The sky looks a bit mottled and patchy due to fog that was thickening up and on the left you can see a few clouds that were drifting in and starting to ruin the party for me. After this it was time to drive home–with a safety sleep along the way–where I slumped into bed at 8:00am. This is a vertical panoramic image, created from 7 individual frames, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566733097436-AS542CYL8VSK2D8CA0BH/Amphitheatre+of+the+stars.jpg 2017 - Amphitheatre of the stars "Lights, camera, action!" They're the clichéd words used when speaking of filmmaking rather than taking photos. Still, I had all of these components in play to create this star-trails photo in the stony amphitheatre of the abandoned quarry at Bombo Headland, New South Wales, Australia. Lights? I used the warm tungsten beam of my trusty torch ("flashlight" for the Americans reading this); a round, white photographic reflector to spread that light over the rocks and cliffs; and the glorious glow of the stars above. Some ambient light from the Kiama lighthouse–out of shot at right–plus the sodium lamps, aglow at the nearby sewage treatment works, also helped to light the scene. Camera? My camera was mounted on a tripod, shooting a 20-second-long photo then waiting one second before grabbing the next shot. Over forty-five minutes, my faithful Canon captured 118 frames. Action? How do you show movement in a still image? The rotation of the earth in those forty-five minutes was enough to make the stars look like they are drawing lines on the sky. The blurring of the waves breaking in the small inlet also gives a sense of movement. I was walking around, placing the torch to light up various features of the quarry, providing a further idea of motion as the beams were recorded by the camera's sensor. Created from 118 single frames, each shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 8000. After shooting those 118 photos I imported them into my Mac laptop, did some editing in Adobe Lightroom then used the free “StarStax” application to put them together into one final image. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568986254035-PJANFGKH3YQSD9YDSKHU/a-jewel-in-a-thorny-crown.jpg 2017 - A jewel in a thorny crown I composed this photo to look like some sort of precious jewel in the sky, framed by twisting tree branches, almost like a glowing gem set in a royal crown. A thorny crown. The tree branches were about five metres above where my camera was placed. The jewel framed in the shot, the Large Magellanic Cloud, was around 163,000 light-years distant, or around 308,400,000,000,000,000,000 times further away than the tree. If you go a’Googling you can find some very detailed photos of the Large Magellanic Cloud, showing many more stars and nebulae than you can see in this shot taken with my DSLR and a basic 50mm lens. To the lower left of the Cloud is the bright green smudge of light that’s known as the Tarantula Nebula, or its technical name of 30 Doradus. This is a nebula that has at its centre a star cluster that has an estimated mass of 450,000 times that of our Sun. You don’t have to know any of those facts to enjoy its beauty, fortunately. The photo is a single-frame shot that I captured with Canon EOS 6D Mk II, Canon 50mm @ f/2.2, 8.0 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567383586354-PX7TJZ12F414QIFL30D7/wispy-wonder-over-the-water-16x9.jpg 2017 - Wispy wonder over the water The location I shot this at is Bamarang Dam, southwest of the regional city of Nowra, Australia, just over two hour’s drive from my home. The road sweeps around the eastern perimeter of the reservoir and the bushland falls away to give this view across the water. There are a few prominent colours in this image, arising from astronomical, atmospheric & earthly causes. In the astronomical realm, stretching from left to right across the middle 1/3 of the scene is the band of our Milky Way galaxy with its billions of stars and the wispy structures known as “dust lanes”. Right in the middle of the photo is the core, the centre, of the Milky Way. Above that is the greenish atmospheric airglow that’s caused by electrons of oxygen atoms in our atmosphere changing orbits and emitting energy as light. There is also some greyish discolouration of the sky in the sky between the Milky Way and the horizon that’s caused by moisture in the air. As for earthly causes you can see the orange glow behind the trees at the centre of the middle 1/3 of the photo. That was caused by the lights of the city of Goulburn, which is about 70km (45 mi) from where the photo was shot. This image was created by shooting and then stitching together 24 single shots, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm @ f/2.2, 10 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569025501476-M20PI2BX6NDU8I255HZY/%E2%80%9Cyeah-but-that%E2%80%99s-been-photoshopped%E2%80%9D%E2%80%A6-3x2-no-watermark.jpg 2017 - "That's been Photoshopped" A lot of thought, effort and practice goes into how I shoot my photos and trying to make them as “natural looking" as possible. Nightscape photography isn’t only about capturing the image, though. Editing and presentation are as important as getting the shot right. That said, tonight I’m posting an image which has only been cropped Other than that I have not adjusted it in Lightroom or Photoshop. The photo shows the Milky Way’s galactic core region rising in the eastern sky, shot from the “Grand Canyon” lookout in the Morton National Park, a couple of hours south of Sydney, Australia. There’s a deep green colour to the background sky, caused by atmospheric airglow. The tree in the image was lit up by an LED bank with a warm-light filter on it. The bright glow on the horizon at the bottom right is from the city of Kiama, about 50km (30mi) away. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566735397758-C9UVHUVDJ61RYX1JADSL/Trails+on+the+water+and+sky.jpg 2017 - Circles on sky and water The still waters of this man-made pond provided a great natural mirror to photograph reflections of the stars one Friday night in July of 2017. The glow from my headlamp and red-light torch also reflected their photons off the shiny surface, creating the colourful smear at the lower left of the scene. For this shot, I took 323 photos over nearly 2.5 hours. I hadn’t visited this spot until my outing that night, noticing the location on Google Maps while at a prior stop. The satellite photo showed it to be a scar on the landscape, the remains of a road construction dig, including the pond, in a national park. Since it was the only water catchment for many kilometres around, it was worth stopping at to try to get some stellar reflections. I made this final image from 323 single photos, each shot as follows: Canon EOS 6D camera, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.4, 25-second exposure @ ISO 6400. The images were combined using the free software StarStaX. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569049006298-983YG689JC0K9WM67Z1L/a-windmill-against-the-starry-sky.jpg 2017 - A windmill against the starry sky Perhaps it’s because I grew up and still live in a city that I find windmills so fascinating. Fog was starting to form in the air near this one when I visited in March of 2017. By the time I finished at the site (all of 20 minutes after I arrived), the fog was thick enough to obscure all but the brightest stars. I got off a few shots then headed back in the direction of my light-polluted city. In the background sky you can see the distinct green colour created by atmospheric airglow. This atomic-level phenomenon is so bright that it is silhouetting the clouds, the line of the hill and the windmill itself. I managed to get a meteor in this shot, too. A single frame photographed with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569050821015-BQCU2TDB7HV9EL2YA7LU/a-planet-in-the-water.jpg 2017 - A planet in the water There are a few stars reflected in the tidal pool at the bottom of this photo, yet the brightest light on the water isn’t a star but that of the planet Saturn. Situated at a distance of over 1.3 billion km from Earth (800 million mi) at present, this “gas giant” is the second-largest planet in our solar system. Famed for its beautiful system of rings, Saturn is also orbited by over sixty moons. Even in the smallest of telescopes Saturn is a magical sight, and I’ve never forgotten my first view of it through a friend’s ‘scope back in the late 1970s. The Milky Way’s galactic core had cleared the horizon when this scene was captured, and was ascending the southeastern sky over the Tasman Sea off the coastal town of Gerroa, Australia. This image is a seven-frame vertical panorama. Each shot was taken with my Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569051467824-D8932K6C3LD3SX2SL2HW/add-a-touch-of-cloud-to-bring-out-the-colours.jpg 2017 - Add a touch of cloud Thin, high cloud has the effect of diffusing starlight, making the twinkling dots in the sky seems brighter and more colourful that they appear to our eyes. This photo is a great example of that phenomenon. The white bauble-like light that seems to be hanging off the tree branch at the top left of this photo is star Alpha Centauri, the third-brightest star visible in the night skies. Down to the right of that is Beta Centauri, looking lovely and blue. These two stars form what’s known as “The Pointers” because they seem to guide your eyes to the Southern Hemisphere’s most famous star formation, the Southern Cross, in the constellation of Crux. If you imagine the classic shape of a child’s kite tipped over to the right at about 45 degrees then you should be able to see the Southern Cross hiding in the branches around the centre of my photo. Up at the top-right of the scene is what looks like another star with its light diffused. Rather than a star, this object is actually the globular star cluster Omega Centauri. This spherical conglomeration of stars is the largest such object in the Milky Way, estimated to contain around ten million individual stars. This single-frame image was shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm lens @ f/2.8, 10 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569052395101-EJACL6POW34FFC7Y0AO2/along-for-the-ride.jpg 2017 - Along for the ride Sometimes in the world of rocketry and satellites things don’t go according to plan. This was the case with Cornell University’s “CUSat” nanosatellite project, launched in September of 2013. The CUSat was in fact a pair of satellites designed to launch together and then carry out manoeuvres in orbit, coming to within ten metres of each other. During testing one of the satellites was damaged and rendered nonfunctional but was sent into space anyway and is orbiting the earth while still attached to its Space X Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Although not all of the mission goals based on a pair of satellites could be met, the project has returned useful data. Failure or not, the two satellites still make an interesting sight when they show up in photographs. I caught them making a pass one Saturday morning in April of 2017. The celestial couple appeared to move through the Milky Way and just miss the supergiant star Antares, glowing bright orange in this photo. Some very thin cloud caused the light of the stars to diffuse and look bigger and brighter than usual. Photographed with a Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569060633328-9DIFLKJL60AIHYYA8CWS/a-stellar-jellyfish-and-friends-2x3.jpg 2017 - A jellyfish and friends Imagination and the night skies have gone together since man’s been on the earth, it seems. Many of the constellations that are accepted today have referred to for literally thousands of years of written history and who knows how many before that. That puts me in ancient company when I look at this photo and see the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) as some sort of stellar jellyfish. The LMC is the prominent cloud-like object dominating the centre of this photo. High up above that is the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Together these two dwarf galaxies, satellites of our Milky Way galaxy, comprise about 30 billion stars. Just above and to the right of the Small Cloud is the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, a ball containing around 10,000 stars. The photo is a stitched image created from seven original frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Canon 50mm STM lens @ f/1.8, 8.0 second exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566729015554-19QJOWHY88QFHITZP56K/Tuross+Trails+with+Mars+LATEST+EDIT.jpg 2017 - Tuross trails Mars & the Milky Way setting over the Tuross River (Australia). Cameras are far more capable of capturing and rendering the colours that shine in the blackness of night than our human eyes. Capturing all of that colour adds up when you put together a number of images that were shot over a period of time, as in this image. This results in the coloured curved stripes–the “star-trails”–in the sky and the even more colourful reflections of the brighter objects on the river’s surface. The bright and wide orange reflection on the water’s surface is from the planet Mars as it set in the two-hour period over which the original frames were captured. This image was created from 470 original photos, each shot with my Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec exposure @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569061677247-HRNTE8Z3B8SIBSLWYOJF/a-bite-out-of-the-moon.jpg 2017 - A bite out of the moon This photo of the moon and a construction crane was taken in August of 2017, at close to 4:40 am. Fortunately, the location was only a five minute drive to from my home. You can’t see much of the crane here but I did manage to use the moon to silhouette some of the crane’s structure and also get the construction company’s logo. I shot the photo with a Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ f/16, 1/50 sec @ ISO 400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568935421386-6IPUAYUEM175D3OW7TYY/another-one-for-the-%E2%80%9Cnext-year%E2%80%9D-list.jpg 2017 - National park wonders The “Grand Canyon Lookout” in the Morton National Park, located about a two-hours to drive from my home in Sydney, Australia, is very well orientated for seeing and photographing the Milky Way’s core rising. From the same spot at this lookout you can turn ninety degrees to face the south and, if conditions are right, see the Aurora Australis. Well, so I’m told. I haven’t been lucky enough to see it from here yet but I know a couple of guys who have and they say it’s a great location. This shot was captured with a Canon EOS 6D camera fitted with a Rokinon 24mm wide-angle lens @ f/2.4 aperture, exposed for 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569062358217-L1DA0F4GLB8WTVS1RO8K/aussie-night-clouds.jpg 2017 - Aussie night clouds The Magellanic Clouds are certainly visible from other countries down here in the Southern Hemisphere, but so far I’ve only ever seen them from Australia. For a large portion of the Southern Hemisphere these dwarf galaxies are always above the horizon, no matter the time of year. At the South Pole they appear to travel around the sky in a perfect circle, centred straight above the viewer. The bright and fuzzy blob to the lower left of the Large cloud, here in this photo, is the star Canopus, the second-brightest star in the Earth’s skies (well, the third if you include the Sun as the brightest). The fuzziness shown in the image is due to thin cloud that was diffusing the light from Canopus, making it seem larger than it actually appears in the night sky. This single-frame image was captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569062691489-JAGA80WN04PBQ5Z0G06Z/glowing%2C-going%2C-gone.jpg 2017 - Glowing, going, gone My guess is that on your first look at this photo you saw the green trail of the meteor and imagined it moving from the top of the shot and down towards the left as it vaporised in the Earth’s atmosphere. It went the other way, actually, beginning its green flash about a third of the way down from the top and moving upward as it faded. This meteor was from the Eta Aquariids shower, which had its peak around the 7th of May in 2017. Sometimes touted as the second-best meteor shower of the year, the Eta Aquariids results from debris shed by Halley’s Comet in a prior orbit around the sun. As often happens, the best meteors of the night were zipping across the sky as I was setting up my tripod and camera. One lasted for nearly five seconds from first appearance until its trail disappeared. At least I got this one image before packing up and heading back home. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 10 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567382036290-7SAYYK8BE503HDUWIUPO/waste-water-and-wonder-50-percent.jpg 2017 - Waste, water and wonder Would I be correct in guessing that most countries are like Australia, where the rural roadsides are littered with manmade waste, to some degree? I hope that you can’t see them when you’re squinting at this photo on your phone, but there are several bottles and cans visible at the bottom of the frame. How lazy, uncaring about the natural environment, or just plain reckless, can people get? At least the waste doesn’t dominate the shot, but the bottles were some of the first things my eyes went to when I was processing this image. That’s the “waste” part of the title out of the way. The “water” that you see here is known as the Bamarang Dam, a small reservoir west of the rural town of Nowra in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It was a new nightscape photography location for me this year and I look forward to getting back there in 2018. What’s the “wonder”, you may be wondering? What else but the majestic arch of the Milky Way that dominates the scene. Hundreds of billions of stars, plus immense clouds and “lanes” of dust and gas are responsible for the structure that marks our galaxy’s place on our night skies. Over on the left are the Magellanic Clouds, two companion Dwarf Galaxies of the Milky Way that are like astronomical hangers-on, always there as our enormous “island universe” travels through the cosmos. This panorama was made from 30 original overlapping images. Each of the photos was captured with a Canon EOS 6D camera, fitted with a Rokinon 24mm wide-angle lens @ an aperture of f/2.4. Each shot was exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569063101092-WC71QPL4IW6DIQDJ4KOW/eye-of-god.jpg 2017 - Eye of God My Milky Way panoramas are almost all after the classic “arch” format, where the horizon is shown as straight, resulting in the band of stars of the Milky Way looking like a great rainbow (starbow?) arching across the night sky. The view of the landscape is shown as a ball with the heavens surrounding it, pretty much like how the earth is in space. Since I didn’t take photos of the ground below the tripod there is a black circle in the centre, looking like a giant eye’s pupil keeping watch. This panorama using the “Little Planet” projection was created from 150 separate images. The Photoshop PSB file was 7.7GB when exported from my panorama stitching software and took over four hours to render. That “B” in the Photoshop .PSB format means Big! Each image was captured with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569063799024-N6U6XWBXWWSRL3RZII58/death-and-light.jpg 2017 - Death and Light The colour and beauty of the stars in the Milky Way make a lovely backdrop to show the dead tree’s twisting, failing and aged branches. A living tree with its abundance of leaves would block too much light and stop us from seeing the wonders beyond. Often in death we can find life and light. Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569065127682-0HQKW21DNLNB9CAFBIOT/galactic-crossing.jpg 2017 - Galactic Core Crossing I drove a couple of hours to get to this spot so that I could line up the rising of the Milky Way’s galactic core with the Railway Crossing sign here on this rural spur line south of Goulburn, Australia. The concentration of stars in the core region looks more yellow than in a lot of my other shots, mainly due to atmospheric distortion near the horizon (just like how the moon seems yellow when it rises and sets). A single shot taken with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569065462352-B7SUHX60L97GHXUK7BSP/holy-halo%3F.jpg 2017 - Holy halo? A lunar halo appears as a ring around the moon on nights when there is high, thin cloud passing between the viewer and the moon’s position in the sky. Also known as a 22-degree halo, the optical phenomenon is caused by the moon’s light being refracted (bent) by millions of hexagonal ice crystals suspended in the earth’s atmosphere. The dead tree that I used to centre the image and hide the direct moonlight was in a graveyard belonging to a rural church in the Southern Tablelands area of my state of New South Wales, Australia. That explains the photo’s title. This one is a single -rame shot with Canon EOS 6D, Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 6.0 sec @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569065870775-7NGVDB7ML9YHYQH9XYCS/highlands-night-freight.jpg 2017 - Highlands night freight It was pure luck that the train passed through just as I was setting up my gear at this location in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia. The Milky Way was climbing the eastern sky and I’d planned to photograph it and the emptry train tracks. The mad scramble for me to turn my remote on and grab the shot was just a bit too close-cut, though. I only managed to capture the last few coal cars as they passed by, sweeping my torch back and forth to light up the otherwise dark carriages. Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.4, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569066071059-D26K5IZ96MWMM3TFVZW2/laneway-of-lights.jpg 2017 - Laneway of lights Agars Lane is one of those wonderful country back-roads that most people except the locals haven’t heard of. It’s a narrow rural link between two roads of the dairy farming region of Berry, New South Wales, Australia. One of its attractions for me is the way the trees almost make a fully closed canopy but leave enough room for sunlight to pass through during the day and starlight at night. This photo was taken at around 3am on a Saturday morning in April of 2017. My reward for the long night and drowsy following-day is how much of the Milky Way’s dust lanes are are visible in this shot and others that I got through the night. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569066458925-757QYTZ2ACWNJ39M2QHC/kangaroo-hop-2.jpg 2017 - Kangaroo Hop Do you think I could have found a more clichéd Australian name than the one that’s on the sign outside this farming property, “Kangaroo Hop”? Yes, I chuckled when I saw it and figured it would make a good foreground to contrast the view of the Milky Way’s core region that we get in Australia in these autumn months. The farm is located about an hour’s drive from our country’s capital city, Canberra. This simple single-frame shot was captured with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569066644699-9ZZ1G7YCGZDCPUG71ERN/moonlight-feels-right.jpg 2017 - Moonlight feels right When I took the shots that make up this vertical panorama the moon–at only 12% illumination and three days from New Moon–had been in the eastern sky for a little over an hour. That was just the right brightness to light up the foreground in this scene. The moonlight felt right, you might say. There is so much detail of the Milky Way’s dust lanes and dark nebulae visible in this image. They look like oil stains on the sky as they block out the light of the billions of stars behind them. The yellow glow at the bottom of the scene is from the lights of Australia’s capital city, Canberra, about 50km (30mi) away. At bottom left is the St Matthias Church, an Anglican place of worship built in 1875. It was around 3:30 am when I shot this, a time of day that so often brings with it the peace and quiet that regenerates my soul. The original vertical panorama was created from nine single shots, each captured with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569066904987-IMLFSEZ7PB3WWTVR1COA/just-past-midnight.jpg 2017 - Just past midnight Apart from the occasional vehicle heading along the road it was totally quiet at this spot in the wee small hours of this morning in April, 2017. The planet Jupiter–big and bright at upper-right–was climbing up the sky towards the meridian and up to the right of that the star Spica was also dominating this area of sky. Spica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo and the 16th-brightest star visible in the sky. The moon was less than three hours away from setting and I managed to position my camera so that the trees obscured its direct light and appeared in silhouette in the shot. Some fine and high cloud wafting in caused there to be a "Lunar Halo” visible just above the tallest tree on the left. The clarity and purity of the moon’s white light seems to have brought up the colours of the countryside very well. A single shot taken with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm XP AE lens @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 800. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569631449792-GS73K5BPYYXU8FUJG3TC/Southern+Summer+Nights.jpg 2017 - Southern Summer Nights This is what the summer sky looked like back January of 2017 at about 10:50pm, from a spot on the southeast coast of Australia, the Tilba Cemetery. The dense band of the Milky Way runs diagonally across the shot, from mid-left to lower-right, where it blends into the haze of the horizon. Dark nebulae and dust clouds in space block the light of the stars behind them. Canopus, the second-brightest star in the Earth’s skies, shines blue-white at the very top of the shot, with the Large Magellanic Cloud below it to the right, looking for all the world like a puff of cotton-wool floating on the breeze. Mid-way down the image and about one third in from the left is the crimson glow the of Eta Carinae nebula. The right-hand edge of this photo is almost on the line of due south. Created from two single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569067379521-EXLBRF0D5QZFRHXSQQ47/on-its-way-west.jpg 2017 - On its way west Down here in the Southern Hemisphere we are privileged to have the galactic core of the Milky Way pass overhead during our winter nights. At the right time of night during several months of the year the glowing strip of our galaxy looks like it is standing on one end, perpendicular to the southern horizon. Once past that point it seems to whirl overhead and down until it’s parallel with the western horizon. In this photo that bright band of the Milky Way has started that westerly descent. The location where this was shot is about a two hour drive southwest of my home city of Sydney and is mostly free of light pollution. The image was created by stitching together six overlapping frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm XP Lens @ f/2.4, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569068023450-A13K6J1K94JOH4AILN67/out-of-the-gap.jpg 2017 - Out of the gap The Milky Way’s core region was just breaking the horizon in the gap at the entrance to the inlet at Bombo Quarry, Australia, when this image was captured in February of 2017. The moon was due to rise shortly after this and that explains the slightly orange tint starting to creep into the sky at the horizon. A stitched image created from nine single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 13 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569068266112-43NHVJB7388WHVNIYYIP/over-the-quiet-waters.jpg 2017 - Over the quiet waters The slowly moving waters of the Minnamurra River on the east coast of Australia were providing a natural mirror to reflect starlight when I stopped here for some nightscape photos on this night in May of 2017. The green hills were lit by stray light flooding in from the industrial city of Wollongong, 20km (12mi) to the north. This was stop number three for the night, close to 11pm. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/2.8, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569068714996-ZL9O89V7IFPSOIA83EM4/sometimes-any-tripod-will-do.jpg 2017 - Any tripod will do This photo of the Milky way is one I captured in August of 2017. I wasn’t sure if I was going to stop long at the location, so rather than put the camera onto its tripod I simply rested it on the roof of my car and took some test shots. The “Galactic Kiwi” is in the centre of the image and the planet Saturn is a bright spot on what looks like the kiwi’s left leg. Trains of dark gas that seem to run down and left from the kiwi stop near the orange star Antares and the nearby Rho Ophiuchi star-forming region. Did you notice that the background sky colour isn’t black but rather has a strong deep green tint? This is from what’s known as atmospheric airglow and this phenomenon can also appear in orange and a number of other colours. This is a single image shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569068922049-SIBF4AZTJINLMDS8D64D/slowing-down-from-light-speed.jpg 2017 - Slowing from light speed Whether it be when I’m out at night shooting astro images or cycling along in the daylight hours, single-lane country roads always hold some enchantment and fascination for me. This one is named Toolijooa Road and is located just over an hour’s drive south of my home city of Sydney, Australia. Toolijooa is an Australian Aboriginal name meaning “a place of emus”. These days it’s more a place of dairy cattle. This vertical panorama was shot in July, 2017. It shows the Milky Way stretching up from the south through the dark “Coal Sack” nebula and up into the galactic core region. Lining things up to get the Milky Way to seem to emanate from the 45 sign took a bit of moving around and a few test shots. Created from seven single overlapping images shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569069096296-12AYPWEDNQEXAAWB7LHS/treebeard-under-the-stars.jpg 2017 - Treebeard under the stars If you're a fan of the "Lord of the Rings" books or movies you'll know who Treebeard is. In these classic stories he's described as a tree-like creature, an Ent, "the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun upon this Middle-earth." I guess you can see why I thought of Treebeard when I shot this scene in September of 2017. The location was the Orroral Valley, in the Australian Capital Territory. Glowing up from the horizon over the right-hand side of the tree is the Zodiacal Light, which was naked-eye visible for several hours. The light of the background sky comes from atmospheric airglow. This is a stitched image created from two overlapping shots. Each shot was taken with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/2.8, 25.0 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569069368004-61FMV93Z3T874ZSHULZR/the-moon-and-mercury-from-miranda.jpg 2017 - The Moon and Mercury I took this photo from the balcony of my apartment in suburban Sydney, Australia, in 2017. Mercury is the bright star-like dot to the upper left of the moon in my photo. Up and to the right of Mercury is the star Regulus, the brightest in the constellation of Leo. Well, I say "star" but Regulus is actually a quaternary system, that is it's actually four stars rather than just one. Captured with Canon EOS 6D, Sigma 50-500mm lens @ 417mm @ f/8.0, 1.0 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569069616938-TTM7INNSODC85G0O6JC0/two-and-a-bit-galaxies-small.jpg 2017 - Two and a bit galaxies The Milky Way galaxy is always visible in the night sky, purely by way of definition. The Earth–along with the Sun and everything else in our Solar System–is inside the Milky Way, which means that when we look at the moon, planets and stars at night, we’re seeing the Milky Way. The galactic core region of the Milky Way (“the core”, or “galactic centre”) is what nightscape photographers regard as the most photogenic section of the galaxy that we see in the heavens. In my photo the core is on the right-hand side of the image, looking like clouds of earthly dust obscuring a big blob of light low in the night sky. That is the “bit” of a galaxy I referred to in the title of today’s post. What about the other two galaxies I mentioned? These are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the bright and wispy orbs of light in the sky at the left of the photo. The Clouds are companion galaxies of the Milky Way (they’re also called “satellite galaxies”) that are travelling with us through our part of the “Local Group” of galaxies. The phantom-like figure in blue at the bottom left is fellow nightscape addict Ian Williams. Although this looks like a single photo, it’s a stitched image, created from sixteen individual and overlapping shots. Each shot was taken with a Canon EOS 6D camera, a Rokinon 24mm lens @ f/2.4, exposed for 15 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569070158161-BXWLX0G031LIZV793KD7/up-from-the-south.jpg 2017 - Up from the south Gerroa is a popular coastal town about 110km (68mi) south of where I live in Sydney, Australia. I have made many treks there over the past four years to shoot nightscape photos like this one. This is another image that has tested my editing abilities due to the large amount of orange airglow and airborne moisture on that night that it was capture, plus the lights of holiday townships further down the coast. Despite those things I seem to have captured a quite an amount of detail in the dust lanes and dark nebulae in the galactic core region, something which surprised me a lot. Down at the bottom-left is the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s companion galaxies and a year-round night sky feature at my latitude. This five-image vertical panorama was captured with my Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm XP lens @ f/3.2, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569070421636-B139JMLLM37HNAKI2R59/zodiacal-overload.jpg 2017 - Zodiacal overload The house in this photo is the abandoned Orroral Homestead, which was built for grazing in the 1860's, located south of Canberra, Australia. Over the hill to the right of the house you can see the intense glow of the astronomical feature known as the Zodiacal Light. The Milky Way looked as magnificent as it always does in rural dark skies and the green atmospheric airglow was more than evident. Just prior to this photo, the International Space Station passed over, as well as a few bright and long-lasting fireballs. This is a stitched image made from six overlapping shots. Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm XP @ f/3.2, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569070550504-LVLO3YXRK69TU833BSKK/two-little-trees-at-the-end-of-the-galaxy-2x3.jpg 2017 - Two little trees at the end of the galaxy Do you see the two little trees on the horizon, backlit by the glow of the city of Goulburn, Australia (33km /20mi away) and dwarfed by the glory of the Milky Way rising above them? Out of shot to the right the just-risen moon, a thin crescent and relatively dim at 12% illumination, acted as my light source to give the fields their dim glow. I hope that you can look at this image and find something for yourself in that juxtaposition of the tiny vs the astronomical. This vertical panorama was created from seven individual images, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. https://nightscapades.com/2015-candidates daily 0.75 2019-09-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569154697587-ZK4CF74A91NEBGRNNVW8/banner-2015.jpg 2015 Candidates - Iconic tower and magic moon A waxing gibbous moon hanging in the dark sky with the Eiffel Tower glowing in the foreground. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1566735372033-2WNGVOHI7N9CI5O7CE6K/Train+and+trails.jpg 2015 Candidates - Trains and trails Trails on the sky from the stars, several aeroplanes, a satellite and a couple of meteors are underscored by the light-trail of a train passing through the crossing level crossing at Toolijooa, New South Wales, Australia. Star trails created in StarStax for Mac, from 78 original frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 15 sec @ ISO 3200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1567472548571-EPDE1BVXXRR45JEYY42S/majestic-arch.jpg 2015 Candidates - Majestic Arch I can't get enough of photographing the Milky Way in different settings, and including a waterway of some kind is one of my favourite compositions. Broughton Creek near Nowra, Australia, is a feeder tributary of the Shoalhaven River. When I visited on this night in 2015 the water’s surface was amazingly flat despite the movement of the tide. This panoramic image is made up from 16 single frames, each shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. Stitched together with the application AutoPano Pro. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569736500743-AX09YI50LSVIZF7F61PM/through-the-night-3x2.jpg 2015 Candidates - In a flash It's not as astronomical as my usual photos, but I figured it was worth posting. After all, I was out shooting the stars when the train zipped through this crossing at Toolijooa, New South Wales, Australia. Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/8.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569761922599-8FVY0AEYMFR9MSBQV7TM/heaven-and-earth.jpg 2015 Candidates - Heaven and Earth The All Saints Anglican Church in Bodalla, Australia, was officially opened in 1902 and is a well-known landmark in the area. It provided a wonderful foreground to set the Milky Way against for this single-frame image when I visited the dark skies of the area in June of 2015. In September of that year, I entered this photo into a competition that is run each year from Paris, France. It’s an understatement to say that I was excited when the photo placed fifth out of 400 entries from 50 countries! Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569761499940-KHXQ11PUC5ZWOF5BLQXG/Iconic+tower+and+magic+moon.jpg 2015 Candidates - Iconic tower and magic moon A waxing gibbous moon hanging in the dark sky with the Eiffel Tower glowing in the foreground. I shot this photo in December of 2015, while visiting Paris to see one of my photos featured in an exhibition. Canon EOS 6D camera, a Sigma 50-500mm f/5.6 lens @ 191mm @ f/10.0, using an exposure time of 1/13 seconds @ ISO 200. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569587060580-LQ4ZWIXWHT8OQ59K9ZVW/%C2%A0A+sight+I+love+at+a+place+I+love.jpg 2015 Candidates - At a place I love If you’ve read even a few of the blurbs that go with my photos you’ve probably seen me mention Tuross Head. Over forty years ago my family inherited a small holiday shack at this coastal township. My siblings, and our own families, still visit as often as we can. When I was learning about astronomy in my teen years I’d often spend hours outside staring up at the lovely dark skies while visiting Tuross. Although the area is a little more populated now than in the 70s the skies are still much darker than back in the city. The disused, heritage-protected church on this land near the town has featured in many of my nightscape photos. This vertical panoramic shot shows the Milky Way and its dust and gas “lanes” ruling this part of the sky. Not too far above the church you can see the Coalsack Dark Nebula, with the Southern Cross immediately to its lower right. Between the Coalsack and the church is a pinkish patch that includes the Eta Carinae nebula. I created this image from fourteen single images that were shot to overlap and form a vertical panorama. The shots were stitched together using Autopano Pro software. The final image was too big to fit on Instagram so I’ve had to crop some of the Milky Way from the top. Each frame was shot with Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 20 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569913087966-3US01S282OBZ5H64AD2M/tree-of-light.jpg 2015 Candidates - Tree of Light I shot this back in July of 2015 at Tuross Head, New South Wales. It’s a vertical panorama from seven images, capturing the Milky Way seeming to emanate from the dead tree. The green tint to the sky towards the bottom is from atmospheric airglow. Seven images, each shot with a Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm @ f/4.0, 25 sec @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569762975765-KGFCQ8CGY0DL4PARSC6J/Wattamolla+morning.jpg 2015 Candidates https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569912532257-S01M5K0FYKKDW6K7OBD1/between-this-life-and-the-next.jpg 2015 Candidates - Between this life and the next This photo uses a “vertorama” (vertical panorama) of 13 images stitched together to show the view from horizon to horizon, with the Milky Way and its Galactic Core bridging between the two worlds. Rotate your phone through 180 degrees for a different perspective. Data for the 13 images: Canon EOS 6D, Samyang 14mm lens @ f/4.0, 8 second exposure at ISO 6400. Stitched in Autopano Pro for Mac. Edited in Lightroom CC. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569762923380-OU4Y2DLC6EPEMO9CW69K/Reaching+for+the+night+Bodalla.jpg 2015 Candidates https://nightscapades.com/home-test daily 0.75 2019-09-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1568295845440-ZDSV1QC4PTSM3QDHR5YY/banner-home2.jpg Test copy of Home - Copy of From another dimension Did Marty and Doc Brown flash into, or back from, the future in an aquatic version of the DeLorean? That’s what these streaks of light reminded me of when I first looked at the photo on my iMac. The picture is one frame from a 440-photo time-lapse sequence that I photographed on Friday, August 23rd, near Nowra, Australia. For most of the time that I visited, the river and far shore were too dark for me to make out any details. The river’s surface was very calm and, as you can see, very reflective, giving me the chance to capture the stars shining in the sky and the water. A little over an hour into the shoot, I heard the sound of an outboard motor coming from further up the river. I could also see a beam of light shining intermittently onto the distant tree-covered banks. Not long afterwards the engine’s noise quickly grew from a whine to a mild roar as the boat rounded a bend in the river, heading towards me. As the boat shot along the calm, flat river top, the driver flashed on his hand-held spotlight to see where he was going. He powered it on for about two seconds, swept it from bank to bank, then turned it back off again after taking in the scene. Then, after around ten seconds of darkness, the rapidly-moving mariner would repeat the cycle. My lovely and still mirror-surfaced river took nearly ten minutes to settle down after the boat passed. The photo is a single-frame image, shot by me with my Canon EOS 6D Mk II camera, a Samyang 14mm f/2.4 lens @ f/2.4, using an exposure time of 20 seconds @ ISO 6400. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1569070158161-BXWLX0G031LIZV793KD7/up-from-the-south.jpg Test copy of Home https://nightscapades.com/new-page-1 daily 0.75 2023-03-05 https://nightscapades.com/shop-1 daily 0.75 2017-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1489834733403-HSDMIMVL80A8ORWE1DIH/A+vestige+%26+Venus-Insta-FB-Flickr.jpg Shop - A vestige & Venus This afternoon after work I set off to attempt to photograph the Milky Way’s core region low in the western sky, plus try to get some of the forecast southern lights, the Aurora Australis. The weather pattern here in my part of Australia for the past couple of weeks has been clear, sunny days that consistently become cloudy nights. Still, I headed south and could see plenty of blue sky between the puffs of cloud that were coming in from off the coast. By the time I got to my shooting location those puffs of cloud had banded together to form a wide barrier that didn’t seem to be in a hurry to clear. After driving some more I spotted clear sky up over Berry Mountain so headed there and found a spot with a westward view. I only got around 20 shots, including this one, which was better than nothing but a poor result for the number of hours and kilometres I put into the evening. Although it was 90 minutes after sunset you can see some sunset glow at the lower left of the image. The tiniest amount of Milky Way was still visible and those last vestiges are above the trees just in from the left of the frame. The headlights of a passing car lit up the foreground trees and some of the paddock beyond, while Venus made sure it stood out from all that with its bright white glow. Mars is up towards the top-right corner, although it’s a little hard to make it out from the other stars. Shot with Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.8, 10 sec @ ISO 1600. https://nightscapades.com/shop-1/between-night-and-day monthly 0.5 2017-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52465eede4b05bfd3a968e71/1488885083096-EW10J3KDYLMBE4ZNG6XX/Between+night+and+day+SMALL.jpg Shop - Between Night and Day - Between night and day I didn’t intend to stay out so late when I set out at 10:00pm to look for clear skies on the night of January 1, 2017. Since this image was captured at 04:15 on the morning of January 2, you can tell I was out for quite a while. This is another stitched shot, made up from seven original photos that were taken about 90 minutes before sunrise, in the period known as “Astronomical Twilight”. Being summer in Australia the sun rises at about 05:45 during early January. I do long for winter when the nights are longer and the seeing is much better. Yes, I’m addicted to this art form. There is an ever-so-faint hint of orange glow on the horizon, and the background sky colour is blue, both indicators that another day is beginning. There are still plenty of stars to be seen though along with the Magellanic Cloud galaxies (at right) and the dust lanes and star concentrations of the Milky Way (left hand side). The dark patch that’s about 1/3 in from the left and 1/3 down from the top of the shot is the nebula known as the “Coal Sack”, which obscures the light of the millions of stars behind it. The Ngarrindjeri people, one of the indigenous nations of Australia, saw this dark patch as a stingray swimming. The stars of the “Southern Cross” asterism look like a kite that is laying on its side just above the Coal Sack. Each of the individual shots that make up this final image were captured with a Canon EOS 6D, Rokinon 24mm @ f/2.4, 15 sec @ ISO 6400. Tuross River, Bodalla, Australia. 02/01/17.