skypointer2000
Extravagance and Splendor
There are not many castles that show the extravagance of the French Kings better than Château Chambord, but to me it still pales under the splendor of the starfilled sky.
During one of my trips to France this year, I had the pleasure to shoot one night with @benjaminbarakat at the famous Château Chambord in the Loire Valley.
The illumination of the castle is extinguished at 1 a.m. - something that should be considered for all illuminated landmarks to reduce light pollution and energy consumption and to allow visitors to witness these structures in a truely dark setting.
Unfortunately, the hotel next the castle was less considerate. Although they finally shut down the worst of their lights at 2 a.m. the complex stayed brightly lit all night.
In addition to the lights, we were fighting with clouds that night. They were moving pretty fast, but the Milky Way arch was never completely free of clouds. I captured two full sky panoramas and I was able to stitch the clear parts into a Milky Way arch.
For the reflection I also applied a new technique: For minimal displacement of the stars in the reflection, compared to those in the sky, I stopped the tracker after each sky panel and captured the foreground with the reflection, before I moved the camera to capture the next panel.
EXIF
Canon EOS 6D astro-modified
Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Sky:
7 panels, each a stack of 6 x 30s @ ISO3200
Foreground:
7 panels, each a stack of 6 x 60s @ ISO3200
Extravagance and Splendor
There are not many castles that show the extravagance of the French Kings better than Château Chambord, but to me it still pales under the splendor of the starfilled sky.
During one of my trips to France this year, I had the pleasure to shoot one night with @benjaminbarakat at the famous Château Chambord in the Loire Valley.
The illumination of the castle is extinguished at 1 a.m. - something that should be considered for all illuminated landmarks to reduce light pollution and energy consumption and to allow visitors to witness these structures in a truely dark setting.
Unfortunately, the hotel next the castle was less considerate. Although they finally shut down the worst of their lights at 2 a.m. the complex stayed brightly lit all night.
In addition to the lights, we were fighting with clouds that night. They were moving pretty fast, but the Milky Way arch was never completely free of clouds. I captured two full sky panoramas and I was able to stitch the clear parts into a Milky Way arch.
For the reflection I also applied a new technique: For minimal displacement of the stars in the reflection, compared to those in the sky, I stopped the tracker after each sky panel and captured the foreground with the reflection, before I moved the camera to capture the next panel.
EXIF
Canon EOS 6D astro-modified
Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Sky:
7 panels, each a stack of 6 x 30s @ ISO3200
Foreground:
7 panels, each a stack of 6 x 60s @ ISO3200