Pine Island [Explored]

In May, I met with Peter Ensrud and Abe Blair at Lake Tahoe for a night of astrophotography.

 

After shooting the panorama I published a while ago, we raced to this spot, which we reached with just enough time to capture the scene before dawn washed out the contrasts in the sky.

 

Abe used his drone to provide some low-level lighting from above. While I liked the increased foreground detail and the colors in the transparent water, the lighting was a tad bright for my taste, and it made the reflection of the stars and the faint Milky Way completely disappear.

 

That's why I also shot the foreground conventionally, without any lighting.

 

During post processing, I played around with both versions and finally decided I liked a blended version best. The sky was captured separately with my usual tracked narrowband filter technique.

 

PS: I like the result a lot, and I think it shows the potential of low-level lighting with drones. For those who do not know me very well: that's a big compliment coming from someone who does not like drones at all.

 

EXIF

Canon EOS-R, astro-modified

Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 @ 15mm

IDAS NBZ filter

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Low Level Lighting with a Lumecube attached to a drone.

 

Foreground:

Blend of 2 exposures of 60s @ ISO3200 with and without drone lighting.

 

Sky:

Stack of 6x 60s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 3x 150s @ ISO6400, filtered

Done