Galactic Hunt

Once upon a time,

Under a sea of stars,

Surfaced an angry whale,

From a sea of rocks,

To chase a frightened seal,

In a galactic hunt.

 

I discovered this galactic hunt while exploring Joshua Tree National Park. The scene really captured my imagination, but I knew the viewing direction to capture the Milky Way core wasn't perfect.

 

A quick check of my planning app PlanIt for Photographers showed that the Milky Way's Great Rift would align with the whale later at night. Even if the core was hidden, I thought the whale seemingly blowing away the band of stars might look cool. As a bonus, the faint Cobold Nebula (Sh2-27) is backlighting the seal.

 

EXIF

Canon EOS-R, astro-modified

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 ART

IDAS NBZ filter

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

 

Sky:

Vertical panorama of 2 panels, each a stack of 6x 45s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 3x 105s @ ISO6400, filtered

 

Foreground:

Single exposure of 5s @ ISO1600 during twilight

Done