Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f/2.8

Foreground: 5 x 30 seconds

Sky: 8 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 13 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting above The Pinnacles Desert, 2 hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f/2.8

Foreground: 7 x 30 seconds

Sky: 20 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 27 shot panorama of the Milky Way rising above the mud cracked surface of a dry lake in the Cowcowing Lakes system, 2.5 hours north east of Perth in Western Australia.

The Magellanic Clouds can be seen on the far right, below the deep red Gum Nebula. The core is just starting to peak above the horizon on the left.

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 3200

f/2.8

Foreground: 12 x 13s

Sky: 59 x 30s

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

Another panorama of the lone tree at Beverley, this time shot at a slightly different angle to put the tree between the Milky Way band and the Magellanic Clouds. This is quite a big bigger than the recent image I posted, comprising of 71 shots.

Beverley is a Wheatbelt town about two hours east of Perth in Western Australia.

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 4000

f/2.5

Foreground: 12 x 30 seconds

Sky: 28 x 25 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 40 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting over a wheat farm near Goomalling, 1.5 hours north east of Perth in Western Australia. This was the last shot I was able to take this night as the clouds very quickly rolled in from the south west, as you can see on the left of the image, coming from the direction of the city which is the source of the light pollution.

Nikon d5500

50mm + Hoya Red Intensifier filter

ISO 4000

f/3.2

Sky: 55 x 30 seconds

Foreground: 17 x 15 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

This is a 72 shot image of the Carina/Crux region of the Milky Way as it aligns perpendicular with the horizon. To the right are the Large & Small Magellanic Clouds. The Pinnacles Desert is an area of limestone rock protrusions across two square km near the Indian Ocean, approximately 2 hours north of Perth.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f/2.5

Foreground: 10 x 30 seconds

Sky: 23 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 33 shot panorama of the Crux & Carina region of the Milky Way rising above the highest peak of the Stirling Ranges, Bluff Knoll, 4 hours south of Perth in Western Australia.

The Carina Nebula is the pink splotch just left of centre, just below that is the Emu's head aka the Coalsack Nebula with Crux on its immediate left. The large, deep red area at the to is the Gum Nebula. The Magellanic Clouds are clearly visible in the top right of the image.

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 3200

f/2.2

Foreground: 18 x 8 seconds

Sky: 61 x 25 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 79 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting over Glenfield Homestead, an historical site just outside of Northam, 1.5 hours east of Perth in Western Australia. The light pollution you can see above the hills is from Perth.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 5000

f/2.8

Foreground: 7 x 20 seconds

Sky: 20 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 27 shot panorama of the Crux & Carina region of the Milky Way above the Pinnacles Desert, about 2 hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

This was one of the first opportunities I had to go out with my new full frame camera, the Nikon d810a, a camera dedicated to astrophotography with an IR filter designed to capture significantly more light from h-alpha emission nebulae (deep red on the visible spectrum at 656 nm). It's my first full frame DSLR and when used with the same 50mm lens I used with my old crop sensor camera it allows me to shoot large panoramas much more quickly, so double bonus.

Prominent in this image is the pink, petal shaped Carina Nebula near the centre, just below that is Crux aka the Southern Cross and in the right corner is the Large Magellanic Cloud. You can see quite a bit of h-alpha emissions in the top left, not visible in any of my other shots from my old camera...so it does a good job.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f/2.8

Foreground: 3 x 25 seconds

Sky: 9 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 12 shot panorama of the Milky Way as it rises above an old stone shed on a wheat farm at Greenhills, 1.5 hours east of Perth in Western Australia. This is a very early shot of the core taken not long before the start of astronomical twilight where the rising sun's ambient light starts to affect the sky.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f/3.2

Foreground: 8 x 30 seconds

Sky: 19 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 27 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting above the Indian Ocean at a local Yanchep surfing beach known as The Spot. This is just under an hour's drive from my home but has some reasonably dark skies. The light pollution on either side is from Yanchep on the left and Two Rocks on the right, both towns just a few kms away.

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 4000

f/2.8

Foreground: 7 x 30 seconds

Sky: 13 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 20 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting over The Pinnacles Desert, 2 hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 4000

f/2.5

Foreground: 9 x 15 seconds

Sky: 30 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 39 shot panorama of the Carina Nebula & Magellanic Clouds over a wheat farm near Northam, about 90 minutes east of Perth in Western Australia.

I only ever use myself in my images as a last resort and on this occasion, rather than just have a boring empty field I threw myself in there.

I haven't been getting a lot of airglow in my shots the last few months but it was pretty vibrant this particular night with the orange glow from sodium at about 50-60km altitude and the green glow from atomic oxygen at about 90-100km.

Nikon d810a

ISO 5000

f/2.8

Foreground: 6 x 25 seconds

Sky: 20 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 26 shot panorama of the Crux & Carina region of the Milky Way as it rises above an abandoned farm at Quairading, 2 hours east of Perth in Western Australia.

Prominent in this image are the Magellanic Clouds on the right, the pink coloured Carina Nebula in the upper right quadrant, the dark CoalSack Nebula just below that with Crux to its immediate left.

Nikon d5500

50mm + Hoya Red Intensifier filter

ISO 3200

f/2.8

Foreground: 26 x 13 seconds

Sky: 77 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

This is a 103 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting over a dry lake bed at Yenyening Lakes near Beverley, about two hours east of Perth in Western Australia.

This is a late season panorama with the core low on the western horizon. In this part of the world the galactic band is viewed almost horizonally aligned with the horizon as sets to the west. There is always quite a bit of controlled burning going on at this time of year, before the summer sets in, so the air in parts is quite thick with smoke which scatters the light giving it a yellow/orange glow as you can see here. Two prominent magenta/red coloured nebulae can be seen also just above the horizon, Carina on the far left and the North America Nebula on the right.

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 4000

f/2.8

Foreground: 22 x 30 seconds

Sky: 24 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 46 shot panorama of the Crux/Carina region of the Milky Way at The Pinnacles Desert about two hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

The Carina Nebula can be seen just left of centre and further above that is the diamond shaped constellation, Crux, also known as the Southern Cross. The Large Magellanic Cloud can be seen on the far left, just above the horizon.

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 5000

f/2.2

Foreground: 9 x 15 seconds

Sky: 22 x 20 seconds

This is a 31 shot panorama of the Carina/Crux region of the Milky Way as it aligns perpendicular to the horizon at Nambling Lakes near Dowerin, about 2.5 hours north east of Perth in Western Australia.

The wind was really strong this night, very much borderline 'pack it up and go home' strength. To reduce the impact of the wind I decided to drop the exposure from my usual 30 seconds to 20 seconds. To compensate for the reduced light I bumped up the ISO and opened the aperture about half a stop.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

Foreground: 7 x 20 seconds

Sky: 12 x 20 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 19 shot panorama of the Crux/Carina region of the Milky Way above The Pinnacles Desert, 2 hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

Nikon d5500

50mm + Hoya Red Intensifier Filter

85 x 30 seconds

ISO 3200

f/3.2

iOptron SkyTracker

Stitched in MSICE

This is an 85 shot image of the Milky Way rising over Island Point in Western Australia. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds can be seen on the right side of the image, along with some significant green airglow (thanks to the use of a tracking mount). The Carina Nebula is at the top, just right of centre, highlighted nicely by the didymium filter. The light pollution is coming from the city of Bunbury, approximately 80km (50mi) to the south.

You'll notice the lack of an arch in this image, it's because I used a different projection method in the stitching software. Normally I use Mercator but this time I went with Transverse Mercator, mainly because it's not quite a full panorama and as such wouldn't have had a full arch and would have looked a bit unfinished.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 8000

f/2.8

Foreground: 5 x 20 seconds

Sky: 10 x 20 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 15 shot panorama of the Milky Way and the Zodiacal Light above Cowcowing Lakes, 2.5 hours north east of Perth in Western Australia.

This was taken very close to astronomical dawn, hence the bright red hues above the horizon. You can also see a patch of green airglow on the right side. The rising moon, only at about 5 percent, is just above the horizon. I took the foreground images first and forgot to readjust the focus for the sky shots so the stars are a bit out of focus, luckily it wasn't too bad so not wasted thankfully.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f3.2

Foreground: 18 x 10 seconds

Sky: 40 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 58 shot panorama of the Milky Way over Lake Norring, about 2.5 hours south east of Perth in Western Australia.

Orion can be seen just poking out from above the treeline on the right. As I have done once previously, I started this panorama with Orion in the sky, shooting column by column from right to left by which time the core had risen in the east. This method allows me to capture both the core and Orion in the same panorama, not normally possible as by the time the core rises, Orion has already set.

Also prominent in this image are the Magellanic Clouds in the centre, the pink Carina Nebula above them and the deep red Gum Nebula a bit further to the right.

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 5000

f/2.2

Foreground: 21 x 20 seconds

Sky: 50 x 25 seconds

This is a 71 shot panorama of the Milky Way rising over Salt River near Quairading, 2.5 hours east of Perth in Western Australia.

Prominent in this image are the Large & Small Magellanic Clouds on the right and near the top centre is the pink coloured Carina Nebula. Airglow on this night was pretty crazy, almost all my images straight out of the camera had an extremely green tint to them.

I took these images undernearth a bridge, the top of which wouldn't have been any higher than a couple of metres above my head. The dead silence was interrupted a couple of times by the roar of a road train (multi trailer truck) going over the top of my head at 100kph!

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 3200

f/2.8

Foreground: 18 x 20 seconds

Sky: 30 x 20 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 48 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting above Diamond Rock at Point Peron, just a half hour south of Perth in Western Australia. This is a fairly light polluted, Bortle 5 location, essentially an urban area, so not an easy place to shoot astro :)

Nikon d810a

85mm

ISO 6400

f/2.8

Foreground: 39 x 30 seconds

Sky: 85 x 30 seconds

This is a 124 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting above The Pinnacles Desert, 2 hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

I hadn't intended on capturing Andromeda but got a nice surprise when I took my very last shot of the sky and saw it in my live view. It's the first time I have ever captured Andromeda! You can see it on the far right, just above the horizon.

Also prominent in this image is the North America Nebula, a little further left of Andromeda and on the far left is Carina, again, just above the horizon. In hindsight I wish I had of captured the Magellanic Clouds as well so I could boast of having four galaxies in the one image ;-)

Nikon d5500

50mm + Hoya Red Intensifier filter

ISO 3200

f/2.5

Foreground: 8 x 13 seconds

Sky: 21 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

This is a 29 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting over a farm near Darkan, about 2.5 hours south east of Perth in Western Australia.

I only just got this shot in time before the clouds filled the sky. It was also during a night of unusually high auroral activity further south which I may have picked up as the cyan coloured glow just above the horizon? I'm not sure, it's the only way I can explain the colour, which I have never picked up before in any of my images. Anyway, the whispy cloud also diffused the light from some of the brighter stars giving them a larger appearance, an effect I quite like and which I also rarely capture.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f/3.2

Foreground: 13 x 25 seconds

Sky: 33 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 46 shot panorama of the Milky Way rising above the still waters of Lake Norring, 2.5 hours south east of Perth in Western Australia.

Prominent in this image are the Large & Small Magellanic Clouds in the right centre, just above these is the deep red Gum Nebula with the pink Carina Nebula is a little further left.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 8000

f/2.5

Foreground: 4 x 20 seconds

Sky: 16 x 30 seconds

IOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 20 shot panorama of the Milky Way rising above a dead tree at Lake Ninan, 2 hours north east of Perth in Western Australia.

This was was an absolutely perfect night for astro, well aside from the biting cold, with perfect clear skies and not a breath of wind making the surface of the lake act like a mirror. This shot was taken on the north side of the lake, all of my previous visits here have been to the south side.

Nikon d5500

50mm + Hoya Red Intensifier filter

ISO 3200

f/2.8

Sky: 30 x 30 seconds

Foreground: 14 x 60 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

44 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting over Canal Rocks, about 250km south of Perth in Western Australia. I was unexpectedly met with a cloudy sky after a long 2.5hr drive to this location. There was nothing on the satellite before I left home so I wasn't happy when I got out of the car and looked up! Lucky I got a break in the clouds and managed to get a few shots in...

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f/2.8

Foreground: 20 x 30 seconds

Sky: 58 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 78 shot panorama of the non-core region of the Milky Way, visible over the summer months in the Southern Hemisphere, as it arches over the dry salt surface of a peripheral lake in the Cowcowing Lakes system, 2.5 hours north east of Perth in Western Australia.

I was hoping for a patchwork of pressure ridges, similar to what you would see in Death Valley or the Bolivian Salt Flats but the surface was mostly flat, with long lines of quite large ridges across the surface. You can see me in the distance at the intersecting lines of two ridges.

Prominent in this image is the Large Magellanic Cloud in the top right corner. Diagonally left is the pink Carina Nebula, just above Crux aka the Southern Cross. The large red region a little further up is the H-Alpha emitting Gum Nebula. On the left is Orion and Barnard's Loop with the California Nebula just visible behind the airglow above the horizon.

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 4000

f/3.5

Foreground: 26 x 13 seconds

Sky: 60 x 25 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 73 shot panorama of the Milky Way at Point Peron, part of the metropolitan area of Perth in Western Australia.

Given the location's proximity to the city of Perth, these are the most light polluted skies I have ever shot a full Milky Way panorama at. Let's just say the post processing was a little on the frustrating side, especially trying to minimise the worst of the light pollution on the right side of the image, the side where the more densely populated parts of the city are. Regardless, it made a change from having to drive two hours to a location, this one just a half hour drive away from home.

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 4000

f/2.5

Foreground: 15 x 20 seconds

Sky: 57 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 72 shot panorama of the Milky Way rising above a farm at Mogumber, 1.5 hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

Prominent in this image are the Large & Small Magellanic Clouds, just above the light pollution on the right of the dirt track. Above them is the pink, flower shaped nebula, Carina. Just to the right of centre is the dark Coalsack Nebula alongside the constellation, Crux, aka the Southern Cross. Above the horizon is some reddish-pink airglow.

50mm + Hoya red intensifier

76 x 6 seconds

ISO 3200

f/1.8

This one was a near disaster. I drove 125km to this location only to be thwarted by cloud cover. My first thought was to get back in the car and head home but I decided to go ahead and keep shooting in the hope it would clear by the time I got to the more interesting bits and thankfully it did.

The Hoya red intensifier filter gives the clouds their colour and also makes some nebula stand out including the Carina Nebula on the right side of the image. A mining operation a few km away is the source of the light reflecting off the clouds in the middle. As always, the Large Magellanic Cloud is prominent near the bottom right.

This was shot at Harvey Dam approximately 125km south of Perth in Western Australia.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f/3.2

Foreground: 22 x 30 seconds

Sky: 36 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 58 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting over the Indian Ocean at The Spot, an hour north of Perth in Western Australia.

This location is a popular surfing spot inbetween the coastal towns (or are they suburbs now?) of Yanchep and Two Rocks. You can see the light pollution just leaking into the image on both sides. Thankfully the rock formation on the right shielded much of the LP from Two Rocks. At least enough so that the North America Nebula can be easily spotted just above the rocks.

50mm + Hoya didymium filter

152 x 6 seconds

ISO 4000

f/2.2

Stitched in MS ICE

This was shot at a pine plantation in Jarrahdale, Western Australia earlier this morning. With the Milky Way directly overhead there was a lot of sky to cover, hence the number of shots it took for this image. There are no Magellanic Clouds in this one as I pointed my camera in the other direction, towards the city of Perth, using the light pollution to silhouette the pine trees. The dirt road was light painted using a hand held spotlight (which took several attempts to NOT light the surrounding trees). The location itself is only 20km (12mi) from the outskirts of the city.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 5000

f/2.8

Foreground: 8 x 6 seconds

Sky: 13 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 21 shot panorama of the Crux & Carina region of the Milky Way as it rises above The Pinnacles Desert, 2 hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

The foreground on this one was light painted with a hand held spotlight which I use like a flash. For some reason I cannot work out (perhaps the auto white balance??) it gives the normally yellow soils of this desert an orange colour instead. In summer the sands here ripple with the lack of rain which adds some nice contours to the landscape.

Prominent in this image are the Magellanic Clouds in the top right, the pink coloured Carina Nebula just left of centre and quite a bit of airglow in the sky just above the horizon.

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 3200

f/2.5

Foreground: 40 x 6 seconds

Sky: 82 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 122 shot panorama of the Milky Way rising over Lake Clifton and its thrombolites, about an hour south of Perth in Western Australia. Thrombolites are formed by calcium carbonate excretions from colonies of bacteria and are among the oldest lifeforms on earth. These particular ones though are 'only' a couple of thousand years old.

Also prominent in this image are the Magellanic Clouds just above the light pollution in the centre of the image and above the LMC is the pink coloured Carina Nebula, another staple of Southern Hemisphere night skies.

The moist air played havoc with my lens, fogging it up

every 15 minutes so some of the stars appear bloated because of this.

a winter’s tale

passion & creativity

rolled like scrolls

waiting to be understood

“Rest in reason; move in passion.” — Khalil Gibran

Canon EOS M; Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro; Hoya Intensifier Filter; RAW Image Post: Affinity Photo 1.6.7

2019-05-26-EOS-12735

(70/92 Spring 2019) GT Cooper

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 4000

f/2.8

Foreground: 44 x 30 seconds

Sky: 80 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 124 shot panorama of the Milky Way as it begins to set towards the western horizon at The Pinnacles Desert, 2 hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

I've been to this location more times than I can remember and have always light painted the foregrounds (mainly because it's so dark here - proper Bortle 1 skies) but this time I decided to capture the natural colours of the landscape. Light painting tends to give things a reddish tinge when used in conjunction with the Hoya Red Intensifier filter. Here you can see the natural yellow of the desert sands at The Pinnacles.

Prominent in this image is the bright red Carina Nebula just above the horizon on the left side. The North America Nebula is on the opposite side of the image, also red in colour and hovering just above the horizon. The multi coloured Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex can be seen just left of centre above the tallest pinnacle.

Update:

Runner Up - 'Best Astrotourism WA Nightscape' - Astrofest '23

2022 Milky Way Photographer of the Year - Capture the Atlas

Jupiter and Antares gather at the galactic center

3 panel panorama

The sky was rather hazy, with intermittent clouds. I strongly believe that this imaging setup can give better images.

Sony A7S (modded) + 90mm f2.8@f4

10X30s Red Intensifier

5X30s Soft filter

Tracked using Skywatcher Star Adventurer

Under Bortle 2-3 skies in Kedah, Malaysia

Stacked and merged in Astropixel Processor

Post Processing in Lightroom and Photoshop

Nikon d810a

85mm

ISO 8000

f/2.5

Foreground: 5 x 30 seconds

Sky: 14 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Hoya Starscape filter

This is a 19 shot panorama of the Milky Way rising above a farm near Kokeby, about 2 hours east of Perth in Western Australia. Shot with an 85mm lens so the core looks nice and big :)

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 8000

f/2.5

Foreground: 12 x 20 seconds

Sky: 51 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 63 shot panorama of the Milky Way setting over a lone gum tree on a farm in Cadoux, 2.5 hours north east of Perth in Western Australia.

This is easily the closest lone tree I have ever captured on any panorama, sitting just 15 metres away from me so it looks quite huge in this pano! I believe this is a canola farm but this was taken back in June so the canola is very young here, just sprouting I assume. I will have to come back when they are in full bloom in August or September, well that's if my recently injured back allows me to, it's stubbornly refusing to heal.

As usual with the Milky Way in this orientation, both the Carina Nebula (far left) and North America Nebula (far right) can be seen just above the horizon with the core on its way to setting towards the west. The light pollution is from the nearby Wheatbelt town of Wongan Hills.

Nikon d5500

50mm + Hoya Red Intensifier Filter

10 x 8 seconds

ISO 4000

f/2.2

Small panorama of the Carina Nebular at The Pinnacles Desert.

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f/2.8

Foreground: 15 x 25 seconds

Sky: 41 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 56 shot panorama of the Milky Way above Nambung Desert, about 2 hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

This is about 15 minutes south of The Pinnacles and is a roughly 4 square km area of pure white sand dunes adjacent to the main coastal road, so only a short walk from the roadside to the dunes.

Prominent in this image are the Large & Small Magellanic Clouds just above the horizon and right of centre, just above the LMC is the pink Carina Nebula and to the left of that is the dark Coalsack Nebula with Crux to its immediate right. And of course that's me standing and admiring the entire scene :)

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f/3.2

Foreground: 5 x 30 seconds

Sky: 12 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 17 shot panorama of the Milky Way rising above Lake Norring near Wagin, about 2.5 hours south east of Perth in Western Australia.

I was lucky again to have very calm conditions giving me some nice reflections of the sky above. This lake is just south of Wagin and part of a multi lake system and also a popular camping spot with several groups of people camping there this particular night. I also came face to face with one permanent resident of the lake, a Western Ringtail Possum, climbing a dead tree as I walked past. He just stared at me, not bothered at all, probably just curious as, being a nocturnal animal, he perhaps wasn't used to seeing us humans out and about in the middle of the night :)

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 4000

f/2.5

Foreground: 19 x 30 seconds

Sky: 135 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 154 shot panorama of the Milky Way and Orion above Lake Clifton's thrombolites, one of the most ancient forms of life on earth, about an hour south of Perth in Western Australia.

I had this shot in mind for quite some time. I wanted to capture both Orion and the core's Sagittarius region in the one panorama, normally pretty much impossible as when the core rises, Orion is setting. The only time they are in the sky together at the same time is when both regions are very close to the horizon and, as such, badly affected by the Earth's atmosphere scattering their light.

The idea was to shoot them both at least 20 degrees above the horizon but they are never at this altitude together. So my thought was to capture the panorama starting from the west where Orion is setting and at 20 degrees, but instead of shooting a standard horizontal panning style panorama I was going to shoot a vertical tilt style panorama ie shooting column by column rather than row by row (if that makes sense). I wasn't even sure that the stitching software would process it. The whole thing took two hours to shoot so by the time I got to the core in the east it had risen to 20 degrees. The next day I not-very-confidently ran the images through MSICE and was surprised to see it stitch the images without much issue. Phew!

Aside from Orion on the right side of the image, other prominent features are the Magellanic Clouds in the centre and the Carina Nebula, the pink coloured splotch, at the top of the arc while some quite strong red and green airglow adds some nice colour to the image. The tripod you can see on the jetty/boardwalk is my older d5100 camera, automatically taking the shots that made up the star trails image I posted a week ago.

Nikon d5500

50mm + Hoya Red Intensifier filter

ISO 3200

f/2.8

Foreground: 24 x 30 seconds

Sky: 87 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

This is a 111 shot panorama of the Milky Way over Pink Lake just outside of Quairading, about two hours east of Perth in Western Australia.

Once again, the yellow/orange glow is light scattered by smoke particles in the air due to prescribed burning that day. Also prominent in this image is the Carina Nebula just above the horizon on the far left, the North America Nebula on the far right and the colourful Rho Ophiuchi Complex in the middle.

And yes, I stood in the middle of the road to shoot this panorama and only had to move a couple of times to allow passing traffic, which given the remoteness of the area can be heard coming from miles away. Having some chalk in your bag is handy for marking your tripod on the road in these situations :)

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 5000

f/2.2

Foreground: 16 x 25 seconds

Sky: 25 x 20 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 41 shot panorama of the Carina/Crux region of the Milky Way as it rises above a couple of dead trees at Nambling Lakes near Dowerin, Western Australia, 2.5 hours north east of Perth.

The wind was gusting pretty badly this night so I had to shorten my exposure times to minimise the chances of my camera getting buffeted by the winds.

The Carina Nebula is the pink splotch in the upper centre of the image and below that, 'hanging off' the dark CoalSack Nebula, is Crux, more commonly known here in Australia as the Southern Cross, a constellation easily visible in our most light polluted skies and featured on our national flag. Can you name two other countries whose flag features the Southern Cross? No googling! ;-)

Nikon d5500

50mm

ISO 4000

f/2.2

Foreground: 34 x 30 seconds

Sky: 97 x 25 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

This is a 131 shot panorama of the Milky Way as it sets above Emu Downs Wind Farm near Cervantes, about 2 hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

I was hoping for one of the turbines to be switched off so I could easily capture the blades but they all seemed to be moving, albeit quite slowly in the light winds. The next best thing was to try and very quickly shine my torch on the nearest turbine, which was relatively close to me, in order to capture the blades as well. Normally the blades would not show up on a long exposure like this. I had quite a few goes at it and this was about the best I could manage, slightly blurred but I was happy nonetheless.

Prominent in this image is the Carina Nebula, just above the horizon on the far left and the North America Nebula, slightly higher above the horizon on the far right. Just above and to the left of the centre turbine is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.

Nikon d5500

50mm + Hoya Red Intensifier filter

61 x 30 seconds

ISO 4000

f/2.8

iOptron SkyTracker

Stitched in MS ICE

For those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, the Milky Way off season (where the core is not visible) is during our summer months. Normally I take a hiaitus, or just stick to star trails, but this year I decided to try something different and shoot the 'tail' of the MW as it aligns perpendicular with the horizon. This part of the sky contains prominent features such as the Carina Nebula (pink splotch just above middle), the Coal Sack Nebula (dark patch right in the middle) and the ever present Magellanic Clouds. In order to get the alignment right I had to wait until about 1-2am. This is the first of a series of Summer Milky Way shots I took over the last few weeks and was taken at a familiar location, Island Point near Mandurah, about 100km south of my home city of Perth, Western Australia.

Nikon d5500

50mm + Hoya Red Intensifier filter

ISO 4000

f/2.2

Foreground: 25 x 6 seconds

Sky: 96 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

This is a 126 image panorama of the Milky Way & Magellanic Clouds over The Pinnacles Desert, about 2 hours north of Perth in Western Australia.

Originally coming out at 1.3 gigapixels it had to be drastically downsized to fit within Flickr's 200MB file size limit so now it's a 'measly' 436 megapixels.

Prominent in this image are, of course, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds on the left. the pink coloured Carina Nebula just down and right of the LMC, the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex in the centre of the image and the North America Nebula at the tail end of the galactic band on the right, just visible in the red airglow. The foreground was light painted with a hand held spotlight and evened out in post with a bit of selective dodging and burning.