View allAll Photos Tagged STARSCAPE
I can hardly believe that more than a year has passed since my visit to the petrified tree in Bisti Badlands. April 2017 has been an incredibly productive month for me and it is very frustrating that I did not have one single chance to capture the Milky Way in April this year.
I am therefore looking forward to May and hope that I will get my chance to make up for the missed opportunities.
EXIF
Canon EOS 6D, astro modified
Samyang 24mm f/1.4
iOptron Skytracker
Low Level Lighting
Foreground:
4 x 60s @ ISO 800
Sky:
6 x 60s @ ISO 800, tracked
Prints available:
Milky Way over Powder Mills, Dartmoor. In 1844 a factory for making gunpowder was built on the open moor, not far from Postbridge. Gunpowder was needed for the tin mines and granite quarries then in operation on the moor.
There are extensive remains of this factory still visible. Two chimneys still stand and the walls of the two sturdily-built 'incorporating' mills with central waterwheels survive .They were built with substantial walls but flimsy roofs so that in the event of an explosion, the force of the blast would be directed safely upwards.
This reservoir in central Switzerland is very popular for Milky Way photography due to easy access and calm waters that create beautiful reflections.
Nevertheless, I was a little surprised how many photographers turned up that night. Luckily everyone knew how to behave and we all had an enjoyable time talking shop and taking pictures.
EXIF
Canon EOS-R, astro modified
Sigma 28mm f/1.2 ART @ f/2
IDAS NBZ filter
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Foreground:
Panorama of 8x 60s @ ISO3200
Sky:
Stacked panorama of 5 panels, each a stack of 6x 45s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 3x 105s @ ISO6400, filtered
Reflection:
Panorama of 8x 30s @ ISO 6400
I spent a beautiful night at this scenic lake and ejoyes one of the best Milky Way reflections I ever saw.
Shortly before moonrise, I had captured all my planned shots and was ready to call it a night. While packing my gear, I noticed that the peaks started to glow in the light of the rising moon. Despite beeing tired from shooting two nights in a row, I set up again and shot a panorama of the lake in moonlight.
The result confirms an old photographers wisdom:
It is always worth to linger a bit longer.
Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com
EXIF:
20 panel panorama from fixed tripod.
Canon EOS 6D astro modified
Tamron 15-30mm f2.8
20 x 30s @ ISO6400
After shooting this chapel with Orion in December, I paid it another visit in March. The snow was gone by then, but the spring Milky Way arching over the Chapel was an awesome sight anyway.
EXIF
Canon EOS R, astro-modified
Sigma 28mm f/1.4 @ f/2
@astrohutech IDAS NBZ filter
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Sky:
7 panel tracked panorama, each a stacknof 6 x 30s @ ISO1600, unfiltered + 3 x 90s @ ISO6400, filtered
Foreground:
7 panel panorama, each a stack of 5x 60s @ ISO3200
In July I went with to this stunning place in central Switzerland to capture Comet Neowise. After finishing the comet shots, we moved to this nearby spot to for a Milky Way nightscape.
I had to move my tripod a few times until I was happy with my placemet of the small grass road as a leading line into the image.
When I was happy with my composition, I aligned my tracking mount. As usual, this only took a few minutes, but when I turned back south, I realized that a massive cloud bank had moved in and blocked the entire lower part of the sky, including the Milky Way core.
I hoped that the clouds would disappear as quickly as they had moved in. I took my foreground exposures, but unfortunately, the clouds stayed longer. When they finally moved away, the Milky Way core was already hidden behind the hill on the right. I still shot my tracked sky then, but I do not like it as much as the Milky Way core I had captured with my maximum ISO test shots for framing.
I therefore tried to stack my 5 framing shots, but as I had moved the tripod a few feet between the exposures, my usual stacking programs failed miserably. As a last resort, I tried PixInsight and to my pleasant surprise, this powerful program did an excellent job stacking the files. After some further processing in Photoshop, I am quite happy with the result, considering it was shot with 8 years old technology at a crazy ISO 25'600. It is definately not perfect, but will have to do until I can revisit the place next year.
EXIF
Canon EOS 6D astro modified
Samyang 24mm f/1.4
Sky:
5 x 2.5s @ ISO25600, f/2
Foreground:
10 x 60s @ ISO3200
Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is one of the most awe-inspiring places I know. The oldest trees in this area were already standing 3000 BC., when the Egyptians were building the great Pyramids.
The most famous tree in the area is highly over-photographed and it can get very crowded there. As my last post flic.kr/p/JtfUjT shows, I could not resist capturing it as well, but while all photographers I met there, headed back to their cars after capturing it, I continued further up the trail to shoot some trees nobody seemes to care about. One of them, a tree I already noticed during my visit in 2016, I think of as “The Spike” ever since.
- Canon EOS 6D
- Samyang 24mm f/1.4
- iOptron SkyTracker
- Low Level Lighting
Foreground:
3 x 50s @ ISO 1600 untracked
Sky:
3 x 50s @ ISO 1600 tracked
Travel astrophotography - Aruba
Canon 60Da, Canon EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Lens, 4.0 sec; f/2.8; ISO 4000
One week ago, I had the pleasure to meet with Ensrud Photography and Abe Blair for shooting the Milky Way over Lake Tahoe.
The sky conditions were perfect, but hiking through snow fields and working in temperatures a few degrees above the freezing point were quite a contrast to my previous night in the desert, where I was shooting in shorts and sandals.
Special thanks to Abe for sharing two of his favorite locations with us!
EXIF
Canon EOS-R, astro-modified
Sigma 28mm f/1.4 ART
IDAS NBZ filter
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Sky:
9 panel panorama, each a stack of 7x 45s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 3x 105s @ ISO6400, filtered
Foreground:
9 panel panorama, focus stack of 2x 5s @ ISO1600, f/5.6 & 2x 30s @ ISO100, f/11 for the car trails during twilight
Banff is always a great place to shoot. Certainly no shortage of beauty. I am most fortunate to be able spend a couple of weekends there every year....except of course last year. Hopefully will be able to travel again this Fall!
Riding the Earth’s spin into a new day. Astronomical twilight in the eastern sky washes away the stars. The core of the galaxy with the light of millions of stars fades from view, replaced by a single star after a few more degrees of rotation.
“…the day destroys the night,
Night divides the day…” -Morrison
I wanted to do something a little different at this popular Tetons scene so I arrived a few hours before dawn for some night photography. Two exposures, one early to capture the stars (15 sec @ f/2.8, ISO1600) and then another exposure later when the early twilight was slightly illuminating the mountains and barn (30 sec @ f/4, ISO 800). A similar look could have also been achieved with moonlight...if there had been a moon rising behind me that night. Canon 5DII, 70-200mm f/2.8 L.
I captured this along the Colorado River in Moab Utah. The fore ground was capture while the Moon was out and the sky after the Moon set. It was a beautiful night on the river and under the stars of late July.
The milkyway over a cove near Garlieston, Galloway (Scotland). This is blue hour, so far from dark skies, yet the skies still allow the milkyway to be easily seen.
Panorama of Sunset Arch in Grand Staircase-Escalante NM.
A few days ago https;//PhotogAdventures.com published a podcast with Royce Bair.
In this one hour interview, Royce explains what the advantages and drawbacks of stacking, tracking and panoramas are.
When asked to name a spot not to be missed for nightscapes in Grand Staircase-Escalante NM, Royce answers with "Sunset Arch". Immediately after that, Royce states that his favorite season for nightscapes is April or May, because you can capture the rainbowlike Milky Way arch during these months.
What shall I say? I couln't agree more.
Here is the link to the podcast with Royce Bair:
m.soundcloud.com/user-407436417/royce-bair-single-image-m...
EXIF
22 panel panorama
Canon EOS 6D astro modified
Samyang 24mm f/1.4
iOptron SkyTracker
Low Level Lighting
Foreground:
11 x 25s @ ISO3200
Sky:
11 x 25s @ ISO3200, tracked
Prints available:
I visited Mexican Hat in spring 2017 and spent a very windy night, shooting the famous Hat Rock under the starry skies.
While I have published a few shots from that night, I was not very happy with most final processed images. Recently I stumbled over one of these less than perfect captures and found that the RAWs did not look bad at all. I therefore reprocessed the image from scratch. I like the result much better now, but it also makes me question my processing skills from two years ago.
I guess I'll have to go back and recheck some of my old shots...
Prints available:
EXIF
Canon EOS 6D astro modified
Samyang 24mm f/1.4
iOptron SkyTracker
Sky:
5 x 100s @ ISO3200, f/2.8
Foreground:
5 x 60s @ ISO1600, f/1.4
A lonely cross under a starry sky has always been an extremely symbolic scene and this is even more true, after the suffering of the last couple of weeks. The cross means that, even during the darkest times, there is reason for hope. Let's therefore hope that our lifes will soon see resurrection as well!
Happy Easter!
Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com
EXIF
Canon EOS 6D astro modified
Samyang 24mm f/1.4
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Foreground:
Stack of 6 x 30s @ ISO1600
Sky:
Stack of 6 x 30s @ ISO1600, tracked
Memories of a beautiful night in the Swiss Alps with my astro buddy Benjamin Barakat one ayear ago, in July 2021.
The weather forecast was less than perfect that night, but we decided to take the risk and headed to this beautiful lake. The sky was never fully clear, but the Milky Way core was open most of the time. Due to the rather fast moving clouds and the slightly disturbed water, I did not track the reflection and worked with a higher ISO than I would normally do, but I still like the result.
Prints available:
ralf-rohner.pixels.com/featured/cloudy-reflections-ralf-r...
EXIF
Canon EOS Ra
Canon EF-24-70mm f/2.8 @ 44mm
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Sky:
Stack of 6x 45s @ ISO3200
Foreground:
Stack of 5x 45s @ ISO6400
Reflection:
Single exposure of 45s @ ISO6400 from the foreground stack
Mountain biking in the middle of the night. The stars were amazing. Had a great time. Even if my chain did come off ;)
I captured this image in The "Valley of The Gods" in Southern Utah. This place is magical with otherworldly views in every direction but it's when night comes that this place really transforms into a place of dreams.
This is a two-part image.
Foreground: Blue Hour image
Nikon D 850
1 Image
2 minutes
F 8
ISO 200
The Milkyway:
Nikon D 850
16 images stacked
ISO 4000
4 Sec
2 Dark Frames
Blended in Photoshop
Edited in Lightroom
Many of the boulders you see here are as large as cars
Zoom in for the details
"What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
My favorite poet certainly didn't have such a luxurious fountain in mind, when he wrote those words in his famous novella "The Little Prince", but when I saw it during my visit to Death Valley National Park in May, I knew I had to return to shoot it with the rising Milky Way.
EXIF
Canon EOS R, astro-modified
Sigma 28mm f/1.4 ART @ f/2
IDAS NBZ filter
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Sky:
Stack of 6x 45s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 5x 105s @ ISO6400, filtered
Foreground:
Focus stack of 5x 4s @ ISO100 during blue hour
Canon EOS Ra, F2.8, ISO 6400, Combination of 10 images - 8 sec each, Lens EF16-35mm f/2.8L II USM.
Milky Way over Toronto Reservoir Bethel, NY. Toronto Reservoir is a reservoir located just 7.7 miles from Monticello, in Sullivan County, Bethel, in the state of New York, United States, near Black Lake, NY.
The Milky Way rising above the Ward Charcoal Ovens.
The Ward Charcoal Ovens operated from 1876 through 1879, the silver boom years of the Ward mines. The ovens were eventually phased out completely due to depleted ore deposits and a shortage of available timber.
If you ever visit the region, I highly recommend stopping at this small State Historic Park. The history of the ovens and the impact they had on their environment is extremely interesting. There is also a nice hike along the nearby creek, where, during my visit, thousends of wild roses were in full bloom, filling the air with their sweet scent.
Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com
EXIF
Canon EOS 6D astro modified
Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Low Level Lighting
Sky:
8 x 30s @ISO6400, tracked
Foreground:
8 x 30s @ISO6400
In landscape astrophotography, we try to create a relation between the starry sky and the earthly foreground, and when I saw these red flowers with the dead trees behind them, I knew I had hit a nightscaper's jackpot.
The scene immediately reminded me of the red hydrogen emission nebulae and the galactic dark clouds and was perfectly positioned to align with the vertical Milky Way, which would be dominated by such structures later that night.
When the Milky Way had moved into position, some green and red airglow made the scene even more colorful than expected.
EXIF
Canon EOS R, astro-modified
Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 @ 15mm
IDAS NBZ filter
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Sky:
Stack of 6x 90s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 3x 180s @ ISO6400, filtered
Foreground:
Focus stack of 5x 30s @ ISO100 during blue hour
The Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud can be seen overhead. The LMC is a satellite dwarf galaxy of the Milky Way that is among the closest galaxies to Earth. At about 163,000 light-years from Earth, the dwarf galaxy looks like a faint cloud in Southern Hemisphere skies. The SMC, or Nebucula Minor, is a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way. It is classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy. Red and green bands of airglow can also be seen in the night sky and in the reflection of the sky on the water.
A star trail of Selsey with the moon making a tiny appearance. The milkway makes up much of this trail, so I like to add my own twist and blend in one of the single shots to produce what you see - gives much more meaning to a standard trail I feel.
I met this little guy on a remote planet named Arizona. Communication with the rocky lifeform was not easy, but if I understood him correctly, he was visiting from somewhere north of the Sadr the region.
He was very calm until that huge black cloud creeped in and slowly started eating up the Milky Way. I tried to calm him down by telling the story about the intelligent Black Cloud from Fred Hoyle's equally named science-fiction novel. That did not seem to help, though, and the little guy decided to call home for help. His pose kind of reminded me of E.T., although I was missing the glowing finger...
EXIF
Canon EOS-R, astro-modified
Tamron 15-30mm, f/2.8
IDAS NBZ filter
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Sky
2 panel panorama, each a stack of 10x 90s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 5x 180s @ ISO6400, filtered.
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
It has been either cloudy or the moon has been up at night for ages. I finally got one night out shooting just before new year. In one of my images I captured the faint Gum Nebula.
The Gum Nebula (Gum 56) is a vast, almost circular emission nebula that sprawls across nearly 40° of the southern constellations Vela and Puppis. It is so large, yet faint against a bright and complex background, that it is hard to distinguish; its front edge is as close to us as 450 light-years, while its back edge lies about 1,500 light-years away.
The Gum Nebula is believed to be the hugely expanded (and still-expanding, at 20 km/s) remains of a supernova that took place about a million years ago. It contains the Vela OB2 Association, the hot stars of which (among them, Naos) cause it to shine. Also embedded in the Gum are the Vela Supernova Remnant and the Vela Pulsar, though both these are very much younger.
It is named after its discoverer, the Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum (1924–1960), who published his findings in 1955.
Wisps of charged gases continue to expand after a supernova explosion over 30,000 years ago
See on Fluidr
OTA: Takahashi FSQ-106 EDX4
GUIDER: None
MOUNT: Software Bisque Paramount MyT
CAMERA: FLI ML-16070M
GUIDE CAMERA: None
REDUCER: Takahashi 645 QE .72x f/3.6
SOFTWARE: SGP, PhD2, TheSkyX, Pixinsight, Starnet++, Photoshop
FILTERS: Astrodon LRGB; 5nm Hα, 3nm SII, 3nm OIII
ACCESSORIES: Optec Gemini Focuser/Rotator
LOCATION: SRO
To see more of my work and to buy prints visit www.jklovelacephotography.com/pages/space
Crater Lake National Park has been on my astrophotography wish list since I visited this stunning place for the first time after watching the solar ecilpse in 2017. Unfortunately, heavy smoke kept me from producing anything useful back then and I promised myself to come back as soon as possible. To my disappointment, I was smoked out again, during my second visit in 2018.
Earlier this month, I had a San Francisco layover, which I had planned to use for some astrophotography in Yosemite NP, but the weather forecast predicted rain and snow, while all my alternate spots in California expected solid high cloud cover. A few apps however showed a reasonable chance for a patch of clear skies during the night at Crater Lake NP. After picking up my rental car in the morning and checking the forecasts one more time, I decided to take the risk and drive to Crater Lake for my 3rd try.
When I arrived in the afternoon, it was rather cloudy, but I neverteless started scouting for nightscape compositions, as the spots I knew from my previous visits wouldn't align with the sky this late in the season.
After a colorful (which means cloudy) sunset, it magically cleared within half an hour and I finally got my Milky Way shot over Crater Lake.
Due to the orientation of the Milky Way in October, the famous composition with Wizzard Island in the foreground was not possible. Instead, I had to shoot the cinder cone across the lake and you have to zoom quite a bit into the image to be able to see it.
I nevertheless like this image with the Milky Way becoming visible during astronomical twilight and setting Venus reflecting in the water.
EXIF
Canon EOS Ra
Sigma 28mm f/1.4
iOptron SkyTracker Pro
Low Level Lighting
Foreground:
Stacked focus stack of 10 x 60s @ ISO1600, f/1.4
Sky:
10 x 90s @ ISO800, f/2