Captured just north of Nada, Texas, this golden sunrise washes across a dew-covered rice field on a misty morning. Birds soar in the warm light, and the flat Gulf Coast landscape stretches quietly into the horizon—showcasing the serene rhythm of life in Texas rice country.

I have done quite a few images with Milky Way reflections lately, but this one beats them all.

It was taken at Pass Lake in the beautiful Uintas Mountains in Utah.

I stopped at this spot to take a picknick for lunch and immediately knew that I had to come here for a night shooting. Therefore, I drove back into the Uintas the same evening.

The night turned out to be perfectly clear and calm during the first hours after astronomical dusk, so that I was able to capture this perfect reflection.

I lit the trees on the other side of the lake with two LED lights using the Low Level Lighting method.

Astro modified Canon EOS 6D

Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8

Foreground:

4 x 40s @ ISO 6400

Sky:

5 x 20s @ ISO 6400

Individually stacked with fitswork for the sky and the reflection.

The Summer Sun at the Lowest Point on the Horizon - If She Only Could Set There All Year

June 9, 2022 - South Central Nebraska US

Prints Available...Click Here

All Images are also available for...

stock photography & non exclusive licensing...

Storm Chasing Video from night on Flickr Click Here

A Sultry Evening...

One my favorite things to do... Watch a ominous lighting intense storm come over the horizon. With continuous cloud to cloud lightning & a few cloud to ground strikes. This was one of those perfect photogenic Nebraska storms.

Severe warned right after sunset. Found an open spot to shoot just some incredible June storm photography for 2022!

*** Please NOTE and RESPECT the Copyright ***

Copyright 2022

Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography

All Rights Reserved

This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.

#ForeverChasing

#NebraskaSC

Exactly one year ago, I spent the night at this stunning overlook in eastern Switzerland. I remember standing there, under the calming beauty of the night sky and thinking about what the future might bring. Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine the shape the world would be in today.

What gives me hope, is the fact that all this beauty is still there and that the lockdown showed me what is really important in life: Good health and spending time with your family and a few good friends.

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D, astro modified

Samyang 24mm f/1.4

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Panorama of 21 panels

Sky

11 panels, each a stack of 6x 40s @ ISO1600, tracked

Foreground

10 panels, each a stack of 5 x 40s @ ISO3200

This image shows one of the coastal watchtowers that are dotting the perimeter of the Salento Peninsula (southern Apulia, Italy). Most of these towers were built in the 15th and 16th. century to create an “early warning system” against pirate attacks. Many of these towers are now in very poor conditions, which despite beeing a pitty, is a blessing for night photography, as this means that most of them are unlighted at night.

I just reurned back home from a two week vacation in the Salento. Staying 1000 miles away from my computer and without a stable internet connection guaranteed a relaxing time. Of course I nevertheless took my camera along and tried a few nightscapes, despite the rather fierce light pollution plaguing the region.

I took this image during a short trip to the same region in 2018, as I have not yet found the time to download the images from my current stay.

Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D astro modified

Samyang 24mm f/1.4

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Low Level Lighting

nachtlicht° light pollution filter

Sky

Stack of 5 x 60s @ISO1600, tracked

Foreground

Stack of 3 x 60s @ISO1600

June 9, 2022 - South Central Nebraska US

Prints Available...Click Here

All Images are also available for...

stock photography & non exclusive licensing...

Storm Chasing Video from night on Flickr Click Here

A Sultry Evening...

One my favorite things to do... Watch a ominous lighting intense storm come over the horizon. With continuous cloud to cloud lightning & a few cloud to ground strikes. This was one of those perfect photogenic Nebraska storms.

Severe warned right after sunset. Found an open spot to shoot just some incredible June storm photography for 2022!

*** Please NOTE and RESPECT the Copyright ***

Copyright 2022

Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography

All Rights Reserved

This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.

#ForeverChasing

#NebraskaSC

A biplane soars into the sunset over the silhouetted ridgeline, bathed in soft golden and amber tones. The peaceful gradient sky and vintage aircraft evoke a timeless sense of adventure and freedom in flight.

June 9, 2022 - South Central Nebraska US

Prints Available...Click Here

All Images are also available for...

stock photography & non exclusive licensing...

Storm Chasing Video from night on Flickr Click Here

A Sultry Evening...

One my favorite things to do... Watch a ominous lighting intense storm come over the horizon. With continuous cloud to cloud lightning & a few cloud to ground strikes. This was one of those perfect photogenic Nebraska storms.

Severe warned right after sunset. Found an open spot to shoot just some incredible June storm photography for 2022!

*** Please NOTE and RESPECT the Copyright ***

Copyright 2022

Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography

All Rights Reserved

This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.

#ForeverChasing

#NebraskaSC

This is another shot of my visit to Moulton Barn in the Grand Teton NP.

This image was taken with my Samyang 24mm f/1.4 lens and a astro modified Canon 6D.

I kind of like the narrower FOV and the straighter lines for the barn, compared to my previously posted image: flic.kr/p/KgxpAT

A bigger stretch of Milky Way would however have ben nice. I guess you cannot have both...

You might notice that this image has remarkably low noise for ISO 6400. That is because I stacked 4 images into one. This technique is extremely efficient in reducing thermal noise of high ISO images and is a standard technique for deep sky astro photographers.

When stacking nightscapes, you have to process the foreground and the sky separately.

For the foreground you just average the single exposures. This is very easy.

For the sky it is a bit more complicated: As the stars move, when shooting from a fixed tripod, you get star trails with the above technique. You therefore have to align the stars (called registering in astro photographer lingo). There are specialized programs that can handle this task. I personally use fitswork, which delivers excellent results and is completely free.

After the stacking, you have to merge the two images again into one. As the sky image has a blurred foreground and the foreground has a blurred sky, this merging needs careful masking, which is the toughest part of the whole process.

Many Canon photographers complain about the low dynamic range of Canon sensors. While this is certainly true for low ISO settings, when you try to recover deep shadows, the Canon sensors seem to be more or less on par with other brands at high ISO settings.

So there is no reason for night scape photographers to switch brands or upgrade to the newest, fanciest and most expensive camera models. If they are striving for really clan images, like no camera of any brand will ever be able to deliver with a single image, they have to learn the stacking technique. It involves a bit of work, but the reward is a very clean image and it is completely free...

BTW: I am an amateur photographer and (unfortunately) not sponsored by Canon ;-)

Thanks for your faves and comments.

Zabriskie Point is located in the eastern part of Death Valley National Park. It is composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up 5 million years ago - long before Death Valley came into existence. Subsequent geological processes, like the widening and sinking of Death Valley and the uplifting of the surrounding mountains allowed erosion to form the badlands we see today.

The image shows a panoramic view of Zabriskie Point under the starry Milky Way bow. For eons, pristine dark skies have stood above this this equally pristine landscape and only recently the skyglow of Las Vegas, located some 100 miles to the east, has started to light up the horizon.

Prints available:

pixels.com/featured/zabriskie-point-ralf-rohner.html

EXIF

Canon EOS R, astro-modified by EOS 4Astro

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 ART

AstroHutech/BORG Telescope IDAS NBZ filter

Sky:

Panorama of 9 panels, each a stack of 5x 45s @ ISO1600, f/2, unfiltered & 3x 105s @ ISO6400, f/2, filtered

Foreground:

Panorama of 9x 5s @ ISO100 f/5.6 during blue hour

A Lyrid and some space junk are crossing tracks high in the sky, while the spring Milky Way is arching over a foggy pond in Switzerland.

This was my third night out with Benjamin Barakat. I started the drive to this pond in the middle of a downpour, as the weather report predicted that it would by clear by 11 p.m. The forecast was spot on, but soon after we arrived, fog started to form. The fog was not completely solid, but in combination with the light pollution from nearby towns, it almost drowned the Milky Way. Despite rather low hopes, I am quite happy with image I was able to capture.

While photographing the middle section, two bright spots appeared high in the sky. They moved on parallel tracks, quickly reached extreme brightness and then slowly faded, until we lost sight of them after about a minute. During this eerie sighting, a much faster Lyrid crossed the tracks of what most probably was space junk dying a firey death while plunging back into our atmosphere.

Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D, astro modified

Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 @ 15mm

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Sky:

5 panels, each a stack of 6 x 45s @ ISO1600, tracked

Foreground and reflection:

5 panels, each a stack of 6 x 45s @ ISO1600, untracked

The reflection was stacked with Sequator.

Time-lapse video: vimeo.com/178111375

A southern view of the Milky Way, Mars and Saturn over Big Lake on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada on July 26, 2016. Mars is located at far right and Saturn is above it to the left close to the Milky Way. Note the greenish / orange hue of airglow as well as skyglow above the horizon on the left. A few faint iridium flares are also visible.

Conditions were far from optimal (seeing and transparency were poor and it was humid). Nonetheless the view was spectacular.

Slight trailing in this image probably due to stretching the "500 rule" by five seconds.

After shooting under the very dark skies of the US Southwest in April and May, it was time to head out for a shooting in my home country. I met up with Benjamin Barakat and Jens Mirwald in a small nature reserve in central Switzerland.

The place was the complete opposite to Death Valley, where I was photographing two weeks before: Cool, very humid and horribly light polluted.

When the first RAWs popped up on my LCD, I almost called it a night. The polluted skies and the humidity conspired to eat up all contrast in the sky and the Milky Way was almost invisible.

If the excellent results I had gotten lately made me feel like a Milky Way wizzard, this shooting definitely brought me back to reality. Time to put my technique to add narrowband data to my tracked exposures to test.

Processing the image proved to be much more difficult than my latest big panoramas and the result is - well, it is what it is.

The bottom line is that narrowband data help to bring out detail and color, but only to a certain degree. Despite all the technical progress, you still need dark skies for truely great results.

EXIF

Canon EOS R, astro-modified

Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8

IDAS NBZ filter

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Sky:

Stack of 7x 60s @ ISO800, unfiltered & 5x 90s @ ISO6400, filtered

Foreground:

Stack of 5x 60s @ ISO3200

The coastline of southern Italy is dotted with medieval watch towers that provide picturesque photo opportunities. Unfortunately, many regions of Italy are also extremely light polluted. That's why many of these beautiful structures are not suitable for Milky Way nightscapes and most of the others can only be captured facing the darker sea. This makes them only available during certain times of the year, when the Milky Way is in a favorable position.

I captured this tower in August. The alignment of the Milky Way was already past its optimum, and the region below the core drowned in light pollution. On the other hand, the artificial light helped to give structure to the landscape and tower and I only needed to add a small LED light in the doorway for a pleasing result.

Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D astro modified

Samyang 24mm f/1.4

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Sky:

10 x 15s @ISO1600 f/2

Foreground:

7 x 30s @ISO1600 f/2

The Dark River is a perfect name for the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon at night, as it is extremely dark if the moon is not shining.

But "The Dark River" also fits the dark parts of Milky Way.

According Wikipedia, the Great Rift is sometimes also called the Dark River. It is a series of overlapping, non-luminous, molecular dust clouds that are located between the Solar System and the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.

The clouds are estimated to contain about 1 million solar masses of plasma and dust.

To the naked eye, the Great Rift appears as a dark lane that divides the bright band of the Milky Way lengthwise, through about one-third of its extent, and is flanked by lanes of numerous stars.

I took this image at Bright Angel Point on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, while the sky was ablaze with crazy green and read sky glow.

A wind farm on the south rim is producing the light pollution that can be seen on the right side of the image. (Was it really worth to ruin the pristine night skies?!?)

Nevertheless, to record any foreground features in the darkness of the Grand Canyon, I had to push my camera to its limits - or slightly above:

Astro-modified Canon EOS 6D

Tamron 15-30mm @ f/2.8

Sky:

5 x 20s @ ISO 6400

Stacked with Fitswork

Foreground:

1 x 480s @ ISO 12800

1 x 240s @ ISO 12800

1 x 240s @ ISO 6400

Stacked with PS

Thanks for all your thoughts and comments. They are highly appreciated.

Green chemiluminescence of oxygen and the galaxy that we're in. Space weather is a bit like terrestrial weather, it varies from night to night, putting a unique signature on most night shots captured under dark sky conditions.

It's hard for me to imagine destroying the beauty of phenomenon such as green airglow by artificially darkening the sky to black, or dragging tint slider to purple, or the white balance slider to blue. Or creating a post-apocalyptic smoky brown look by setting the white balance to daylight (do you see any daylight here?). We know what aurora green looks like, what the wavelength of photon-emitting oxygen looks like.

Maybe oddly tinted night shots are "creative", i.e. "art"? If so, I don't see the creativity and skill in simply dragging a slider in an odd direction. Creativity might look more like Warhol's Campbell's Soup cans. For art, shouldn't the influence of the artist be visible and intentional, not manifest itself to look exactly like a knowledge or skills deficit? Show us pink and we'll know that you meant "art", that your result is not simply a misadjusted slider. Art is still objective; I'm not required to like someone's version of it.

None of this is to say that those colors don't or can't exist at night. Purple is common if you shoot in twilight, in the evening before full darkness (the end of astronomical twilight). Particularly in the morning, after astronomical twilight, the purple creeping into my shots annoys me in my own photography, because it means that my night photography has ended, and any compositions that I didn't get to will be tainted. And the purple directly wipes out the green; I can no longer capture or show what was there. Sometimes it takes quite a while to get the composition, capture technique, and any subtle lighting you might want to add just right, and you miss the time deadline by a couple of minutes. It's aggravating. You may not have the right conditions, you certainly won't have those conditions, on the next night. You probably have other shooting objectives and may not be in the same area on the next night. So it may be years before you get to try to repeat and capture what you had intended. That's sad.

A different shade of dark purple can come from chemiluminescence of nitrogen, as seen during an aurora borealis display. Unless you're shooting aurora, that purple is much lower energy, difficult to capture or see during green airglow displays. It's darker, definitely not "tint slider purple". One way to calibrate what you should or shouldn't be seeing with airglow is to watch a lot of time-lapse videos captured from the ISS. Airglow is mostly green, in rare cases a higher altitude and lower energy red, and in cases rarer still a tannish orange color, which can be difficult to distinguish from skyglow light pollution striking smoke or clouds.

Blue can come from a crescent moon, it becomes noticeable as a crescent becomes more full, dominant and more like a moonlit sky by around 25%. A moon about to rise or having recently set can have a similar effect about 20 to 30 minutes from its rise/set time, depending upon your horizon elevation. Fine. A tiny sliver of moonlight can help illuminate your landscape, but when it colors your sky, that's no longer dark sky night photography.

I prefer straight photography. No AI. No substituted sky, no faked reflection. No black, blue, or purple skies on a moonless night. No fake splotchy fog. A little dodging and burning is OK, a little contrast is fine, but nature is stunning as it exists, why mess that up?

I tried to hide the light pollution from Las Vegas 100 miles away behind a sand dune, but it's pretty bright, even in an "International Dark Sky Park"!

Hopefully Nevada will start to rein in its wasted light with its new dark sky program:

Dark Sky Program offers unique opportunity for Nevada

sierranevadaally.org/2021/02/09/dark-sky-program-offers-u...

Wagon wheels are made of star stuff.

Well parts of them are; don't shoot the messenger!

Captured in Bodie at our night photography workshop earlier this morning, about 12:15 am. Few spaces remain in our Bodie workshops for 2016.

June 9, 2022 - South Central Nebraska US

Prints Available...Click Here

All Images are also available for...

stock photography & non exclusive licensing...

Storm Chasing Video from night on Flickr Click Here

A Sultry Evening...

One my favorite things to do... Watch a ominous lighting intense storm come over the horizon. With continuous cloud to cloud lightning & a few cloud to ground strikes. This was one of those perfect photogenic Nebraska storms.

Severe warned right after sunset. Found an open spot to shoot just some incredible June storm photography for 2022!

*** Please NOTE and RESPECT the Copyright ***

Copyright 2022

Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography

All Rights Reserved

This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.

#ForeverChasing

#NebraskaSC

I spent a cold and windy, but beautiful night at 2882m on top of Cime de la Bonnette, which can be reached by a short hike from the highest payed trough road in Europe. While the place is rather busy during the day, I had it to myself at night.

On top of the peak, there is a small platform with a circular orientation table. The planets Jupiter and Saturn are reflecting brightly on the table. The yellow-orange glow on the lower part of the sky is light pollution from the the city of Marseille 100 miles away.

Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D, astro-modified

Samyang 24mm f/1.4

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Sky:

6 x 45s @ ISO1600, tracked

Foreground:

Focus stack of 4 x 45s @ ISO1600

The summer Milky Way in the southwest with the planets Jupiter (brightest) and Saturn (centre) to the east, over the Badlands formations at the Trail of the Fossil Hunters site at Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. The illumination of the sky and ground is from the rising last quarter Moon off frame to the east at left, adding the warm lighting naturally.

Lights from the town of Brooks to the southwest adds the skyglow at right.

This is a blend of tracked exposures for the sky and untracked for the ground: 2 x 2-minutes tracked for the sky at f/2.8 and ISO 1600, plus 2 x 5-minutes at f/4 and ISO 800 for the ground, all with the Canon 15-35mm RF lens on the Canon R6 camera, and on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. Taken August 29, 2021. A mild Orton glow added with Luminar AI and some dodge/burn contrast enhancements brushed onto the foreground with TK Actions Paint Contrast action.

Bonsai Rock at Lake Tahoe was on my bucket list for a long time. Last August, during my road trip following the solar eclipse, I was finally able to tick it off.

While scouting the place in the afternoon, I was shocked how small the rock looked from the lake shore. It looked much closer in images a saw online. Only later I learned that water levels were unusually high in 2017, thus not allowing photographers to move as close as during earlier years.

I nevertheless returned to the place after dinner, to capture some nightscapes.

This is one of the first compositions I took, shortly after astronomical dusk. I was not planning to shoot so early, as the moon was still above the horizon, but when I saw the light of the setting moon reflecting across the whole lake, while Milky Way was slowly becoming visible in the sky, I just had to give it a try.

When I saw the result on the screen in the back of my camera I was glad that I once again had arrived early...

EXIF

- Astro-modified Canon EOS 6D

- Samyang 24mm f/1.4

- iOptron SkyTracker

- Low Level Lighting with 2 LED panels

Foreground:

3 x 25s @ ISO 800, untracked

Sky

3 x 25s 2 ISO 800, tracked

Thanks for all your faves and comments!

Prints available:

ralf-rohner.pixels.com

An NS SD70ACe leads BNSF Train Q NYCLAC3 25A, stopped at MP 17 on the BNSF Emporia Sub., for traffic ahead to clear before proceeding west from the former Santa Fe station site of Zarah. Thunderstorms to the north help in lighting the sky to the left, as the greater KC Metro Area skyglow adds a rosy hue off to the right.

Locomotives: NS 1018, BNSF 4662, BNSF 7366

5-25-15

Shawnee, KS

This image was taken at Bright Angel Point on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

The paved trail to Bright Angel Point (0.25 mile/0.4 km) provides one of the North Rim’s most spectacular views. It starts directly behind Grand Canyon Lodge. Bright Angel Point is by far the most popular viewpoint at the North Rim.

It was therefore to be expected, that the place was quite crowded in the afternoon, but when I returned after nightfall, I was pleasantly surprised that no one else was there. Of course, while the starry skies are brilliant, there is not much of the canyon to be seen at night. The area really is pitch-dark and from the edge of the railing, where I set up my camera, I felt like floating in a starship in empty space.

I tried several ISO/exposure combinations, but every time I got a discernable canyon, the sky and the lights at the South Rim were totally blown out.

Finally I decided to shoot at a relatively low ISO 1600 with my 24mm f/1.4 lens fully open to get as much starlight as possible while avoiding blown out lights. I took 5 images at 15 seconds @ ISO 1600.

To make the canyon visible, I had to shoot at ISO to 6400 and I knew I would have to raise the shadows of my exposures to the limit in post processing. That’s when stacking helps a lot, to reduce the inevitable noise. So I took another 5 images of 15 seconds length @ ISO 6400.

In post processing I first stacked the foreground and sky series and then merged the two resulting images into one, before I applied several contrast and color enhancements on the different layers. The whole process is quite time consuming, but assures an adequately exposed Milky Way without blown out lights on the South Rim and a naturally looking canyon below, without too much noise.

Frankly I am quite happy with the result. I hope you like it as much as I do.

- Astro modified Canon EOS 6D

- Samyang 24mm f/1.4

- 5 x 15s @ ISO 1600

- 5 x 15s @ ISO 6400

Thanks for all your faves and comments. They are highly appreciated.

June 9, 2022 - South Central Nebraska US

Prints Available...Click Here

All Images are also available for...

stock photography & non exclusive licensing...

Storm Chasing Video from night on Flickr Click Here

A Sultry Evening...

One my favorite things to do... Watch a ominous lighting intense storm come over the horizon. With continuous cloud to cloud lightning & a few cloud to ground strikes. This was one of those perfect photogenic Nebraska storms.

Severe warned right after sunset. Found an open spot to shoot just some incredible June storm photography for 2022!

*** Please NOTE and RESPECT the Copyright ***

Copyright 2022

Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography

All Rights Reserved

This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.

#ForeverChasing

#NebraskaSC

June 9, 2022 - South Central Nebraska US

Prints Available...Click Here

All Images are also available for...

stock photography & non exclusive licensing...

Storm Chasing Video from night on Flickr Click Here

A Sultry Evening...

One my favorite things to do... Watch a ominous lighting intense storm come over the horizon. With continuous cloud to cloud lightning & a few cloud to ground strikes. This was one of those perfect photogenic Nebraska storms.

Severe warned right after sunset. Found an open spot to shoot just some incredible June storm photography for 2022!

*** Please NOTE and RESPECT the Copyright ***

Copyright 2022

Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography

All Rights Reserved

This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.

#ForeverChasing

#NebraskaSC

An October night in Death Valley National Park.

What can an astrophotographer do if the skies are cloudy?

There are several possibilities:

-Catch some sleep

-Have a drink with civilized friends that do not share his passion for all nighters in remote places

-Process old images that are buried in the abyss of your hard drive

-Go out shooting anyway and hope for a break in the clouds

While the last option might sound like the least alluring, its results can be very rewarding, if you are lucky enough to find that break in the clouds. If not, well… another lost night.

Here is an example from March. As the weather forecast was not entirely hopeless, I got out of my bed at midnight, drove 90 minutes into the mountains and snowshoed to the top of a hill for 30 minutes. I was rewarded with 2 minutes of partly clear skies and was able to capture this image.

What do you think; was it worth the effort?

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D, astro modified

Samyang 24mm f/1.4

8 x 10s @ISO 6400

Stacked for noise reduction

Prints available:

ralf-rohner.pixels.com

Are bulls stargazing at night?

As I wrote in the caption of my Achiyalabopa image flic.kr/p/Y2ZNMA, I sometimes meet strange creatures in the middle of the night, but I never met so many of them, as during the last night of may May trip to the US southwest.

I don't know if it was due to severe sleep deprivation after shooting 6 nights in a row or whether this crazy place really is full of demons, goblins and gargoyles.

The stargazing bull is another example of these creatures of the night.

EXIF

Foreground: 3 x 50s @ ISO 1600

Sky: 6 x 10s @ ISO 6400 stacked with fitswork4

Thanks for all your faves and comments.

Prints available:

ralf-rohner.pixels.com

Bodie's historic Methodist church at night under clear, starry skies and a bright Milky Way.

Milky Way arching over Hat Rock near Mexican Hat in southern Utah.

After shooting the image I published in my previous post flic.kr/p/Vx6Y1C, the sky started to clear completely, but unfortunately Milky Way had moved too far to the south for a composition with Hat Rock.

I therefore had to move to the other side of the rock formation, where I was able to capture the entire starry arch.

While the last clouds drifted over the easterly horizon, the lower parts of the sky lit up with greenish skyglow and orange light pollution from the nearby villages Mexican Hat and Halchita.

- Astro modified Canon EOS 6D

- Samyang 24mm f/1.4

- 13 single image panels in portrait orientation

- 12s @ ISO6400

- Stiched with PtGui

Thanks for all your faves and comments.

Prints available:

ralf-rohner.pixels.com/

The Rhine Falls with its width of 150m and a hight of 23m is the largest waterfall in Europe. The night I took this image, it had a flow rate of 25'000 cu ft/min.

Unfortunately, not only these figures are spectacular, but also the light pollution, caused by the bright lights along the promenade and the nearby town of Schaffhausen. Furthermore, the city of Zurich and its brightly lit airport are situated less than 20 miles to the south.

That's why, despite living just 40min from this iconic place, I never thought about shooting Milky Way nightscapes at the Rhine Falls. After all, you cannot capture the elusive Milky Way from this Bortle 5 site, shooting towards Bortle 6 skies.

Really? Last week I decided to give it a try anyway. The only thing I had to lose was a nights sleep.

My first images did not look very promising, but I decided to wait a bit longer. At 1 a.m., when most street lights in Switzerland are extinguished, I immedately noticed a pronounced darkening of the skyglow and with the help of my light pollution filter I was able to capture this image.

What I had considered a 'mission impossible' turned into a pretty successful nightscape session.

What is the brightest place from which you were able to capture the Milky Way?

Prints available:

ralf-rohner.pixels.com

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D astro modified

Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

nachtlicht° light pollution filter

3 panel vertical panorama

Sky:

2 panels, each 8 x 40s @ ISO1600 f/2.8, tracked

Foreground:

1 panel of 8 x 20s @ ISO1600

This is a framing of the rich complex of nebulosity in and around the constellations of northern Cygnus and southern Cepheus, in a blend of "white light" images and images shot through a deep red hydrogen-alpha filter that isolates the red emission line from the gas clouds, bringing them out in much more detail than is otherwise possible.

The North America Nebula (NGC 7000) and adjacent Pelican Nebula (IC 5070) are below centre beside blue Deneb. The Gamma Cygni complex, IC 1318, is at lower right. The main nebula at top left is IC 1396 in Cepheus. The Cocoon Nebula lies at the end of the long dark strreak, B168, left of centre. The wispy streak at bottom left is Sharpless 2-126, aka the Great Lacerta Nebula, though it does not look too great here! It is one of many faint arcs and patches of emission nebulosity that litter the field. The dark area below Deneb is the Northern Coal Sack. The darker region above Deneb is the Funnel Cloud Nebula, aka LeGentil 3. The bright area at lower right in the Milky Way is the Cygnus Starcloud, a region less obscured by dark interstellar dust.

This is a blend of: a stack of 14 x 5-minute exposures at f/2 and ISO 3200 with the Canon Ra equipped with a clip-in Astronomik 12nm H-alpha filter, plus a stack of 6 x 2-minute exposures at f/2.8 and ISO 1600, with the latter shot through a front-mounted URTH broadband filter to help block skyglow and gradients. All with the Canon RF 28-70mm lens at 50mm and on the Star Adventurer tracker for tracked but unguided shots taken from home October 2, 2022 on a very clear and mild night. Dew spoiled the last of the white light images, thus I used only the first 6 for the stack. The dew added the natural star glows. The initial H-alpha shots were taken with the waxing crecent Moon still up.

All stacking, alignment and blending in Photoshop. Luminosity masks applied with Lumenzia. The H-alpha stack was layered in with a Screen blend mode and with its own adjustment layers and masks, and colorized with a Hue-Saturation layer. The H-alpha data was not added by replacing the red channel, as that provides no control of the blend of the H-alpha image. A mild and masked Orton Glow effect added with Luminar AI.

This is why photographers love to go shoot the Milky Way in the summer months.

The galactic centre area of the Milky Way in Sagittarius behind the grand old barn near home in southern Alberta, on June 30, 2019. Illumination of the barn is from twilight to the north, but also from light pollution skyglow from the west off frame at right. The sky is blue from the perpetual summer twilight at this time of year.

Jupiter is at centre. The nebulas and starclouds of the Milky Way show up well here. The southerly Messier clusters, M6 and M7, in Scorpius just skim the horizon at left. The very red star in the “eye” of the Dark Horse is TW Ophiuchi. This is from my latitude of 51° N.

This is a blend of tracked (for the sky) and untracked (for the ground) exposures, with a stack of 3 for the ground and 5 for the sky, stacked to smooth noise. All at ISO 1250 and one minute each, but with the sky exposures at f/2 and ground exposures at f/2.5, with the Sigma 24mm Art lens and stock (not modified) Nikon D750. The sky exposures were through a NiSI Natural Night light pollution filter. The sky exposures are at f/2 to make up for the light loss from shooting thru the filter while keeping exposures short for ease of blending later. The tracker was the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer.

I added a mild Orton effect glow layer to the image using Luminar Flex.

June 9, 2022 - South Central Nebraska US

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A Sultry Evening...

One my favorite things to do... Watch a ominous lighting intense storm come over the horizon. With continuous cloud to cloud lightning & a few cloud to ground strikes. This was one of those perfect photogenic Nebraska storms.

Severe warned right after sunset. Found an open spot to shoot just some incredible June storm photography for 2022!

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Dale Kaminski @ NebraskaSC Photography

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This image was taken on an astrophotography workshop sponsored by George's Cameras and Fuji X Aus.

Jupiter and Saturn approaching conjunction seen at the top.

Lens: Samyang 12mm F2

Two image composite.

Foreground shot at dusk (12mm f/8 1/30s ISO-1600

Milky Way shot one hour later from the same location (12mm f/2 16s ISO-3200)

Milky Way rising over Almiropotamos Gulf in South Evia, Greece.

The yellow/orange glow in the horizon is the "sky glow" over Athens city, caused by artificial light that emits light pollution, which accumulates into a vast glow that can be seen from miles away and from high in the sky.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyglow

Ο Γαλαξίας μας, ή αλλιώς Milky Way υψώνεται πάνω από τον κόλπο του Αλμυροποτάμου στη Νότια Εύβοια.

Η κίτρινη / πορτοκαλί λάμψη στον ορίζοντα είναι η "ουράνια λάμψη" (Sky Glow) πάνω από την πόλη της Αθήνας, η οποία προκαλείται από τον υπερβολικό, λάθος προσανατολισμένο τεχνητό φωτισμό (φωτορύπανση) και συσσωρεύεται σε μια τεράστια λάμψη όπου μπορεί να φανεί από χιλιόμετρα μακριά και από ψηλά στον ουρανό.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyglow

EXIF data: Canon EOS 6D, 25 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 14mm, single exposure

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One of my first night images taken with the Canon 6D, captured during my Bodie workshop June 27, 2016.

Update - We have our 2018 dates! Our new season offers a range of workshops featuring special access to the Wild West ghost town of Bodie:

www.jeffsullivanphotography.com/blog/bodie-night-photogra...

Update: I've replaced the original edit produced in a groggy state upon returning from the workshop the night before.

A 360° panorama of the summer solstice sky, taken from home at latitude 51° North, at 1:00 a.m. on the night of June 22/23, 2017, with an abundance of sky glows:

- The yellow and blue glow to the north, at centre, of perpetual twilight (the sky never gets astronomically dark)

- A minor display of northern lights adding green and magenta to the north

- Some faint green bands of airglow to the west (far left) and east (right of centre)

- And the Milky Way arching across the sky from NE to SW.

- Light pollution lights the clouds yellow from sodium vapour lamps.

However, there were no noctilucent clouds this night, which would have addded another form of solstice skyglow.

Highlights include:

- The Big Dipper and Arcturus are at far left - a satellite pierces the handle of the Big Dipper

- Polaris is left of centre

- the Summer Triangle stars are at right of centre straddling the Milky Way

- Saturn is at far right above the horizon in the Milky Way

- the Galactic Centre is in the south at far right low on the horizon as it is from this latitude

- the Andromeda Galaxy is rising in the NE at centre.

This is a stitch of 6 segments, each with the 12mm Rokinon full-frame fish-eye lens, horizontally framed, on the Nikon D750, all 40 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 3200. Stitched with PTGui. Shot from home in southern Alberta.

Light painting in a ghost town at night.

This was captured during one of our night photography workshops in Bodie, State Historic Park, California. I have several dates announced for 2014; if you might be interested in joining us, check my blog for the dates and more information, or contact me for details.

The summer Milky Way over the Rhine Falls in Switzerland.

Taking this image has been quite a challenge. In my last post from this iconic place, I already wrote about the huge light pollution produced by the lights along the promenade, the nearby town Neuhausen and Switzerlands densest populated part around Zurich in the south.

Another problem was that the small platform from where I took this image has a dense tree cover. The branches are not only framing the image, they were also blocking the view of Polaris and thus made it impossible to properly polar align my tracker. I therefore had to eyeball allignment with the help of my compass and some markers in the foreground, which fortunately worked surprisingly well.

What looks like a normal frame in landscape orientation, is a panorama, consisting of over 100 exposures that took about 1h 15min to capture.

Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com

EXIF

20 panel panorama

Canon EOS 6D astro modified

Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

nachtlicht° light pollution filter

Foreground:

11 panels, each a stack of 5 x 40s @ISO1600 f/2.8

Sky:

9 panels, each a stack of 6 x 40s @ISO1600 f/2.8

56x480s

ASI533MC-Pro, Skywatcher ED120, 0.8 reducer, Skyglow filter, CGX.

I took this image during a night photography trip to the southwest. I was planning to stay at White Pocket, but I caught a flat tire on the dirt road leading in. After changing the wheel, I headed back to Kanab to have the tire repaired. This delayed my trip by more than 4 hours and I realized that I was would not be able to make it to White Pocket before nightfall.

I therefore needed a backup plan and drove to Grand Canyon North Rim. After miraculously getting a cabin in the North Rim Lodge and having my first shower in 5 days, I headed to Angels Window.

The sky was absolutely clear and there was a strong airglow, but also a crazy wind, almost blowing me and my equipment almost off the cliff. I doubted to be able to get sharp images with my tracker under such conditions and therefore opted for untracked shots.

Grand Canyon is one of the darkest places I have ever seen and while capturing this panorama, I felt like floating between the starry sky and the dark and bottomless abyss below me. To be able record any features of the canyon, I had to push my camera to its limits.

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D, astro modified

Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART

Foreground:

12 panel panorama, each a stack of 3 x 60s @ ISO6400

Sky:

12 panel panorama, each a single exposure of 10s @ ISO6400

Prints available:

ralf-rohner.pixels.com

NOTICE: a large motel and housing development to greatly expand the buildings and light signature visible from Mono Lake is open for public comment:

Action alert: Threat to scenic Mono Basin, letters needed by August 21

www.monolake.org/today/2019/08/15/action-alert-threat-to-...

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffreysullivan/48566664797/in/album-72157710348292031/]

A recent note from the Mono lake Committee details a large development that is planned and approved for the area near the Mobil Station and Mono Lake Overlook at the Hwy 120/395 intersection.

This would spread the existing light pollution leftward from what's seen in this 2015 photo, and the large housing and hotel development would be visible in daylight as well from South Tufa.

The public comment period is open only a few more days, until 8/21.

I added below in the comments the wider panorama from this 2015 image, so you can see what brings night photographers to the Eastern Sierra, the dark sky resource that is at stake!