Milky Way panorama from Holy Island in Northumberland

untiedshoes

untiedshoes

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Name
Craig
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Hi Guys,

My 'first' (hopefully not last!!) post in the forum. A couple of months ago, I had a run up to Holy Island in Northumberland with the intentions of capturing the Milky Way in all its glory.

Moon set was going to be around 3:30am, perfect time for the Milky Way's ash cloud to rise above the horizon. Prior to the moon setting, I captured 3 horizontal images which would make up the foreground interest, then once the moon had dipped below the horizon behind me, I set about capturing 5 portrait orientation images which would of course make the Milky Way. The downside to doing this is that around 4am, you start to see the glow from the rising sun on the horizon. The light pollution to the left is Berwick and to the right is Bamburgh.

Details: Bottom set, 3 x ISO 800 & f/2.8 20s. Top set, 5 & ISO500, f/2.8 for 28's. Shot with a D800e and 14-24 f/2.8.

I eventually got back home around 7:30am, then worked the rest of the day... I ended up going around 39hrs with no sleep that day!!! The final image was a complete pain to put together; D800e raw files are huge, and creating a full size pano from them really put my machine to work. The final image is over 60" native size and around the 2gb file size with a 10gb scratch size... eeeeeek!

holy-island-milky-way.jpg
 
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Lemaildetom said:
Well worth the effort this is stunning!
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markmullen said:
Absolutely superb. Welcome to the forum.
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Thanks Guys, much appreciated :)

It's an image that I'd wanted for a very long time. I have another image planned, but the conditions have got to be prefect; high tide, no moon, clear skies ( I know, I know... I'm not asking for much lol), but considering we're getting to the end of the Milky Way season, it may have to wait till next year now.
 
That's an impressive first post

I don't mind the town glow - it's a bit like pots of gold at the ends of a rainbow :)
 
What an image to introduce yourself to the forum with.
Welcome and I look forward to seeing more from you if this is the kind of stuff you produce!!!
 
Musicman said:
That's an impressive first post

I don't mind the town glow - it's a bit like pots of gold at the ends of a rainbow :)
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Thanks MusicMan - That has been said before :)
 
Carol said:
Wow thats fantastic! Well worth the effort.
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Thank You Carol... I wasn't saying that while my Mac was choking trying to stitch the huge pano together, while I was crying for my bed lol!! It actually took me about three days to get it right.
 
Just for something a little different....

This is a slightly different version, but also processed as a mono. When I initially did this I didn't like it - after all, it's all about the colour with the Milky Way, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked it.

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Amazing image and all credit for the dedication :)
 
gramps said:
Amazing image and all credit for the dedication :)
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Thanks Gramps.... Quite odd calling you that as my son calls my dad gramps lol
 
JakeT1992 said:
Didn't know you'd found your way onto this forum! Looking forward to seeing you posting up on here!
Have you considered entering this shot into Astro Photographer of the Year? I reckon it stands a fantastic chance.
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I haven't mate - quite new to the forum thing. I used to spend a lot of time on them in my younger years lol

I've been a member for a while, just never really got round to posting.
 
untiedshoes said:
I haven't mate - quite new to the forum thing. I used to spend a lot of time on them in my younger years lol

I've been a member for a while, just never really got round to posting.
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untiedshoes said:
Is the comp on here Jake?
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I've spent far too much of my life on forums, it all started with cars when I was 17! :LOL:
No mate, it's a national comp, much like LPOTY.
It would appear entries have already closed for 2014, but one to bare in mind - http://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year
 
That's brilliant! I was considering going out last week to try this but the clouds put that idea to bed. That's an absolutely superb shot.
 
vtrjames said:
That's brilliant! I was considering going out last week to try this but the clouds put that idea to bed. That's an absolutely superb shot.
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Thanks :)

To be honest, it's getting a bit late now - the sun is rising around 3:30/4am and you'll get to much glow at the same time as the cloud comes into view and add into that light pollution.

Mid to late April is the best time, although find somewhere pitch black and you've got a better chance. Even in pitch black, you'd be very surprised how much light and from how far away a 30s ISO5000 exposure will drag in.
 
There's a shame, I read somewhere that the best dates to see it this year would be mid July and mid September. Is there somewhere I can find accurate information about it's timing? I have Stellarium but I'm still getting to grips with it.

James
 
vtrjames said:
There's a shame, I read somewhere that the best dates to see it this year would be mid July and mid September. Is there somewhere I can find accurate information about it's timing? I have Stellarium but I'm still getting to grips with it.

James
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Best time is march though may; any longer then you need to be far south really. Where are you?
 
Vesalius said:
Beautiful, beautiful photo. I would love to produce some like it.

Much better in colour for me (y)
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Thank you Vesalius :)

It took me quite some time to get to that, learning about the best times is probably the most difficult and frustrating!
 
great pic there i would be well over the moon with that one ..
 
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