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Details

Submitted: October 5, 2009
Image Size: 343 KB
Resolution: 800×800

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Comments: 464
Favourites: 5,209 [who?]
Views: 39,845 (2 today)
Downloads: 2,092 (0 today)

Camera Data

Make:NIKON CORPORATION
Model:NIKON D3
Shutter Speed:30/1 second
Aperture:F/2.8
Focal Length:17 mm
ISO Speed:1600
Date Taken:Sep 25, 2009, 9:12:35 PM

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Celestialby ~AndyMumford

Photography / Animals, Plants & Nature / Weather and Sky

”Flags, rags ferryboats, scimitars and scarves
Every precious dream and vison, underneath the stars”
The Whole of the Moon – The Waterboys

Edit: Thanks to ^ScENeYmE for suggesting this as a DD and to ^Anoya for featuring it. I appreciate it

The Photo

Experimental shot really, I just wanted to see how well this would come out.
Last weekend my wife and I were driving to the south, and as we’d left home so late, I didn’t really have any hope of getting any shots in the beautiful landscape of Alentejo.

It was a clear night, and the stars were really visible even from the motorway as this part of Portugal doesn’t really have any significant towns, so I decided to give this technique a try.
We turned off the motorway and I found a road on the GPS that looked as though it was as far away from any villages as possible to keep light pollution to a minimum.

Climbing over a barbed wire fence in the darkness and avoiding the cow shite was an adventure, and then trying to find a composition and focus when I couldn’t see a thing was challenging, to say the least.
The moon was out though, and after 10 minutes my eyes had got so used to the light, that I could make out my own shadow from the moonlight, and find an uncluttered composition that would give the sky some context.

I opened the lens wide to f2.8 and set the camera to ISO1600. I figured there was zero chance of blowing highlights and wanted to get as much light in as possible so set the shutter to 30 seconds. I could have gone down a stop of ISO, but I thought that much longer than 30 seconds the stars would start to move (which they actually have done a little on the corner of the frame).

So this is actually a panorama of 2 horizontal shots to get as much of the sky in as possible, and the lighter part on the left is caused by moonlight, which was at my left shoulder. The orange glow is actually the ambient light from the village of Ourique, about 10 kilometers away….I’d like to tell you that I composed for the glow to be behind the two trees, but that’s just luck.
You can just make out the gases in the galaxy, but I really needed it to be darker to bring this out properly.

As I said, this is just an experiment to try out a technique. Next time I want to be in a place where there’s no ambient light, and also shooting without moonlight. I also want to have arranged the composition beforehand

Metadata

Taken near Ourique, Alentejo, Portugal
Nikon D3 w/ Nikkor 17-35mm 2.8
Gitzo GT2541 tripod w/ Gitzo GH1780QR ballhead
30s | f2.8 | ISO1600 | 17mm

Workflow in Apple Aperture 2. Title in PS

Thanks in advance for any comments or faves. Sadly, I no longer have time to reply to individual comments, but I do appreciate people taking the time to look.
Any questions, please note me.

Daily Deviation

Given 2011-10-17

I could stare at this for hours!

Celestial by ~AndyMumford ( Suggested by `ScENeYmE and Featured by `Anoya )

love 23 23

joy 8 8

wow 17 17

~~mad 0 0~~

~~sad 0 0~~

~~fear 0 0~~

~~neutral 0 0~~

~AndyMumford Nov 20, 2011

Lol...of course

`RezzanAtakol Nov 10, 2011

Congratilations on the very well deserved DD

~AndyMumford Nov 20, 2011

Thanks

`Anoya Nov 1, 2011 Photographer

_{Hi!

I wanted to let you know that you've been featured in the APN Daily Deviations - October 2011 News Article!}

~AndyMumford Nov 2, 2011

Thanks, I appreciate it

`Anoya Nov 6, 2011 Photographer

Not a problem

~DarkSeducer257 Oct 26, 2011 Student Photographer

That's beautiful! I love space so much! Can't find any constellations I know though...

~AndyMumford Nov 2, 2011

Thanks a lot.
I honestly don't know much about constellations, but an astro photographer who commented on this shot when I first posted it two years ago posted a comment on the various constellations visible in the sky here. I've copy/pasted the relevent parts. Hope that helps.

"The middle of this mosaic is centred around the constellation of Cepheus. The bright star towards the top left (about 200 pixels from the left) is Vega, in Lyra. This star is the subject star in the movie Contact. The bright star towards the top right is Alpheratz, in Andromeda. And, in actuality, if you look -- roughly 200 pixels down, and approximately 100 pixels in from the right, you can see a distinct bar-shaped smear, with a bright core -- you have managed to capture M31 (The Andromeda Galaxy). M31 is the most distant object visible to the naked eye, at approximately 2.3 million light years distant. That is, the light that your sensor recorded that night is 2.3 million years old -- for that object, anyway. M31 is moving towards us at approximately 50,000 km/s...

...Just below the centre of this composition is the North Celestial Pole, where you'd find Polaris."

~DarkSeducer257 Nov 3, 2011 Student Photographer

Wow that's so awesome! And what makes it even more awesome is the fact that I see Vega and Polaris every year! I believe one day the Andromeda Galaxy will collide with the Milky Way!

*AdARDurden Oct 21, 2011 Hobbyist Photographer

Successful Experiment !!! Very Nice !! Congrats on the DD !!

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