First post - hopefully in the right location - Daymark, Kingswear, Devon

[John Baker]

My first post, so be gentle. I am not sure of the convention, do you post one big'un in all its glory, or a couple of tiddlers to give more of a feel for the shoot - anyway, I have gone for the lil’ option

I took another 4 photographers up to the iconic Daymark Beacon close to Kingswear. The basic plan was to try to get good views to the south, but be aware of the light pollution of Paignton & Torbay.

We arrived on site at 12:30, parking in the carpark and a short walk down the road brings you to the tower. Background - built in 1863 the Daymark is a hollow, octagonal tower built of limestone and rises to 80ft into the air, it was used to mark the entrance to Dartmouth harbour.

Conditions were great, the waxing gibbous moon was to the west giving a nice light onto the tower. Milky Way was very prominent, only obscured on the horizon with a small bank of cloud. A couple of ships in the bay added to the view, the Start Point lighthouse was a small problem, but was to the South West.

I find wide field astrophotography highly frustrating, using all the tools & apps you can visualise what you want/expect and there is normally a very big reality gap when you get on site. Thankfully last night exceeded expectations, a great night with amazing light. Having 5 photographers at one location at night is always a bit of a trial – but we got there in the end, they had fun & hopefully went away knowing a bit more about the process.

All images on my Canon 1Dx, shot on my 15mm f2.8 fisheye, exposures ranged from ISO 3,200 to 12,800, shutter was either 30” or 25” and I did try fiddling with the aperture, most were at either f2.8 or f4 – images de-fished by hand in Photoshop.  The Milky Ways have had some work on their structure with the Viveza, Nik Plug-in, plus a final de-noise with Dfine 2 again from Nik.

I am more than happy to hear thoughts and suggestions or answer any questions. Some of the shots were compromised by having a field full of light waving newbies, but I am more than happy with the results…

[xtreemchaos]

amazing images John,its hard to pick a fav out of the set,but no5 just edges it for me.thanks for sharing. all the best..charl..

[laudropb]

Rest images once again. You really do capture the atmosphere in all your scenes

[Astroboffin]

Hi,

I was there myself a couple of weeks ago, staying in Dartmouth with my wife for a short break, and we did a walk along the costal path towards Brixham, and saw this and took some photos, but in the middle of the day. It's a fantastic structure, and your pictures make it even more fantastic.

Here's one of my efforts, from about 2 in the afternoon, it's not an astro pic....sorry for,that

AB

[John Baker]

Hi,

I was there myself a couple of weeks ago, staying in Dartmouth with my wife for a short break, and we did a walk along the costal path towards Brixham, and saw this and took some photos, but in the middle of the day. It's a fantastic structure, and your pictures make it even more fantastic.

Here's one of my efforts, from about 2 in the afternoon, it's not an astro pic....sorry for,that

image.jpg

AB

Thanks AB it's a great location, here are a couple of non astro versions as well. I am keen to get back when the field has been cut & bailed - that could make an interesting view.

I know there are a lot of photographers on here, these were taken on my old Canon G11, this is my macro camera of choice, but it also has a nice +3 ND filter option, this drops an optical glass filter into the light path and allows a nice slow shutter speed - images converted in a combined PHotoshop as well as a Nik SilverEFEX plug-in - basically using a sting red filter to turn the blue sky black & make the clods reply pop

[LukeSkywatcher]

Stunning images. Sorry if i missed it, but what is the purpose of that tower?,.

In your images it almost looks alien.

Fantastic.

[John Baker]

Stunning images. Sorry if i missed it, but what is the purpose of that tower?,.

In your images it almost looks alien.

Fantastic.

HI LS - I am currently on my iPad, so it's a quick cut & paste response

"The Daymark was built in 1864 by the Dartmouth Harbour Commissioners. This hollow, octagonal tower is built of limestone and rises to 80ft (24m) high on tall arched legs. It was built as a guide to mariners to the position of the harbour entrance. It is visible for many miles out to sea. Dartmouth harbour is notoriously difficult to find from the sea. In 1863, Charles Seale Hayne, the owner of Brownstone at that time, became a founder member of the Dartmouth Harbour Commission, whose main aim was to improve access and facilities to Dartmouth harbour. The following year, Seale Hayne leased land for the erection of this tower as a day beacon."

It"s an impressive structure & makes an interesting addition to a night shoot. Here is a shot from another night, slightly different lighting, big moon obliterating all detail, but a good opportunity to do some constellations...

[Mick J]

Welcome John, enjoyed looking at these, what an amazing structure, thanks

[Pete Presland]

Fantasic set of images.

[John Baker]

Just to finish this off, I managed to get this shot and another in our local regional paper, the Western Morning News - always nice to make a bit of money from your images

[Ohan Smit]

Great images there

Nik Collection is a powerful one with astrophotography

[John Baker]

Great images there

Nik Collection is a powerful one with astrophotography

It comes with a big warning, be very careful, it is too easy to "over egg". I tend to do all the nik work on seperate layers, at least that way you can try to remove some of the excesses. The biggest culprit is Silver EFEX which can be taken to extremes, so I tend to do 2 x B&W conversions, one through Photoshop using seperate layes for, Colour filters (Red, Green, Blue, Orange, etc), Brightness & Contrast, levels, curves - I will then do another SFEX layer and then work at  blending them all back together.

With these I work with Viveza, this allows me to work on the structure to bring out the detail of the MW - the system allows me to apply ths sharpening as a brush, so I try to apply in layers, working up sections with a 30% brush, I can then by pressing the X key swap and remove where I have over cooked - it is not an exact science and one persons "punchy work of art" can be seen as a tweaked monster by others.

I am a self/web taught newbie at astrophotography, so I am more than happy to take comments & observations.  One of the most excitiing things for me is the new sensor technology that allows me shoot things I could not dream of in the past.   Some of these images were shot at 30" second, f2.8 and ISO 12,600 which to me felt I was pushing my own envelope & getting me excited about seeing places in a totally new light - or possibly lack of light