Magical Ring of Stones

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Here's a quick 30 snap to the south of the Milky Way taken with my kit lens (f3.5, ISO 3200 & heavy noise reduction applied). I used a torch to light-paint the foreground, part of The Hurlers stone circles on the edge of Bodmin Moor, thought to date to the early Bronze Age. Local legends says that a group of players were turned to stone for playing the game of hurling on a Sunday.

Some people have claimed the stones are astronomically aligned but I don't know if that is true. Certainly the ancient people who erected them would have had a far more intimate relationship with the night sky than we do. Even at a truly dark site I find my night vision compromised by LEDs and camera screens as I spend too much time imaging and not enough looking up.

The light domes on the horizon are from Plymouth and Liskeard I think, about 15 and 5 miles away. It's darker to the north-west where there is 10 miles of empty moor.

I'm surprised how well the kit lens shot has turned out at ISO3200, noise reduction makes it useable. I'll definitely be returning sometime to take some more shots, a 360 degree panorama wouldn't take long if I can get the stitching software to work.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice!

[Scott Tilley]

Nice shot, I love astro shots with a clear link to the planet earth. As you say loads of detail with kit lens!

Scott

[Pete Presland]

Very effective always good to have something interesting in the foreground.

[JamesF]

Lovely picture.  Those light domes are shocking though

James

[laudropb]

Lovely well set up image. Always nice to see something different in the foreground. Nice story too. Thanks for posing.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Lovely picture.  Those light domes are shocking though

James

Thanks. The light domes aren't too bad really, they are far enough away that they don't reach that high. Here's a kit lens shot of Orion from November last year:

Plymouth is at the lower left of frame. There is some crud remaining at the bottom but gradient removal in StarTools has got most of it, I can just make out the Witch's Head.