Mother Cap nightscape

[RichLD]

I was out and about around Derbyshire last night with my 6D. My original intention was to grab a sunset but it ended up siling down with rain which firmly put the kibosh on that idea! I checked the forecast again on my phone which showed promise so I hung around - sure enough it started  to clear up nicely at around 6.00pm so I decided to scramble up to Mother Cap (a gritstone formation behind Surprise View car park, 359m, 53.3211°N, 1.6242°W) to try and capture said rock and Orion in the frame.

I didn't have my iOptron Skytracker with me so went for a single frame at iso 800 with the Samyang 14mm wide open for 20 seconds. This is a 4:3 crop of the original and of course the stars aren't perfect (a bit of trailing and coma when viewed at 100%), plus I reckon I've gone a bit OTT with the noise reduction. I'm still quite pleased with it though as I was expecting to go home empty handed, so thought I'd share, hope you like it!

For the eagle eyed amongst you, there's a bit of rather vulgar paleolithic style art that someone has decided to scratch into the rock - I hope it doesn't offend! 

 

All the best

 

Rich

[Guest]

That's a lovely pic. Zoomed in you can make the star trails but zoomed out you can't make them out which is fine. What is that steak near orion? I'm guessing it was a plane? Did you ask the passengers their permission for a photo? 

[RichLD]

Many thanks! I'm guessing it's a plane but I have seen some very strange lights in the sky out there...

Now, where's my tin foil helmet? 

Thanks again Dakaar!

[Mr Spock]

I've been there a few times. Not sure I'd want to walk up there in the dark though!

[RichLD]

7 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I've been there a few times. Not sure I'd want to walk up there in the dark though!

Let's just say I had to tread VERY carefully and take my time - a Leki pole, some extremely stout boots and a very bright head torch helped enormously! 

[CraigT82]

Nice!  Love the sky low down by the horizon.  Few minutes with the healing tool will sort out the 'art'.  Just picked up a 14mm f2.8 myself, cant wait to use it in anger.

[RichLD]

Many thanks Craig! The Samyang is a top piece of glass for astro, I know you're going to love it! 

[Trevor N]

Excellent picture. Know the area well. Shame that  some want to deface it. Presumably they think it's "cool" or whatever the saying is at present

[RichLD]

16 hours ago, Trevor N said:

Excellent picture. Know the area well. Shame that  some want to deface it. Presumably they think it's "cool" or whatever the saying is at present

Many thanks Trevor! Yes, it is a shame that some people feel the need to deface things of natural beauty, kind of like dogs and lamp posts only without any purpose 

[laudropb]

Very nice photo.

[newbie alert]

Great pic..about 15 secs with a 14mm is about right on my camera...sharp lense..nice