A short trip to Australia - Part I

[John Baker]

I thought I would post some shots from a recent trip to visit my daughter near Brisbane in Australia and we stayed on a farm near Gatton which is about 2 hours inland from Bris. Over the 3 weeks we had some amazing clear nights and the lack of light pollution made for some great viewing.  

I was only able to take a limited amount of kit with me, so along with the Canon 1Dx and several lenses (Canon 8-15 f4 fisheye zoom, Tamron 15-30 f2.8 and Canon 100 – 400) I was also loaded down with  my tripod and Skywatcher Star Adventure.

This is a general fisheye shot from the farm.

 

Astrophotography in a warm climate is so much more enjoyable, going out at 3:00 in the morning in a comfortable 25 degrees in shorts and t-shirt is so nice.

I did really struggle to get a fix on the south celestial pole (SCP), but I simply worked with a compass and setting the latitude on the EQ base.  This is 4 shots on the 15-30mm at 30mm, ISO 3,200, f3.5 at 75 seconds. The star burst on the Southern Cross was added for another web site. I was really impressed with the Magellanic Clouds.

Not totally sure what this green blob is just above the LMC, I did see a post that Comet 252P/Linear was passing through the area???

This is a single shot 30" shot as ISO 6,400 with the 15-30mm at 20mm f2.8

A selfie, shot with a remote control

8-15mm at 8mm, single shot 54 seconds, f4 at ISO 6,400 looking to the North

A shot over the tomato sheds

I was trying to push the exposures, this a single shot at 42 seconds, 15-30mm at 15mm at f2.8 ISO 6,400

Working with the Sky Adventurer did really help the quality, 15-30 at 20mm, 2 x 60 second exposures  ISO 3,200

I will do a second post with a couple more...

 

 

[kenny k]

Some very nice images there John,well done.

Its on my bucket list to get down under some time to view the southern skies.

Kenny