Milky Way over Cheddar Gorge

[James]

I spent much of last night up in Cheddar Gorge taking advantage of the clear skies for the first time in a few weeks. With mid-summer approaching the nights are much shorter but there's still a chance to get out there and take some photos  

I wanted to check the area out for some night time images, it's beautiful during the day and the sunset was nice - and the temperature, well, shorts and T-shirt stuff!

Being out at night is always interesting - boy racers going up and down the Gorge, a bunch of lads at the bottom of the Gorge who figured they were the modern equivalent of the Three Tenors - on the other side of the Gorge were what I presume was the local Mountain Biking group - a bit surreal seeing a series of bright lights silently moving around the top of the cliffs..

I did a quick timelapse - I haven't put it together yet, probably take me about 6 months but here's one of the shots from it showing the Milky Way rising over Cheddar Gorge.. the bright lights at the bottom are from a couple of cars driving up the Gorge. The view covers the east (left) through to the south west.

Unfortunately the image does seem to have been a bit jpeggerised

 

[Mr niall]

Amazing shot - would love to see a time lapse!

[Merlin66]

I'm visiting Axebridge for the next couple of weeks. If there are any interested members in the local area who want to discuss spectroscopy I'd be glad to help.

 

[Alan White]

Jpegerised, that's a new word for my dictionary.

Nice image and look forward to the time lapse version.

[Swoop1]

A stunning image James

 

[SonnyE]

Beautiful, James!

Quite a wonderful composition. So much to feast the eyes upon.

I love doing time lapses. They bring the night to life.

Even " jpeggerised" it is most impressive! Unfortunately, jpg is the web norm we have to bring our images down to.

What was your exposure settings?

[James]

54 minutes ago, SonnyE said:

 

What was your exposure settings?

 

Thank you   25 second exposures, ISO3200, Canon 6D through a 14mm Samyang lens at f/2.8

 

[SonnyE]

5 minutes ago, James said:

 

Thank you   25 second exposures, ISO3200, Canon 6D through a 14mm Samyang lens at f/2.8

 

Wonderful! Thank you James!

Sounds very much like my own settings with my Nikon D3300 when I do some of my overnight runs. I'm somewhat limited in my settings, so I often use time to try and find a happy medium. I'm most often at an ISO of 1600 or 800, manual mode, Nikon 10-24 mm wide angle lens (so I can tweak the image size, most often 16 -18 mm), f/3.5, with my Intervalometer doing the shutter.

I look forward to when you get your time lapse worked up.

Very beautiful image! Thanks for sharing!

[Lenny147]

Lovely image 

[Daniel-K]

very nice James. im looking to explore around the area later on in the summer. little off topic would you recommend the samyang ? 

[steppenwolf]

Lovely image, James although I do feel that the sky is a little overexposified

Seriously though, it is a cracking picture.

[PeteC]

Cracking shot  I use a 6D and Samyang 14mm for nightscapes too, and I also find 25 sec f2.8 iso3200 is a good place to start for MW shots. And I don't think it's overexposified - well maybe to a picky astronomer , but not to a punter looking to buy a nice piece of wall art.  They generally don't like the sky being too dark.

[SonnyE]

4 hours ago, PeteC said:

Cracking shot  I use a 6D and Samyang 14mm for nightscapes too, and I also find 25 sec f2.8 iso3200 is a good place to start for MW shots. And I don't think it's overexposified - well maybe to a picky astronomer , but not to a punter looking to buy a nice piece of wall art.  They generally don't like the sky being too dark.

Picky Astronomers, Punters, and Pokeymons...   Beauty is in the eye of the picture's post processor.

I'm just a budding booger, The other night I set out the Nikon and tried ISO3200, and 10 second exposures. I liked the result I got (I was expecting horrid noise). But pulled it in when the sky went orange from a combination of fog and high pressure sodium used for street lights here. Much to my surprise, it was still reaching through the murk even though two alignments with my telescope failed miserably.

I shouldn't complain though. If they switch over to LED's I'll likely have to say good night to the skies.

[James]

On 29/05/2017 at 21:51, steppenwolf said:

Lovely image, James although I do feel that the sky is a little overexposified

Seriously though, it is a cracking picture.

Thank you Steve - it's pretty reflective of how bright the sky looked to the naked eye.. but the Milky Way didn't look as bright admittedly

 

[Pete Presland]

Very nice I especially like the way the Milky way seems to disappear into the distance over the cliff face.