Milky Way from Kranjska Gora, Slovenia

[mcrowle]

I've just returned from a week in Kranjska Gora, north west Slovenia. In keeping with my plan to incorporate at least some astro-imaging into holidays where possible, I spent an evening at a local (man-made) lake, Lake Jasna, to photograph the Milky Way over the Julian Alps.

The location was fairly dark - although there are some lights around due to cafes and small hotels, plus occasional glare from passing car headlights. Also, some thin cloud started to move in from the southwest as I started imaging.

Anyway I was quite pleased with the result below, a single 13-sec exposure at f/2 and ISO 3200, with a Canon EOS 7D and Samyang 24mm f/1.4.

Incidentally, this holiday was a quick change of plan after my original trip was cancelled. That was to have been a group walking holiday in La Palma, where I planned to do more imaging, weather-permitting, including using a star-tracker. Unfortunately the group departure never had enough people booked.

Best regards, Mike

[Scooot]

Very nice Mike  

[Ganemedes]

Really good photo right there. 

[James]

Nice one Mike  Sorry to hear the la Palma walking trip didn't pan out - there's some stunning walks there. Maybe next time...

 

[happy-kat]

That's a great image and a single frame only.

[mcrowle]

Many thanks for your kind comments and likes!

Yes, a single frame, though I took many more (all with some thin cloud unfortunately). It will take me a while to work through all the processing, but I plan to stack these in due course. I also have some star trails, taken slightly closer to Kranjska Gora but including the same mountain range, to stack later.

James, La Palma certainly remains in my plans ?. I was there for two holidays back in the 90's and had superb skies for several nights both times - and that was just from the hotel roof terrace, in the capital, more or less at sea level!

Regards, Mike.

[Ganemedes]

I can't wait to see the result after the processing and stacking. Hope you will be kind enough to share it with us. 

Greetings from Greece, 

Kyriakos.

[mcrowle]

Thanks, Kyriakos - yes, I will post that.

In the meantime, here is an image from a little earlier that evening. At the time, it was dark enough for the Milky Way to be visible but there was still enough ambient light for the mountains. All equipment and exposure details are the same as the previous image, and there is only light processing (curves adjustment, and fairly strong noise reduction).

Regards, Mike.

[mcrowle]

Below is the result of a stack of 6 x 13-sec exposures. I thought I had more frames, but actually there were changes to the settings and framing so and only 6 were consistent enough to include.

I used Sequator (for the first time - I usually use DSS) for stacking, and then Paint Shop Pro to adjust the curves and colour balance.

Regards, Mike.

[peter shah]

superb capture...what a location!