Kynance Cove moon shadows and Rame Head MW

[Mike73]

Inspired by seeing other peoples beautiful wide field images here I'm going to add a few of mine taken over the last 6 months all taken across Cornwall.

 

This first one is from Kynance Cove which is at the Lizard and is the UK's most southerly point. It gets very dark here at around 21.7 SQM and was one of my old haunts when I was observing but on this night the moon was rising at 2am so rather than simply attempt a standard Milky Way image I thought I'd try and capture the point that the MW slowly fades away as the moon rose behind me.

The cliffs here are quite high, maybe 200ft or so and as the moon rose in altitude the shadows from the cliffs were cast on the rocky islands.

Nikon Z6 with 20mm f/1.8 S

1x foreground image with 4x2 min stacked for the sky using a Move Shoot Move tracker.

 

This second image is of Rame Head close to where I live, its a bit of a local landmark so I made this image as a present for my sister.

Its probably around 5 miles as the crow flies from Plymouth City Centre so its not very dark at around 21.2 SQM but still dark enough to see big objects like the North America nebula, Lagoon nebula and M31 with the naked eye.

Nikon Z6 with 20mm f/1.8 S

x4 focus stacked images for the foreground and 6x2 minute exposures for the sky with the Move Shoot Move tracker.

 

 

[FenlandPaul]

That's a lovely pair of images, Mike.  The flowers in the foreground of Rame Head are magical, and I love the compressed view of the core and Rho Oph.  Kynance Cove is on my list of locations for next Summer's Cornwall trip - it looks like there are so many interesting compositions there.                                                

[Mike73]

40 minutes ago, FenlandPaul said:

That's a lovely pair of images, Mike.  The flowers in the foreground of Rame Head are magical, and I love the compressed view of the core and Rho Oph.  Kynance Cove is on my list of locations for next Summer's Cornwall trip - it looks like there are so many interesting compositions there.                                                

Thanks Paul.

Its about an 1 3/4 hr drive for me to get to west Cornwall but I love it down there so outside of holiday season I'm down there a lot. As you say there are just so many beautiful astro landscape possibilities, if you need any hints for great places to shoot then please drop me a message anytime.

I saw your image of the Sennen look out hut and you mentioned zodiacal light, I had to google it as I didn't know what it was so I may or may not have seen it at some point?!

The only problem with it being so dark in west Cornwall the green air glow you can sometimes see when looking out to sea. You can't se it with the naked eye but it makes colour balancing your images very tricky.

[FenlandPaul]

12 minutes ago, Mike73 said:

Thanks Paul.

Its about an 1 3/4 hr drive for me to get to west Cornwall but I love it down there so outside of holiday season I'm down there a lot. As you say there are just so many beautiful astro landscape possibilities, if you need any hints for great places to shoot then please drop me a message anytime.

I saw your image of the Sennen look out hut and you mentioned zodiacal light, I had to google it as I didn't know what it was so I may or may not have seen it at some point?!

The only problem with it being so dark in west Cornwall the green air glow you can sometimes see when looking out to sea. You can't se it with the naked eye but it makes colour balancing your images very tricky.

 

Thanks Mike - I agree, it's a photographer's dream!  I'm actually down there again at the end of October, when the moon will be rising late evening.  It's after the main MW "season" but I'm hoping to get some decent shots with the Cygnus Milky Way and possibly Orion rising.  I may take you up on the offer of great places to shoot!

I have to say I quite like some airglow in widefield images.  I think it can add a nice atmosphere to the composition, so it's never especially bothered me - the darker skies outweigh the downsides from the airglow disturbance for me.

This was my zodiacal light image.  It was more subtle with the naked eye, but very clear in averted vision.

 

[davew]

Wow. Lovely shots. I hope we get to see more over the winter. 

I agree with Paul that the flowers look really good and I actually like air glow.

Dave.

[AstroNebulee]

Absolutely stunning Mike 👍

[James]

Both are lovely Mike - I spend a week in April down in the Lizard and often get clear dark skies but have always been too lazy to drive over to Kynance and walk to a good spot carrying equipment