Milky Way panorama over Lake Annecy.

[Felias]

I thought I'd share some photos I took over the half term. The Milky Way over Lac Annecy, in Haute-Savoie.  The bright dots in the bottom left are Jupiter and Saturn, and you can see the Summer Triangle too. The photo is a mosaic of eight pictures stitched together, each taken with my 16 mm Samyang f/2 lens, exposure 25 seconds, ISO 800. I used Hugin to blend the photos into a single panorama; it gave me a few headaches since I had never constructed one before.

It was quite cloudy, but one can't be too picky on holiday, not to mention that after a tough climb to the promontory known as Roc de Chère with all the equipment, I wasn't going to give up! I did some trial pictures before starting the panorama, and although it's only half the FOV I intended (4 photos), it was less cloudy around the Milky Way, so I thought it was worth processing. You can only see Saturn, and barely the lake, but here it is:

I took some pictures while waiting for darkness, so just to show you what the place was like, here's the sunset after stitching 11 photos (still the Samyang 16 mm). The tiny peninsula in the centre is the subject of a famous painting by Cezanne, by the way :

And another panorama with my Canon 50 mm pancake lens:

 

I also captured Jupiter, Saturn and Venus at sunset:

And a 50 mm zoom of Venus (very hazy, it was basically behind the clouds):

 

On a different night, I pointed my camera towards the other end of the Miky Way, just across the street from the apartment I was renting in Talloires. It was cloudy again, and there was plenty of light pollution coming from the ermitage de Saint-Germain-sur-Talloires; a nightmare to process. Yet Andromeda and the double cluster are easily seen, and if you squint you can find M33 on the bottom right. A stack of 100 lights, f/2, 10 seconds, ISO 800; plus flats, darks and bias. Foreground blended from a single shot, 30 s, ISO 800.

Not my best effort, but I had lots of fun taking these pictures! Watching the sunset over the Alps, alone in the forest, was a special treat. 🤩

 

[Zummerzet_Leveller]

Lovely set of images, especially given the conditions. Still a lot of sodium lights over there I see, I know light pollution is the bane of our hobby but it has added a nice ambiance to your images with the cloud.

[Felias]

10 hours ago, Zummerzet_Leveller said:

Lovely set of images, especially given the conditions. Still a lot of sodium lights over there I see, I know light pollution is the bane of our hobby but it has added a nice ambiance to your images with the cloud.

Thank you! I quite like the clouds in the second picture, but they sort of ruin the last one. They were practically invisible to the naked eye that second night, so I didn't find out until I processed the photos back home.

[Ouroboros]

Incredible set of images!  

[davew]

Wow ! That first one is wonderful.

I used to think only a clear sky would do but images like yours prove me wrong again and again.

I bet you slept well that night ?

Dave.

[Felias]

26 minutes ago, davew said:

Wow ! That first one is wonderful.

I used to think only a clear sky would do but images like yours prove me wrong again and again.

I bet you slept well that night ?

Dave.

I agree that clouds can give character to a photo, but they only work if it's a single shot. A stack when it's cloudy is messy, and creates artifacts, I almost gave up on the last picture I posted above.

[saac]

That first photograph is absolutely stunning , really enchanting.  Well done  

Jim 

[Felias]

14 hours ago, saac said:

That first photograph is absolutely stunning , really enchanting.  Well done  

Jim 

Thanks!