AstroLandscapes #52 - the lost village of Godwick

[FenlandPaul]

At last new moon, I headed up to the middle of west Norfolk to an abandoned medieval village known as Godwick.  Very little structurally remains of the village, but as the surrounding land has been pasture since its demise, the size and plan of the settlement can still be discerned through earth mounts, ditches and embankments.  The centrepiece of the village is the remains of its church, Godwick All Saints, which stands, somewhat out of place, in the middle of a field.  I'd seen some daytime images taken by another photographer I know, and having studied local OS maps and light pollution potential, I thought it stood a decent chance of being a good nightscape location.

The village is accessed by a 15 minute walk across fields.  I arrived at dusk about 15 minutes before a scheduled ISS pass, so pressed on as quickly as I could through 7-foot high oil seed rape, on a a very ill-defined path, getting to the church tower just in time, covered in pollen and those little yellow petals which, being soaked in a light early dew, readily stuck to me.  I managed to get set up just as the ISS became visible in the west and made its seemingly leisurely transit towards the east, peaking at about 75 degrees in altitude.

[📷 Canon 6D with Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens | 🔧 Sky - 7x30s exposures at ISO400. Foreground - 1x90s exposure at ISO400 | 🎞️ Edited in Lightroom (also using the new AI denoise), assembled in PS.]

As the twilight deepened, I was on the look-out for noctilucent clouds, although being early in the season I knew it was reasonably unlikely.  I managed to convince myself at one point that I could see a brightening that was inconsistent with the twilight gradient, but having examined the images this was, unfortunately, a false alarm.  That said, it was a beautiful view and I was pleased with this pano, nonetheless.

 

As it got dark enough, my first target was Cassiopeia, with a simple composition over the tower.  I took two versions of this image; one with the Kase Starglow filter and one without.  Those that follow my work will know I have a penchant for dreamy starscapes, so I'm quite partial to the Starglow effect, but I know it's not to everyone's tastes.  

[📷 Canon 6D with Canon 50mm f/1.8 at f/1.8 | 🔧 Sky (non-starglow) - 10x8s exposures at ISO1600.  Sky (starglow) - 5x8s exposures at ISO1600. Foreground - 1x30s exposure at ISO1600. 🎞️ Stacked in Sequator. Assembled and edited in PS.]

The next constellation shot was Leo, which by this time was curving its reverse question mark around the top of the church tower.  As with Cassiopeia, I opted for starglow and natural shots for this composition.

[📷 Canon 6D with Samyang 24mm f/1.4 lens at f/2 | 🔧 Sky (non-starglow) - 20x13s exposures at ISO1600.  Sky (starglow) - 5x13s exposures at ISO1600. Foreground - 1x30s exposure at ISO1600. 🎞️ Stacked in Sequator. Assembled and edited in PS.]

It was now just about time for what I'd expected was going to be the main event of the evening (it wasn't.... keep reading....).  The Milky Way core was just starting to rise around midnight and I reckoned I had a good hour of shooting in decent enough (though not complete) darkness.  The trouble by now was that the dew was falling very hard and mist would descend periodically.  My woes were compounded by leaky batteries in my star tracker that meant my plan for doing some tracked milky way shots had to change to some static images instead.  After faffing around with compositions that just didn't seem right, I eventually got something I was at least half-pleased with, although when I came to edit it I was fighting against a sky that wasn't entirely dark.  Nevertheless, and despite my grumpiness at the time, it's always great fun being out under the Milky Way from a light-pollution-free location, and to see the Great Rift arching down to the south east was real joy.

[📷 Canon 6D (astro-modded) with Samyang 14mm f/2.8 | 🔧 Sky  - 22x25s exposures at ISO3200.   Foreground - 1x85s exposure at ISO1600. 🎞️ Stacked in Sequator. Assembled and edited in PS.]

As I was taking the long exposure foreground shot for the image above, I saw a message from a friend of mine who was out on the coast a few miles north and reckoned he had some faint green auroral glow on his camera. So as soon as I finished the exposure I pointed the camera toward the north.  To my absolute delight, the frame was filled with deep pinks.  In an instant, my frustrations with the lack of a decent milky way dissipated and I ran around trying to grab a few still images as well as setting up timelapses.  The very heavy dew was making images challenging, but thankfully the aurora was so bright only short exposures were required.  Whilst I couldn't pick it up with the naked eye, a few people reported the brighter pillars being visible clearly.  I've already posted the main auroral structure image I captured that evening, so below I'm sharing an image that captures the essence of the evening better than any other - the mist suddenly descended a created a wonderfully atmospheric feel around the church, diffusing the aurora (and enhancing its colour) beautifully; I felt very lucky indeed to be alone, capturing such a wonderful moment in this ancient place.

As with some other recent nights out, I filmed a video journal, in which you can see the timelapses I made of the auroral pillars dancing behind the tower.  That's linked below, and in the meantime thank you for reading this far and I look forward to any thoughts, comments, constructive criticism etc.  And if you enjoy the video journal, please consider subscribing to the channel for more of the same - just nice relaxing nights under the stars. 😊

 

[andrew63]

An amazing series - clusters and gas all over the place, nice pass of ISS also.

[FenlandPaul]

1 hour ago, andrew63 said:

An amazing series - clusters and gas all over the place, nice pass of ISS also.

Thanks Andrew - appreciated,

[AstroNebulee]

Hot Damm Paul. I know I've commented on your YouTube but jeez your images are blooming exceptional 🤩

I love all of them but the Aurora through the mist is just so incredible, everything aligned for this image. 

The use of the sky glow filter just gives the image something else and more depth. 

You really give me inspiration to keep pushing and trying Nightscapes. 

Thank you again for sharing your amazing knowledge and images. 

 

Lee 

[FenlandPaul]

20 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Hot Damm Paul. I know I've commented on your YouTube but jeez your images are blooming exceptional 🤩

I love all of them but the Aurora through the mist is just so incredible, everything aligned for this image. 

The use of the sky glow filter just gives the image something else and more depth. 

You really give me inspiration to keep pushing and trying Nightscapes. 

Thank you again for sharing your amazing knowledge and images. 

 

Lee 

That’s very kind indeed, Lee. If I’ve in anyway inspired you to get out there, then that’s the very best thing to hear. 
 

I love the misty aurora one too. I printed one up the other day, and I’m quite chuffed with it. 😊

[Petrol]

Wow that's very impressive Paul and thanks for sharing. I've subscribed to your youtube channel as I'm just starting out trying some night timelapse and milky way imaging. Hope you don't mind me asking but what's the piece of kit on the hot shoe and how do you set the white balance with your astro modded 6D?
Again thank you for sharing your fantastic nightscapes and knowledge.

Pete

[clarkpm4242]

Great read @FenlandPaul !

Hadn't seen the Leo compositions, nice.

Misty aurora is magic.

Paul

[FenlandPaul]

9 hours ago, Petrol said:

Wow that's very impressive Paul and thanks for sharing. I've subscribed to your youtube channel as I'm just starting out trying some night timelapse and milky way imaging. Hope you don't mind me asking but what's the piece of kit on the hot shoe and how do you set the white balance with your astro modded 6D?
Again thank you for sharing your fantastic nightscapes and knowledge.

Pete

Thanks Pete - very kind. The hot shoe is holding a wireless intervalometer - it doesn’t interact with the hot shoe, just uses it as a mounting bracket and a short cable goes from there to the port. I use it a lot for timelapses and sequences of lots of shots for stacking.

9 hours ago, clarkpm4242 said:

Great read @FenlandPaul !

Hadn't seen the Leo compositions, nice.

Misty aurora is magic.

Paul

thanks Paul. Misty aurora still my favourite. 😊

[WolfieGlos]

Wow, incredible series of shots! To also get the aurora whilst there you were very lucky. Agree with the mist, it looks almost magical. Great work! 

[FenlandPaul]

32 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

Wow, incredible series of shots! To also get the aurora whilst there you were very lucky. Agree with the mist, it looks almost magical. Great work! 

Thank you - the aurora was definitely a bonus for the evening (in fact it sort of redeemed it after the dew and kit issues!).