Milky Way on Holiday in Rural Northumberland

[WolfieGlos]

I present here my first attempted mosaic image of the Milky Way, captured whilst away on holiday in Northumberland in mid August.

There were plans to go to Kielder, but sadly every night there was fully booked at the observatory, not that it mattered since it was also forecast to be total cloud sometimes mixed with rain in that area! Ah, the UK's 2023 summer. But being based about an hour east from there and closer to the coast seemed to work in our favour for the weather, and I had 1 clear night to take advantage of the Bortle 3 skies - just on the edge of the dark sky area - and of course, once the clouds disappeared !

Living in a bortle 4 area anyway, I didn't notice much difference in the appearance of the Milky Way to the naked eye, but being on a secluded farm miles away from anywhere was just ideal.

What was less ideal, is that it wasn't until I got home that I realised I had forgotten to take any still images of the landscape for my image! So unfortunately the buildings are blurred from where I used the tracker. Coincidentally, this is also the first time I've used a tracker to image the Milky Way, having previously done it using 20 second exposures on a static tripod.

Because of this I nearly deleted the data, but decided to process anyway.

Stacked with Sequator and stitched with Hugin, processed with Siril and GIMP.

Star Adventurer + Canon 800D (Astro Modified) + EF-S 10-18mm @ 10mm, f/4.5 @ ISO 1600.

10 x 90s per panel for 4No panels so a total of 1 hour. Standing outside just gazing upwards whilst the camera did the work was simply great.

So I have 3 versions of the image, fully processed once and then a change to the final orientation and a crop. Can't decide on my favourite, but kind of leaning towards the second one with the "upside down" version, despite the glow at the top looking unusual. I'm not actually sure what it is, since we were literally in the middle of nowhere with no streetlights, and it's beyond the extents of the farm buildings, so I can only assume it's from low level cloud reflecting light from the nearest town about 5 miles away.

Comments welcome 🙂

 

The view looking south-west, glow comes from about where the track leads straight into the field, so way beyond the farm house to the right (out of picture).

 

[JeremyS]

Splendid pics from a super location 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[Stu1smartcookie]

Really nice photos , Chris . I am off to a similar part of the world soon ... better take the camera .

 

[WolfieGlos]

4 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Splendid pics from a super location 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Thanks Jeremy 🙂

View the other way wasn't bad either! Definitely recommend the area, for Astro or otherwise.

 

4 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Really nice photos , Chris . I am off to a similar part of the world soon ... better take the camera .

 

Thanks Stu, it's a lovely area and yes, better take the camera! 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Brilliant pics. You've whet my appetite for my Kielder trip next week!

[AstroNebulee]

Nice images and what a perfect location to image from 

Lee

[WolfieGlos]

6 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Brilliant pics. You've whet my appetite for my Kielder trip next week!

Thanks - and lucky you! I hope you get some clear skies to take advantage of it. Are you booked into the observatory?

2 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Nice images and what a perfect location to image from 

Lee

Thanks Lee! Agreed, it was. If we head back there (it was a 5 hour drive afterall...), I think I'd stay on or near Lindisfarne to try and capture that area at night next time, with some better framing for a nice backdrop like you've been showing off lately 🙂

[GordonD]

Lovely image(s) - well done!

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

54 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

Thanks - and lucky you! I hope you get some clear skies to take advantage of it. Are you booked into the observatory?

 

Thanks, so do I...

I haven't booked into the obsy although I may buy one of their beanies to support the cause. If the nights turn out that good, I want as much time behind the 125mm refractor as possible. 🙂

[AstroNebulee]

9 hours ago, WolfieGlos said:

Thanks Lee! Agreed, it was. If we head back there (it was a 5 hour drive afterall...), I think I'd stay on or near Lindisfarne to try and capture that area at night next time, with some better framing for a nice backdrop like you've been showing off lately 🙂

It'll be definitely worth the drive next time if you can stay for a while too, it's a long way but hopefully you'll be rewarded with amazing images. Those 2 trees in the distance look potential candidates for framing, if the farmer will let you. And thank you for your kind words 😀

Edited October 3, 2023 by AstroNebulee

[WolfieGlos]

15 hours ago, GordonD said:

Lovely image(s) - well done!

Thanks Gordon!

14 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Thanks, so do I...

I haven't booked into the obsy although I may buy one of their beanies to support the cause. If the nights turn out that good, I want as much time behind the 125mm refractor as possible. 🙂

Still jealous of that Stellamira 125! Fingers crossed for you.

5 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

It'll be definitely worth the drive next time if you can stay for a while too, it's a long way but hopefully you'll be rewarded with amazing images. Those 2 trees in the distance look potential candidates for framing, if the farmer will let you. And thank you for your kind words 😀

You're right, those two trees would have been good for framing! It would be fine with the farmer, especially being crop fields too. Those trees were about halfway down the single track road to the farm, and it goes nowhere else other than the farm. It's near a small town called Thropton http://www.lorbottle.com/index.html. I've tried blending with trees on images before and I'm not very good at it, but I'm sure you'd do a better job  

[AstroNebulee]

1 hour ago, WolfieGlos said:

Thanks Gordon!

Still jealous of that Stellamira 125! Fingers crossed for you.

You're right, those two trees would have been good for framing! It would be fine with the farmer, especially being crop fields too. Those trees were about halfway down the single track road to the farm, and it goes nowhere else other than the farm. It's near a small town called Thropton http://www.lorbottle.com/index.html. I've tried blending with trees on images before and I'm not very good at it, but I'm sure you'd do a better job  

Sounds perfect to me. Plus you'll do a grand job at blending them in 👌