AstroLandscapes #62 - Merlin and Me

[FenlandPaul]

A couple of weeks ago we had a forecast break from this perma-cloud that seems to have descended across the UK.  It was a Sunday evening, with an early start for work on the Monday, but I couldn't let the opportunity go to waste, especially as the aurora data was going bananas (very impressed envious by all the images caught across the north and west of the UK that night).

An initial trip to a location I'd scouted a few weeks earlier ended up being a dud, as I decided (possibly unfairly) that the lone tree was also not a particularly attractive tree.  So I headed a couple of miles away to another of the dishes at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory outside Cambridge, somewhere I'd shot earlier in the year.  This time I was at the impressive 32m dish that's part of the Merlin array (along with Jodrell Bank), which is still in-use and on the night was whirring away as it collected data from distant sources.  Unusually for me, I ended up meeting up with a few other astrophotographers from a local WhatsApp group, one of whom had obtained permission for us to enter the grounds of the observatory to get more favourable compositions.

A stubborn frontal cloud dissected the sky for much of the night, leaving a decent window from the north west to the south east; unfortunately the north remained obscured for most of the evening, and none of the outstanding parts of the aurora display were visible (though I caught the weak remnants at the very end of the night on the way home).  But that meant we had a great view of Orion from a site that was surprisingly dark given it's only 5 miles from the centre of Cambridge (although not immune from poorly directed security lights!).

My focus was on some simple compositions including the magnificent dish; definitely somewhere at which I'd like to spend more time.  I also made a Nightscape Journal of the night, which you can find linked at the bottom.

As always, I'd welcome feedback, suggestions and comments!  Ordinarily I'd give my images a name, but I've really struggled with these so if you have any suggestions I'd be all ears! Enjoy. 😊

✨MERLIN AND ORION✨

📷 Canon 6D (astro-modified) with Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4 lens and Skywatcher StarAdventurer for tracking the sky

🔧 Sky (tracked): 6x60s exposures at f/2.8 ISO 800.  Foreground: 1x10s exposure at f/4 ISO 2000 (LENR on)

🎞️ Sky stacked in DSS.  Edited and assembled in PhotoShop.

 

✨MERLIN AND ORION (UNTRACKED)✨

 

📷 Canon 6D with Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4 lens 

🔧 18x10s exposures at f/2.2 ISO 2000.  

🎞️ Stacked in Sequator.  Edited and assembled in PhotoShop.

 

 

✨MERLIN AND THE LION✨

📷 Canon 6D with Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens

🔧 Sky: 1x20s exposure at f/2.8 ISO 2000 with Kase Starglow filter. Foreground: 1x20s exposure at f/2.8 ISO 2000

🎞️ Edited and assembled in PhotoShop.

 

 

✨DYING BACK✨

 

📷 Canon 6D with Samyang 35mm f/1.4 lens

🔧 Single 10s exposure at ISO3200 and f/2.8

🎞️ Edited in PhotoShop.

 

 

[Mick J]

Nice as usual Paul, also paging down to jump from Merlin against the sky to the windmill added something.  Thanks

[FenlandPaul]

30 minutes ago, Mick J said:

Nice as usual Paul, also paging down to jump from Merlin against the sky to the windmill added something.  Thanks

Thank you, Mick. I sometimes get a bit blasé about the windmill as it’s so familiar to me. But it is a lovely structure!

[clarkpm4242]

Made the most of that opportunity!!  Thanks for all the background and tech. info.  Paul.

[AstroNebulee]

Beautiful Paul. They are so sharp and stunningly detailed images. 

Definitely love the merlin and Orion image. 

It sounds as though you had fun with the WhatsApp group and lovely to get so up close and personal with merlin dish. 

Keep them coming. 

Lee 

[FenlandPaul]

3 hours ago, clarkpm4242 said:

Made the most of that opportunity!!  Thanks for all the background and tech. info.  Paul.

Got to make the most of things this year!! ☁️ 

23 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Beautiful Paul. They are so sharp and stunningly detailed images. 

Definitely love the merlin and Orion image. 

It sounds as though you had fun with the WhatsApp group and lovely to get so up close and personal with merlin dish. 

Keep them coming. 

Lee 

Thanks Lee -really appreciate that. I did indeed have fun, which surprised me as I’m usually a solitary shooter. So I learned something about myself!!