AstroLandscapes #67 The Crumbling Coastline at Covehithe

[FenlandPaul]

At the end of April, after what had felt like an eternity of cloudy skies, I headed out to the Suffolk coast, to Covehithe, a place where the coastline is unfortunately crumbling into the sea at a rate faster than anywhere else in the UK.  A couple of hundred yards back from the cliffs lies the skeletal structure of the (mostly) abandoned St Andrew's Church, a striking landmark on this wild part of the East Coast.  Down on the beach are the gnarly, bleached remains of trees that have tumbled off the cliffs above as they've been eroded by the north sea storms.  It was the church and the gnarly trees that I hoped would make attractive foregrounds for some nightscape shots, and especially with the Milky Way core rising in the early hours to the south east.

Unfortunately the reality of the night was very different to the expectations I had.  For some reason I just struggled to get into the groove.  Maybe it was because I was trying to do too much (cameras, vlogging, and I was also there with some friends who I constantly felt like I was neglecting!), or maybe it was because we arrived a bit late and couldn't actually locate the gnarly trees.  Or maybe that's just how life is sometimes!!

Anyway, despite all that, it was an enjoyable evening, as it always is when you're under a clear and dark night sky.  And when I got the images back on the computer at home, they weren't quite as terrible as I'd feared and I managed to salvage a handful that I'm happy with.

As usual, I made a video of the adventure over on my Nightscape Journals YouTube channel, which I've linked at the bottom.  Hope you enjoy, and as ever I always appreciate comments and thoughts.

Paul 😊

 

 ✨Arches✨

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

🔧 294x 20s exposures at ISO 800 and f/4 (+ light-painted foreground)

🎞️ Stacked in StarStax and edited and assembled in PhotoShop

 

✨Windswept✨

 

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

🔧 Sky: 8x 120s tracked exposures at ISO800 and f/2.8. Foreground: 1x 15s exposure at ISO3200 f/3.2 (light painted)

🎞️ Stacked and edited in Sequator, Starnet++ and PhotoShop

 

✨Rho Arches✨

 

 

📷 Canon 6D (astro-modified) with Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens and SkyWatcher StarAdventurer tracker

🔧 Sky:  8x120s exposures at ISO800 and f/2.8. Foreground: 1x 15s exposure at ISO3200 f/3.2

🎞️ Stacked and edited in Sequator, Starnet++ and PhotoShop

 

✨Watching the moonrise✨

 

📷 Canon 6D (astro-modified) with Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4 lens

🔧 1x 15s exposure at ISO 3200 and f/3.2
🎞️ Edited in PhotoShop

 

 

[clarkpm4242]

Those trees are visible on google maps, a way down the beach.  Definitely worth a revisit.   That Milky Way is beautiful.  Waiting on Noctilucent Clouds...

[AstroNebulee]

Thank you Paul. What a lovely astro journal this one was, I really enjoyed it. The startrails shot with the church in the foreground is special. How long was the startrails shot over do you know. If like to create something like this somewhere around the village here. 

 

Clear skies 

Lee 

[FenlandPaul]

3 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Thank you Paul. What a lovely astro journal this one was, I really enjoyed it. The startrails shot with the church in the foreground is special. How long was the startrails shot over do you know. If like to create something like this somewhere around the village here. 

 

Clear skies 

Lee 

Thanks Lee - really appreciated. The trails were over 1h45’ but it was meant to be longer (I forgot to empty the SD card before starting - just one of the schoolboy errors on this night 🤦‍♂️). Usually I aim for 3 hours plus, but it goes to show that you can get good results with shorter periods.

 

7 hours ago, clarkpm4242 said:

Those trees are visible on google maps, a way down the beach.  Definitely worth a revisit.   That Milky Way is beautiful.  Waiting on Noctilucent Clouds...

Yes it’s definitely one to go back to. The high tide made us a little nervous venturing too much further along the beach - wish I’d scouted it in the daylight, but not always possible and another lesson learned the hard way!!