AstroLandscapes #73 - One Perfect Night

[FenlandPaul]

Our Summer break this year was spent in the north west of Italy, nestled in the Ligurian Alps, which straddle the border with France.  I'd scouted an interesting-looking mountaintop location that I thought might make an interesting (and dark!) place from which to watch the peak of the Perseids.  At just over 7,000 feet, Monte Saccarello is one of the highest peaks in the region and is on the route of the Alta Via dei Monti Liguri, a long-distance trail and pilgrimage route.  Near the top of the mountain is a huge bronze statue of Christ the Redeemer, which I thought might make an interesting foreground.

I had no intention of hiking up with all my kit, so I'd spent a few days trying to ascertain how feasible it would be to drive up in a 4x4; I found a plausible route and some videos online that suggested it was at least possible somehow to get a vehicle to the top, so I set off in the mid afternoon, allowing myself plenty of time to look for alternative routes should my plan hit any hurdles.  After a 2 hour drive to the foot of the mountain, I started along the rock and dirt trail that hugged the side of the peak and crawled up the numerous hairpin bends as the views got better and better.  It was a lot of fun!  After just over an hour of driving I reached the summit ridge just as the Sun was setting; the blue-tinged haze in the valleys contrasted beautifully with the golden mountaintops with towering thunderheads in the distance providing some drama on the horizon.  

As I made some dinner, the sky began to darken quite rapidly and I was surprised at just how early the Milky Way core seemed to punch through the twilight.  At this altitude, all of the moisture and muck in the atmosphere was safely beneath me and the sky took on a transparency that I've not seen in years - it was wonderful.

I experimented with a few compositions and timelapses over the course of the night, really trying to make the most of the dark and clear skies for some more detailed Milky Way tracked shots.  It seemed that Perseids were dropping every few minutes and the intensity picked up noticeably after midnight.  The storms in the central Alps raged all night, really adding to the excitement of the evening, and then in the early hours I looked with disbelief as my camera started to fill with the beautiful pinks of the aurora - something I never dreamt I would capture from this part of the world; I could even make out a clear brightening of the sky with my eyes.  

As I think you probably know, it's the adventure of being out in the landscape at night that I find most compelling about nightscape photography.  I love getting great images, but for me the experience trumps everything.  Nights like this one live on so vividly in my memory and make all of the effort worthwhile.

You can follow along on the night's adventure in the film I shot, which also contains all the timelapses from the night, over on my YT channel, and linked below.  Hope you enjoy, Paul. 📷✨😊

✨Calling them Each by Name✨

📷 Canon 6Da, Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4 lens and MSM Nomad tracker

🔧 Sky: 2-pane vertorama - each pane 10x120s tracked at ISO800 and f/2.8. Foreground: 30s, f/2.8, ISO4000
🎞️ Sky stacked in Sequator. Stitched, edited and blended in Lightroom, Photoshop and Starnet++


✨Pondering with the Ancients✨

📷 Canon 6Da, Samyang 35mm f/1.4 lens and MSM Nomad tracker

🔧 Sky: 11x120s tracked at ISO800 and f/2.8. Foreground: 6s and 30s, f/2.8, ISO6400
🎞️ Sky stacked in Sequator. Edited and blended in Photoshop and Starnet++

 

✨Raining Fire✨

📷 Canon 6Da, Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4 lens and Kase Starglow Filter

🔧 Sky: 1x15s at ISO3200 and f/2.8. Meteors: 5x4s at ISO6400 and f/1.4. Foreground: 300s, f/3.5, ISO1600
🎞️ Edited and blended in Photoshop 

 

 

✨In its Element✨

📷 Canon 6Da, Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4

🔧 15 x 15s at ISO4000 and f/2.8
🎞️ Stacked in Sequator. Edited in Photoshop 

 

✨Unbound Sweet Influence✨

📷 Canon 6Da, Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4 and MSM Nomad tracker

🔧 Sky: 13x120s tracked at ISO800 and f/2.8.  Foreground: 120s at ISO1600 and f/2.8
🎞️ Stacked in Sequator. Edited and blended in Photoshop and Starnet++

 

✨Immersed✨

📷 Canon 6Da, Canon 50mm f/1.8 and MSM Nomad tracker

🔧 Sky: 17x120s tracked at ISO800 and f/2.8.  Foreground: 8s at ISO6400 and f/2
🎞️ Stacked in Sequator. Edited and blended in Photoshop and Starnet++

 

✨Atmospheric Excitement✨

📷 Canon 6Da, Sigma Art 24mm f/1.4

🔧 Single 8s exposure at ISO6400 and f/1.4
🎞️ Edited in Photoshop

 

 

 

[clarkpm4242]

The 11/10 video is highly recommended viewing!!!

As for the images, am favouring the meteors, starglow Plough and lightning storm  😀

 

[FenlandPaul]

7 minutes ago, clarkpm4242 said:

The 11/10 video is highly recommended viewing!!!

As for the images, am favouring the meteors, starglow Plough and lightning storm  😀

 

Very kind of you, Paul.  I love that image too - simple and very much tells the story of the night.

[MarkRadice]

Lovely pictures Paul. I like the one with you silhouetted under the Milky Way. ¡Estupendo! 

[skyhog]

Beautiful.