Milky Way and Windmills from Kastos

[MartinB]

Kastos is a small Ionian island just off mainland Greece. On a headland there is an old windmill which has been cleverly converted into a bar. The night sky from here is wonderful especially when the lights in the windmill are turned off.

It's easy to get philosophical here. The area is full of ancient sites mentioned by Homer. Looking across this ancient land and seascape at the vastly more ancient Milky Way can make you feel very insignificant and transient. The temperature was about 25 degrees and the sea could be heard gently sighing beneath my vantage point.

The Milky Way shot is 3 mins at iso 800 with a Canon 1000D and a Tokina 11-16mm zoom at 11mm F4 on an astrotrac. I took a second shot having stopped the astrotrac to get a sharp foreground.

The windmill shot is about 30mins worth of 2 minute images at ISO 400 taken with a Tokina 16-50mm but I'm afraid I've forgotton the other details. I wanted to capture the complimenting themes of the windmill and the turning of the sky. A small village over the brow of a hill behind the windmill as thrown up the LP gradient.

[Beyond_Vision]

Thats must have been a fantastic sight Martin. Amazing result for single 3 minute shot.

Regards

Kevin

[MartinB]

Thanks Kevin. It is a fantastic place to be Kevin and the Milky Way looked amazing with the naked eye. Scanning with binoculars was breath taking.

[JonH]

Wonderful MW pic, the tones echo the coastline. Excellent.

[tooth_dr]

Amazing MW pic, so much colour.

[msinclairinork]

EXCELENT PICS!!! well done you must be happy with those! defently would frame those for the wall!

Thanks for sharing,

Michael

[MarkF]

Fantastic pictures.

[russ]

wow that Milkyway image is incredible Martin. Lovely foreground really makes it.

[perrin6]

Under light-polluted skies one can easily forget we are all inside a galaxy. Your picture seems to show the central hub as yellowish, mainly population II lower metal-containing stars and the spiral arms as bluish higher metal-containing population I stars. (I think that's right anyway).

[Dave Smith]

They are beautiful Martin, especially the milky way and only 3 minutes - very impressive. I notice you have captured the pipe nebula.

Dave

[MartinB]

Thanks guys and for the heads up on the "pipe nebula" Dave. Jackie wants the MW shot blowing up for the kitchen:icon_eek:

[themos]

The MW shot is awesome! The "pipe nebula" is the one I call the Dark Horse.

[jgs001]

Lovely Martin, hope you enjoyed the holiday.

[moocher]

Thats POTW imho (the MW shot i mean)

Alan:D

[Astro_Baby]

Nice pics - I love Greece as well. If you like seclusion try Alonissus sometime - its a small island and up in the hills its as dark as you could wish for at night.

[Pete Presland]

lovely pics !

[themos]

Ah, Alonissos! I was there on holiday in 1972. I remember a boat ride at night, you could see nothing but stars and marine phosphorescence in the boat's wake.

[Tim]

Thats POTW imho (the MW shot i mean)

Alan:D

I'll be the judge of that

If it wasn't for Ollys pic it would have done it for me. Simply beautiful Martin, I love that framing, the foreground, the angle of the MW, everything!

I'd be very interested to try using Pixinsight on that background to see what it could do.

[assouptro]

Wow!!

Bryan

[gregnorth1982]

Stunning shots Martin.

[ollypenrice]

Missed these. Surely one of the best Milky Way with horizon pictures I've ever seen and the village light is true to the moment so no worries on that score.

Greece is lovely isn't it.

Olly

[QldLiz]

Beautiful images Martin, love the windmill pic.

[Dangerous-Dave]

What a superb pair of images, the location clearly pays off.

[MartinB]

What a superb pair of images, the location clearly pays off.

And makes for a very enjoyable time imaging as well!

Thanks for the comments guys

[robertm]

That's amazing! Reminds me of my time on the Greek island of Samos with the astrotrac a couple of years ago but your result is just so much better.

What a wonderful result.

Robert