View single post by Robert
 Posted: Mon Aug 26th, 2019 13:37
Robert



Joined: Mon Apr 2nd, 2012
Location: South Lakeland, UK
Posts: 4066
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 Well, with feet back on the ground after that amazing link JK provided, I went out last night, first time this season.  A slim waning Moon and a warm night was pretty promising.  Armed with coffee and some munchies Christopher and I went up to my favourite local vantage point to see what we could get.  I left the astro mount at home, just hoping for a few simple shots of the Milky Way.  As we pulled up at the top of the hill I was dismayed to find a very large camper-van, awning and tents taking up most of the parking area, the rest of the locality was taken up by hundreds of sheep.  They were the laziest, most stubborn sheep I have ever seen.  I had to bump into them to get them to move, they were completely blocking the road, usually they scamper off but not this lot.  I decided to move on to an alternative location, I didn't want them knocking the tripod over.  Birker fell wasn't too far away so we made our way there.

No sheep but lots of cars driving by, at least for the first 10 minutes after I started taking pictures, Birker fell seems an OK place, about the same travel distance from home as Stickle Pike with possibility of less light pollution, despite being slightly closer to Sellafield.  After about 20 minutes the sky started clouding in, at 30 minutes it was total cover so I wrapped up and we headed home.

I used the D800 and 16mm f/2.8 fisheye, pointed straight up at the Milky Way which was overhead and visually very clear.  I have looked at the results, there were only about 15 usable exposures but they have quite long trails, the exposures were for 30 seconds, ISO1600, f/4.  They didn't stack well and so I haven't done anything with them. I think this is about the first time I have used the 16mm on the D800 so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Another clear and almost Moon free night is forecast for tonight so I am planning to go out again, this time on my own.  Charging the astro mount battery as I type...



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Robert.