Inspired by
adman's expedition west of Brisbane to escape the clouds and join in the fun, I decided to do the same yesterday afternoon. I checked Skippysky and the closest location to Brisbane that was forecasted to have no cloud at all was near Roma (QLD).
After a six hour drive there, five hours under the amazing stars with a herd of cows for company, and a seven hour drive home - here's my handiwork:
1. Widefield of Lovejoy, the Milky Way and LMC/SMC. It's fairly representative of the naked eye views, except for the colour, very faint stars, and fine detail in the nebulosity. 2x 301 sec ISO 800 f/4 using a Canon 5DmkII + 14 mm f/2.8 on an Astrotrac Travel System.
2. Lovejoy and the Milky Way. 1x 30 sec ISO 800 f/1.4 using a Canon 20D + 24 mm f/1.4 on a fixed tripod.
3. Self portrait while shooting some DSOs. 1x 30 sec ISO 3200 f/2.8 using a Canon 20D + 14 mm f/2.8 on a fixed tripod.
4. Comet fading away during twilight. 1x 30 sec ISO 400 f/4 with the 5DmkII + 14 mm on Astrotrac.
This was the first time I saw the Milky Way cast a shadow... the sky was unbelievably dark! At home, I get a sky fog middle-histogram peak after 45 secs at f/4 and ISO 800... according to my test shots last night, I could have gone for over 20 mins there!
Thank you Santa for my best Christmas ever!
