[OzEclipse (Joe Cali)]

Spent an extra long weekend with my friend Carolyn Kelly, who came up from Melbourne to do some nightscape & nature photography with me. The weekend was planned long ago and weather didn't cooperate. We had some clouds Thursday night, total cloud and rain Friday night, then finally completely clear on Saturday night. Friday night was Italian food night.

We hit some local canola paddocks first. The Bortle 1 area was totally black and I didn't realise the gates were in the side of my frame until I saw the downloaded images. Thought I wouldn't have included them, I decided I liked them and to work with them rather than crop or clone them out.

The second location is an old derelict house that I really like and well located for Milky Way setting. Rain Friday night put enough moisture in the ground to create fogs Saturday night that came in rapidly at the end of our session.

Canola is progressively being harvested now. Tonight, the crescent Moon sets at 1130pm, about half an hour before the Milky Way sits low on the horizon is probably the last possible night to shoot canola in this region this year. The next two nights, the Moon is right in the Milky Way as it sets and after that, the Moon will be a bit too bright. By the time the Moon is out of the picture, the canola will probably all be harvested.

Joe