Welcome to Nightscape Photographer’s first featured image. Our featured image section will concentrate on a single shot, the equipment used, how it was taken and whatever information the photographer would like to add about that one image.
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Title: End of another night under the stars
Photographer: Ian Inverarity
Location: North of Wilpena Pound in the Ikara Flinders Ranges, South Australia.
Equipment used:
- Camera: Nikon D810A, Peak Design Slide strap
- Lens: Sigma 14mm f1.8 Art
- Tripod: Vanguard Alta 284CT with Vanguard BBH-200 ball head
- Remote trigger: Pixel T8
Settings: ISO3200, 20 seconds at f/2.0, processed in Adobe Lightroom CC Classic.
About the image: Some words from Ian “The picture features a 20% brightness Moon on the left, to the right of that the moon is Venus, the horizon is lit from the approaching sunrise.
In the sky is also the Milky Way, with the core below the horizon. We can see the Southern Cross, the Two Pointers, the Coal Sack nebula (right next to the Southern Cross) and the pinkish Carina Nebula above the Southern Cross, the slightly modified filter of the D810A picks up the nebula colours that most cameras do not.
The plant in the centre of the foreground is a Xanthorrhea Quadrangulata, or grass tree (among other names) and is likely to be quite old given the slow growth rate. This is the largest grass tree I have seen, these trees are not as common as eucalyptus trees or native pine trees in the Flinders Ranges, so I wanted to get a shot with the Milky Way and an old grass tree! I was told about the existence and location of this tree a couple of months ago by my sister, and have waited until the conditions were right to be able to photograph it at night. This tree has been photographed by others, but I am not aware of any with the milky way, Venus and Moon featured.
The shot was taken nearing the end of astronomical twilight, a time during which the sky begins to lighten from the approaching sunrise. During this time the sky changes colour and gets brighter and the Sun starts to light the foreground. Astronomical twilight is around 1/2hr long and in that time the sky colour and brightness is changing by the minute, I took a shot with this composition and noticed I could see my vehicle in it, so I had to quickly move it and fired this shot while walking back towards the camera with a remote before the sky became too bright, as the sky becomes brighter the Milky Way gets washed out.
My favourite colours from astronomical twilight are at about ½ way through it. I like to get Milky Way shots with some Moon (35% to 15%brightness) because the moonlight lights the foreground and adds nice colour to the sky while astronomical twilight also adds nice colour to the sky, both of these lighten the sky and reduce the clarity of the Milky Way . It was worth waiting a couple of months to get a few shots of this subject!”
If would like to thank Ian Inverarity for sharing this image and information. If you would like to see more of Ian’s amazing night sky images click the link to his Flickr gallery bellow, it really is an amazing gallery.
Social Media: Ian Inverarity Flickr
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Related links:
Basic night sky photography – how to
Focussing on the stars – obtaining sharp focus
Lens choice for night sky photography
Nightscape Photographer social media
