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Canal Rocks Milky Way Arch
Contest Number: 193 Contest Theme: Stars Lens: Sigma 35mm f1.4 Camera: K-1 Shutter Speed: Above 6s Aperture: F1.8 
Posted By: Focusrite, 09-13-2022, 05:01 AM

The Milky Way Arch, over Canal Rocks.

We're quite lucky in Western Australia, regarding the Milky Way. On its progress through the night sky, the Milky Way arch will set in an north-south direction, with the Galactic Centre nearly central at the top of the arch. This makes it easier to shoot a full arch panorama, as you can capture it when it is at around 40/45 degrees in elevation while it drops toward the western horizon. I have found that this makes stitching the final product much easier.

This panorama was from a little earlier this year. It had seemed like forever since I had done a MW pano, and I had not attempted one at Canal Rocks. This seemed like a bit of a strange miss, as Canal Rocks are a natural channel in a rock shelf on the shoreline that happens to run straight in a north-south direction. This means that it mirrors the Milky Way arch nearly perfectly, so I did some scouting and made the shoot on a clear moonless night.

Naturally, this is a composite of sorts. I found the spot I wanted to shoot from - high up on a sharply peaked rock - and at around 4:30 in the morning I set up my nodal mount, K-1 and Sigma 35mm f1.4 ART and took the 42 shots needed for the stars ( 14 columns, 3 rows ) at f1.8, 13 seconds, and ISO 3200 with a Tiffen Double-Fog filter. I then waffled about at other spots for a couple of hours and came back closer to dawn just as the eastern horizon was starting to lighten with the approaching sunrise. I then shot the foreground with my Samyang 24mm f1.4 at a variety of settings, but always with a 60-second exposure time. With the wider view, I didn't need as many shots to cover the same 230-odd degree view and I could stop down to get a better depth of field. Focus stitching was still required for a few spots.

The luminance on the eastern horizon cast its light onto the rocks, which lit up in a nice glow. I have cooled down the sky a little, as I do prefer a bit of blue for the stars rather than the more realistic rusty reds ( personal preference ), although I've left some nice subtle greens and reds over the horizon. The Double-Fog filter adds bit of a glow to the brighter stars, which I quite like as well.

It all stitched together quite well, although I've left the foreground a bit brighter than I normally would. I like to have a photo at least attempt to look like it's been taken at night, but have tended to find that my exported photos look a lot darker than I intend ( and my monitor might need calibrating ), so I've left it a bit lighter to show some detail and cross my fingers that it looks okay on other people's monitors. Happy with the result!

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10-02-2022, 10:34 AM   #2
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10-03-2022, 08:00 AM   #12
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Looks like a natural arrangement.
10-03-2022, 11:39 AM   #13
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