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Image 1 of 1
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I've had a shot like this in mind for at least a couple of years, but struggled to find and align a suitable part of the night sky for the background. The Cotswolds has Bortle 4 skies (quite a lot of light pollution) so shooting any part of the Milky Way that is low to the horizon is really challenging. What you can see here, however, is the Cygnus region which is found much higher in the winter sky so from this vantage point I was able to avoid the worst of the light pollution.
I combined the foreground with tracked shots of the sky (this is essential to take longer exposures as the earth rotates!). I used a narrowband filter to photograph the hydrogen alpha regions - the red/pink parts - and you can see the North American, Veil, Pelican, Crescent and Rosette nebulae. I really love the silhouette of the tower and as a last minute decision I decided to run to the top of the hill for a couple of the foreground shots - I think this adds to the sense of scale.
I've had a shot like this in mind for at least a couple of years, but struggled to find and align a suitable part of the night sky for the background. The Cotswolds has Bortle 4 skies (quite a lot of light pollution) so shooting any part of the Milky Way that is low to the horizon is really challenging. What you can see here, however, is the Cygnus region which is found much higher in the winter sky so from this vantage point I was able to avoid the worst of the light pollution.
I combined the foreground with tracked shots of the sky (this is essential to take longer exposures as the earth rotates!). I used a narrowband filter to photograph the hydrogen alpha regions - the red/pink parts - and you can see the North American, Veil, Pelican, Crescent and Rosette nebulae. I really love the silhouette of the tower and as a last minute decision I decided to run to the top of the hill for a couple of the foreground shots - I think this adds to the sense of scale.