What else would you do at 3 am?

PlasticSpanner · Aug 11, 2005

Taken early in the morning last weekend from under a mobile phone transmitter tower in the middle of nowhere.

clarinetJWD · Aug 12, 2005

Why hasn't anyone commented on this!? The number of stars in that sky is just staggering. I love it

dalebe · Aug 12, 2005

amazing shot! i did'nt know there were that many stars up there, or did your lense want cleaning

no seriously good shot.

tekzero · Aug 12, 2005

how many seconds??

Meysha · Aug 12, 2005

Great stars! :shock: That photo almost looks 3D to me coz of where the tower thing is. Nice composition and gorgeous stars.

LaFoto · Aug 12, 2005

What else I would do?
Be in bed and SLEEP, of course.
Why would I got outside and into the DARKNESS of night, with all the rain clouds covering every star and even the moon! Nothing but wetness out there

.

Does this photo mean to say there is "hope on the horizon" for us here in Germany (and hope for some better weather than ours here next weekend in Saffron Walden?) - is a nice high pressure area looming somewhere that offers open skies and starry, starry nights??????

PlasticSpanner · Aug 12, 2005

Thanks all for your comments.

dalebe said:
amazing shot! i did'nt know there were that many stars up there, or did your lense want cleaning no seriously good shot.

Looking through the Milky Way there are millions of stars!

I've finally found a brilliant dark spot that doesn't suffer from light pollution. (and I don't get the police out every time either!):cheer: Very little editing was needed aside from curves to darken it a little and put a little more blue into the sky.

tekzero said:
how many seconds??

28mm lens at F2.8 for 8 seconds on iso400 film with a very dark sky. (Any help?)

Meysha said:
Great stars! :shock: That photo almost looks 3D to me coz of where the tower thing is. Nice composition and gorgeous stars.

Thanks

I've found shot of stars on their own very interesting & informative to me and astronomers but not too good aesthetically. They do "look" much better with something else in there.

LaFoto: A warm dark night with good seeing and the overwhelming realisation of just how big everything is out there compared to sleeping? With the meteor shower nearly at full swing there are loads of shooting stars to see and with us trying for a brother (or sister!) for NJ that's a lot of wishes!

Danieldcr · Aug 12, 2005

An amazing sky i must say, I realy think this picture.

Dan

LaFoto · Aug 12, 2005

PlasticSpanner said:
LaFoto: A warm dark night with good seeing and the overwhelming realisation of just how big everything is out there compared to sleeping? With the meteor shower nearly at full swing there are loads of shooting stars to see and with us trying for a brother (or sister!) for NJ that's a lot of wishes!

OK, I do see why the last of your reasons is reason enough, indeed, to be up and out at 3 a.m. Yes, especially that.

And if the meteor shower were to be seen where I am - which it is not because of the thick, thick cloud cover - I might feel tempted, too.

But neither are our nights warm (9 - 12°C), nor do we have any good seeing at all.

And a brother or sister for my two would (in these days and in future days to come) be a catastrophe... :shock:

Reaper · Aug 12, 2005

Excellent shot. Star gazing is definately a great pass time.

Mansi · Aug 12, 2005

OMG! Check out those stars :d wow! nice shot :d

JTHphoto · Aug 12, 2005

nice shot, all the stars are amazing. I agree with you on the tower, it makes the photo more interesting...

clarinetJWD · Aug 12, 2005

8 seconds!?! I'd be lucky to get 1 star to show up in 8 seconds here :lol:

PlasticSpanner · Aug 12, 2005

Sometimes lots of stars is a bad thing especially if it's a constellation I'm after! It makes it very hard to orientate the photo and mark on the stars from an astro program. I can go down to 4 seconds & just capture the brighter stars but the Milky Way was just so clear that night I had to have a look inside!

I do sympathise with people in big towns & cities in that they miss the night sky. The spot I've found now is in the countryside about a 5 min drive from my house. It's down a small lane alongside a railway bridge that blocks a lot of light from the town too. Only a couple of houses around & no street lights or car passing by on main beam! A short walk into the field gives me about a 10 degree horizon which is OK because anything below that picks up light pollution.