Star Bright

 So after a disappointing night Tuesday I went out again on Wednesday, but to a different location where there was less light pollution in the immediate vicinity and as the sky remained clear I was able to stay out longer.

I managed to get two light trails and a few individual shots (which I will come back to tomorrow).

For the first image I tried to get more of the sky in the shot as there was little in the way of foreground interest. For some reason (carelessness on my part) this was shot at 19mm rather than 17mm which would have been optimal. It was a 58 minute exposure cut short because the camera battery died and due to the added complication of the incoming tide which forced me off the beach and up onto the rocks.

It was quite an eerie sensation listening to the sea bubbling its way across the sand towards me, in near complete darkness. It was only in the last 10 minutes that I could see the water approaching and it was a stark reminder of how fast the tide comes in around here and the dangers of being out on the sand. That being said I was in a nice little bay and the tide at its height only just reached the spot where my tripod had been set up. By the time I had finished my other shots the sea had receded sufficiently that I could walk back on the sand rather than have to clamber over the rocks in the dark with all my equipment.

In the first image I have cleaned it up slightly by removing the light trails of two passing jets which cut across the scene and were a real distraction in the image.

By contrast in the second image (a 61.5 minute exposure shot this time at 17mm) I have left the many aircraft trails in, partly to show how difficult it is to get a clean image but also because with so many crisscrossing trails it looks quite cool. I may try to clean it up at some point that will mean excluding some individual shots from the composite image and that could amount to 9 or 10 minutes worth and could result in gaps in the star trails; we shall see.

As you can see in this image the tide was in and the long exposure has left us with a milky smooth sea. The reflection on the sea is also a composite reflection of the light from Venus over the course of one hour. Venus is the bright white object/line central in the image finishing just above the horizon (it also features in the first image and it should be obvious which one it is).

All in all I had a great time and had I not risked hypothermia I would have stayed out another hour or two. I really hope you enjoy these images and I hope to be able to get out and try some more star trails in future.