Rodney Campbell's Blog

Moved to another nearby location for another milky way arch. This time I’ve even included yours truly in the frame 🙂

Stargazing

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 6400 x 10 Frames

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

The milky way was very high in the sky this evening (nearly vertical). This was why I needed to shoot two rows with the 14mm to get the arch in

It’s also why I was also planning a number of vertical compositions as well

It was another marbelous night for astro photography… and here I was at this conveniently awesome location. Just a sixty second walk from the van and I’m in this little valley inside the marbles. Hidden away from most of the light pollution from the vans

Marbelous

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 6400 x 12 Frames

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

This is a two row of six exposures stitched panorama. Made much easier via the Novoflex multi row pano rails

I’m trying something new with the light painting of the foreground. In this case I’ve used some constant lighting. Here I’ve used my Aputure Amaran M9 led light (a video light) with a CTO (colour temp orange) gel on front

The light is out of the scene on it’s lowest setting. Which is still too bright so it’s actually facing away from the scene and here we’re just getting some reflected light

Heading north we’d arrived at the iconic Karlu Karlu Devils Marbles, believed by the Warmungu Aboriginal people to be the fossilised eggs of the Rainbow Serpent

The Devils Marbles are a collection of massive granite boulders strewn across a valley south of Tennant Creek. Standing at up to 6 metres high and formed over millions of years, they continue to crack and change

We’d be staying here the night in the campground at the back of the marbles

Cracked Marbles

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/80 sec at f/8, ISO 110

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

This fantastic location also gave me the chance to spin up the drone again before sunset

Rolling into Marbles

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/320 sec at f/4.5, ISO 100

Through the Marbles

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/400 sec at f/4.5, ISO 100

Marbles at Sunset

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/240 sec at f/4, ISO 100

We spent two days in Alice Springs

This allowed us to do some decent shopping (food), some washing (laundry) and visit a few of the local sites

A Town Like Alice

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/160 sec at f/8, ISO 64 x 11 Frames

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

Telegraph

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 70 mm, 1/125 sec at f/5.6, ISO 64

The Core

NIKON D750 + 35.0 mm f/1.4 @ 35 mm, 90 sec at f/2, ISO 800 x 17 Frames

One of the pieces of photography kit I invested in before this trip was an equatorial mount (more commonly known as a star tracker)

A star tracker allows photographers use longer focal lengths, smaller apertures and lower ISOs than you’d typically be able to use when shooting the night sky

I have the SkyWatcher Star Adventurer Mini kit

This allowed me to shoot with the 35mm f/1.4 lens at f/2 for 90 second exposures (tracked with the stars) of just a smaller section of the milky way core. This was rather than the typically very short 6 second (NPF rule) exposures I’d normally have to shoot with this lens untracked

In addition to this I also used the Starry Sky Stacker software to stack 17 of these 90 second exposures to reduce overall noise

This image is the end result of that process

I shot the tracked images at ISO 800 (instead of the ISO 12600 I would have had to with a 6 second exposure). Note – as I shot at ISO 800 I don’t really believe there was any noticeable difference between this final stack of 17 frames compared to just one of the original frames