and by Jove did the stars come out to shine on that particular eve …

I was watching an old episode of ‘Wonders of the Universe’ by Professor Brian Cox this evening. I LOVE that series and it reminded me of  some long exposure photos of the night sky I had taken a back in 2010.

The above shot of a camp near Kings Canyon-Uluru Australia was taken with a EOS 5D MK II and  16-35mm f2.8L MK II @ 39 Sec and ISO 1600.

After dinner the camp site lights were turned off (bar a few safety lights) and I set the camera on a tripod to take several long exposures of the night sky. I was in awe of the amount of stars you could see with the naked eye… it was mesmerizing (in London, the light pollution makes this impossible).

The shot below was taken with a 50mm f1.2L prime lens @ 2 sec and ISO 1200. You can see the Milky Way span diagonally across the image. I was amazed by the sheer number of stars that came up in the image. The attached ‘higher res’ image has more detail but still does not do the 16 bit RAW file justice.  Not bad for a little SLR! Mind you… I did need to be in the middle of nowhere on the other side of the planet