Sunrises and sunsets in Fuerteventura

Combining family days out with late night/early morning astro shoots, I managed to get a nice collection of sunrise/sunset shots from a week in Fuereventura....

Dawn Milky Way over the East coast

Sunset lighting up clouds over the East coast

Sunset over El Cotillo beach on the West Coast

Sunrise on the East coast after an overnight astro shoot. Love the "coffee bean" rocks on the beach.
20sec exposure, no filter needed as it was quite dark.

Sunrise over Caleta de Fuste beach (East coast) on the way home from an astro shoot.
Right out the back of our apartment.

A night of astrophotography in Fuerteventura

A week's family holiday in Fuerteventura and I have been planning the weather/hire car combo for weeks!
As it turned out, I had to wait until the last night to get clear skies and access to a car so I could find some dark skies.
With just a little light pollution from a nearby village (Pozo Negro), the sky was very dark, with the entire Milky Way arch visible to the naked eye.
I took a tracked (4min @ ISO400) shot using my new MoveShootMove tracker, which turned out great.

Canon 77D, Sigma 10-20mm F4.0, 4mins @ ISO400 on MooveShootMove tracker

  
  
I then tried to get 4 more shots to get the full MW arch as a panorama, which seemed to work well, but once I got back home to edit, I noticed that the tracking is out after the first 2 shots, so the majority of the image has streaking stars. Oh well... Will be more careful next time!
Interesting to see the light pollution, even in a very dark area. The central glow is from a handful of streetlights in the nearby (2 miles) village and the glow on the left is from the large town of Calete de Fuste, about 10 miles away. There's no escaping those damn streetlights!

Canon 77D, Sigma 10-20mm F4.0, 5x 4mins @ ISO400 on MooveShootMove tracker, then stitched into a panorama using Microsoft ICE (PTGUI couldn't manage it!)

I also tried a 9xshot 20s @ ISO3200 and stacked using Sequator. Quite pleased with the results and it's good to compare quality with the tracked shot...Also got a similar one of the hire car under the MW.

Canon 77D, Sigma 10-20mm F4.0, 9 x 20sec @ ISO3200, stacked on Sequator

Canon 77D, Sigma 10-20mm F4.0, 9 x 20sec @ ISO3200, stacked on Sequator

As dawn was breaking, I headed to the coast and got this last shot of the Milky Way hanging on as dawn breaks..

Canon 77D, Sigma 10-20mm F4.0, 4 x 20sec @ ISO3200, stacked on Sequator

All in all, a great night and I'm pleased with how much I've squeezed from my mid-range kit, just by using all the tools available (tracking, stacking....etc).

Dark skies in Fuerteventura

On the way home from a trip to the North of the island, we stopped off at the Windmill (next to the observatory) to try to capture some of the clear, dark skies in the centre of the island.
There was a bit of cloud floating about, but I'm please with this shot, with the moon and Orion centre stage.

Canon 77D, Sigma 10-20mm F4.0, 4 x 20s @ ISO3200, stacked in Sequator

Missed opportunity?

Had every intention of going down to Dorset last night for what was forecast a super-clear night, with MW and no moon.
Work/family balance got the better of me and I switched off the alarm at 2am and went back to sleep. I can always go later in the week, eh?
Unfortunately, the rest of the week is now cloudy. Oh well. At least I'm well-rested.

New Star Tracker

Got my new MoveShootMove star tracker from China this week.
Just need a clear night to test it now!
Currently the moon is up with the Milky Way, so no chance of MW shots, but I'm on the lookout for a clear night so I can do some testing of the alignment laser and the unit itself.

First Milky Way shoot of 2019

I didn't do much Milky Way shooting last year, mainly as the hours are so inconvenient and the weather didn't co-operate.
March 2-15 is the first window of opportunity to see the MW this year, but the weather closed in for the week.
A forecast break in the clouds for this Monday night and I knew I had to give it a go.
I decided on a 1h15m drive down to Hengistbury Head- a location I'd been to a couple of weeks previously.
A 2am alarm call got me there for 0330 and setup on the dunes looking out to sea.
There was quite a bit of cloud, but it seemed to slowly be clearing. Sure enough, soon after 4am, the Milky Way was there in all most of it's glory.
At this time of year, it is still very low on the horizon and a bank of cloud obscured some of the core.
I'm happy with the image though, although it's still a bit grainy/muddy for my liking. I would like to be able to get a crisper image, but for that I think I need a kit upgrade.
The occasional flash of lightning out to see kept me on my toes, and I've caught one in the image. Also saw a bonus shooting star.
Decided not to stay for the sunrise (although it looked like it was going to be a good one) and was home for 7am.
All in all an enjoyable night, and I'm looking forward to clearer nights so I can get some more practice in. Still early in the season....

4 mins @ f4.0, ISO800 for the sky, using my home-made tracker
Same settings for the foreground shot, but without the tracker 

Room for improvement:
The 4min exposure has some star-trailing showing. I think I need to sort out the tracking rate. Maybe slightly less than 1 revolution per 2 minutes? Or maybe better alignment with the Pole star?
Would also be nice to try a Sony camera and/or a decent Sigma f1.4 lens to improve the quality of the image.

Swinley Forest Misty Sunrise

With the promise of a misty start to the day, I had to decide between a 4am start and a drive to Corfe Castle, or a 7am start and a quick ride in Swinley Forest. The extra sleep won out, so I headed out into the forest just after sunrise, fully kitted up for a winter ride, with the additional weight of my camera bag & tripod.

Well worth the trip out, with some great mist and sun through the trees...

Red23 looking amazing

Red15 looking as inviting as ever

Even the ride home was lovely.
Dog walkers on their way out of the forest

Searching for mist at Newlands Corner

SPOILER: Didn't find any

Despite it being misty for the entire journey there, the valley had no mist in it.
Still, the sunrise was nice and it was another good scouting session (with Lyla for company).

Sunrise over the Surrey Hills

Lyla enjoying the view

Lyla enjoying the view

Pixel2 shot of  a tree on Newlands Corner

Sunny, warm February at Hengistbury Head

Lovely Sunday out,, making use of the lovely February weather and the last day of the kids Half Term holiday.

Incoming tide at Mudeford Quay
Shutter speed of 8s

Waves on the beach at Hengistbury Head
Shutter speed of 4s

Evening light at Hengistbury Head

Sunset at Hengistbury Head

Sunset at Hengistbury Head

Misty morning in Lightwater

Dropped Lyla at school then had half an hour free before work to get some shots on the misty ranges. The sun was burning through quickly and by the time I'd finished, there was no mist left.
I was hoping for some of the sun coming through the mist, but the mist was too thick down in the valley.
As I was leaving, I turned around and shot the gate, which turned out to be my favourite shot of them all...

Looking over the valley towards Woking

Morning light coming through the mist

Come on in, the weather's lovely!
Really pleased with how this shot turned out.

Storm Eric in Wiltshire

Weekend in Wiltshire "enjoying" the edges of Storm Eric....
It was quite blowy up on top of Milk Hill, looking South across Pewsey Vale.
Images aren't great, but they do capture some of the feeling of being up there.

Woodborough Hill

The road through Alton Priors

Zoomed in on the above image. Car on it's roof!

Picked Hill, fighting it's way out the gloom

Rain over Woodborough Hill

Bournemouth Beach Sunrise

We were down in Bournemouth overnight, so made use of the beachfront hotel to get down on the beach for sunrise (0730).
These are pretty much updates of shots I got 10+ years ago at the same location. Very pleased with the results....
Rewarded ourselves with a full English at Boscombe Pier.

Canon 77D, 200mm lens, f16, 2.5sec

Canon 77D, 10mm lens, f16, 30sec

Canon 77D, 10mm lens, f14, 0.6sec, with 4 stop ND filter

Canon 77D, 10mm lens, f16, 1.6sec with 4 stop ND filter

Iceland or Bournemouth?
Canon 77D, 300mm lens, f16, 1/60sec

@surreyviews launched

Today I've launched my @surreyviews Instagram site.
I'm hoping to increase my visibility by focusing on a specific area- my home county of Surrey. Hoping to generate some local interest and maybe even get something published.

Here's some examples from the site...