Scenic Winter Shot with Scope..

Hello all, last night cleared up well for a while and I saw that the skies were very transparent, it seemed to me a good idea to travel a few miles to my nearest dark sky site overlooking a lake. This site is a lovely place to go observing and photographing, so I tried to get a few shots after a quick set up with the sct, but the wind was quite strong. Just when I decided to head home, I thought it would be a good to take a scenic tripod shot with my 8" sct telescope in the foreground to show you all what it was like - crystal clear. Even though there was light pollution near the horizon, this was due to a few passing high clouds, I think it turned out very well, and reminds me of how the skies are here. I think it's nice so I thought i'd post it here...Orion Sparkles along with Sirius....
Details: SCT Scope set against the Winter Milkyway. Taken on the night of January 14th 2007 at 00.10UT. 40second exposure, Canon 300D, 18mm lens at f3.5, ISO 800, Tripod shot.

Keith..

That's a beauty Keith!! Certainly one of your best to date.
You've got some dark skies there.

Nice image Keith - we had a good clear night here in Celbridge too. Shame we don't have the scenery...

Cheers
Dave

Keith,

That is simply amazing, worhty of a postcard or book cover or something. It's phenomenal!

Also, you picked up this month's binocular Target of the Month, M41!

Bart.

Lovely image Keith, very nice.

Lovely image Keith, despite the hint of trailing. I wonder it you took 2 X 20 second exposures and layered them what kind of a result you could get?

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