MasterWayne wrote:
Thank you Marco for your response and detailed explanation!
The detail you get from the night sky while being right next to Sydney is still quite remarkable, imho.
Shot nr. 8,which is my favorite from this series, no way looks like shot right next to a big city.. Or at least not when processed by me
Regards,
Wayne
If that moon (and Sydney) hadn't been contributing to the light pollution at the time, I'd likely have caught something a little more vibrant with more detail. I think the cold air may have helped (colder weather seems to keep the pollution particles down reduces sensor heating/noise) and I was VERY glad that the clouds that arrived just before the Eclipse commenced, suddenly disappeared completely. The shots that other people took with their own cameras, some of them very inexpensive rigs, looked identical to mine when they showed them to me on the LCD screen of their cameras. Everyone else seemed to capture that shot in Portrait Mode (vertical) and I regret not taking several shots to stitch together to show Sydney below it in the same frame. I think I missed an opportunity there.
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Taken just before the Eclipse began last week, the sky was filled with clouds... which dissipated completely within minutes.
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A few people who came to watch the Eclipse seemed surprised I had driven "all the way from the suburbs" to get to the lookout. But the drive is a little over an hour to reach this location so it's not too bad. My preferred spot is in the National Park about 45minutes deeper into the mountains and darker and quieter... however, it's also VERY windy because it's an exposed location on a ridge, and phone reception is sketchy there.
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It's rather surprising how much difference a drive to the country or up to the mountains can make with imaging. It's so tempting to just take a few pictures from the front porch at home in the suburbs that to take a drive to a darker location where the skies are clear.
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Taken in 2013, this is a picture taken about 200m away on the same road at the same elevation, and you can see how Sydney's light pollution creates a halo of light over the city and suburbs.
A tighter view of the same, but with Tungsten WB - The light pollution is unmistakable here.
Not the best image, but this is the same lookout - and you can see a layer of smog in the distance, which is surprising since Sydney is a relatively clean-air locations. But being above this layer of particles means I get some clearer views of the night sky from this higher elevation.
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Regards,
Marco Nero.