Dark Blue World II

Photographing stars in the Giant Mountains is a real challenge. The light pollution is so huge that the photographer feels as if he were shooting 20km from Prague. The only chance is the inversion character of the weather, and the inversion still has to be strong enough, but the lights are effectively obscured. This year I finally got to see it, although the lack of snow made the winter Giant Mountains look more like spring. But I'm glad I got to see it at all...

Thanks to the use of the Nikon D810A astro camera, the natural colours of the emission nebulae were beautifully exposed. So no more overpainting :) To clarify, the natural colour of the nebulae is visible to human eyes.

Apart from binary stars Sirius (Sirius A, Sirius B) we can find probably the most photographed particular constellations – Orion with typical Great Nebula (M42) on the photo. Together with the surrounding Barnard's Loop. Diagonally left of the Orion Nebula can be found, for example, Rosette (NGC 2237) or dominant orange-red star Betelgeuse. The upper part of the photo on the right side closes open star cluster Pleiades (M45).

The photo has been awarded by Honorable Mention at The Gala Awards – 10th Pollux Awards 2017.

Panorama compiled from total of 33 frames (18 exposures of stars in three rows, 12 exposures of landscape in the fourth row, 3-level exposure bracketing, 5-level focus bracketing).

Equipment: Nikon D810A

cze 0267