But last night, over my cold and the jet lag, the forecast was clear, seeing predicted to be excellent so I packed the car and headed out to my dark site. As I was unlocking the front gate, I noticed that the galvanised iron fence and the gate and lock were all dripping with water. I drove the 400 metres ( 1/4 mile ) to the observatory and as I pulled up, I saw the walls of the observatory glistening with water. At this location, this means dew so heavy it might as well be raining and later, heavy fog will rise. So I abandoned any idea of setting up scopes and considered heading straight home.
At my latitude 35 S, July August is a truly magic time of year. I wish those of you living in the north could see it. By mid evening, the Milky way stretches from Carina on the SSW horizon, through Crux, Centaurus, & Norma. The Scorpius, Sagittarius core of the Milky Way sits directly overhead at zenith and then the Milky Way cascades down the northern sky through Scutum, Aquila, Delphinus, Lyra and Cygnus. After 40+ years of observing, I still can just stand under this sea of stars, and stare up in wonder.
But hang on I can hear you saying, "Weren't you just in the Atacama desert, world dark sky mecca?" Yes I was, but the skies here are so much better. Frankly I don't know what all the fuss is about. The Atacama has the altitude but during my stay, the air was full of dust and cirrus cloud and smoke in some places. The skies here are darker, clearer and have more transparency and hence better contrast.
So I decided to spend some time and try to share it with you. I set up a tripod, put a fisheye lens on my camera and decided to enjoy the Milky Way while I could before the fog rose and try to capture a few pictures to illustrate what it's like to have this river of stars stretching from horizon to horizon. This lens is a full frame fisheye designed for APS.
Starting this sky tour in familiar territory for my northern hemisphere friends, Lyra and Cygnus are on my northern horizon. Cygnus is behind the trees and still rising.
All photos - Pentax K1, 10-17mm(13mm) f4 fisheye, ISO6400, 60s
Notice how dark the landscape is even though the sky is almost overexposed. I had to use the shadows slider in Lightroom to get the landscape to show up at all. In the original image, the property is black. Being of Italian descent, I have olive skin, my whiter palms of my hands are visible in front of my face in the dark but the darker pigmented backs of my hands are very faint ghostly glows in the dark.
Now lay down on your back and look straight up. The ground is damp and it's mid-winter, temperature is 1 degree above freezing so throw down a ground sheet or yoga mat before you lay down. Look straight up at the zenith, feet pointing south west...........
That's Eta Carina on the south horizon (lower left) and the Large Magellanic Cloud upper left. If you were seeing this yourself, the Small Magellanic cloud would be visible just above the Large but in this photo, it is lost to the vignetting. Let your eye wander up from Eta Carina past Crux , the coal sack and Centaurus through the bright bar that is Norma's highly underrated star clouds to the galactic core sitting at the zenith. Ok now fix your gaze upon this and explore your peripheral scotopic vision. Enjoy the river of stars that extends back south to Eta Carina and north through Scutum, Aquila and Lyra to Cygnus which is still hiding in the trees.
Oh darn, the fog is coming in...... Look, you can see comet Cali on the horizon ;-)
Turn off that torch Joe...you idiot, people are trying to preserve their night vision!
Ah that's better..
Yes, that blurry blob next to the car is me. Well time to head home.
Cup of coffee & a croissant before you hit the road?
Drive safely
regards
Joe