Cairns - Blog Posts

Coral Sea Milky Way by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This is a vertical panorama taken on the NE coast of Australia between the towns of Cairns and Port Douglas, in the region of the Great Barrier Reef. This part of the Pacific is called the Coral Sea. This is a stack of 8 horizontal image stacked vertically, each horizontal image taken with a Canon 16-35 mm lens at 16 mm, f 2.8, 30 sec, ISO 8000. So this image is pretty wide as well as "tall". From the perspective of an observer from the Northern Hemisphere, the Milky Way is fascinating in the Southern Hemisphere, and presents its own unique challenges. Here I am talking about the arch MW as a whole, and not just the core. First, the Milky Way arches high overhead at this time of year (April). The arch starts out lower on the horizon, but as the night progress it rapidly assumes a position high overhead. As a result the MW in the early night is a lot like the MW arch in the NH (Northern Hemisphere) in early spring, and then later in the night it is a lot like the NH MW in late summer and fall (more vertical) where it meets the horizon. Another difference is that the core of the MW is in the middle of the MW arch, and not near the horizon as we commonly see in the NH. As a result you need a really wide field of view or stacked panorama images to get good photos of the core and landscape at the same time. As a result you see a lot of panoramas of the MW taken from the SH (Southern Hemisphere). As for this image, it was taken after Moonset at around 2:30 pm. By this time the MW core was high in the sky, and I used a vertical stack to include the core. Since we did not plan the trip around night photography, I had to take the chances available, and this night I had a couple of good hours of shooting, after Moonset, but before the MW core got to high. A couple of nights later the MW was just about directly overhead before the Moon set, high enough to cause problems. When it is that high it is hard to include much landscape. This was probably as clear as mud. Hope you enjoy! Thanks in advance for taking the time to look and comment. 

Milky Way over the Coral Sea by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This is another night shot taken on a beach on the NE coast of Australia, between Cairns and Port Douglas. This is a panorama of 14 vertical images combined in Photoshop, taken with a Canon 6D camera, Canon 16-35 mm lens, at f 2.8, 30 sec, 16 mm, and ISO 6400. As compared to the Northern Hemisphere in April, the Milky Way arches high overhead, and continues to rise as the night progresses, Soon the MW is directly overhead, and it takes a really large field of view to capture . The challenge is fun in a different way. Also the core of the MW is more centered, and is very high in the sky, as opposed to the Northern Hemisphere where it is closer to the horizon. Frequently in the Northern Hemisphere the low positioned core competes with light pollution, or features on the horizon. In the Southern Hemisphere its high position places it in the darker portions of the sky, and detail and color in the core is better preserved. Alternatively, it is harder to get the core and interesting features in the same frame in the Southern Hemisphere. Disclaimer: Unfortunately several unruly pixels were harmed in the making of this image. Hope you enjoy!

The Milky Way over the Coral Sea by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This image was taken along the NE coast of Australia, between Cairs and Port Douglas, along the area known as the Coral Sea. This is the area of the Great Barrier Reef. We had planned a vacation with some friends, and the conditions did not to look favorable for any night photography, so I almost did not take my tripod. I happened to notice that this area was remarkably dark on the Dark Sky Finder App, and there would be a few hours of darkness after Moonset in the early a.m. on 2 nights we were there, so I took the tripod along and I was glad I did. After the moon set the Milky Way and stars were as beautiful as I had ever seen them, with the structure of the Milky Way and gas clouds clearly visible to the naked eye. It was a great experience to be there just to see the sky. The light pollution in the distance is a resort and the town of Cairns. This is a panorama of approximately 210 degrees. This is a combination of 15 vertical images, taken with a Canon 6D camera, and a Canon 16-35 mm lens, at f 2.8, 16 mm, 20 sec exposures, and ISO 12,800. Combining images in a panorama remarkably decreases noise. The Milky Way arches high overhead in the Southern Hemisphere, so you need a lot of vertical coverage to include it all, especially later in the night. The moon had just set so the was a little ambient light still remaining when I took this series. Hope you enjoy!