Milky Way Above Helmos Observatory

At an altitude of 2340m, at Helmos Observatory, being at one of the darkest places in Europe, you’re able to admire the beauty of the night sky at its finest. We were able to see the details of the milky way with naked eye. You can also see the airglow just above the horizon, with this well recognizable green colour. It was the most impressive thing that I’ve ever seen in my life and this photo became my favorite immediately when I saw it on the back screen of my camera. This is a vertical panorama of two shots. These two shots were taken one after the other without changing my composition. I took a four minutes long exposure for the sky using my star tracker and then I had to turn it off and take another four minutes long exposure for the foreground, because of the blurry foreground caused by the earth’s rotation.

Technical Details: Photo Composite (blended exposures) Nikon D3300, Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, Star Tracker Vixen Polarie
(2×240 sec | @13 mm | ISO 1600 | f5.6)

Second image: Blended exposures. 35mm f1.8 (6 x 13 sec | ISO 3200 | f2.8)