Milky Way Arch Over Helmos Observatory

From the photographer: “At the end of July, we had the opportunity to enjoy the night sky at Neraidorachi peak, where the Helmos Observatory is located. It was my second time at this amazing place, and I had been expecting this night for weeks. Everything went excellent, the weather was great without clouds, wind, and dust, and the area was silent without many people around. In these ideal conditions, I had all the time needed to capture everything I had in my mind.

This 180° panorama was one of my first things on the bucket list for the night, so just after the astronomical twilight, I started capturing images for this panorama. Unfortunately, I don’t own a lens wider than 20mm, so I had to capture two rows (panels) of panorama; one for the sky and one for the foreground and to create a kind of mosaic panorama. The images for the sky’s panel were tracked, and a diffuser filter was applied to them. The foreground images were untracked and without any filter applied. All the images were exposed for 30 seconds at an aperture of f2.8 and ISO 5000. The fact that my good friend Konstantinos Koutsogiannis had his astrophotography workshop during this night offered me an interesting extra element to include in my frame as well.”

Technical details: Nikon D750 and a Nikkor 20mm f1.8G lens