The Milky Way Galaxy Over the Serengeti

[Roger Clark]

The Milky Way galaxy stands tall over the Serengeti in this view to the northwest from Ndutu. This view is about 110 degrees tall and 80 degrees wide in this 10-frame mosaic. The Pleiades star cluster is just above the left edge of the large acacia tree, and above the Pleiades is the planet Jupiter. Just above the largest acacia tree, center, is a red smudge: that is the California nebula, NGC 1499. The constellation Orion is at the upper left edge and with Orion's belt nearly vertical. The 3 stars in the sword has the bright Orion nebula (M42) in the center of the 3 stars. The sword stars point toward the north celestial pole, which is 3 degrees below the horizon near the left side of the image. The bright star at the center near the top edge is Procyon, Alpha Canis Minor. The small star cluster to the upper right is M44. The Milky Way Galaxy in this part of the sky is the faint part of the Milky Way, as we are looking away from the Galactic center. Toward the bottom of the image we see faint red and some green in the sky: this is auroral airglow. Visually, the northern horizon appeared bright, even though this is some of the most remote and darkest places on Earth. Lights from the Ndutu lodge illuminated the trees.

Canon 1D Mark IV, 24 mm f/1.4 L lens at f/2. This is a 10 frame mosaic, with each frame 30 seconds at ISO 1600. Stars were tracked with a barn door tracker, hand cranked. The terrestrial scene was made with identical 30-second exposures and no tracking. The images were carefully assembled to select untrailed stars and unblurred terrestrial landscape. Full resolution image is 8846 x 12158 pixels, or 107 megapixels.

See the larger, 1200 pixel high image here:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.africa_2013/web/ndutu.night.c02.14.2013.C45I2514-25.g-1200.html

Roger

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Hi Roger, this is such an incredibly stunning capture! Loved your technique and execution and thoroughly enjoyed the text. Would make a terrific print!

[Don Railton]

Roger, this is WOW...! Love it.... that sky is amazing!! My only nit and its a small one is that I think the trees/foreground are a little too bright, they look like they are bathed in headlights from a car or similar and I think toning these down would strengthen a fantastic and well executed image...

DON

[Rachel Hollander]

Roger - your mosaics are always impressive and this one is no exception. I agree with Don's observation about the light on the trees being a little strong.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

A magnificently thought-out, composed, processed and presented starscape (or mosaic as it were) image, Roger.
I love it...only thought initially was to perhaps tone down the lighting on the immediate FG leading to the trees just a smidge?
Thanks for the detailed celestial info too...always appreciated. :5 :cheers:

PS: it's great to have you posting, please show us some more...

[Grady Weed]

What else can one say Roger, brilliant as always! I would love to have this in my files and on my wall. Excellent choice of stills to combine. Perfect light and clarity.

[Roger Clark]

Thanks everyone. I agree on toning down the landscape. I already did some, but will do a little more on the next version, which I will repost (might be a while Comet Panstarrs is about to put on a show for us). I have a few stars to fix near the horizon, so another version is in the works.

For those who have bee to Ndutu, this image was made near the campfire site by the lobby after 10pm and just before power goes out. The lights are the very low wattage lights from the lodge.

Even though this seems like a nice environment, we got a lesson in how dangerous such imaging can be, One morning a colleague went out at 5:15 am to do some nightscapes, and I was going to follow a minute later. As I was about to open the door, when I heard a fast scramble and someone banging into a door. It was my colleague running to get back in. I went out to see what the problem was, and he yelled at me get back in, leopard! A leopard started stalking and then was in the process of charging at him and he then ran back to the lodge. I think I'll hire a guard to stay with me in the future, and certainly not do this alone, like I have done many times. In the US, I carry bear spray.

Roger

[Robert Amoruso]

Wow, incredibly impressive Roger.