Last week during new moon I took the opportunity to do some Milky Way astrophotography at a few locations around Oatlands including the wonderfully spooky graveyard at St Peter’s church, and some lonely old gum trees on the back roads.

First stop was the nearby St Peter’s Church. Being only a short walk from the Artist in Residence studio I enjoyed the short walk with my camera gear. As well as – of course – cloves of garlic and wooden stakes (because I’m not silly you know).

The Milky Way was actually in a perfect position to photograph above the gravestones and church tower. The town lights were soft enough to provide colour and texture on the sandstone church without impacting the brilliant Milky Way.

Across town, at another old cemetery this tomb lined up very nicely with the Milky Way too. I did some light painting too but I prefer the shot above, lit up subtly by the town light.

Magnificent Midlands Milky Ways

The next day I took a drive during the morning to scout out a few lone trees, and found (more than) a few potential candidates.

After dark I headed out again, and was very impressed with the sights. It really was a perfect couple of nights to be out photographing the stars.

The Milky way was a perfect full arch across the sky. In the middle of winter it is incredibly high, almost at 90 degrees, which can make panoramas a little difficult. Last week the Milky Way was high, but not so high that you couldn’t fit some landscape details in along with the wonderful arch above.

I actually brought the Pentax K1 out of mothballs for this shoot. It was enjoyable using the old gear, but I certainly noticed the weight difference after nearly 12 months with the Sony!!