Pemaquid Revisited....

After looking at my photos from Pemaquid last week, I wasn't totally satisfied, I knew I could do better. I thought about it all week and envisioned the type of photograph I wanted to take. My original plan was to go early Sunday morning but the below zero temps kinda put a damper on that so I decided to go Monday morning. Well, the temps didn't warm up at all but the sky conditions were right for the image I wanted. I have two apps on my iPad, Sky Walk and The Photographer's Ephemeris that show all the features of the night sky and where they'll be at certain times of the day and times of the year. Normally the milkyway is photographed during the new moon because moon light will wash out the stars. This particular day the quarter moon set at 12:30 AM so I knew there wouldn't be that extra light to deal with. My two apps showed the milkyway would rise shortly before 4 AM and this time of year it's low in the sky in the east, just above the horizon. I got up at 2:30 AM and hit the road, it was 10 below zero F. This is one of the images I took, It's a combination of 5 five photos combined in Photoshop to make the panorama. Monday morning was the first time I had a battery stop working because of the cold, luckily I had just bought a spare so I was able to exchange it and keep on clicking. By the time I got home shortly before 7 AM the temp had dropped to 15 below, I'm so glad I had hand warmers. It's hard to make out in this picture, but the sub zero temperatures created plenty of sea smoke. The base exposure for the combined images was 30 secs. at F2.8 and ISO 3200. The camera sees more stars in the sky then you can with your naked eye.