Friday 19 December 2014

Night skies from Helihill

Helicopter Hill (or Helihill in short) is an ideal place for night time photography. I walked up at aroud 21:00, and returned at 2:00. Going down through the forest, walking for one hour in darkness, the path only illuminated by the light of the torch, gives a quite special feeling.


In darkness, trees seem taller and the sounds of the forest are much creepier. Did I see something moving over there? You know there cannot be big wild animals out there. This is not Russia or Brazil. There are no wolves or giant snakes. But still, after walking alone for some time you start seeing "things" that are not really there, connecting them with the sounds you hear or don't hear. Pretty creepy, but also an interesting experience!


Ok, back to night time photography. I had two cameras with me: the NEX-C3 and the Alpha 6000. Great cameras these are!



Orion. Upside-down, of course. The bright orange star is Betelgeuse.



In lower right, you can see the Southern Cross.


Large Magellanic Cloud.



Wide angle view of the Milky Way with a distinct glow over the hills, probably coming from the rising Moon which illuminated the faint clouds over there.


4 comments:

  1. Beware of the kiwis! They could scare you in the dark :-)

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  2. Hey Vincent,

    Erin here - Zeinab's friend whom you met at the pub. She showed me the picture taken of us there the other day and said you had some awesome pictures on your blog so I came to check them out myself. The night pictures are amazing! I can only imagine how stunning such views are in person! It was great to meet you. I hope we can meet again before you go back, and in the mean time I look forward to following your adventures!

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