Category Archives: Astrophotography

The Very Large Telescope

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VLT (Very Large Telescope) is a facility of European South Observatory located in Atacama Desert in Chile. It is the most advanced astronomical telescope ever created. Or better said a group of telescopes as there are in fact four big telescopes and many smaller telescopes that work together. It is well-known for its vivid pictures of deep-sky objects and more importantly for many wonderful scientific discoveries.

I found that the view on the facility from above (at 30.000 ft onboard of a passenger flight from La Serena to Calama) can be just as breathtaking as the pictures of nebulas it takes. So I took this picture. Looking at the picture I sometimes think that it looks like it was captured from a Mars orbit rather than from a plane. What do you think?

Nikon D700, Nikkor AF-S 24-70/2.8G at 70mm, f/6.7, 1/750s, ISO200

The telescope domes are located on top of the hill on the left side on top of the hill. Four big telescopes are named by celestial objects in Mapuche language (Antu, Kueyen, Melipal and Yepun meaning Sun, Moon, Southern Cross and The Jupiter). On the right there are administrative buildings dominated by luxury complex Perla de las Dunas. Maybe you don’t know that this is where final scenes of the James Bond film Quantum Of Solace were shot. In the movie the building was completely destroyed, but I can witness that it is still there. :)

I had a privilege to visit the facility also by foot. I can say the view from the ground is as spectacular as from the top. First thing you notice is that there is exceptionally clear and blue the sky. It is dark blue with not even a single cloud for about 350 days a year. It feels like if you were looking through the polarizing filter all the times. The surrounding landscape is just as Mars-like as from the top. Only the telescopes domes appears to be bigger from the ground.

Nikon D300, Tokina AT-X 116 11-16/2.8 at 11mm, f/8, 1/750s, ISO200

Milky way

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Our Galaxy – the Milky Way is the largest and one of the most beautiful stellar objects you can see on the sky using just a naked eye. Not on every sky though. Thanks to the excessive light that polluted our skies in last decades not many people can actually see the Milky Way in its beauty. Many people living in cities have even never seen the Milky way at all. I heard a story that there was a major power cut somewhere in densely populated area. People came out of their houses and could not believe what was above them. They even called police to report strange-looking object on the sky.

Not sure if it actually happened, but even if you are lucky to live on dark location you might still not be able to see the view like that on the picture. Unless you live on the south. In many locations on north hemisphere the most beautiful parts of Milky way like the centre of the galaxy located in Scorpius constellation never rises much above the horizon. This shot was captured in San Pedro de Atacama that is located well below equator. This is not only south enough to see the Scorpius high, but it is also one of the darkest areas in the world. Far from big cities in dry desert where the atmosphere is exceptionally transparent to have unobstructed view on the stars.

Nikon D700, Zenitar Fisheye 16/2.8 at 16mm, f/5.6, 300s, ISO3200

Another interesting objects you can see in the shot are Magellanic clouds. They are two – Small and Large. They are also galaxies, orbiting around our Milky way although we look at them from the distance rather than being part of them – so they appear smaller. Magellanic provide spectacular view to the observers at the southern hemisphere.
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Nikon D700, Nikkor AF-S 24-70/2.8G at 28mm, f/3.5, 180s, ISO800

Nikon D700, Nikkor AF-S 24-70/2.8G at 28mm, f/3.5, 180s, ISO800

Zodiacal light

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Zodiacal light is extremely faint glow seen in the night sky. It can be observed from many locations further from big cities during moonless nights but it is best seen in truly dark sky locations. The glow is caused by dust particles in so-called zodiacal cloud in our solar system. These particles scatters light from sun. In the sky it appears as a band of light around the ecliptic.

On the picture below you can see the Milky way at the top. The light band on the left side is the Zodiacal light. The rising star at the bottom is planet Jupiter. Just above horizon there is another interesting attribute of truly dark sky – airglow. The big spot on the right side of the picture is Large Magellanic Cloud.

Nikon D700, Zenitar 16mm/2.8 fish-eye, 16mm, f/2.8, 30s, ISO6400

This picture was captured early in the morning near San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile. The technical quality of the picture is not so good given by poor corner performance of the Zenitar lens that was used wide open and extreme sensitivity value. However, resized to the screen size it is acceptable for this web post :)

The second picture was taken just before sunrise. You can see the Jupiter is much higher there. If you look carefully, you can see a trace meteor just in the zodiacal light. As for the gear used. Nikkor 24-70/2.8G is excellent professional zoom. However, it is not without faults and there is some astigmatism that never really disappears unless stopped down much. However, it is barely visible on scaled down images.

Nikon D700, Nikkor AF-S 24-70/2.8G at 24mm, f/3.5, 30s, ISO6400

For third picture I used portrait orientation. This is rather unusual for a fisheye lens. But it worked. Thanks to f/5.6 aperture the awful coma of my Zenitar lens finally disappeared. However, in order to capture the picture I had to use long exposure time on tracked mount to capture the picture otherwise stars would be trailed after 240 seconds of exposure. The polar alignment was very rough. I’ve just pointed the mount roughly to the area where the south celestial pole should be located up to my knowledge. Luckily, it was sufficient for short ultra-wide angle shot. You can see that the horizon silhouette is a bit blurred as result of movement of tracking mount.

Nikon D700, Zenitar Fisheye 16/2.8 at 16mm, f/5.6, 240s, ISO3200