The last Milkyway for the season

I waited from August till now for this season's last shot at the Milkyway. It wouldnt be an exaggeration to say that this was the worst one yet. If it didnt rain, the sky was just full of clouds. There would be a couple of nice days during the week however by nightfall it would again turn cloudy.

Finally on the weekend of the 17th Nov, the sky looks promising. Clear sky but prettty cold by then at 5-5degs C throught the night on average reaching 1 deg C aorund 2am. Not wanting to loose the season I took a cabin for 2 nights and left for Sirdal on Saturday returning on Monday.

These shots were taken during the stay at the cabin, most were taken on the first night. By the 2nd night the temperature went down to minus 2 deg C. I concluded that I had gotten the shots I needed and didnt venture out on the 2nd night.

Some of the images above (1-3) were stitches from several individual images. This outing did proved the mettle of the newly acquired Samyang AF 85/1.4 for my needs ... it's bright, light and at 85mm the star distortions at the images were negligible. Vignetting at the edges was easily removed with software, the purple fringing at 1.4 is only visible at huge magnifications. All in all, I'd bring this lens to my next Milkyway party and next season I'm sure to pair it with the Star Adventurer and Deep Sky Stacker while at it.

This year qualifies for "dismal" as far as Milkyway is concerned. Typically between the months of Aug-Nov you would have been able to make at least 3 outings for that entire duration. However the odds against it are pretty high once you put clouds, rain, and full moon as potential detractors.