"Long exposure of missile attacks" #2

No these are not missiles boys 😆😅

Results of my 3 night Astrophotography bender on August 10th-13th of the Perseids meteor shower. This photo was compiled over the night of the 10th into the 11th within the Wisconsin blufflands overlooking the Mississippi River. This is a composite of several images captured throughout the night.

Planning for this photoshoot began days in advance. I used a combination of PhotoPills, Planit Pro, Google Maps, and Windy to find a suitable location with clear skies in the forecast. On the night of the shoot I drove an hour and thirty minutes to the location and hiked about another 45 minutes to this cliffside.

I started by setting up my tent on the edge of the cliff, then assembled my star tracker and aligned it with Polaris. Once I had my foreground composition dialed in, I waited for a car to pass to create the light trail effect on the right side of the photo. I saw this as a great opportunity to introduce a leading line that would draw the viewer's eye deeper into the image. I also happened to capture a train passing through—if you look through the trees next to the river, you can spot it.

After I was happy with my foreground image, I turned my attention to the sky and MilkyWay. Using a star tracker allowed me to take a 121-second long exposure without causing star trails. The aurora was also lighting up the sky behind me, and a bit of its red/magenta glow spilled into my frame on the right. Due to the length of the exposure, it appeared slightly smeared.

Once I had my sky exposure, I began the process of capturing meteors. At this point, all I had to do was wait until morning. In the meantime, I worked on capturing other images incorporating both the northern lights and the Perseids. I didn’t end up sleeping at all that night, and I repeated the same process at a different location for the next two nights—running on minimal sleep while juggling work in between. The post-processing was some of the most intense I’ve ever done, but in the end, it was all worth it.

Sony a7iii
Venus Optics Laowa 15mm 𝑓/2 FE Zero-D

Foreground:
15mm | 𝑓/2.8 | ISO 640 | 252 sec

Sky:
15mm | 𝑓/2.8 | ISO 640 | 121 sec
Tracked

Meteors:
15mm | 𝑓/2.0 | ISO 5000 | 8 sec
Tracked

Filter: Alyn Wallace (RIP) Starglow
Star tracker: Sky Watcher Star Adventurer 2i
Compositional planning: Photo Pills, Planit Pro, Google Maps, Windy