Astrophotography in Western and Central Australia
In September I went to Western and Central Australia to capture one of the most impressive starry skies on earth. After what seemed like an endless flight, we arrived in Perth and headed straight north to Kalbarri National Park, about 500 km away.
In order to flexibly overcome the long distances and often deserted areas, we decided on a 4×4 off-road vehicle with a roof tent construction. This meant we could tackle dirt roads and spend the night in the most remote places.
In Kalbarri National Park we looked for the famous Nature's Window, a small rock arch, as an interesting foreground. We also illuminated this with the help of a person inside the arch. Above this we placed an impressively visible Milky Way. We took these using star tracking, which enables long exposure times (> 1 minute) and therefore low ISO values. A bright 14mm lens helped us with this.
Due to the wide aperture of F1.8, we get short exposure times and therefore minimal rotation of the stars. This makes it easy to create a panorama consisting of several consecutive shots during the night. Here you can see our Milky Way in the form of an arch over interesting rock formations in Kalbarri National Park, taken in a panorama made up of 13 individual images. 
After two impressive starry nights we continued our journey towards Karijini National Park. On the way we drove along the entire Coral Coast, past the azure ocean with soft pink shimmering coral reefs. We decided to capture the wildly rushing sea together with the Milky Way. A zoom lens was used for this. The zoom with a fairly wide open aperture opens up completely new design possibilities. This means you can easily record the foreground at a wide angle at 14mm and the Milky Way at 20mm and combine them into one shot afterwards.
The next destination was Carnavon on the West Coast. The OTC satellite station at Carnavon was established to meet the need for more reliable and high quality communications for NASA's Apollo lunar project.
It wasn't easy to make this recording. Normally the station is surrounded by a large fence and lit by bright spotlights. Luckily we met the friendly manager who opened the door for us. We turned off the lights outside and turned it on inside. You can now see the newborn space engineer Riccardo in front of his station, searching for new life in the space of our Milky Way Galaxy! Many thanks to the Carnavon Space and Technology Museum.
At night we had to cleverly illuminate the foreground with our headlamps, as it was completely dark due to the lack of ambient light. This absolute darkness provided an incredible view of the starry sky in the southern hemisphere and an F2.8 aperture was enough to capture the center of the Milky Way. With the help of the zoom, it was possible to search for a motif more flexibly. The photo shows the Hamersley Gorge with its abstract rock layers and harmoniously curved shapes during the night. The Milky Way rises up.
After a fantastic stay, we continued on a 2000 km long tour across the outback. From burst tires to a broken turbo and radiator, we had extreme problems with our car on the way and we were about to cancel the tour. It is therefore urgently necessary to have enough spare parts and a vehicle specialist in the outback. Finally, after a few desperate days, we reached Australia's landmark Uluru (Ayers Rock).
I decided to photograph the Milky Way together with these gigantic monoliths in a panorama. I used the waxing moon to sufficiently illuminate the foreground. Later, after the moonset, I exposed the Milky Way. The 14mm lens was also the best choice here.
Afterwards we started the return journey again. What remains are memories of a continent with unique nature and landscape.
So if you love an incredibly impressive starry sky paired with fascinating landscapes and nature far from any civilization, Western and Central Australia is definitely worth a trip.
Thanks Riccardo and Steve for the great trip :)
1 Response
Konrad Schedlbauer
Hi Steve
First of it the astro pics in this article are brilliant but I am sure that is a regular comment of visitors.
I do have a few burning questions regarding 2 of your pictures which are #2 and the last one.
I live in Perth/WA and know the locations these photos have been shot. I have done quite a number of milky way shots but I am only scratching the surface of it. I do know that most astrophotos are the result of a stacking process. I haven’t gone down that way yet as my Olympus OMD EM1 MK3 & 7-14 wide lens give me pretty decent results without fiddling on a PC.
Stacking multiple images and overlaying and compositing different views is another matter. So what I would like to know is how the 2 aforementioned photos came about. Looking at the milky way arch and the foreground I would say the angles don’t add up. it could never be viewed like this in real life. Only explanation to me is that the milky way arch is a stacked image and the foreground is a separate exposure and the 2 have been combined. There are lots of astro photos like this on the net and at first it made me envious as I could not even imagine how to achieve this result in one shot. Recent research has led me to believe that many of these pictures are the result of compositing creativity.
I don’t know if you want to let me in on one of your secrets but I try my luck.
Regards
Konrad Schedlbauer
Perth/Western Australia
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