Tingwall Night Sky

Most people don't like shooting a night sky with a full moon. However for me there are a lot of positives as the Moon lights the landscape with some beautiful light

 These photos were taken with a 98% Moon but I have also added a bit of light painting

 ISO can be a lot lower than when the moon is not out, typical ISO levels would be around ISO6400- 8000 without a moon

With a lower ISO it means less noise and a higher Dynamic Range which make the photo a lot more appealing 

 Looking west

 Tingwall is always a good place to go 

Stars and a glow we don't want in Shetland

Increased Light Pollution?

Viking Energy has received approval to increase the size of the proposed 103 Turbines it hopes to erect across the  central mainland. Instead of 145 m it plans to increase them to 155 m tall and also increase the height of the rotas by 5 m to keep within the 35 m ground clearance. The rota diameter will also increase by 10 m to 155 m. The M.O.D have made an objection to this increase but I am not sure whether they have followed this up.

This is bad enough for any landscape photographers but for astrophotographers in Shetland it will mean a red glow from the warning lights at the top of the turbines so an increase in light pollution. You can see this from the 2 photos showing Burradale wind farm just outside Lerwick.

If  the Viking wind farm gets the ok with the next bids, (confirmation due out soon) the floodgates will open and we will see 180 + new turbines erected in Shetland, which will all add to the red glow in our skies. So not just the  central mainland but also in Yell, and down to Cunningsburgh in the south mainland.

The glow from the flares at Sullom Voe has already destroyed the dark site in the north mainland, its glow even can be seen from Eshaness on the west coast.

I have spoken to many visitors who come to Shetland to escape the turbines that blight the landscape in the south, they come north to see un-spoilt landscapes, wildlife and the chance of an Aurora or seeing the milky.

Wind Turbines , its a big no from me on so many counts. We don't want too loose our chance to see or photograph the stars or Aurora. There is every indication the red glow from the warning lights on the  turbines in the central mainland will spoil the view north from Tingwall, in fact they will be seen around 25 miles away

Here is the full list of turbines so far, erected (in place) and the rest proposed

• 5 above Burradale (in place)
• 103 Viking  Central mainland (155m) 13.3% of the mainland
• 29   Energy Isles , Yell North West (200m) 10.5% of Yell
• 17   Peel Energy   Yell Beaw Fields (145m)  5.3% of Yell
•   5   Nth Yell Council, Yell , Garth (In place)
• 12   Peel Energy  Mossyhill (Lerwick- Scalloway)(145m) 1% of the mainland
• 15  Bridge end, Burra

This is virtually a 70km unbroken chain of wind turbines. Total wind farm footprint area(On active peat bog) 172.42 Sq Km, total area of Shetland 1468km, that's 11.7 % of the total land area of Shetland. (Allen Fraser)

with more to come

EIA Report Viking Energy November 2018

4.8.1 A review of the proposed varied development has found that there would be no changes to the degree of landscape and visual effects (including cumulative landscape and visual effects) between the consented Viking Wind Farm and the proposed varied development excluding the effects of turbine lighting.

Effects of Turbine Lighting •

An assessment of turbine lighting undertaken for 13 viewpoints identified that the visual effect of a medium intensity light on every turbine, as required by CAA guidelines, would be significant from all but one of the VPs considered. Those VPs receiving significant effects are within 10 km of the proposed varied development with VP5 (Knab Road, Lerwick), located over 15 km from the proposed varied development, being the only VP likely to be not significant. It was therefore concluded that when taking turbine lighting into consideration, the inclusion of a medium intensity light on every turbine would result in significant effects during low light and night time conditions. 

However, the Applicant proposes to engage with aviation stakeholders to agree a lighting solution which may result in a reduced visual effect.  Discussions would include consideration of the following: Potential reduction of lighting intensity during good meteorological visibility; (No update as yet)

• Radar activated lighting (should this be approved for use); and

• Potential for cardinal or strategic lighting on selected turbines.

(VP Viewpoint )

Work on the Viking Wind farm started on 18 July 2019 with  (https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2019/07/18/wind-farm-ground-investigation-work-gets-underway/) with ground investigations , however construction type activities have taken place (Roads ) without full planning permission.

If they get the Government funding and the inter connector goes ahead they expect to finish by 30 June 2024.

The Yell Wind Farm will have turbines 200m high to the blade tip, that's higher than the cliffs of Noss. Again these will have red aircraft warning lights fitted.

So viewing the Aurora, milky way or stars might become a thing of the past in these areas and to areas where the red light spreads, which is about 25 miles away.

Some of the spots I use will be affected and you have to feel sorry for Aurora Hunters in the north Mainland and in Yell.

Further reading:

Swedish view point http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:949225/FULLTEXT01.pdf

http://www.reuk.co.uk/600MW-Shetland-Wind-Farm.htm

https://www.pagerpower.com/news/determining-uk-wind-turbine-aeronautical-lighting-requirements/

https://electrical-engineering-portal.com/what-is-the-purpose-of-wind-farm-lighting   (Migrating Birds)

There should be a call for on demand lighting which only turns on when an aircraft approaches 

Become a Citizen Scientist.

Why not participate in the Globe at Night campaign, its a great way to help our understanding of Sky glow and its impact. No special tools required and observations can be easily reported by Smartphone or computer.

Its also possible to use a smartphone to make night sky measurements. The Dark Meter App makes use of the iPhone camera to record the brightness of the night sky, while Loss of the Night app walks the user through the sky as measurements are made.

Full details at

https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/measuring-light-pollution/

Looking south from Tingwall Church towards the turbines at Burradale

Don't forget to keep up to-date with the Aurora and night sky by joining 

Shetland Aurora Hunter on Facebook

#Shetland Aurora Hunter, #Aurora in Shetland, # Turbine Red warning lights, #Shetland, #Tingwall Church, 

14mm Samyang F2.4 XP lens review

In this review I would like to focus on the feel of the lens and how I see the photographs. More detailed reports can be found on the internet

I have used both the F2.8 and the newer F2.4 XP Samyang lenses. All photos shown taken with XP lens

Old F2.8 lens
The F2.8 had problems with de- centred focus areas and I had to send back 4 before finally getting an acceptable lens. Samyang is very good at controlling Coma and Chromatic Aberration and even wide open this lens is sharp if you get a good copy. It does have problems with barrel distortion which is always a problem with any landscape photos.

A lot less barrel distortion on the XP lens

Some Vignetting wide open

I bought the F2/8 not only as a landscape lens but for astrophotography and although  it produced some acceptable photos it was still a bit soft in the corners

St Ninian's Isle at Dusk

These images are a lot sharper across the whole frame

It has a plastic casing but feels a good solid purchase at around £326 (Amazon).

Newer F2.4 XP
The newer XP F2.4 version is a professional lens and even though its around £716(Amazon this is £100 less than I paid for it a few months ago) it has a lot more going for it. It feels good in the hand, being an all metal construction with a good lens cap that holds in place well.

Both lenses are manual focus but this one has all the contact points to provide all the information, aperture, speed and focus confirmation. Be aware that if you are a Canon user it will show F2.5 not F2.4.

The distance scale seems accurate unlike the old F2.8 and at the limit it was in focus for the stars so no guess work, mine didn't turn to the infinity marker. The bokeh is excellent by the way

Again Coma and Chromatic Aberration is very well control with virtually nothing showing even wide open. It is that bit faster which is always good for astrophotography. There is only minimal barrel  distortion which means good news for astro and landscape photographers, Vignetting is better controlled from F4

It seems a lot sharper wide open and has the resolving power for a 50mp lens and you can tell, lots more detail with excellent colour rendition. Flare is a lot better controlled, even shooting directly into the Moon/sun (be careful) . Agree with the Samyang information

 ISO800 F2.4 15 seconds (Full Moon)

Crop of top left corner

Samyang blurb
Image quality is maintained by using 18 glasses in 14 groups including four different special optics: two aspherical lenses, one hybrid aspherical lens and two extra low dispersions lenses and one high refractive lens. This optimal performance creates impressive image quality for centre to corner of the image. Also, the minimised aberration enhance the clarity of the image creating a more impressive image than your eyes can see

Old one 14 glasses in 10 groups

Recommend

I was thinking of either the 14mm sigma art f1.8 (£1300) or 14mm Nikon f2.8 (£1608) but liked the other Samyang lenses, I also use the 24mm f1.4 which is also excellent for astrophotography so I thought I would give the XP lens a try. 

In the end I am glad I bought the new XP F2.4 version. As usual, buying any equipment for astrophotography brings a curse with it and it was cloudy and windy for the first 15 days but I did use it for landscapes and was very impressed.

A couple of nights ago I managed a few photos under a full moon and it was picking up stars well using the Nikon D610. The stars were sharp across the sensor and I found that turning the lens to the limit (towards infinity) produced the desired effect so no pre focusing or live view focus on a star. Quality wise it is a lot better than the old one.

Its a pity that its nearly at the end of the Night sky season but I hope to get at least one more session in to test this further

Moon Composite

Was hoping that we would have had some clear nights by now, already two or so weeks into the Aurora season. There has been a number of nights that the Aurora has been visible but it has been showing in the middle of the night

Also the wind has been a major problem with a number of days at Force 6 -7 so no good for photography often with heavy rain

So its been back to the computer and trying to be creative with the enclosed composite images, where two photos are combined.

People may not like this but it is often done in astrophotography, take star trails you might combine 120 images to create one. HDR often use 3 or 5 images to bring out detail in shadows or highlights

People also take multiple photos of stars or the milky way and combine to reveal more stars and detail

The last two photos are down at Park Hall near Bixter, an iconic place in Shetland.

Star Eater

Astrophotography - some problems

I have read a lot about the problems with Sony cameras being ` Star Eaters' . I have the original Sony A7s and i gather that there is no problems with exposures up to 30 seconds but if i used bulb mode then the star eater effect would take place

For 99% of the time i would be using less than 30 seconds for my Nightscapes, although i intend to  use my Astrotrac which would allow longer exposures. With a 200 mm telephoto lens i currently can do 3 seconds without star trailing (500 Rule).

Even at 30 seconds would give me a lot better signal to noise ratio with this lens using the Astotrac. I could always change to the Nikon D610 for bulb shots if needed.

I thought about the Sony A7s II but this was not as good at high ISO as the Sony A7s, the upgrade was more for the video side, this is also affected by Star eating above 3.2 seconds due to firmware issues.

Any firmware upgrades cannot be reversed, so i am glad i never up graded mine. The Star Eater problem is down to the software spatial filtering designed to reduce noise in photos

This issue affects all recent Sony alpha mirror less cameras including the a600, a6300, a7s, a7R, a7, a7II, a7sII and a7RII, possibly other models as well. It has been discussed on many forums and individual blogs with many people contacting Sony direct asking for a fix for the firmware.

To test this out take an exposure at 5 seconds then turn to bulb and take another 5 second exposure and compare the two. This one in bulb mode will see stars lacking punch (Brightness) with the star eater effect.

As the nights are too light in Shetland i wont be able to try this out on my camera.

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Sony A7s incredible ISO range

The Aurora season has finished for us in Shetland, they are still happening but as the nights pull out darkness does not happen until around mid night.

Having used the Sony A7s since January i thought this might be a good time to review its ISO capabilities.

The Sony A7s has an incredible ISO range up to ISO 409,600. Well beyond most cameras and therefore excellent for low light. The Dynamic Range is also superb even at high ISO

For Astrophotography this 12.2 mp camera is ideal, this camera is supported by Lightroom 5.8 my preferred software.

As a result of the low mega pixels and a full frame Exmor sensor the pixels are extremely large and can therefore collect more light. This produces low noise, always a problem with astrophotography as it tests your camera and lenses to the limits.

The images shown are a range of ISO settings, the first in the set exported direct as jpeg's from Lightroom, the second on as a Tiff. Both are converted to web-size.

As you can see the images are clean right up to ISO 51,200 and beyond although Stars tend to get eaten after this although the images are still usable. Let me know what you think. , all these images have been taken on RAW with noise reduction turned off in camera. However noise reduction was undertaken in Lightroom.

I think these are very impressive compared to the Nikon D610 full frame camera which is good up to ISO 3200

I have been very impressed with live view, the milky way looks amazing as you increase the ISO which makes it easier to frame and see what how the final photo will come out. Its tilt screen is another bonus as you point the camera high up.

Where the Sony A7s excels as a tool for astrophotographers is its live view feed, particularly with its S-log2 picture profile PP7 enabled (available via Menu>camera>5 Picture Profile.

I need to carry out more tests but so far i am impressed, just have to wait now until late September when it come dark.

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