r/space • u/tinmar_g • 2d ago
image/gif I found the Eye of Spitzkoppe beneath one of the darkest skies on Earth, Namibia
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Spitzkoppe one of the first stops of my astrophotography trip in Namibia. I travelled across Namibia in a 4x4 with a rooftop tent with a friend to take astrophotography images and enjoy one of the purest night skies in the world.
If you’re interested, you can find more of my work on Instagram.
An absolutely breathtaking landscape. Spitzkoppe is a massive granite formations rising to nearly 2,000 metres out of nowhere, in the middle of the completely flat surrounding savannah.
Ten days before leaving, I came across an article in a Namibian newspaper reporting that a group of tourists had been robbed at knifepoint the day before, and that the campsite was being criticized for its lack of security. Not exactly reassuring. Digging a little deeper, I also found that car break-ins were relatively common in the area, while assaults remained very rare. I wasn't feeling particularly confident anymore and seriously considered cancelling this part of the trip. In the end, I reminded myself that it was one of the country's most iconic places, and that the vast majority of visitors never experience any problems. So instead of cancelling, I simply decided to shorten my stay by one day.
As it turned out, everything went perfectly during my stay. I didn't experience the slightest problem, and the landscapes were truly breathtaking. At Spitzkoppe, there are about twenty campsites, and it's not possible to book one in advance. So you have to find the best spots before everyone else arrives. I was afraid we wouldn't get a place at this particular spot, but we ended up getting one!
The arch is probably the best known location of Spitzkoppe, and according to my plan the Milky Way should have risen not perfectly but well enough behind the opening of the arch.
We went to the arch area during the day first to scout the place. The arch was much bigger and beautiful than I expected ! Then we went back there at the sunset to wait for the Milky Way. I took the opportunity to capture other pictures around the area. At the begining of the night we crossed paths with some other photographers then finally I ended to be the last one. It was a pure moment being alone in this giant playground ! I was a little bit affraid of the snakes living there (some deadly ones), and finally with the beauty of night I just totally forget about it.
The opening of the arch and my silouhette give me the impression of a huge eye in the rock.
The final picture is a panorama taken with a 50mm. 32 pictures for the sky and 28 for the background where each picture is 30 seconds exposure. I also shot the sky with Ha filter to reveal the red nebulaes and a glow star filters to better catch the stars. Also I used an equatorial mount to track the stars and being able to do long exposure without star trails.
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What can you actually see with the naked eye?
I had never seen such a bright sky in my entire life as an astrophotographer. The Milky Way was incredibly obvious, and even some nebulae appeared as faint white patches. The Magellanic Clouds were also clearly visible. Once we were camping with lots of other people, there was quite a bit of light pollution from the campsites, yet the sky was still so f*cking impressive. It was unbelievable!
As a reminder, the sky looks different to the naked eye than it does in long-exposure astrophotography. With naked eyes our vision is monochrome but you can easily recognize the shape of the Milky Way and notice a few of the brightest nebula regions as very faint, diffuse glows, but you cannot see the deep reds or the intricate structures shown here.
That said, everything in this image is real. I used a dedicated filter to capture the natural glow around the stars, another filter to record additional H-alpha data (the red nebulae).
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Settings
Sky: 3200 ISO - F/2 - 30s x 32 pictures
Foreground : 4000 ISO - F/2.5 - 30s x 28 pictures
Equipment : Canon R6 Mark II - Sigma ART 50mm - Benro Polaris
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u/ABoutDeSouffle 2d ago
OK, I wanted to ask what kind of camera makes images like that possible, a full-frame sensor clearly makes sense.
Astonishing picture, must have been such a great experience :)
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Yes full frame sensor make a huge difference, and the camera of course! I had a Canon 6D before which was one the best (and one of the most abordable), It was my first time with the Canon R6 and it's also very great :)
Many thanks for your kind words 🙏
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u/Jaasim99 2d ago
6D mentioned🙌🤝 What was the Ha filter used btw? And how was it mounted on the lens?
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u/wilki24 2d ago
What filters did you use?
That's my next step in astrophotography.
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
For the H-Alpha I have the IDAS NB12 Dualband which is great because I can plug it to me by EF/R adapter and so use it with all my lenses. I also take OIII data that I used for the Gum nebula 👌
For the star glow I have the Tifffen Double Fog
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u/interstellxxr 1d ago
Did you use the star glow for all your non Ha-filtered pictures? Or you took extra pictures with the filter and then blended in the stars? Does it affect the quality of the background sky (by introducing blur for example)?
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u/tinmar_g 1d ago
Yes star glow for RGB pictures only on I take dedicated pictures with the star glow filter otherwise it affects the quality of the background... At least according to my mind. Also doing separate pictures with star glow let me choose the amount of glow on the final picture.
That's a lot of additionnal work but when I know that's in a trip i'm going to shoot several times the same part of the sky I did it once. The glow light of the stars do not changes even in strong airglow.
If interested on the technique I would suggest Matej tutorial about this which are great, and this is the one I use:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqdNVDBmTWQ•
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u/Unknown_vectors 2d ago
Amazing picture.
30 second exposure, I’m surprised there isn’t any trails for the stars. Isn’t there always some around 30 seconds?
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
I used an equatorial mount to track the stars and avoiding any star trail. That's why 🙂
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u/kafka0002 2d ago
Does the sky really look monochrome with the naked eye? Meaning the red and brown-ish colors we see in the picture don’t appear so in reality?
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
You can see it especially in the brownish parts, where interstellar dust obscures the light from the huge concentration of stars in our galaxy. To the naked eye, though, the Milky Way appears as a faint whitish band across the sky, which is why we call it the Milky Way, because of its white appearance.
Also dark area are strongly visible.
Here are good examples of what you can see under good conditions (light poollution free, and no moon in the sky):
https://amazingsky.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/centre-of-milky-way-panorama-2011-final-ev.jpg
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u/HoboJerkdown901 2d ago
I know that op said this already but I just want to emphasize that you would not see anything like this with the naked eye, this is a long exposure shot where the aperture is left open for a while and then digitally enhanced, most of the time.
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Yes totally ! As I mentionned in another comment, here are good exemples of what is visible under such pure skies:
https://amazingsky.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/centre-of-milky-way-panorama-2011-final-ev.jpg
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u/PanoramicAtom 2d ago
What’s totally wild to me is that when I was a young child, I would have dreams where I would look up in the night sky and see large, colorful nebulae and galaxies. This photo is so close to what I saw in those dreams, and I don’t think there were any such photos over fifty years ago, when I was that child.
Quite evocative, my friend. Thank you.
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u/Competitive-Weird855 1d ago
I used to love stargazing in the middle of the ocean and those photos are about how it looked.
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u/newbrevity 2d ago
It wasn't so much that people in the past believed in the heavens. If you asked them they'd just say it's right there. To them that was proof.
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u/Phaeron 2d ago
I despise the loss of the ability to see such things as this.
Any North American locations able to yield such views besides Big Bend.
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u/ammonthenephite 2d ago
I despise the loss of the ability to see such things as this.
Well, you can't actually see this anywhere on earth, this is very long exposure photography. I'm sure you know this, but just in case others come along, it's good to have appropriate expectations for what you can actually see at true dark sky sites.
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u/stuckinrockwell 2d ago
You know, not exactly this but if you go to really dark place, you can see milky way in its glory splitting the sky in two.
Few years back I was deep into thar desert in India, no lights for about 20 km and new moon day, it was a surreal & humbling experience, to say in words, it was like white bridge in a sky drowned by stars & celestial bodies. One can only know if seen with own eyes, horizon littered with lights with no end and a wide white band in the middle.•
u/Propagandaaaa 2d ago
Largely agree but I can tell you with personal experience that it is possible to see really vivid milky way with naked eye in the Hanle area of Ladakh in India. I was stunned to see it in all its glory with naked eye.
Hanle also hosts one of, if not the, highest observatories in the world.
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u/uvucydydy 2d ago
Thanks, that's what I was wondering. I'm sure it's still beautiful there though.
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u/ammonthenephite 2d ago edited 2d ago
Oh for sure, its still incredible, but much dimmer, no color, etc. This image is a pretty good aproximation of what it looks like to the naked eye on a moonless night. Seems much less impressive, but its still breathtaking in person and worth the trip at least once in a lifetime.
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u/Tritium3016 2d ago
The most amazing night sky I've ever seen was in Joshua Tree national park. I instantly thought of it when I saw this photo. It was a magical night sky, probably more so for a city boy like me.
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u/Different_Wolf_764 2d ago
Pretty much anywhere in the far north, although I've found that the best night skies outside of Auroras are in the Rocky Mountains a valley over from any populated area.
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u/wilki24 2d ago
https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/
The darkest place I've been in the Black Rock desert in Nevada. That's where burning man is held, which ruins the dark sky, so go earlier in the summer before they start setting up.
I've also been in the winter, which was also amazing, but very cold. Plus, if it's been raining, then the whole playa is a big mud pit.
Go in June or July and it'll be warmer, and you should have the place to yourself. You can just pull off the highway and drive out a ways until you're far enough from the highway that any stray cars won't ruin your night vision.
You can easily see the zodiac light, and even the gegenschein, which is the dimmer spot opposite the sun. Both are caused by the sun shining on the disc of interplanetary dust in orbit around the sun. It's really cool to see them.
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u/WadsworthWordsworth 2d ago
If you have any advice on where to go and how to get there in Namibia for dark sky observing, I'd love to know!
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Depending on what you are looking for, if it's just for stargazing and deep-sky astrophotography, you can go almost anywhere except the capital, Windhoek. In Etosha, we slept at Okaukuejo campsite, which is almost like a mini city in the reserve with a lot of lights, and despite that, we saw the Milky Way better than I had ever seen it anywhere else...
If you want to do landscape astrophotography, it's a bit more complicated. Because you're not allowed to spend the night outside campsites, you can sometimes have lights around you or not be right in the middle of the landscapes. For that, you have to find very remote campsites, or walk at night in the dark with the sound of hyenas around you and the possibility of encountering dangerous animals... We did it, and it was really scary.
Spitzkoppe is great for that because the whole park, which is huge, is accessible to campers at night. The area has electric fences all around, so it's quite safe! You just have to be careful with snakes. You can have these amazing landscapes almost entirely to yourself at night.
We also stayed at Kanaan Desert Retreat, and they offer astrophotography tours with a guide. It was expensive, but it was a fantastic experience!
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u/jjabrames 2d ago
I am so envious. Light pollution sucks
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Yes, once you experience a place completely free from light pollution, it's even harder to go back to polluted places for stargazing...
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u/TitaniumDisc 1d ago
This is absolutely blowing my mind. This requires filters and such correct? Sorry that may be a very stupid question, space photography is not anything I’ve ever researched.
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u/GalacticBrew 2d ago
Can you imagine if space looked like this to the naked eye? The amount of cosmos above us that most people don't notice because of city lights blows my mind.
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u/Not-a-Bot_1968 2d ago
city lights or not you aren’t seeing any of this with the naked eye. you will make out a faint streak where the Milky Way is but it looks absolutely nothing like this even in the darkest skies, nd all those nebulas you’d never see anything like that
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u/ketoleggins 2d ago
I tried to give you an award. Would love to print this photo!
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
No worries don't need any awards, I'm already grateful the post get such visibility. I don't do any print but I'm sure you can take the pic from the post to print it by yourself, the resolution is big enough 🙂
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u/cheesoid 2d ago
Great photo! Spitzkoppe is probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited.
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Yes that's such a awesome place! We also really like spending hours observing the hyrax in the rocks
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u/warhammercpt 1d ago
Dam I wish I had free time and a telescope to come to this place and see it one time .
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u/Good_Reflection_1959 1d ago
Beautiful! I’m in Namibia atm and was just planning on the areas for astrophotography. I’ll be heading to Serium tomorrow
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u/tinmar_g 1h ago
Sesriem is awesome ! You let our cameras at Deadvlei for the night and we get them back the morning after 😊
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u/r2v-42nit 2d ago
Tell that dude, “Down in front! You’re blocking the view of the other starts down there for the rest of us.” ;)
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u/DamienRose619 2d ago
I live in the middle of a major city. I looked up at the sky tonight and I could count the number of stars I could see on one hand. 🤣
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u/dontdoit89735 2d ago
When I studied abroad we stopped in Namibia and I spent a night camping in the desert where we were going to look at the stars. It was cloudy all night.
I went skydiving the next day. Had a great time in Namibia.
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u/Neuro_88 2d ago
This is stunning. Great photo! Definitely put a signature to reflect that you took so you can get credit for it.
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u/gieserj10 1d ago
Imagine if this is what our sky looked like to the naked eye. Omg I'd never stop looking. Amazing shot, absolutely beautiful.
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u/enricojr 1d ago
That is a beautiful sky right there. I don't think I've ever seen the night sky that clear in-person.
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u/UpstairsBig6173 18h ago
That is such an amazing photograph and would look stunning professionally printed on a canvas and displayed as wall art.
Congratulations on your breathtaking image!
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u/BadKauff 2d ago
Wow. Wow! Thank you for sharing the picture and for your description of your experience and the photograph. Amazing!
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u/snacky99 2d ago
Absolutely insane!! Would love to hear more about the country and people :)
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
The country is surely one of the most beautiful on Earth! We saw so many animals in the biggest reserve Etosha : elephants, rhino, zebra, lion. You can in the reserve which is giant with your own vehicle to see the animals it's crazy. There are so many differents landscapes frome the desert dunes to mountains and falls.
It's clearly much more accessible and doable than people actually think. I planned the whole trip without using any tour operator, and it was pretty easy to organize.
For the people , it's one of the least densely populated countries in the world. So it's quite difficult to exhange with people exept from facilities like shops and campsites.
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u/LightofAngels 2d ago
This is both beautiful and mesmerizing…those kind of shots just makes me wonder what’s out there
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
This is exactly why I love stargazing! Even more in a place like this, in the middle of nowhere. You have so many questions in mind, and I could look at the sky for hours 😊
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u/alex_484 2d ago
Beautiful sky. What did you use for this?
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Many thanks! I wrote a descriptive comment to explain a little bit more the acquisition, the equipment and settings 😊
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u/alex_484 1d ago
Thanks I will have a look. I am not a good photographer but I’m sure looking to learn
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u/evilRainbow 2d ago
Wow, that's insane. Do you have a landscape version?
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Thanks a lot! Nope it's the final version not cropped. It's already quite long with a 50mm lens to cover this part of the sky haha. However I did another panorama from the other side of the arch with a wider lens in landscape format containing the whole visible Milky Way arch. I didn't start edit it (it's quite lonng) but I will post it later 😊
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u/VidKobu 2d ago
Incredible picture detail.
Visit any Spar stores while you were there?
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Thanks! Yes we did when we crossed city otherwise we used to shop at the gas station (which was the only option).
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u/stormbringerelric77 2d ago
Can't tell if cool camera exposure of galaxies, or the Elder Gods have returned. Either way very cool!
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u/Paxxalor 2d ago
Incredible, thank you for sharing. What a beautiful universe we live in—thank you for helping us see more of it!
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
Many thanks 😊🙏
I'll never get tired of stargazing! It's the best therapy, in my opinion.
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u/Ok-Performance-249 2d ago
Noob here, I have a genuine question. Does the sky looks exactly like this in the picture with naked eye? Definitely it won’t look like this but I am curious about the red hue and the pattern we see on the right side of the picture. Thanks
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
I wrote some words in my descriptive comment about what you can see frome naked eyes:
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What can you actually see with the naked eye?
I had never seen such a bright sky in my entire life as an astrophotographer. The Milky Way was incredibly obvious, and even some nebulae appeared as faint white patches. The Magellanic Clouds were also clearly visible. Once we were camping with lots of other people, there was quite a bit of light pollution from the campsites, yet the sky was still so f*cking impressive. It was unbelievable!
As a reminder, the sky looks different to the naked eye than it does in long-exposure astrophotography. With naked eyes our vision is monochrome but you can easily recognize the shape of the Milky Way and notice a few of the brightest nebula regions as very faint, diffuse glows, but you cannot see the deep reds or the intricate structures shown here.
That said, everything in this image is real. I used a dedicated filter to capture the natural glow around the stars, another filter to record additional H-alpha data (the red nebulae).
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Also here are good exemples of what is visible under such pure skies:
https://amazingsky.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/centre-of-milky-way-panorama-2011-final-ev.jpg
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u/TheGreenPepper 2d ago
Nah brother, you can only see a faint smudge. This is done with long exposure
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u/general-meow 2d ago
Can the human eye actually catch this?
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u/ViktorNovikov 2d ago
No, but you can see a shit ton more than you can in light polluted areas. If you ever get the chance, check a dark site map and try to get out to one of the areas. It was insane for me seeing more stars than i was used to seeing in the entire night sky in just a single constellation
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u/Ashamed_Ice 2d ago
ai: So: the individual elements (rock arch, night sky, person) are plausibly based on real photographic elements, but the final image is very likely a composite/heavily enhanced blend rather than a single authentic photograph straight out of a camera.
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u/BootyKissa02 2d ago
Dumbass.
Dumbass again for character minimum.
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u/Ashamed_Ice 2d ago
Chill, as Jesus said in the Bible, "Don't kill the messenger!" Ai has identified the aritificially created picture as AI. I know, that hurts. Maybe next time OP should take an original picture. Just saying... ✌️✌️✌️
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u/Mynock33 2d ago
This is all just artistic computer coloring and drawing over a sky. It's no different than a painting or AI pic of the sky. So it's very pretty, but it's nothing you can see or experience and it doesn't look tgat way. As OP even said...
As a reminder, the sky looks different to the naked eye
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u/tinmar_g 2d ago
I agree that astrophotography has an important artistic side, and that's also one of the reasons why I love it. In that sense, it's not so different from regular photography. Even in daytime photography, professionals shoot RAW files, which contain a lot of data but can look quite flat before editing. They then work on contrast, saturation, shadows, colors, etc.
However, every color you see here represents real data and real nebulae. The artistic part is mostly in how you choose to represent that data. The additional red, for example, comes from H-alpha emissions produced by hydrogen. H-alpha is actually part of the visible spectrum, although our eyes are not very sensitive to it, especially at such low light levels.
If you look at images from famous space telescopes like Hubble, the principle can be similar. They use different filters to capture specific wavelengths of light, including some that our eyes cannot see, and then assign colors to those different datasets. In deep-sky astrophotography, there are even different color palettes for representing narrowband data, such as the famous Hubble Palette.
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u/snoo-boop 2d ago
I just experienced it by looking at OP's composite image. As a radio astronomer, I'm used to appreciating things that my eye cannot see.
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u/cwilbur22 2d ago
Man what an incredible shot! Sounds like an amazing experience