Milky Way Rising Over Lake Tekapo

Predicting the weather in the high country is a difficult exercise at the best of times, but knowing the extent the cloud cover over a particular location is even more challenging.

Last night up on Mount John was a great example. It was looking like the forecast ensured that viewing conditions would be unfavourable; so much so that Earth & Sky postponed their tours reasonably early in the evening. But by the time I was about to call it a night, the clouds lifted a little.

As I was staying up on Mt John (in the 1m telescope complex) I didn't have to go far to ensure I had a great view of the Milky Way rising over Mt Hay on the shores of Lake Tekapo. On the far left of the image you'll see the Optical Craftsman telescope dome, as well as the Astro Café, on the right the glowing lights of Lake Tekapo township. The prominent stars to the left of the galactic core (from top to bottom)  are Antares - the brightest star in scorpius - Mars and Saturn.

In the extras you'll see the 1m telescope building with the Southern Cross above it, the other features the MOA and B&C Telescopes with the spread of the Milky way above them.

As I got home late this afternoon, you may have missed my blip from yesterday. Check out the reflections from Lake McGregor and an inverted tree here.

EXIF is out once more on this image as I used a fully manual focus lens. Shot on a Fujifilm X-T1 with Samyang 8mm f/2.8 fisheye, 45" at f/2.8. Distortion of the fisheye lens corrected in Photoshop.