New on 500px : Celestial Drive by markg by markg

I drove out to the back country area above Hanmer Springs on the South Island of New Zealand to capture this 360 degree seamless pano of the night sky.

There’s quite a lot going on with this image – you have the Milky Way which can be seen arching over the landscape in the right of frame, and below that you can see a natural phenomena know as gravity waves. The glow in the centre of frame is from the lights of Christchurch 130km away, and to the left of that are the Magellanic Clouds, which are a duo of irregular dwarf galaxies visible only from the Southern Hemisphere. The faint triangular glow to the far left of frame is the Zodiacal Light, which is caused by sunlight scattered by space dust in the zodiacal cloud, and in this case, is seen just before morning twilight.

For the tech buffs out there, this image is a 218 megapixel image made up of a stitch of 28 individual images, which were shot on a Gigapan Epic Pro. The images were shot 4 rows vertically by 7 columns horizontally, each on a 24mm lens with an exposure of a 25 second shutter at f/2.8 with an ISO 6400. The whole pano took a total of 14 minutes to shoot with all the images.

copyright 2014 | Mark Gee | theartofnight.com

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New on 500px : Reflecting In The Early Hours by markg by markg

You know you’re in for a good session of astrophotography when you set your camera up next to your car and can see the Milky Way galaxy reflecting in it. This shot was taken in the early hours above Hanmer Springs on the South Island of New Zealand. The glow off in the distance is from Christchurch, which is over 130km further south.

I shot right up to 6am that morning, before jumping into the back of the car for some much needed warmth and sleep!

copyright 2014 | Mark Gee | theartofnight.com

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New on 500px : Universal Bonding by markg by markg

It was a short road trip to New Zealand’s South Island with my son that was only 4 days long. We did a lot of driving and exploring the country side, and had some amazing adventures together. But it was this moment on the last night of the trip, that will stick in my mind for a long time to come. I got to share my passion of photographing the night sky with him – we spoke about the Milky Way, stars and planets, and the immense distances of space. It’s something we really bonded over, and we’re both looking forward to doing more of these adventures together in the future.

copyright 2014 | Mark Gee | theartofnight.com

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New on 500px : Luminous Nights by markg by markg

Dark and remote with no artificial light at all, with a sky full of stars as the Milky Way rose to the east. This whole environment was lit by starlight and the intense air glow that was present amongst the darkness – it was certainly a night of astrophotography to remember.

copyright 2014 | Mark Gee | theartofnight.com

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New on 500px : Galatic Rising by markg by markg

Wellington, New Zealand is a great city for star gazing. You don’t have to travel too far out of the city to get dark skies as all the bright lights are contained within the surrounding hills.

This location is only 30 minutes from the center of town, and the stars are spectacular on a clear night. In this image you can see the galactic core of the Milky Way rising above the horizon towards the south. The colour to the left is a result of the distant city lights illuminating the clouds.

copyright 2014 | Mark Gee | theartofnight.com

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New on 500px : Reflections By Starlight by markg by markg

Lake Tekapo is part of the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve. This is a gold-rated dark sky reserve, in recognition of the quality of the almost light pollution-free skies of the Mackenzie Basin in New Zealand. I recently shot this image of the galactic core of our Milky Way rising behind the mountains and reflecting in Lake Tekapo. copyright 2014 | Mark Gee | theartofnight.com
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