Where I live on the Gold Coast in Qld Australia we never see the constellation of the Southern Cross upside down, because our latitude here is 28°south and that’s too high. So the Southern Cross always dips down into the horizon for quite a few hours until it’s seen again rising in the southeast later in the night or early morning.
While on a visit to the south island in New Zealand, I got such a wonderful surprise when I went out onto the patio and saw the Southern Cross upside down in the southern sky…I was so excited I ran inside and garbed my camera to take some images even though there was a full Moon and the sky was very light.
The beautiful town that we stayed in was called Kaikoura and its latitude is 42° South, this is why I could see the Southern Cross in its entirety upside down.
It would have been just amazing if the sky had been dark but I did my best with a full Moon in the sky and decided to take a picture of the snowy mountains in moonlight, this image below is completely lit up by the Moon and it’s just so beautiful. The moonlight lit up all the foliage naturally and the stars on show are in the northern sky and are part of the constellations of Pegasus and Andromeda.
While on a visit to the south island in New Zealand, I got such a wonderful surprise when I went out onto the patio and saw the Southern Cross upside down in the southern sky…I was so excited I ran inside and garbed my camera to take some images even though there was a full Moon and the sky was very light.
The beautiful town that we stayed in was called Kaikoura and its latitude is 42° South, this is why I could see the Southern Cross in its entirety upside down.
It would have been just amazing if the sky had been dark but I did my best with a full Moon in the sky and decided to take a picture of the snowy mountains in moonlight, this image below is completely lit up by the Moon and it’s just so beautiful. The moonlight lit up all the foliage naturally and the stars on show are in the northern sky and are part of the constellations of Pegasus and Andromeda.
~ Kaikoura snowy mountains lit up by the light of a full Moon ~
So it just shows you no matter what light is in the sky you can always get some awesome images, you just have to always be looking up to be rewarded :-)
Star Map in NZ November 2019 Visiting New Zealand
If you live in New Zealand and would like to know what’s in your sky tonight, then please go to the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand website and download a current star map at:
http://www.rasnz.org.nz/in-the-sky/sky-index
The images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm Tamron lens on a tripod. The Southern Cross image was taken with lens set at 35mm; exposure time was 5 seconds and ISO 640. The snowy mountain image was an 8 second exposure, and lens set at 28mm, ISO 1000. The full Moon image was a 5 second exposure @f8 and lens set at 35mm, ISO 1000.
If you live in New Zealand and would like to know what’s in your sky tonight, then please go to the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand website and download a current star map at:
http://www.rasnz.org.nz/in-the-sky/sky-index
The images were taken with a Canon 70D camera and an 18-400mm Tamron lens on a tripod. The Southern Cross image was taken with lens set at 35mm; exposure time was 5 seconds and ISO 640. The snowy mountain image was an 8 second exposure, and lens set at 28mm, ISO 1000. The full Moon image was a 5 second exposure @f8 and lens set at 35mm, ISO 1000.
~ The Full Moon at Kaikoura in New Zealand on 12th November 2019 ~
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