Copenhagen is many things but no City of Light. I like that. Building codes generally keep high rises out of the city and light pollution to a reasonable level. It means we have not killed the stars. It means the stars still shine. A crystal clear pitch black San Agustin plain it is not, but one can actually see some stars in the middle of Copenhagen. A most important fact for dreamers and stargazers like yours truly. In the words of Carl Sagan who also created my title, the sky calls to me and I will one day venture to the stars.
Copenhagen is brilliant in Summer and this Summer hiatus has been nice. I have travelled a fair bit and as cities go, Copenhagen is up there with the very best. If only it had tropical climate and some landscapes. As the days and my countdown to take-off get shorter I feel like capturing a few stars in the now darker evening. I have become quite smitten with astrophotography after my four days spent at Very Large Array. I want to see what I can capture in Copenhagen and a very calm and clear night a few days ago offered opportunities. The lakes are my favourite place and an hour of photography allowed me to create these images:
The exposures are 20 to 25 seconds at roughly f/8.0 and iso 1250 using the 17-40mm L lens. The long exposures means our planet has rotated slightly and the high iso adds a bit of noise. For pitch black astrophotography you end up with 30 seconds exposures at f/4 and iso3200, creating fuzzy stars due to Earth’s rotation. I would very much like to add the expensive 24mm f/1.4 lens to my arsenal as it allows me shorter exposures at lower iso. The panorama is two images stitched, enabling me to capture a lot of sky without distorting the buildings of Søtorvet.
The Stars of Copenhagen. Perhaps one of these may end up in my Copenhagen gallery as it could do with a few more night images. I need your help in selecting which, if any, of these images do you like and why?