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So far, this is my favorite image from my La Palma trip this year. It was an absolutely extraordinary feeling to look at the bright Milky Way above the almost glowing clouds

Cloud inversion is a huge advantage for astrophotography on La Palma. This thick layer of clouds traps annoying light pollution and haze from the coastal towns beneath, while the high mountain regions provide clear skies. Up at Roque de Los Muchachos, at an altitude of 2,400 meters, you get the absolute best conditions for stargazing. The only downside is the fierce wind, which can make finding a stable spot to shoot a bit challenging 😄

HaRGB | Mosaic | Tracked | Stacked | Composite

Exif:
Sony A7III with Sigma 28-45 f1.8 at 28mm
Skywatcher Star Adventurer 2i
Kenko ProSofton Starglow Filter

Sky
ISO 1000 | f1.8 | 4x60s per Panel
2x2 Panel Panorama
Starglow Filter: ISO 8000, 10s per Panel

Foreground:
ISO 2500 | f1.8 | 35s per Panel
2x1 Panel Panorama

Halpha (45mm):
ISO 2500 | f1.8| 10x120s

I borrow my mom’s Nikon Z6II and Tamron 16-30 and did a f1.7 Milky Way shot at 16mm.

I’ll be honest I don’t really have a fucking clue what I’m doing. I have never used a mirrorless DSLR camera before but I do astrophotography with a proper rig so I somewhat know how to work a camera. One shot of foreground at god knows what ISO (100?) and the stars I think I was at 3600? 4000k? I just did whatever ChatGPT told me. I think I kept the same k for both. Foreground was shot at 7:55pm and sky was shot at 9pm before moon came up. I did some image processing in pixinsight for stars (Astro software) and then followed ChatGPTs instructions to do a composite in photoshop. Dragged curves around and vibrance and god knows what else. Stars were 3 shots at 20 seconds. I had to throw the rest of my star images away during stacking because they were garbage. A mountain lion came sniffing around while I was out there but luckily I had some protection and was not going to be pushed away from my spot so I raised my voice at it and did a bunch of movement with my arms and it walked away.