Night of the obscurity

Still going trough my images as I write this, but I take the opportunity to share already some of them here. Yesterday evening was 'nacht van de duisternis' (translates as night of the darkness or night of the obscurity), which is an annually event organized to shade some light (pun intended) on the matter of light pollution in Belgium. Lots of cities participate by switching of street lighting and organize lots of activities.

I took the opportunity to make some shots of the night sky. I had planned it in advance: found a place that was within cycling distance that is dark (by Belgian standards that is, because it is still a class 5/6), and hoping that with some street lighting switched off, maybe could be a good location to make some shots of the stars (and maybe the Milky Way - hey, one can always hope, can't he?) Weather reports were inconclusive, but seeing no clouds in the evening, I decided to take my chances (ultimately there was some low hanging mist, but that didn't bother me too much, as this can ad to the ambiance of a photo.)

Summarizing, I can say there is some good news and some really bad. The good news is that I was able to shoot the Milky Way (which is a first for me.) The bad news is that it really turns out very faint and if we didn't know it already, the evidence all points in the same direction, Belgium is still one of the most light polluted regions in the world.

For some unknown reason, the city of Antwerp decided not to participate and you didn't have to look very hard to see the glow coming from the North from where I was. It shows up in every photo, even the ones that were pointed to the South... I think I am going to book me a holiday to the Canary islands...

All photo's: Pentax K-5 + DA 10-17 Fish-eye, ISO 6400

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• Unless otherwise noted, all photo's are made by myself!

• If you liked this post and the photo's, then you might also probably like other posts I made like this one here and anothere one here.

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