I note the green hue in the sky - airglow (not a distant aurora as the photo is south facing). Noise seems under control and I like that you have not removed many stars. The stars are not obviously trails so your exposure time is good (my opinion). Bunny ears up ( behind RHS mountain says Milky Way rising) is always a drawcard for me. Perhaps you have over sharpened the image a bit - I can see a dark line separating the mountain from the sky.
You have a great colour contrast with the blue snow against the darker green sky and this gives me the impression it was really cold. I am not sure of the orange glow on the mountain peak, but it does become a conversation piece and is not distracting. Perhaps this is due to the 1/4 moon which is also illuminating the snow to give you this wonderful image
Delton, this looks great. Both the starry sky and the mountain stand out well. The subtle shadows on the mountain and in the snow are a fine addition. You don’t say what the focal length was, yet that’s critical to determining the shutter speed needed to avoid elongated star trails.
Very nice! And my hat is off to anyone who is up there in the middle of the night – it looks very cold! But what a way to get clear dark skies! I don’t mind the slight greenish tint in the sky and love the blue on the snow. The moonlight would have given some blue in the sky and when we dig out exposure and contrast the colors can shift a bit.
Diane: Thank you. I have found this phenomenon on many night photo ops — that there is an earth glow near the horizon, even when there is no light pollution. An astronomer explained it to me once, but I can’t recall the cause. From Death Valley once at Ubehebe Crater I actually had to dial down the green in the E. Sky a bit…
What is normally called skyglow is dim light from earthly sources scattered by atmospheric pollution, which is about impossible to escape. Near the horizon we are looking through a thicker layer of air and thus any light pollution is amplified. (I think it’s a rather nice effect, but I like gradients…)
Airglow is caused by high-energy particles from solar radiation striking molecules in the upper atmosphere and exciting them to give off various
very specific colors (wavelengths) according to the type of molecule and energy of the bombarding particle. Not the same as an aurora. Green is most common but blue, yellow and red are also seen. It varies night to night because solar energy bombardment varies.
I like this one. Great photo both in the astrophotography and landscape sense. Compositions is nice as well, with the Milky Way ending in the corner of the frame.
