by ExplorerEGYWO » Sun Jul 14, 2024 10:00 am
MW Wady hitan by
Wael Omar, on Flickr
There's nothing more I could wish for this night. I reached “Wadi El Hitan” or “Valley of Whales “after 5 hours driving from Home. I was escaping the heavy polluted night sky and finally I was away from nearest city by 55 km.Valley of Whales is a UNESCO world heritage location as it contains invaluable fossil remains of the earliest extinct whales, Archaeoceti. The Preserve is a well-known destination for adventurous people who would like to see the fossils at day and star gazing at night but mostly visits are within the weekend days.I planned to take a new foreground view, I wanted to make it very unique and reveal the special rock formation of that area. That was the reason I don’t choose a weekend day for that trip as I wanted to be alone over there and when I arrived at the main camping location outside the Preserve, I was completely alone. I was right
My day before the night time was fully occupied with scouting locations. I looked up at a mountain outside the preserve and I told myself THIS IS IT , this is the location I want and this cost me to climb a very steep cliff of height 150 meters and distance 1 km up two times to transfer all my astrophotgraphy gears. I was exhausted even before the night come
After climbing the mountain I started to hike the top to get familiar with the location and not get lost during the moonless night , I found a high rock massif that was never imaged or seen closely before , its very steep and looks like and arc with a horn shape ending, The ground was like a Lizard skin, it was so beautiful but very dangerous to get into it if you want to put it in the frame of your camera and this is why its not imaged before. To be in the right spot I had to jump over several solid rocks and pass over slippery sand cliffs then try to walk steady over a narrow passage like a tightrope walker until I finally reached the desired location as I planned. I had a vision of what the final product would look like, but in the end, it came out even better than I expected.You can see the Milkyway arc with its characteristic reddish Nebulae. Above all, the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex - a multi-star system in the Ophiuchus constellation, which is considered to be one of the closest constellations to us ( 360 light years ), and also the most colorful part of the visible sky.During my way back down the mountain ,I slipped and fell down two times and injured my elbow , My leg muscles were screaming , they were about to collapse from the efforts I put on them during the whole night
but after I see the images and final stitched panorama I told myself it is absolutely worth every second of pain.
For technical details :
https://astrob.in/ug2dfh/0/
Location: Wady Elhitan , EGYPT.
Credit: Wael Omar WO/
https://www.instagram.com/waelomar_astrophotography/[url=https://flic.kr/p/2q428uj][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53855424766_ec40e802b1_c.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2q428uj]MW Wady hitan[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/193493835@N07/]Wael Omar[/url], on Flickr
There's nothing more I could wish for this night. I reached “Wadi El Hitan” or “Valley of Whales “after 5 hours driving from Home. I was escaping the heavy polluted night sky and finally I was away from nearest city by 55 km.Valley of Whales is a UNESCO world heritage location as it contains invaluable fossil remains of the earliest extinct whales, Archaeoceti. The Preserve is a well-known destination for adventurous people who would like to see the fossils at day and star gazing at night but mostly visits are within the weekend days.I planned to take a new foreground view, I wanted to make it very unique and reveal the special rock formation of that area. That was the reason I don’t choose a weekend day for that trip as I wanted to be alone over there and when I arrived at the main camping location outside the Preserve, I was completely alone. I was right :)
My day before the night time was fully occupied with scouting locations. I looked up at a mountain outside the preserve and I told myself THIS IS IT , this is the location I want and this cost me to climb a very steep cliff of height 150 meters and distance 1 km up two times to transfer all my astrophotgraphy gears. I was exhausted even before the night come :cry:
After climbing the mountain I started to hike the top to get familiar with the location and not get lost during the moonless night , I found a high rock massif that was never imaged or seen closely before , its very steep and looks like and arc with a horn shape ending, The ground was like a Lizard skin, it was so beautiful but very dangerous to get into it if you want to put it in the frame of your camera and this is why its not imaged before. To be in the right spot I had to jump over several solid rocks and pass over slippery sand cliffs then try to walk steady over a narrow passage like a tightrope walker until I finally reached the desired location as I planned. I had a vision of what the final product would look like, but in the end, it came out even better than I expected.You can see the Milkyway arc with its characteristic reddish Nebulae. Above all, the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex - a multi-star system in the Ophiuchus constellation, which is considered to be one of the closest constellations to us ( 360 light years ), and also the most colorful part of the visible sky.During my way back down the mountain ,I slipped and fell down two times and injured my elbow , My leg muscles were screaming , they were about to collapse from the efforts I put on them during the whole night :lol2: but after I see the images and final stitched panorama I told myself it is absolutely worth every second of pain.
For technical details :
https://astrob.in/ug2dfh/0/
Location: Wady Elhitan , EGYPT.
Credit: Wael Omar WO/ https://www.instagram.com/waelomar_astrophotography/