Aurora Australis and Star Trails at Cradle Mountain, Tasmania. 6x6 version.

I pre-visualised this image before I left home. It came out exactly as I wanted. Cradle Mountain is the pre-eminent tourism and trekking icon in Tasmania. I knew this was a good night to attempt the image. There was no moon and very light cloud cover, and a chance of some Auroral activity. When I arrived at Lake Dove, there was only a faint Auroral glow, so I decided to attempt a 6 hour star trail with the hope of recording just enough Aurora to colour the sky but not blow out the stars. I set up my EOS and also my Bronica. The EOS shutter was opened to f8 at 11:30 pm, and closed at 5:30 am. The Bronica shutter was opened to f5.6 for the same period of time. There was just enough breeze to prevent condensation from settling on the lenses. As I closed the shutters there was a mild state of panic when the Bronica drive refused to wind on, and in the darkness I wasn't sure the shutter had closed. I inserted the dark slide, took the back off, and cranked it on by hand. No problem, phew! So here is the 6x6 version. Please note that this is uninhabited wilderness, there is absolutely no residual light from human activity here. The view is due south, and the light is from Aurora Australis. As I have been asked, I must point out, there is no sunset or predawn here. This is the NIGHT sky. There is no photoshop involved whatsoever.