16th September 2023

Damianos Cave full spectrum. My last night in Zante. I discovered this cave earlier in the week and after checking Photopills I discovered the entrance was just about facing the right way for a Milky Way shot.

When the floodlight came on after setting up I thought I was destined for problems but was amazed to see the light pollution in the camera wasn’t too severe. I think this shows there is often too much concern over light pollution in astrophotography and my advice would be to always just try anyway!

The light trails under the floodlight weren’t insects, they were bats. While I sat here I enjoyed watching their aerobatics and seeing sudden clear snapshots of them as they flew through the light. They would occasionally see a praying mantis buzzing along in a straight line but would swoop away as they were too big to tackle!

I took 300 frames from 21:00 - 22.:45 at 19 seconds, f2.8, ISO 3200. I also took lots of light painted foreground shots with a visible spectrum filter but when I saw the colours in the sky frames taken in full spectrum I fell in love with them so very little foreground composite work was needed.