TomFear » alpstein

Moonshine valley

admin — Sun, 10 May 2015 16:44:51 +0000

When the moon rises, the milkyway fades out and the landscape begins to shine.
At the beginning of the night I could see a very intense milkyway behind a dark landscape. But with the rising moon the landscape got more light and shadows. This was my last image of the night on this day. On the eastern sky I could already see a silver lining, time to pack together and go the long way back to home.
As we started our way back, was the landscape still very dark, but soon I could turn of my headlamp, short after I pulled off my rain pants and another night in the mountains was over. Before we reached the car, we crossed the first hikers on their way up, well they didn’t know what they had missed.

Light and shadows

admin — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 17:39:01 +0000

Deep in the mountains, when the moon is rising and the shadows are playing with landscape, then you should take your camera and enjoy it.
After we reached, late in the night, the point short befor the path is going down to the valley, we thought, now is the right place and time to stay and shoot until the sun will come back again.
We had clear conditions, the moon was rising and the landscape was changing from image to image. On every new image I saw the shadows at a different place. So I pressed the butten again and again until I noticed the vanishing stars, because of the rising sun. Time to say goodbye and walk the long way back.

Saemtisersee

admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 17:35:06 +0000

A gorgeous view over the Alpstein and the Sämtisersee.
At this point I thought there are too many clouds in the sky for the night and maybe I couldn’t see too many stars. But a half hour later all clouds were disappeard and the sky was wonderful clear for the rest of the night.
We, Koni and me walked the whole way along the mountains until we reached the end of the valley. Then we made photos until the dawn begun and we walked through the valley back. It was a long nightly photowalk with a lot of images.

s’Rhintl

admin — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 18:01:47 +0000

The bright light pollution in the left corner is the Rhine valley. In german it’s called Rheintal and the inhabitants they call it Rhintl.
I was here on the Alpstein, the near mountains of Appenzell, in the middle of the night and was looking for some starscape images. On this image you can clearly see how intense the light pollution is, even here on the mountains.
On the right corner you can also see the distinctive view of the mountains called Chrüzberg. It was a clear night, not too cold and a few minutes after I took this image the moon was rising up behind me.
Ah, if you ask what this strange smearing above the Rhintl is, this is not a post processing mistake, this is our galaxy the Milky Way

Hoher Kasten

admin — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 17:16:26 +0000

(In english High Wardrobe) and it is not really high, but I am anyway happy, there is a funicular driving up, to the “High Wardrobe”. Well, so is it called, this hill with approx. elevation of 1800m.
I took this panorama with two shots and put it together. On the left side you can see the valley of the Rhine and on the right sight you can see the Alpstein, so called the mountain massif. There you can still see the antenna of the Saentis. Therefore I uploaded the image in a real high resolution and you should better watch it in this real high resolution.

Fullmoon over Alpstein

admin — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 16:08:46 +0000

After an awesome sunset, the fullmoon was rising in the eastern sky. And because I was on the peak of the Faehnerenspitz while the sunset, I had enough time to look out for the best places with sightseeing, while I was walking down.
Whereas the moon was already high in the sky and his light was falling over the Appenzell and the residents were preparing for bed time, there was one jerk up on the hill making images of a really clear fullmoon night…

Looking for the Milky Way – Part 3

admin — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 05:00:31 +0000

Today on the third part will come to the final end with the starscape image. on the first part I showed you the requirements for the best sight and on the second part I wrote about hiking up to the destination.

The work begins

Finally on the top, although Bubu seems to be still fit

As everything looked great I quickly went back inside toput on warm clothes, because outside was a nasty, cold wind. Bubu the little rascal was quite restless, as he was the whole evening. I think in the restaurant it was just too loud for him and he could not lie down to sleep.
But now we went out and walked the short path to the lookout hill next to the building. Backpack on the bench, Bubu bound to the bank with the 10m leash, and off you go.
Build tripod, put camera on it, and take a test shot at 6400 ISO with 30 seconds exposure time, to see what there is to see.

What a mood, before the sun get down

Wow, there it was, our galaxy, the Milky Way. It was still a little far in the east, but in the end, it should be directly above the Säntis at 2 o’clock. Right now, it could not be seen very bright because of light pollution in the region of Lake Constance. But we still have plenty of time.
Camera back down and mount the tracking device for the real shots. Bubu is still whining. So, camera back on and off you go with a long time recording over 120 seconds.

Unexpected events

The sky is burning, awesome!

While waiting, I noticed that my little furry friend still whines and shivers. What is his problem? Also caressing and cajolingdid not help. If he continues this way, it’s going to be a problem.
Wow, cool, I see it, the Milky Way. Still a little far to the left in the light pollution, but really good to see. And yet another shot, this time for the foreground without tracking. And Bubu is still unhappy. I start realising that this dog isn’t really suited for mountain trips.
But I’d like to have at least one more nice picture. So I change the lens and mount the Samyang 14mm on the camera.. Now another 3 pictures of about 3 minutes. Slowly Istart worrying about my little friend.

The sun is hiding at the horizon

He’s still whining, so we start packing our stuff quickly and head for our two-hour return trip. Aaaand behold, as soon as we are walking on, everything seems to be absolutely OK for this little stinker! I think this little rascal had just been bored.
After two hours we were back at the car. Thanks to my good hiking shoes my feet kept dry, but Stefan has gotten a big load of water and dirt inside as he stepped into a mud hole.

Conclusion

Nearly everything was correct, the weather was exactly as it should be, even at the right time. The viewing angle was also perfectly chosen. Were it not for someone who didn’t like the whole thing. Well, next time might probably stay at home. For sure!

So I wasn’t able to get as many pictures as I wanted, and the ones I’ve got are not as perfect as they could have been an hour later, but … just look at the results. No more words needed…

Ah yes, my furry monster spent the next 24 hours sleeping, except for a really short walk he didn’t want to do anything else

Looking for the Milky Way -Part 1
Looking for the Milky Way -Part 2
Looking for the Milky Way -Part 3

And now the great final: The Milky Way with the Saentis massif in the foreground

Looking for the Milky Way – Part 2

admin — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 09:36:16 +0000

Today in In the second part I will write about the hike up to the destination. Yesterday in the first part I showed you the requirements for the best sight and part three will come to the final with the starscape image.

Here we go

The clouds come and go

Finally, at 16:00 o’clock I went off . First pick up Stefan, and then head toward the Alpstein Mountains in the region of Appenzell. At about 17:30 we were on the Schwägalp our starting point to the Kronberg. Actually, there’s a cablecar up, but it only runs until 18:00. One can also stay at the Kronberg, but only on weekends, without a dog. As my friend Bubu was also with us, we had to walk up and down again.
So at 18:00 we went finally walking off towards Kronberg. The Santis was still enveloped by a huge black cloud. But in the other directions we could see the blue sky between smaller clouds.

A broken bridge in the middle of the forest

So no reason to be concerned.
The march went first on an alpine meadow and then continued slightly uphill to the Chammhaldenhütte. Then it went down moderately but the way is pretty muddy. Shortly before the Schutzenälpli it goes a little upwards.

But now it’s getting hairy

15kg of package pays its tribute

When we arrived at Langälpli there came the first problem, as a bull was standing in the middle of the pasture and we were with Bubu on a leash! If this is gonna work out …Thankfully it went well. But then the way got harder and harder. Now it goes uphill steeply and I had my heavy backpack full of equipment. Why do I always have to carry so much stuff with me? Eventually, after what felt like 10 hours, we arrived at the top, but I had to be extremely careful not to stand on my own tongue.

Finally on the top

A cow idyll with sunshine

Now we had earned us a big dinner. Although we could not stay over the night, we were allowed to use the guest house.
After an opulent meal, I could make a few beautiful shots of the sunset before the dessert. However, there hung still a thick cloud over the Säntis, it did not look good for the Milky Way. After a little dessert and we had to wait until 23:00 when it was quite dark.

Bubu enjoys the view from the peak to the valley

Then I went outside for a short weather check to look at how bad it was with the cloud situation. And what was that? I could see the beacon on the Santis and and yes, YES are the stars around it! Just as told by the weather service earlier, the sky over the Santis was perfectly clear!

Read tomorrow in third and final part, whether we found the Milky Way or not.

Looking for the Milky Way -Part 1
Looking for the Milky Way -Part 2
Looking for the Milky Way -Part 3

A little bit winter

admin — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 21:39:27 +0000

After two hard days of working, I had to go out at night to came down. Not for drinking beer but for making Photos! I drove up to the sternmost part of Appenzell in hope to have at least a bit winter here. And yes, there was a bit, but only a bit. The sky was really clear, no clouds and no moon was disturbing and because of the Fön, so is called the warm wind over the Alps, it was very warm about 2°C. This time you see a nearly perfect nightshot from me. I used my new 14mm Samyang at f4 with only 800ISO on my 6D. And now look at this image how clear and noiseless it is. I like this technique! And think of it, there was no moonlight.