Ben More and Orion

This is the most extraordinary night exposure series I have even taken, it related to the phase of the moon, the strong and deep polarisation of the sky and a small quantity of stratus behind the Ben More range to capture the bounce reflection light from Oban, to the south.

These small issues combined to produce an image that could be pushed enough to get both land and sky, stars and snow, all at the same level of brightness, a combination that made an exceptional mix.

Normally Ben More images of this sort, look like below, the sodium lighting in Oban has increased in recent years, what was once only a faint glow has become very noticable, and frankly rather intrusive. It becomes very noticable when they all go to sleep, as this weakens later in the evening.

M42 is noticably pink, in the Orion image, a feature of the linearity of the Canon 10D's sensor.