Seth Lazar, Pinnacles (May theme: The night sky)

Astrophotography is a high tariff sub discipline, and this photo was one of the toughest to get. It took me two nights—the first night was a bust, too many clouds. Went back the next night; cloudy when I scrambled down to the beach from the carpark in the pitch black, but I held out hope for some high pressure and clear skies later. Ten minute exposures for the foreground, five of them. Took a dark exposure to subtract long exposure noise. So that's an hour right there; then about an hour shooting the sky after the clouds cleared. Was mauled by sandflies in the process. But now the bites aren't itching any more, and I've got a dream shot :) EXIF Foreground: 5 shots, 600s f3.2 ISO 800 Sky: 5 shots, 120s f2.4 Skywatcher Star Adventurer Tracking Mount Samyang 14mm f2.4 XP Nikon d750

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.