It was a difficult winter in Western Australia in terms of Astrophotography. The relentless rains poured down for what seemed like an eternity to finally give way to clear skies on the first day of Spring.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to image the night sky at one of my favourite places, the Lancelin Sand Dunes.

This image is a 25 frame panorama taken with a Nikon D750 and Sigma 20mm ART lens. This was the first time I've shot a Milky Way panorama with the Sigma 20mm ART lens and I am thoroughly impressed with the performance of the lens wide open.

An interesting thing about this picture is that is was actually shot at ISO800 to keep the noise levels as low as possible. Using the ISO Invariance technology of the Nikon D750, I lifted the overall signal to ISO2000 by way of increasing the exposure slider by +1.3 stops, resulting in a correctly exposed image along with the ability to lower noise levels in the foreground.

Location: Lancelin Sand Dunes

Camera: Nikon D750
Lens: Sigma 20mm ART
Tripod Mount: Gigapan Epic Pro