Night “pearls” of Maba beach
The Milky Way rising over Maba beach
The beauty of the night sky over Jiko Mobon Gulf (Gulf around Mobon Island) at Maba – small village of Halmahera Island (one of the North Maluku islands) where I was a part of group of photographers experienced by 3m 17s long total solar eclipse (a.k.a “Gerhana Matahari Total” in Indonesia language and “Wolte Gallap Fallow” in Maba dialect) on 9th March 2016. To make this panorama, I waited to local time after 2am in early morning when the center of the Milky Way with planets Mars and Saturn rose up. The local people of Maba know this wiev very well and use word “Miett” for the Milky Way. In the same time I started to capture the fragments of this mosaic, the high tide swallowed the beach, giving me the opportunity enjoying the stars reflections in the ocean. Close to the center of image is wonderful small island Mobon, after which is also named the gulf. All in the sky a reddish stripes can be found. Origin of that causes in fact natural shining of the atmosphere called airglow. On the left part in the sky, you can easily find notorious Big Dipper. As the beach is located just 0,7deg north from the equator, the Polaris with the northern celestial pole is hidden just over the distant hills and clouds, very low above the horizon. Bright light comes from direction of Buli, where nickel mining company has one of its site of Halmahera. Rest of the sky is dark as no light pollution disturbs the great view. What a wonderful world here on Halmarera is… The image was taken on 4th March 2016 with incredible support of local people, who showed me this magical place. Especially Mr. Hardi, his uncle Mr. Haruna, Mr. Abjan and Mr. Mailoa. Terima kasih (Thank You)!
Used Canon 6D Baader IR modified. For the first image Samyang 24 mm, f 2.8, ISO 10000, 17x15s panorama and the second image is captured with 50mm lenses, f1.4, ISO 8000, 10×6 seconds panorama. Both images captured from tripod.
I would like to acknowledge support for the eclipse expedition to Indonesia which was provided by NSF grants AGS-1144913 and AGS-1255894, NASA grant NNX13AG11G to PI Shadia R. Habbal of the Institute for Astronomy, the University of Hawaii, and the use of the local government building in Maba, with help from Xavier Jubier, without whom this image would not have been made possible.
