Beacon Hill

A clear night was predicted and with no moonlight I decided to have another go at the Milky Way.  A check of Stellarium and Photo Ephemeris put the Galactic Core visible between 0330-0430.
I thought I'd have a go at Beacon Hill, Orton Scar where the Queen Victoria monument might give me a foreground option with the Milky way in the south behind.
So, alarm at 0215, tea in a thermos cup and 30mins drive to Orton and 30mins walk up onto the hill..
It was not as clear as I'd hoped, there was a chilly haze in the air. Also it was not as dark as I'd hoped with significant light pollution to the south and east. To overcome this I mounted my camera upside down hanging below my tripod to get a view up to the monument and cutting out as much light on the horizon as possible. The limestone pavement on the summit made it difficult to move the tripod around. 
I took a series of 10shots at f/1.8 / 15secs ISO 800, one shot I lit the monument with my headtorch for a second. At home I stacked them in Sequator. 
I had hoped to take a series of sky shots and then a separate foreground shot focused and setup with a much longer exposure for the monument but this proved impossible with the upside down tripod arrangement, I could not modify settings without moving the whole rig which would have mangled the stack/photo merge.
So more lessons learned, I need a darker area,  probably a bigger foreground element which I can be further away from and my camera mounted where I can modify settings between shots more easily.
I'll be back at new moon this month, weather and better location permitting..