Night Sky Panorama over Banks Peninsula

It's late, dark, you've been on the road to and from Timaru for much of the day, so what do you when it's time to hit the hay? Head to Kaitorete Spit to take night sky panoramas, of course!

This was shot after 0030 hours this morning on a mild Canterbury night. I was hoping to catch the remnants of the aurora australis, but unfortunately Spaceweather.com was right with its forecast of light auroral activity. Oh well. At least we got to see the Milky Way and the sky glow emanating from Christchurch to the Northwest...

Tomorrow sees the start of my last week off work. I have a few more blipventures planned. Watch this space....

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this image is a stitched pano of 8 vertical/portrait images, each 36mp. I reckon that at native size and 200dpi this would be around 2 metres wide...I might have to clear some wall space!