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A ghostly glow over Beskids

The Gegenshein over Beskids

The most significant side effect of harmful light pollition is definitely loosing dark night skies over our heads. Especially in the central Europe, Japan or eastern US the density of big aglomeration is so prominent that you have to travel truly far away to see something like this. Fortunately all around the world many enthusiasists, societies and even companies support establishment of areas so called “dark sky reserves“. In the Czech Republic, there are currently three of them and here comes a photographic testimony from one of them, the Beskids Area of the Dark Sky. Even if the area lies only dozens of kilometres south from overpolluted Ostrava and Frydek-Mistek, the sky there can be surprisingly dark enough to capture even fanit parts of the zodiacal light and the Gegencshein. For this reason I decided to travel in particular location called Grúň, where especially southern views are not influented by strong light pollution and with a clear air it can be almost epic. Well, on 4th October 2018, I was truly lucky. Weather conditions were ideal (so good that in the daytime it was possible to spot hundreds of kilometres distant High Tatras) and the night allowed me to see and photograph the mentioned Gegenschein.

As the Gegenschein can be highest over the Czech horizon in the winter months, when it projects in the Milky Way (in the Gemini constellation), it’s not quite good to wait for that season. The best view to the Gegenshein on the northern hemisphere is particulary in October, when the faint oval of scattered sunlight on interplanetary matter appears in poor area of Pisces and Aries constellations. Due to low light pollution over the southern horizon in Grúň, the Gegenshein was just easily noticeable even to unaided eyes. What a great feeling that the beauty of darker sky is still not lost in the Czech Republic! Used Canon 6D IR Baader modified, Samyang 24 mm, f2.8, ISO 8000, 51×15 seconds panorama from tripod. Enjoy another few projections and also the virtual reality of the view bellow.

Enjoy the virtual reality…

360 view around Grúň – with Milky Way,a irglow and the Gegenschein

The Milky Way and Gegenshein over Beskids

Little planet of Grúň

Full sky view to the Milky Way and Gegenschein over Beskids