The relentless autumn rains pounded on for its entirety and finally broke on the first day of winter, giving way to a brilliantly calm and clear night over Sugarloaf Rock. Ceasing the rare opportunity of a cloudless night, I drove southwards for 300km to capture the Milky Way setting over Sugarloaf Rock at 4:30am in the morning.

As the winds came in, we braved the cold sea air and headed down to the shoreline, mere meters away from the ice cold waves pounding against the rocks. I tracked along the shoreline until finally coming to a halt directly in front of Sugarloaf Rock. Looking up, I saw the galactic core directly above. I set up my camera and this is what I captured. 

This panorama is a result of 35 individual images in a 7x5 format taken with a 24mm lens. The entire photo took 15mins to capture and rendered at a massive 364 megapixels before final crop.

Date: 2 June 2016
Time: 4:30am
Location: Sugarloaf Rock, Naturaliste, WA

Camera: Nikon D750
Lens: Sigma 24mm ART
Tripod Mount: Gigapan Epic Pro

ISO3200
f2.0
20s x 35