WELCOME TO STELLAR AUSTRALIS!


​"​Stellar Australis" is a website dedicated to the progress of photography, in particular to astrophotography in all its forms, and the sharing of knowledge, experience, and works of amateur photographer - Will Vrbasso.
​
The vision for this site is to be a place for sharing photos, stories, locations, tutorials, tools, resources and general discussions as I pursue my passion - in the hope that this may inspire and aid others who are like me, still striving to be better in the most loneliest but most awe-inspiring of pursuits.

Visit the gallery section of my website to view all my works...glad to have you here.
​Want to follow me else where rather than my website. Well, I am active on the following:

GALLERY

Look at my images of nightscapes, nebulas, planets, galaxies, landscapes, and more. Download full-res versions for personal use for FREE!

BLOG

Read about my latest experiences, learnings, failures, suggestions, and adventures. Or alternatively, follow me on Google Plus or Facebook.

EXPEDITIONS

A grandiose name for locations I have been to, how to get there, whether its worth getting there, tips, and general photos and stories of the area.

TUTORIALS

At the beginning I had no idea what I was doing, but I've learnt a lot from those who do. This knowledge has been tailored to my workflow and now I am sharing it back to everyone.<br> (Still under construction)

RESOURCES

Contains useful tools, references, websites, and utilities that I use when planning, executing, or processing a photo session. 

ABOUT

A little summary of me, the aim of this website, my equipment and especially the "rules" that I abide by for taking photos.

NEWS, UPDATES, AND EVENTS

Website last updated 2017/06/24.

Just a note - my gallery is under-going refurbishment, so my gallery for 2017 seems a bit sparse at the moment. But my recent images are in the right column on this page and I'll fix my gallery in the next few weeks. Kind Regards, Will.
24th June 2017: This month is pretty much the last month where it is possible to take images of the core rising (before it gets too early in the evening). I journeyed out to Gingin just north of Perth, Western Australia where a forest reserve allows for some great shots of the sky.
Gingin isn't the most darkest spot (as can be seen by the light pollution on the horizon in this photo), but still has some great skies and landscapes.
I'll post some of these photos in my gallery once I've sorted it out, but check the column to the right from my recent images.
5th April 2017: I managed to get away and do some nightscape shots. Time is keeping me away from adding some of these images to the gallery - hope to do so shortly. In the meantime take a look at my "will ' o ' wisp" image, from a creek in Chittering.
19th March 2017: I was very fortunate to receive the award for Best Astrophoto for the 2017 Astrofest held in Perth! I also received commendations two other images I submitted. The astrofest was a fantastic event, with many activities, stalls, demos, and more. Can't wait till next year.
7th February 2017: My 2017 astrophotography gallery is now online here. It now includes images of the Carina and Orion nebula - my warm-up deep sky objects for the year. Enjoy.
26th January 2017: Shot on the 2nd Jan 2017, this was done with eyepiece projection on my Skywatcher 120ED telescope. I usually only do prime photography through my telescope when I can use my field flattener, but for the moon my 875mm focal length is a bit too short. Anyhow, excuses aside, this humble shot is a multiple-exposure image of the moon showing the dim earth-glow on the dark side with the illuminated side of the moon at roughly 15%, taken from my backyard in Perth, Western Australia.
12th January 2017: Back from holidays over, what a year 2016 has been! From lonely shorelines by the sea to silent deserts. From quiet lakes to fire ravaged forests. Wandering these wonderful landscapes alone at night in advancement of my nightscape photography has been a exhilarating experience. I've included highlights of this years efforts in the obligatory montage below.
So, what's in store for me for 2017? I hope to purchase a modified DSLR (I've been using a stock camera up until this date), and improve my skill at deep sky astrophotography. But I still hope to get out for the occasional nightscape session, as there is nothing like wondering out under the stars at night in some desolate location.
Finally, a big thanks to my wife, family, and all those supporters out there who like (or tolerate) my hobby and images!!!​
10th December 2016: Recently I went out to my spot around Ledge Point to setup my telescope for a night's session on my favourite deep sky objects. A fantastic night, clear skies, warm, with not much dew (pity about the plague of ticks that kept trying to bite me). Anyhow, managed to get some quick shots of the famous horsehead nebula in Orion, the Fornax galaxy cluster, and the easy to photography but hard to master, Small and Large Magellanic Clouds. I'll be adding these to my gallery shortly.
18th November 2016: Its almost the end of "core" season, with the Milkyway now setting early in the night. This was the last chance for me to get some shots of the galaxy low and horizontal on the horizon. Despite high winds and blowing sand, I wandered out over the dunes near Cervantes to create nice photos. I've put the best in my gallery, here.
9th November 2016: The folks that produce the fantastic Amateur Astrophotography Ezine were generous enough to do a little feature on my works in issue 34 of their online magazine. There are a couple pages on the equipment I use, and a few pages showing a selection of my astro and nightscape photography. I recommend taking a look at the magazine - for its great articles rather than for my feature, here.
24th October 2016: Finally managed to catch up with posting my latest images on the website. Take a look at the Nightscape 2016 gallery here to see (and if you like, download for free) my latest images! In addition to my session at Lake Dumbleyung, I have added photos of my trip down to Denmark, Western Australia. Even though the moon was high in the sky, blotting out the milkway, I still managed some interesting nightscapes. Enjoy!
25th September 2016: I've processed some of my images from my nightscape session at the fantastic Lake Dumbleyung. However, I've been on holiday for the past week and a bit and am still catching up on the processing and adding it to this website. In the meantime, if you are keen, check regularly my Google+ and Facebook accounts for my images as they come out. I shall endeavour to add all my images to this website's gallery as soon as I can.
Picture
Click to Zoom
16th September 2016: All six nebulae were imaged on the one night session on 1st September 2016. Well...astrophotography isn't a race, so six targets is actually not so good - usually I only do up to two, but quantity beat out quality in this session. The large wide field image of the Milkyway galaxy was done in July 2016.
So, anyway I've composed all the images into one - and shown where they are in the night sky with reference to the bright Milkyway, for those who are interested or are otherwise unsure about where they lie in relation to each other. Some of these nebulae can typically be viewed with binoculars under dark skies (albeit a lot smaller), although to me they appear to be dull grey smudges.
All images of nebulae were made using a Skywatcher Esprit 120ED and Canon EOS6D (unmodified).
7th September 2016: Well, after much waiting (almost three months) for the weather to be clear. the moon to be asleep, and no family / work commitments - I finally managed to sneak an astrophotography session between a narrow corridor of clear skies (see shot of local satellite showing the clouds surrounding where I live, in Perth).
Keen to make the most of this session, I decided to go for quantity as opposed to quality, and managed to image six nebulas and one star. Check them out in my gallery!
10th July 2016: One of my photos managed to make it into the Sunday Times today. I had entered it into the David Malin photo contest (although I think I'm unsuccessful), however looks like the Times was generous enough to print my image. The photo is a little dark - bit hard to see properly in newspaper form. 
Also, the image was published in the Daily Telegraph.
8th of July 2016: Dodging clouds I managed to take some nice widefield shots of the core of our galaxy, as well as one of the brightest and most colourful regions in the night sky - the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complext (well, colourful to a camera at any rate). Out in a nature reserve near Ledge Point, Western Australia, I found a great little hiding place under dark skies to set-up my telescope mount and guider - overkill for putting a camera and camera lens on. But this provided for great stable tracking. I could've gone all night, except dew came in spoilt everything. I need to invest in some anti-due heaters, rather than using my butane gas heater / flame-thrower. As usual, full resolution versions are available to download here.
5th of June 2016: Its been a while, but I finally recently managed to go out to one of my old favourite spots (the Pinnacles, at Nambung National Park). At this time of year the core is rising over the horizon just after dark, allowing the use of some relatively higher zoom lenses. Using high zoom lenses for nightscapes makes the sky more "dominant" and provides a different scene then the usual wide field panoramas that frequent the net. You can find my latest images on my gallery here...Gallery.
9th of March 2016: Check out my new gallery for 2016 nightscapes! I've just started adding my photos with my trip down south to the Peel Region. Highlights include Lake Newnham and Lake Clifton (and a revisit to the Thrombolites that live there).
17th of February 2016: The section on "expeditions" now has a summary of my recent shooting locations, as well as some summary information abouth them. This may be useful to photographers local to Western Australia. In the near future I will add detailed "fact sheets" on each location and cross-reference these to my photos, thereby being more of interest to the general public.
26th of January 2016: I've changed the formatting of the website around a bit to better showcase images as well some improvements to the images themselves - I've noticed that some images when I uploaded them to this site became "de-saturated" for some reason. I have since learnt that you need to use the "save for web" function in photoshop to reduce this affect. A lesson for website beginners like me! Also, the Landscape gallery has been finished with a selection of photos taken during 2015. Now, on with 2016...
6th of January 2016: I've opened a new section of my gallery for astrophotography for 2016. It has four starting images of the Horsehead nebula, the Pleiades, the Tarantula nebula, and the Great Carina Nebula. Follow this link to go there direct.
1st of January 2016: Happy new year everyone! I've taken the opportunity to put some highlights of my nightscapes for the year in the image below! A larger image is on my blog page.

LATEST IMAGES

Latest presentable images.

THANKS FOR VISITING

Thank you for visiting my web site - Stellar Australis!  ​Follow me on Google Plus and Facebook as I frequently post on these social media sites, as well as on my blog page.  And don't forget to come back soon as I hope to keep this website updated often.
Remember, you can download photos and use the information on this website for free with a clear conscience. However, if you do wish to provide some appreciation then great, please go to my donation page for more information. Funds will only be used to further the photography for this website.