"THE CASTLE AND THE MILKWAY"
- panorama mosaic, blend composing

Last year I made a night trip to Kreuzenstein Castle - even though it was a great experience, and I was happy to get the Milky Way delicately on the picture, despite massive light pollution - so yesterday I felt like combining these shots with the recently created Milky Way panorama from my trip to Ötscher - with excellent sky quality from Borlte 2.

So this image represents a composing, i.e. a combination of shots taken at different times - about a year apart.

A year ago...
Well, I like castles. And I like stars. Near me, about 30 minutes away by car, there is the beautiful castle Kreuzenstein near Leobendorf, close to Klosterneuburg. A castle, on a small mountain in the middle of the small town, which is also illuminated at night in an ugly yellow-toned light - completely unsuitable to photograph this castle in combination with the Milky Way or even with stars. It just does not work. --> All right, challenge accepted ^^
In a good mood I made my way to the castle, it was about 11 pm when I arrived. With my equipment I had to go through the small forest surrounding the castle, a few hundred meters, it was dark, but so right. Every noise makes you look up briefly ^^ The day before yesterday I saw 2 teile of Underworld, also not helpful *lol* When then a deer on the path in front of me jumped out of the thicket, you could probably hear down in the city still, as I had greeted it loudly with a startled "WTF", *g* 
At the castle I was then alone, and it was of course fully illuminated - impossible there a reasonable photo to be able to make. The whole effort for the cat', I thought to myself, and sat down for a short selfie in front of the castle gate, to then disappear again from here without having achieved anything. When I pressed the remote shutter release, suddenly all around me, the whole castle, everywhere, the light went out . such a happy coincidence! And, of course - the townspeople of Leobendorf got to hear my startled voice one more time "Hallelujah, what now?" ^^
At first moment I thought, what have I broken now, the beautiful castle *lol*. 
But apparently the nightly castle lighting is switched off at midnight - very commendable, by the way!
Now I stood there, completely alone, in the pitch-dark small forest directly in front of this towering, mystical-looking castle ^^ 
Nothing for sissies, clearly *g*
In total, I stumbled there almost 3 hours around the castle, and made different shot from different perspectives, 2 panoramic mosaics and a few selfies ^^ When I was done, I sat down relaxed on the castle wall next to the fall gate, and drank in peace my brought espresso shot from, in thought still something flashed, from this adventurous and eventful trip into the night, on the hunt for castles, the Milky Way and whatever else one in the situation by the little head saust ^^ **AAOUUHH - HOUUUU** ^^

In this sense, here, one of the photographs of this night of the 25.07.2022, castle Kreuzenstein, above it the arc of the Milky Way, taken on 19.08.2023 in the Ötscher nature park.

| Object : Kreuzenstein Castle Panorama, Austria
| Stack : 3x3, 9 panels with 20 lights each
| EBV : Pixinsight / Photoshop / Lightroom / PTGui
| Camera : Sony A7amod with Sigma Art 14mm f/1.8
| Exif : BLZ 5s per frame / ISO3200 f/2

| Object : Milky Way Panorama, Austria,
| Stack : 3x3, 18 panels of 15 lights each
| EBV : Pixinsight / Photoshop / Lightroom / PTGui
| Camera : Canon EOS-R astromodified, Sigma Art 35mm f/1.4
| Exif : BLZ 30s f/3.2 ISO6400