In the land of desert elephants (Sabine Gloaguen)

Contains: Extremely wide field

In the land of desert elephants

Link: https://en.sabinegloaguen.com/

In the land of desert elephants

Link: https://en.sabinegloaguen.com/

It is around 5am when we go to the Damaraland desert to photograph the Milky Way setting on the horizon.
Once again, we are overwhelmed by the beauty of the night sky, only polluted by the hotel behind the mountain. An unmistakable sign: the stars are clearly visible even almost at horizon level!
Moreover, we see the very orange Antarès on the left, just before it disappears. I no longer present to you the Zodiacal Light which splits the sky in the center of the image, offering a setting for the Pleiades, which can be seen low above the horizon. On the right, the so photogenic Magellanic Clouds, emblematic galaxies of the southern sky. We can compare their relative size to our Andromeda Galaxy, visible in the middle of the image.

In the foreground, Bastien Foucher who motivated me to get up in the middle of the night.

For the record, we met nocturnal animals on the way and I was not very serene in this environment that I do not know. I always kept an eye on the car in case of a downturn...
Everything went well but it was while processing the image that I saw what I think were elephant tracks, between the dung and the broken tree branches... We did not have the chance to see some but I have the greatest respect for these animals which have adapted to survival in such a hostile environment for large mammals.
During our stay, I learned that Voortrekker, a 45 year old elephant patriarch had been killed by a trophy hunter... His group lost a member but also the experience accumulated all these years.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7736008
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

In the land of desert elephants

In the land of desert elephants

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Histogram

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

In the land of desert elephants

In the land of desert elephants

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information