New visions of the night sky

Photographer displays Austrian night sky - for a whole year

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For a whole year, Michael Kleinburger photographed the Austrian night sky in the country's darkest places.

A look up at the sky on a starry night is probably the only way for many people to escape the stress of everyday life.  That is exactly what photographer, Michael Kleinburger did for a whole year.  The astro-photographer has set out every clear night for the past year to photograph the starry sky of his native land in the country's darkest areas. Also in the Styrian Gesäuse.

This resulted in the project "Noctis Austria".  For Kleinburger, the project is, above all, an opportunity to show what kind of fight against time you have to wage.  "When I photograph the Milky Way, distant galaxies or the moon, it is always a fight against time because the earth's rotation causes these objects to move in the sky.  Noctis Austria aims to make these dynamics visible in the night sky.  The movement of the stars which is unrecognisable to the observer becomes visible through the accelerated playback of thousands of photos.  Moreover, movement sequences such as clouds or a sunset also come to life," says Kleinburger.

The aim of the whole project was to make the breath-taking night sky accessible to people: "With the video project Noctis Austria, I want to show people our breath-taking night sky and re-awaken the fascination for the stars."

Kleinburger is also pursuing a serious goal with the video.  The topic of light pollution is not only a problem for science and photography.  Light pollution also has negative effects on people, animals and plants.  The project was photographed in the Gesäuse.  The National Park in Styria is one of the darkest places in Austria.  There are only a few of them left.

"The darkness at night has gone from being a matter of course to a precious commodity.  Such recordings are only possible in the darkest regions.  Therefore, it should also be due to the increasing light pollution and the loss of this fascinating spectacle in the night sky to draw attention."

In all, the photographer stood under the night sky for about 100 hours to capture all of the photos for the video. It was minus 24 degrees on the coldest night.

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