All the images on this site were taken in June 2001 from Spreeufontein in the Karoo Desert, South Africa. The skies were dark and exceptionally clear, it would not have been possible to take such images in the UK due to light pollution and humidity.
The deep-sky camera used had a focal length of 65 mm and its focal ratio was f / 0.75, this is extremely fast and allowed the faint stars to be captured in exposures of around only 30 seconds. The short exposure time meant that though the camera did need to be on a driven mount no guiding was required. Fast lenses do pick up background glow more quickly in relation to the star images than a slower longer focal lens would which is why such a lens would be impossible to use in UK conditions. Slower lenses would reduce any background glow but exposure times would need to be much longer which adds problems of guiding to avoid trailled images. The film used was Fuji 1600ASA film which again being much more light sensitive than standard 200ASA film reduced the exposure times.