ST. CHARBEL & THE MILKY WAY

After a short visit to St. Charbel statue at Faraya earlier this month, Jessica Rahhal and I wondered what if we can turn the lights off over the statue and the Cross for like 5 minutes just right at the rise of the Milky Way…
Realizing that this could be impossible, since the statue has it is own electricity generator, so it is lit even when there is a power cut.
But the idea of having the statue under the Milky Way was really something to achieve and a first timer…
We thought that if we manage to contact the right person in charge there, to convince him with idea of having such a powerful photograph, and to tell him that they are missing a rare scenery above the statue could work for us! And guess what? It did!
I got some data from an old friend of mine, and it lead to the person in charge.
That’s what happened last night… The team in charge allowed a 5 min. of lights down… 5 minutes!
Using the augmented reality feature on #planitphoto phone app. We could see the trajectory of the Milky Way based on the statue direction/position…
I rarely do panoramic shots, but in this case, it served my composition…
Camera location set.
Leveling the tripod took some time because I lost my bubble level on it (since a while).
9:31 pm calling the guys to turn off the lights…
We heard some “wows” coming from some visitors as they witnessed, like us, the difference in the both sceneries, the clear sky!
Light on and off.
It was a moment to never forget, a mesmerizing sky… It was a moment of insanity…
I took 8 vertical panoramic shots and a single one. Here’s the result when the lights went off!