Opis
Description: Winter Fairy Tale with Cosmic Cabin on the Summit of Ratitovec Mountain.
Have you ever felt that frustrating creative block as a photographer — that nagging sense that you’ve exhausted every nearby spot, shot the same old views from every angle, and now you’re just staring at your map thinking: “Where the hell do I go next?”
I know that feeling all too well. It had been haunting me for weeks… until literally one single day before shooting this panorama everything changed.
That evening the forecast lit up like fireworks: an intensely powerful Northern Lights display was barreling toward us — and not just somewhere in the Arctic. This time the Aurora was forecast to dip surprisingly far south, potentially painting the skies even over lower latitudes like ours in Slovenia.
Desperate for something fresh and epic, I decided to chase it. That’s how I discovered Ratitovec — this breathtaking, somewhat underrated panoramic lookout ridge rising to about 1,678 m in the southeastern corner of the Julian Alps.
Picture this: a wide-open, windswept highland plateau with dramatic rocky outcrops, a cozy mountain hut (Krekova koča), and 360° views that explode almost across whole Slovenia, and — on the clearest nights — an almost infinite starry canvas overhead.
That was a night straight out of the books! Incredible weather conditions on the top of this wonderfully scenic mountain Ratitovec conjured up the perfect winter atmosphere that I had been waiting for quite some time!
Below me, low clouds that blocked the light pollution from larger cities, above me, thousands of stars shining in all their beauty!
But that’s not all — that night I was also treated with the Aurora — the Northern Lights, which you can see on the right side of this panorama. In the middle, there’s the SAR (Stable Auroral Red) arc — a rare, faint, and stable red light emission that appears in the upper atmosphere during intense geomagnetic storms.
That night, I also captured a huge amount of airglow, insane!
True, I spent the night on top of this mountain at -10°C and quite strong wind, stayed awake for 24 hours, had 3 hours of hiking and 4 hours of driving behind me, but let me tell you — it was a truly unique experience!
The whole time I was completely alone, just me and nature, and of course my gear, which gave me a bit of trouble that night.
Right in the middle of the night, my Fornax Lightrack stopped working, so I’m really glad I also had the MSM Nomad with me — that’s what I used to photograph this stunning winter panorama of the Milky Way and the Northern Lights above the cozy mountain hut ( Krekova koča ).
Ratitovec didn’t just give me new photos that night. It reminded me why we keep searching for that next summit: because sometimes, when you’re on the verge of giving up, the mountain you’ve never climbed before delivers the kind of night you dream about for years.
Gear:
Nikon Z6IIa
Sony 14 1.8 GM + Viltrox E-Z adapter
MSM Nomad
Lee soft 5 filter
Astronomik H-alpha 12nm MaxFR
Focus on star mask: https://focusonstars.com/ref/
Category: Deepscape/tracked/stacked/blended/focus stack
Exif:
- Sky: 14mm, 8panels ( single frames ), iso800, 90s, f2
- Ha: 35mm, iso1600, 4x 240s, f1.8
- Foreground: 14mm, 8 panels, iso1250, 60s, f2
Location and date: Slovenija, Ratitovec, 20.01.2026
