Persistence. Mona Vale (technique revealed)

Let me start by stating that this is a single shot,

The moon was not added later?!?!?!
However the light trail leading to the moon was added.
Apart from that minor addition the rest of the PP is fairly standard
The idea for this shot was conceived about a month ago, it is by far the most technical /difficult photo I have ever attempted/taken.
Didn’t start all that well, got to the location without a CF card, round trip back home.
1 hour later, take 2
Then when pushing my tripod into the sand I snapped one of the legs off.
Took around 6-7 attempts to get it just right, very happy with the result.
That’s all im going to give away for now, I will fill you in on the technique in the next few days.
Any ideas??????
About time I revealed my technique.
100-400 at a fraction of a sec using the lens cap and a piece of sticky tape (hinge) to drop the cap as I clicked and locked the shutter release.
Throw a dark towel over the camera and lens, under the towel switch the 100-400 for the 17-40 with lens caps on
Remove the towel, check focal length, check focus dial. When all good remove the lens cap for the pre-determined exposure, in this case it was 360sec @ F7.1. © Flickr.com