Part-time prevaricator
I went camping with some friends I’ve known for well over 30 years. As is my nature, I took my cameras and tripods, so in between the fishing, the drinks, the meals, the hikes, and the naps, I took a few photos.
Continue reading “Camping, August 2024”
I aligned and stacked about a half-dozen photos for this image; each one was 11mm, f/2.8, 30 seconds, ISO 6400.
It turned out OK, I think.
I was out from about 10:30pm till midnight, which—judging from some of the other photos I’ve seen—was too early for the real show. Regardless, there was a haze at the horizon and I set up my cameras.
In the video, one second is one minute of real-time. The first minute and a half is from a camera pointed straight north; the remainder is aimed northwest.
There were some northern lights again last night. They were pretty intense; not quite as bright as the shows back in March, but nothing to sneeze at either.
I took both my cameras to my favourite spot and snapped photos for about an hour. (No kidding; all the photos below were taken between 10:14pm and 11:16pm.) Out of just over 1000 photos, I present my 27 favourites.
All the photos were 5‑second exposures, f/2.8, ISO 3200, at either 11mm or 24mm.
Here’s a quick peek behind the curtain: compare the unedited photo to the version I’ve uploaded.
Last night the sky was clear, so I went south with my cameras. I got some good photos of the Milky Way just off of Highway 2.
There was a haze to the north, too, so I aimed one of the cameras that way. It wasn’t a terribly great show—not while I was out—but I did sneak a quick shot of the aurora and the PLeaides.
On my way home, the aurora picked up a bit, so I detoured onto a dark side road for a few more minutes. I think I missed the best part of the show, but I did get to drive into a foggy valley and back out again, so at least there’s that.
It was a pretty decent evening, and I was home not long after midnight.
(Header image: 12-image panorama of the Milky Way; each image is 11mm, 30 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 3200.)
I moved in to the cabin Friday evening—laptop, sleeping bag, cameras, bike, and food—and got settled in. I read for a bit[1]Current read: Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde, which is pretty trippy so far. and checked the forecast. The evenings this week look pretty cloudy, so I’m not sure how much astrophotography I’ll get to do. Last night was clear, though, so I decided to head on out about 10pm.
I got set up at the Wasagaming dock just before 11 and snapped about 30 minutes’ of star trails. I discovered later that the camera wasn’t quite as level as I’d hoped, so I ended up cropping out the thin line of the lake, but the tree on the left made a nice foreground. (See the photo above.)
After that I headed to Spruces, and set up one camera for another round of star trails…
…while the other one was designated for Milky Way photos.
It was a good start to the week, I think.
What I’d like to do with my week:
Hold my calls, I’ll be at the cabin.
Last night was clear, so I went out to see if I could catch any of the Perseids. I saw a half-dozen, but I only caught one bright one on camera.
That’s OK, though; there was plenty for me to take photos of.
I was out in the dark for a couple hours, and it was worth it.
My first time shooting with two cameras. It was a good show, even with hazy skies and a full moon rising.
And I made a timelapse of over 1,000 of the frames I shot last night, too.
Last night, Kathleen said to me, “I hear the aurora should be good tonight.” I checked the app on my phone that shows me the aurora data. Everything looked pretty good except the Bz value, which was about +17. (For a good show, you want the Bz to be negative. The longer it’s been negative, the better.)
Continue reading “Aurora, April 23, 2023”
Wow, that was a show.
The data looked ridiculous from the outset. There’s one parameter, when you’re consulting the oracle (sorry, the space-weather data), the Bz, that you want to be a negative number. I’ve seen great shows when the Bz was around ‑3 or ‑5. The longer it’s negative, the better.
Yesterday afternoon, every time I checked, the Bz was around ‑15. Crazy.
And the auroral oval looked like this. When it’s yellow, that’s usually a good sign. Red—that much red—is flat-out amazing.
