Part-time prevaricator
The aurora data were good last night, but I’d had a long day so I didn’t go out in the countryside last night. I did set up a camera in the spare room, in case it got bright enough to be seen over the city lights. At worst, I thought, I’d get a few hours’ worth of star trails.
Oh, and the star trails turned out OK, too.
I set up the camera around midnight; the battery finally died around 4:35am. The trails above are made from about 2,200 frames, each 5 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 800.
There’s a comet in the western sky, visible not long after sunset, called C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS.
Last night I was settled in, ready to just watch a bit of TV and then go to bed, when my darling wife texted me:
If the skies are as clear there as they are here, you need to go outside.
So I stepped out onto the patio and yes, yes it was pretty clear here. I gathered up my cameras and tripods and hit the road.
I set up on a gravel road not too far from town—if I want to, I could probably bike there—and snapped a few sets of Milky Way photos. With the 11–16mm lens, I was shooting ten-minute batches of 30 second frames, 11mm, f/2.8, with the ISO changing each ten minutes: 400, 800, and 1600. I wanted to see what I could get from the different ISO settings.
Unfortunately the dew crept onto my lens—or, more precisely, the UV filter I have screwed on over the lens. If I was smart, I’d have removed the filter and re-done my shooting; I think now it was the filter holding in a bit of heat that caused my dew problems.[1]Apparently the simple hack for dew is to wrap a couple hand warmers around the lens; you can hold them in place with tape or a beer cozy. Filed away for later experimentation.
I managed to get two stacks from the ISO 1600 run, and they look pretty good, I think. One is 8 images deep, and the other is 10.
I also got a stack of 18 images from the ISO 400 run, and… Well, you can judge for yourself, but I think ISO 1600 is the sweet spot between “detail” and “noise” (at least for me). Maybe ISO 800 would work, if I can keep the lens from misting over…
Footnotes
| ↑1 | Apparently the simple hack for dew is to wrap a couple hand warmers around the lens; you can hold them in place with tape or a beer cozy. Filed away for later experimentation. |
|---|
There was quite the aurora show last night, and I’m going through my photos from that, but first I decided to process the 24 shots I took of the Milky Way. Two hours’ processing gets you the above photo.
I took some notes as I processed the images, because I want to do more of this and get better at it. The image, as eye-catching as it is, is pretty noisy, and I’m pretty sure there are better ways to do some of the things I did. But, for the nerd crowd (I know you’re out there, I can hear you breathing), here’s how I made this particular image:
align_image_stack -a aligned_ *.JPG [3]Part of Hugin.mogrify -format jpg *.tif[4]part of Image Magick. (mostly so I don’t overload my poor laptop)Things to try next time:
It was clear last night, so off I went to Riding Mountain to get some Milky Way photos. I shot a couple of panoramas, one just off the highway on the golf course / Wishing Well turnoff, the other at Spruces (thanks again, Tim!).
As I was leaving, thin clouds had started to roll in, and the moon—still half-full—was rising in the east.
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.)