The images in the panorama above were taken at 2‑minute intervals (with occasional adjustment to the camera’s aim). They’re all 250mm, f/5.6, and either 1/100s, ISO 100 (the crescents) or 1s, 200 ISO (the ruddy disks).
Since I was already out there, and the sky was clear, I set up my 2nd camera, pointing straight up, to get some star trails. (And satellite tracks aplenty, some iridium flares, and maybe a very small meteor or two.)
This one’s made up of ~630 images, each 11mm, f/2.8, 5s. (I didn’t check the ISO on these, but I’d guess it’s in the 100–400 range.)
Kathleen came home from a coffee-with-the-ladies evening and said, “You should go take some pictures.” The sky was mostly clear and the night was warm, so I did.
The sky to the north was pretty busy, as you can probably tell from the star trails at the top of this post. I was about a mile from the end of the runway at the Brandon airport, and I think someone was doing night takeoff and landing practice, because a prop plane—maybe a Hercules, but I’m not sure it was quite loud enough—passed through my shot three or four times. And then there are all the satellite tracks, my word.
And Orion was nice and bright, too. This is a stack of three photos, all taken at 50mm, f/1.8, 10 seconds, ISO 400. I wish the focus was slightly better.
All told I was out there for about an hour. As I was packing up my gear, I heard a coyote start yipping.
As I was going to bed last night, I took a look out the window. The forecast had said it was supposed to be partly cloudy overnight, but the sky looked pretty clear. I set up a camera in the spare room, pointed out the window, and let it snap away. I figured I’d get some star trails out of it if nothing else.
The aurora decided to make an appearance. It was just getting ramped up when my camera battery died around 2:30am, but I got a couple good shots out of it.
Oh, and the star trails turned out pretty good, too. They’re at the top, and are taken from about the first hour and a half of the evening.
The video below is the full two hours and thirty-six minutes, but it runs at 60x so that one second of video is one minute of real[1]Whatever that might mean, relativistically. time.
I think it was worth it, even if a thunderstorm woke me up early this morning.
I shot at Spruces for about an hour and a half, and met a couple who had stopped in on their way from Brandon to Dauphin. (Hi, Doms & Debs, if you’re reading this!)
Here are a couple timelapses, one of the Milky Way floating above Clear Lake and another of the stars wheeling across the sky.
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.
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.
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.
Goals
What I’d like to do with my week:
write (aiming for 10,000 words, let’s say, in two projects: Praise the Torch When ‘Tis Burned[2]aka “Derelict starship + ghosts” and The Slow Apocalypse[3]aka “Wizard v. Warhead”.
photography
read a bunch
bike rides (aiming for 5–10km a day, weather permitting)
kayaking (at least twice, again, weather permitting)
