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Where am I...lost in space...!?
Well, hello all other Astronomiacs and Stargazers...
I am planning to photograph star trails Mk III in Northern Victoria this month (February, at West Summit, Melville Caves, Kooyoora State Park), and would like to know if there is a knowledgeable person out there who can tell me the date when the phase of the moon will have the least (read: NO) illumination, so that a 2-hour time exposure isn't made into daylight as per my last effort (though I got the stars around the SCP, just that the sky was bright 'n blue at midnight...!). Speaking of which, the image may not have come out, but I loved my effort leading up to the night shoot: from campsite, lay out 1km of sticks along a sloping granite plateau leading up to erratics forming the foreground anchor. At the stroke of midnight, I began, but a crescent moon was brighter than anticipated, creating shadows and I knew I was in trouble before I'd started (only had one night to get this done) but went ahead. Set camera, trudge back down to camp following the sticks ... in the pitch of black sticks aren't supposed to move down a slope, so they were undoubtedly snakes, not sticks. Never follow a snake down a granite face: they have much better traction.
I photograph predominantly in film (Provia 100F, Velvia 100F) with EOS 1N, EOS 1N RS, EOS 5 mostly a TS-E perspective control lens for night skies; I do have a digi "instamatic" for recording proceedings on the fly and creating postcard pritns for mailing home and to current/former girlfriend of my travels. I have a few years' experience in landscape and rainforest photographer but startrails and working in the quiet of night is a new 'angle' (a profoundly deaf person like me gets a bit spooked in the dead of night in remote locations, but I persevere).
A subsequent star trails shoot on a friend's property at Yandoit in Central Victoria on 2nd January came out spectacularly well, the only trouble up there being roaming kangaroos.
So... pleased to meet you. MacBiggles is the screen name, but Gary is my real name :-).
Any chance one day I'd get to photograph the Aurora Australis?? That would look extra specky from Federation Peak in SW Tasmania... <sigh>...
May your stars be good stars,
MacB
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