Valentines day (night), red eye flight back to Perth:
I had another go at night shots out the plane window... this time under no moon conditions (previous attempts were moonlit). After a bumpy first 3 hours things calmed down once we crossed the WA coastline. I fired off a 20 minute burst of 1 second exposures, shielding the camera from cabin lights under a black hood.
As luck would have it, the 'alpha centaurid' meteor shower was active and I managed to capture 4 in the 20 minute window...composited here in their correct positions.
Western Australia, ~40,000 ft, 10:50 -> 11:10 pm WST, Feb 14 2015
Certainly one of the best (OK- it is the best) astro images taken from a plane that I have seen. Brilliant work Colin.
Thanks Greg. Lucky to have the 3 seats to myself and no one noticing the strange guy down the back under a black hood .. first leg I had a baby next to me which put paid to quiet nightscaping...
I am very impressed. Figured it was a Sony A7(something) when I read the crazy high ISO.
Hmmm....how to convince the board of management that we need one of these
Is that a shutter camera? Those sitting next to you must have wondered what the heck you were up to?
Not sure if Colin used it, as apparently it can add a bit of extra noise, but one of the A7s's party tricks is a completely silent electronic shutter mode.
Not sure if Colin used it, as apparently it can add a bit of extra noise, but one of the A7s's party tricks is a completely silent electronic shutter mode.
lol...I would have used electronic shutter if the others seats were taken..luckily I had all 3 to myself. I used the 1st curtain shutter, which as you say is a bit cleaner noisewise than electronic and still reasonably quiet. No one noticed or asked what I was up to
The camera was mounted on a small tripod which I held tight and lent against the window. There's still some bumpiness from minor turbulance but during calm stretches 1 second works pretty well.