night sky timelapse - twelve apostles, thomson dam

[Phil Hart]

i've been playing with night timelapse video for awhile now, but have only just got a smugmug account so can now share them at high quality/high res for those with fast connections:

here are three clips on smugmug, which you can get right up to Full HD resolution, including recent shots at The Twelve Apostles (backlit by quarter moon) and Thomson Reservoir east of Melbourne:
http://philhart.smugmug.com/Astronomy/Stars-in-Motion/10317254_qVP9n

the same clips embedded on my site at smaller size:
http://philhart.com/content/stars-motion

phil

[Hagar]

They look great Phil. Love the effect of the clouds and stars in the 12 Apostles video almost looks fake as if the stars are below the clouds.

[iceman]

Awesome work Phil.

I'm very keen to read how you did those!

What camera/lens did you use? What exposure/ISO etc?

[troypiggo]

Wonderful - the panning during the timelapse really adds something too. Something to aspire too.

[h0ughy]

that is absolutely amazing. I take it you were using a stepper platform to get the panning - absolutely wonderful!!

[lacad01]

That's great stuff Phil, like the way you've panned across as well :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

:eyepop: That is indeed very neat! It's weird to see the cloud motions in opposite direction and criss-crossing. The water ripples and the star motion. It's just all falls into place. That's tops! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Phil Hart]

thanks for the comments..

this is done with a Canon 5DII and ex-demo 24mm f1.4 lens (mk1), shooting continuous 8 sec exposures at ISO3200. you can get very similar results with any DSLR, but a slower lens and/or ISO will require longer exposures (more like 30 secs). but that's not a big issue as i have to speed things up a bit in the video processing as the straight 25fps timelapse is a bit slow with 8 sec original exposures. shorter exposures just help to make planes and satellites look a little smoother rather than just a flash in one or two exposures.

i've been working with a few friends on timelapse motion control equipment. i have used my Vixen GP-DX mount for this previously, and just set one axis horizontal and had it ticking over at sidereal rate (if anybody knows how to set a constant drive speed of other than sidereal using an SS2K let me know!). the other problem is that it's a bit heavy when you're trying to set up at weird and wonderful locations often not right next to the car.

my latest incarnation is a nicely priced Bintel Alt-Az mount (from GSO I think). it has small but solid and smooth continuous worm gears on both axes (most alt-az mounts only have about 20 minutes of slow motion control travel). i hooked up an old stepper motor to the azimuth and it currently rotates at 10-20 degrees per hour although i'll soon change the variac in the circuit to give me a greater range.

if you want to see kick-ass timelapse, check out TimeScapes: http://timescapes.org/

and they have active forums on everything related: http://timescapes.org/phpBB3/index.php

beware.. this gets addictive..

phil

[erick]

Amazing Phil - excellent in all respects!

[bloodhound31]

Phil, spectacular work mate. very smooth indeed. The lens makes all the difference in this case I thing. You make mine look bad.

Great stuff.

Baz.

[TrevorW]

Very well done and well worth watching

[fringe_dweller]

woah! trippy! that 3rd one is 3D, comin to IMAX near you :)

[rogerg]

Excellent video's, great stuff :thumbsup: Obviously lots of work, time and trial and error gone in to them so far :thumbsup:

I've thought doing this since seeing timescapes.org a little while ago, but haven't found the time for it yet, must do soon.. sure can feel the addiction coming on :lol: