Epic Stargaze time lapse

[alexch]

Hi All,

As many of you know this year's Border Stargaze was exceptionally good with all four nights clear. While the accumulated lack of sleep was cruel, the number of photons received with eyes and camera chips compensated for it fully.

I had great time observing with the 22" Dob while two cameras - Nikon D700 with 14-24mm lens and Sony NEX-5 with 10.5mm Nikkor fisheye, were clicking through the nights. Daytime was great too with excellent weather in low 20s and the company to match.

I hope you enjoy the 3.5 minute time lapse - my longest yet starring the Milky Way, Magellanic Clouds and Andromeda Galaxy. The changing sky colour from natural Oxygen glow in upper atmosphere is quite startling and illustrates David Malin's presentation (at BSG) about the colour in the night sky.

View full screen with sound. Music: "Between Light and Shadow" by Triplexity

http://www.vimeo.com/28487411

Usual exposure parameters - 30 seconds @ ISO 3200 and f/2.8 with both Nikon and Sony.

Cheers,
Alex

[multiweb]

That was awesome Alex! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[iceman]

Beautiful as always, Alex. Top stuff!

[mishku]

sensational, alex!! it was beautiful, but your choice of accompanying track, to my mind, took it to the next level :thumbsup:

[troypiggo]

Absolutely magic. Loved the contrast of the ones over still water, treelines, and then the activity and red lights. Very well put together.

Could I ask more about the oxygen and sky colours? I see some green in the sky in some of those, looked like aurora?

[renormalised]

Brilliant, Alex. Can't wait to see more!!!:):)

[Osirisra]

:thumbsup:brilliant stuff, could watch more of this for hours.

[Star Catcher]

Excellent, very enjoyable to watch! Thanks

Ted

[h0ughy]

nice work ALex

[Mighty_oz]

Thanks very much for such a great show ! :) The lake scene was my favourite.

[atalas]

Excellent work!most enjoyed...loved the music too.

[alexch]

Thanks,

That natural skyglow is sometimes called a "permanent, low-grade aurora". It is a natural phenomenon and is is caused by various processes in the upper atmosphere, more here:
http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2009/02/25/is-there-true-darkness/
and here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airglow

Cheers,
Alex

[alexch]

Thanks Marc!

It was great to catch up with you on the tennis court.

Cheers,
Alex

[alexch]

Mike, Michelle, Troy, Carl, Ken, Ted, David, Marcus and Louie - thanks heaps for your comments, much appreciated!

[mishku]

Haha Alex, this is so good I just my decidedly non-astro friends watch it, and they were very impressed :)

[Octane]

Beautiful work, as always, my friend.

H

[troypiggo]

Thanks for that :)

[Phil Hart]

great stuff alex.. was it getting hard to keep setting it all up by the fourth night!?

great mix of green and red airglow.. nothing wrong with your colour balance! :thumbsup: (although one green set in the middle looks *very* saturated).

in my sequences so far, i've only seen red. not sure if that's something about my hardware or processing or just the conditions..

Phil

[alexch]

You are right, it wasn't easy convincing myself to set up cameras on Saturday night...

I guess you refer to the northern sky with telescopes sequence at 1:33. That was on the fourth night and the sky was the brightest of all nights. I could see that glow in the north with the naked eye as a brighter arch with a slight green tint. I have not touched the saturation in post processing at all - it came out like that from Sony NEX-5. If it was not in the northern sky I would have mistaken it for Aurora.

Cheers,
Alex

[CoolhandJo]

Beautiful work... :)

[John Hothersall]

Thats a great document, love the Magellanic clouds rotating about the pole. Good info on Skyglow.

John.

[danielsun]

Absolutely awesome!!! Brilliant work as usual Alex. :thumbsup:
Also loved the moving reflection on the water.

Cheers Daniel.

[Paul Haese]

The last segment is very nice and I particularly like the Milkyway showing the way it does with the water view. Lovely work.

[John K]

Stunning!!

Also like the last part over the water.

Really makes you want to get the scope out and do some observing. Great time of the year to be out and about with a scope under the winter milky way and makes it so worthwhile being in the Southern Hemisphere!

[Ross G]

Hi Alex,

What beautiful sequences!

I love the water reflections and was amazed that you picked up M31.

Amazing art.

Thanks.

Ross.

[SkyViking]

That's really beautiful, and those relections in the lake are awesome. The skyglow looks amazing too!

[alexch]

Images added

[iceman]

Beautiful images, thanks Alex!

[spacezebra]

Stunning captures Alex! It was great to have such good weather at Border Stargaze this year.

Cheers Petra d.

[gregbradley]

Fantastic Alex. I especially liked the last one over the Lake. The Milky Way looks very 3D.

Greg.