South Island sky time lapse

[alexch]

Hi All,

Recently I took the family to Lake Tekapo on South Island of New Zealand for a winter holiday. For obvious reasons I timed it around the New Moon hoping for some clear nights. The weather was good and I had two cameras clicking away during six nights and brought back 300GB of RAW files.

The most memorable night was when the clouds descended on the valley but Mt. John remained above it. The lights of Lake Tekapo village and passing cars under the blanket of fog made for a very cool foreground. I think I like it even better than Aurora.

Matariki (the Māori name for the Pleiades) eluded me due to clouds and full memory card very last morning at the Church of Good Shepherd. Even then it looked like the fog thickened just before Matariki rose but it cleared up just in time when Jupiter and Venus joined the show. I am sort of glad that the card filled in too soon the other night, otherwise I would have not pushed myself to be up all night before driving to Christchurch. The church in the fog made up for lost sleep.

I am using two cameras now and my timelapses are becoming longer. I am not sure if five minutes is a bit too long but I tried to make it more interesting mixing the scenes and audio tracks.

Please put the sound on and let me know what you think.

https://vimeo.com/47008527

A few frames are attached.

Cheers,
Alex

[pixelsaurus]

Nice job.

[Mighty_oz]

Thanks for posting Alex. Always great to see your work, loved the ?church at the end, seemed sureal to look at :)
By the way where are all your great astro images from that dob of yours ? Not seen any for awhile :(

Marcus.

[alexch]

Mike and Marcus, thanks for commenting!

The last time the dob saw the light was in April, after that it was being serviced and then there was no weather. Hopefully it will get some photons at Border Stargaze soon.

Cheers,
Alex

[multiweb]

Superb work Alex. You've done it again. :eyepop: The motion panning with the milkyway setting at the beginning is sublime. Gee the LMC stays up pretty hight from down there too.
Loved the whole show. Music, transitions. Very well done. Your best to date I reckon. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Lester]

Exceptional views Alex, thanks.

[gregbradley]

Brilliant Alex. I loved it.

I see what you mean about the yellowish lights and the fog, it looks fabulous.

What were the cameras, lenses and settings?

Were you using a Polarie for the panning? It looked good although I found the first one where it is tracking at the same pace as the Milky Way slightly unsettling for some reason.

Greg.

[CapturingTheNight]

I can't remember if I even breathed during that Alex. Fantastic work. :eyepop: I have so far resisted the urge to have a go at producing a timelapse movie, but this is so inspirational that I might just have to start thinking a bit more seriously about it.

[DavidTrap]

Love the diffusion effect with the fog above the church! And the long pan with the Milkway coming in over the top is amazing.

Your dedication is inspiring.

DT

[Tamtarn]

This would have to be your best ever Alex! Truly remarkable-stunning-brilliant!!! :eyepop:
Barb

[colinmlegg]

The're all great shots Alex, but that last one is particularly beautiful. Has a really lovely mystical quality to it. another APOD?

ps. connection no good to watch the vid :sadeyes:

[geoffsims]

This is nothing short of amazing! Also some great examples of not needing motion-timelapse to create awesome sequences.

[andyc]

Another magnificent bit of work, Alex, well done! Clearly a lot of thought, planning and dedication has gone into this. Glad you got some good nights at Mt John, when I visited it was cloudy at night, nice in the day! One question, what do you do when your cameras are snapping away? Read a book? Cup of coffee? A telescope set up out of shot to do a bit of observing? Or just shiver!

[alexch]

Thanks for your kind compliments guys - they makes all the cold nights so worthwhile.

Alex

[alexch]

There was a mixed bag of equipment and settings.
Cameras: D700 and D3S
Lenses: Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8, Nikkor 35mm f/1.4 stopped down to f/2.2-f/2.8, Samyang 14mm f/2.8
Exposure times were 30 seconds for 14mm and 15-20 seconds for 35mm. ISO at 3200/6400.

I used Polarie for panning at sidereal and half-sidereal rates.

Cheers,
Alex

[alexch]

Thanks Andy,

It really depends and can be any of that with the exception of reading a book. Observing, chatting with friends, sleeping in the car, etc.

[White Rabbit]

Outstanding, really really nice.

[strongmanmike]

Beautiful work Alex, I see what you mean about teh clouds over teh village, looks like rolling lava...great stuff :thumbsup:

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Stunning images Alex. I cannot decide which I like more, but I reckon the last two are the winners.

[Octane]

Alex,

That's left tears in my eyes.

You win.

H

[Phil Hart]

lovely again alex.. great holiday destination! hope your daughter got to enjoy some of the night sky too? ;)

beautiful foregrounds.. and quite active airglow in many sequences all nicely captured and processed.

every one of those sequences appeals to me but some of the all-night panning sequences might be long enough for the short-attention span average internet user to move on? that's something i learned from my last effort anyway but they should not necessarily be your target audience. just a slight crop and vertical pan within the frame might help the static camera shots sit in better with the other motion controlled shots?

all up though another recognisable cherney masterpiece! :thumbsup:

Phil

[danielsun]

Wow! That is stunning! The colors, yellow fog and orange clouds and what magnificent sites and scenery.
Truly amazing work Alex. Loved every second of it!:thumbsup:

Cheers Daniel.

[ZeroID]

Alex, the stills are magnificent especially the 6th one but forgive me for swearing but wow! The video is just asolutely incredible, stunning is not enough. You should be charging heaps for that. I have been down that way myself but that was a whole new aspect and the music and changes just made it an awesome watch.
I'm posting the link to a few friends who just need to see that it is so beautiful. Love the fogs and lights, flashes of aircraft ( and meteors?) in the sky. It is a symphony of delight. Many many thanks.:thanx::thanx::thanx:
If I want to impress friends at home I am going to set a permanent link to that on the PC that talks to the TV. That show in 46" HD has just got to be .... <ran out of words>

[dvj]

I got chills watching the video. The syncronization with the music, the fades and pans are remarkable. Probably one of the best productions I've seen posted. Endless possibilities with timelapse.

[Analog6]

Simply glorious. I do want to try to do one of these when I get a Polarie. Do you buy the music from the artist or how does it work? And thanks for sharing the nuts and bolts details.

[Phil Hart]

you can tell a great timelapse when your mind keeps replaying scenes even when you're not at the computer.. and that's what this one does for me. really superb footage and i have to agree the car lights through the fog is quite mesmerising!

Phil

[Nikolas]

Absolutely stunning

[alexch]

Thanks everyone for the kind words again!

When I was setting up the 14mm lens for the church shot I was hoping to get the SCP just above it for potential star trails - it almost worked (attached).
190x30s shots, 14mm, f/2.8, ISO 3200.

Cheers,
Alex

[alexch]

Thanks!
I get music from www.jamendo.com
The tracks used in the Mystic Sky were from Zero Project and can be used free under Creative Commons license. Jamendo offer commercial licenses too.

[alexch]

Thanks, Phil! I could not believe my luck when the fog descended but Mt. John stayed above it. It was very cool to watch visually too, looked like mountains of light were slowly moving under your feet.

I might mix a shorter version when I get some time, but it was very hard not to use most (80%) of the footage :).

Cheers,
Alex

[Irish stargazer]

Simply stunning images Alex.
I just picked up a Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens to give this a try. I might pick up a Polarie for Xmas.

[iceman]

I don't know how I missed commenting on this - I just watched it again.

It's absolutely amazing, Alex. Congrats. The scenes with the fog, and the last 10 seconds, are the best. Quite amazing.

The 5 minutes did feel a little too long, we're very easily distracted these days. But there's not a whole lot you'd want to cut out either! With two cameras going you end up with loads of material!

Well done.