Stars on a Plane

[von Tom]

Here are some pics of the stars as seen from the window seat of a Boeing 777 flying between Brisbane and Dubai.

The first one is of Scorpius setting viewed from on the Equator west of Sumatra.

The second one is of the Southern Cross over the Indian Ocean soon after sunset.

The third one is of Crux from over the Great Australian Bight.

The fourth one is Crux just before dawn north of Adelaide.

The last one is of the view of Crux inside the aircraft :).

All were taken with a Canon EOS 600D, 15-85mm lens at f/3.5, ISO 6400 with exposures ranging from 4 to 10 seconds (camera held up against window and jumper used to block internal reflections as much as possible).

Thanks for looking,

Tom

[colinmlegg]

Nicely done Tom. I did similar shots on the way back to Perth a couple of months ago. Was surprised how well they worked. Even managed to fire off a short 4 second timelapse. If you could suction attach the camera to the window with appropriate shielding, I reckon a longer timelapse is feasible...assuming minimal turbulence. My shots were 1/2 s, iso3200, f/1.4, 24mm @ full moon.

[CapturingTheNight]

Great work :thumbsup: I love number 4 in particular. I never would have thought to even try this from a moving object like a plane.

[Ross G]

Great capture Tom.

Ross.

[SouthPoll]

Great stuff Tom, always cool to see keen people taking random opportunities to get nice shots ;-)

Greg, I watched a doco (BBC) recently where they showed a NASA observatory custom built into a Boeing 747 that was doing DSO work with a 1m scope......at 40,000ft! Impressive feat.

[MortonH]

Nice shots!

[venus]

great work!

[bartman]

Great stuff Tom!!!!
Bartman

[RobF]

I love these shots Tom. Great work from a plane.
Only trouble is I can't stop thinking about "Snakes on a plane" when I read the thread title!

[Lester]

Very good images Tom, an eye opener to me.

[jjjnettie]

LOLOL The sign of a truly obsessed Astro Imager. I see stars.... I must take a photo. :)

[spacezebra]

Truly obsessed!

Great capture!

Cheers Petra d.

[von Tom]

Thanks everyone.

No point wasting an opportunity on a cloudless night at 37,000ft!

It was my first overseas trip and first time in the Northern hemisphere and I was hoping to see some northern stars on the way up. I was on the wrong side of the aircraft, but seeing Scorpius so low was cool.
It was also great to watch the Southern Cross stay above the horizon as we chased it across the Indian Ocean and then over the Bight back up to Brisbane.

Yes, a tragic I am :)

[Adelastro1]

Very nice Tom. I Flew to London via Dubai last month too but in an A380 and tried a couple of shots out the window but there were too many reflections, I think due to the double windows on the A380 which seemed a lot further apart than 747s. Still an amazing sight though looking out the window into such a dark sky, except for the internal and external plane lights!

I did take some on the ferry from The Netherlands to the UK which I'll post soon.