103 x 30 sec wide angle Startrail

[AstroJason]

In my desperation for getting some time under the stars and missing out on heading up to Katoomba Airfield on the weekend I needed a fix. Still without my intervalometer (been almost 2 weeks since I ordered it) I decided to not let that stop me from getting some sort of shot.

Here is the result of sitting by the camera and clicking the shutter 103 times, every 30 seconds for just over an hour. A plane flew past and then towards the end of my session the Police Helicopter flew past as well with its spot light on (bright yellow line). The gap in the middle of that line is the 2 second countdown between exposures. Although it doesn’t look like it in the shot, it was very bright! I’m sure they saw me sitting there looking like some sort of perve in the dark!

Obviously not the greatest startrail ever made and it’s been done countless times before, but this is just my second attempt. No darks or flats in this either… Still got to learn all about that.

One thing I did notice with the sequence of shots was the light pollution levels dropping as the night went on (finished up at about 11:20pm). But you can still see that there is a significant amount of light pollution. Sky looks blue still :(

Camera used: Canon 60D
Lens: Sigma 8-16mm f4.5-5.6
Shot at: 8mm f4.5

Thanks for looking guys.

Jason

[AstroJason]

Had another go at this last night with the hope of catching some Orionids. Got none :(

Started the exposures from 12:30 until about 5:30 this morning. Thats 473 x 30 second exposures! However due to cloud coming through in the early hours of the morning I couldn't include them all. So trails below only have 226 x 30 second exposures.

Is it possible to process the clouds out from the effected frames?

[Kunama]

Now that is dedication overcoming desperation, I'm impressed.

[naskies]

I really like this one! It looks like yet another basic star trails shot, but then the light trail from the plane/helicopter catches the eye because it's in the "wrong" direction :)

[AstroJason]

Thanks guys, I should point out though that the second shot was done with my new intervalometer and not with me sitting next to the camera taking each exposure.

Dave, when I was watching Startrails process and stack the images my first thought was "GEE! Thats a bright Orionid!" Then came the realisation that yeah it was either a plane or helicopter. Oh well. Was hoping to give it another try tonight but its pretty much clouded over in Sydney.

Here is a time lapse video of all 473 shots rendered to 15fps. Can't believe all that time only equates to 32 seconds of footage! Added a little music to it which freakily matched things happening in the video.

https://vimeo.com/51841123

[loki78]

I think they look great Jason, keep up the good work.

Can I ask, what software you used to make the startrails shot and the time lapse video?

[AstroJason]

Thanks Jon! The software is called Startrails and can be found here.

http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html

It creates both the startrail shot as well as the time lapse video. Once the time lapse video is made I use Microsoft Moviemaker to add music to the video.

Cheers

[Lester]

Very nice Jason, the trails and timelapse. Thanks for the views.

[AstroJason]

Thanks Lester, glad you liked them both

[loki78]

Jason, cool I have used startrails for photos before, I never tried it for time lapse vids, looks to do a good job!

[Larryp]

Good stuff, Jason!

[AstroJason]

Cheers Laurie