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.
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
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.
Superb work Alex. You've done it again. 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.
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.
I can't remember if I even breathed during that Alex. Fantastic work. 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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
The motion panning with the milkyway setting at the beginning is sublime. Gee the LMC stays up pretty hight from down there too.
