forgot to mention that you might like to look at smugmug.com for better quality video sharing. for an annual fee, you can even upload Full HD resolution video which viewers can choose to watch at whatever resolution their connection supports. and you can embed decent quality video as well.
That is beyond amazing, magnificent work there, the effort , the skill, the concept, everything "A+++" VERY WELL DONE i would be very very very proud to call that my own work.Thank you for showing us this.
Alex, i have a 10mm lens - how did you make the 360 view?
You need a panoramic head like this: http://www.nodalninja.com/
It allows to rotate a lens around a "no-paralax point" and has a click-stop rotator which is very useful at night.
With 10.5mm lens on a full frame body I do four shots in portrait orientation at 15 degrees angle looking up (on a D300 you will need 6 shots). Then I use PTGui and stitch the 360 spherical panorama, which is a bit tricky with night time shots and I sometimes have to use manual control points on the stars. I then convert to Flash in Pano2VR.
cracking stuff alex.. glad you could share it with us yesterday even it does lose something via the projector. everybody was still impressed. just need that 12V adaptor so you can run the camera all night now!
Phil
Thanks Phil - the most expensive 9V DC adaptor from Nikon ($170 !!!) has arrived in the mail today . I had to get it from Nikon because of the custom socket I could not find anywhere.
That's a wonderful image. How do you do that little planet effect?
What camera and lens did you use here. Was it the 14-24 and Nikon D3?
I just love it.
Greg.
Thanks Greg!
I did this one with Nikon D700 and 10.5mm fish-eye. This lens with removed hood covers about 200 degrees so I only need four or even three images to make the 360 degrees spherical panorama.
I made a 360 panorama with 14-24mm lens before and it needed 2 rows of 6 images each. Although the 14-24mm lens produces much higher resolution panoramas (50MP vs 24MP with 10.5mm) it is a real pain to stitch.
The "little planet" is a stereographic projection (used in cartography to map the Earth) - one of many available in PTGui software I use for stitching panoramas.
Thanks twice over, firstly for the inspirational images and video, secondly for keeping my mind occupied during a waxing moon and rainy nights.
I've been going nuts making pano pictures in my lounge room gotta start small
I did this one with Nikon D700 and 10.5mm fish-eye. This lens with removed hood covers about 200 degrees so I only need four or even three images to make the 360 degrees spherical panorama.
I made a 360 panorama with 14-24mm lens before and it needed 2 rows of 6 images each. Although the 14-24mm lens produces much higher resolution panoramas (50MP vs 24MP with 10.5mm) it is a real pain to stitch.
The "little planet" is a stereographic projection (used in cartography to map the Earth) - one of many available in PTGui software I use for stitching panoramas.
Cheers,
Alex
Thanks Alex.
With time lapse imaging, do you need special software to stitch together the time lapse images?
How do you handle the transition from day to night? Estimate the ISO and exposure for night or can you change it once it has started?
I have not yet tried to make a day-night-day time-lapse because my batteries only last about 3-4 hours. In the Parkes time-lapse I just set it up for night exposures and overexposed about 2 f/stops starting in the twilight. Because of the Moon in the frame the exposure time was considerably shorter (3s) than normally (15s). I can't change the exposure settings once a time-lapse has started without stopping it but this is when Sony Vegas helps with a set of digital transitions to change from one scene to another (like the spiral used in the time-lapse above).
Does Images Plus enable this sort of work? That way you can control everything from your laptop. Not sure it would enable changing things whilst it is underway unless you stopped quickly changed it and got it going again really quickly like a Formula One car pitstop.
I'll check out that software.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge here Alex. Masterful work.
Sounds like you need a better battery solution. Not that your image is noisy at all but batteries do heat up as they discharge and add thermal noise to DSLRs. The powered false battery setup is preferable and then how you get power to that I am not sure. Perhaps a 12 volt battery and an inverter to 240V from that and the battery/transformer power supply.
It'd last all night with a decent sized battery (deep cycle).
. I had to get it from Nikon because of the custom socket I could not find anywhere.
That 360 is sensational. 
