http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gardPl-CTxM
After many months of long drives and hikes to the mountains, imaging throughout the night in freezing temperatures, re-editing thousands of images, and repeating this process over (and over!), I've finally managed to compile my first time-lapse of the milky way. I know I will look back at this in future with a more critical eye, but for now I'm happy with the results :-). While it can be frustrating coming home after a long night of imaging only to then realise the images are worthless due to focus-shift (!) it has been an incredibly enjoyable, satisfying and learning experience doing this all. Time-lapse as I've learnt is not easy and I have a tremendous amount of admiration and respect for those who dedicate themselves to producing one.
Most of the images were taken from The Greater Blue Mountains, NSW Australia. While not the darkest skies (as can be seen from the light pollution along the horizon), The 3 Sisters provide great composition for the foreground and the Magellanic clouds are visible naked-eye (Mag ~5 skies). I feel blessed to be living here in the so-called land "down under" as the night sky is truly remarkable.
It was extremely difficult for me to choose which images and videos to include in the time-lapse as I was restricted to ~1m:20s due to my choice of song, "X-15" by Philip Sheppard who composed the score for the documentary "In the Shadow of the Moon". The other footage will have to wait for a future time-lapse.
If you have have the bandwidth make sure to watch it in 1080i HD.
Feedback and comments are most welcome. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed producing it :-)
Mohammed Ali Baddah.
Equipment and software used:
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 600D
Canon 17-40mm
Canon 24-105mm
Canon 50mm f1.8
Adobe Photoshop CS6
Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
StarStax
Music:
"X-15" by Philip Sheppard from the soundtrack "In the Shadow of the Moon".
