The Great Night Sky Time-Lapse Experiment

[TheGuy]

I've always been interested in time-lapse photography. The trouble is, I've never actually had a decent device to record time-lapses with. I've used things like webcams, but they suck in quality. I've tried my HD camcorder, but speeding up the footage taken with that takes an aaaaaaage to render... it also has a 2hour limit.

So... what I've done is set up my camera (it's nothing special. 6mp, 12x zoom, a bit outdated these days) on manual exposure mode, with the aperture wide open, and leaving the shutter open for 60 seconds. This makes it possible to take some night-time photographs.... (these were taken with 30 second exposure with my dad's camera, mind)



By theguymjp, shot with FinePix S9600 at 2009-12-21


By theguymjp, shot with FinePix S9600 at 2009-12-21


So, what I'm going to try is to make a time lapse video of the night sky. I've known for a while that it's possible to shoot an infinite (well, as much as the card can hold) number of photos with the continuous shooting mode enabled if the button is held down. The trouble is, I'm not going to sit outside all night in sub zero temperatures holding down that button. So, I've made an ingenious device to hold it down for me... two doubled elastic bands, and a screwed up bit of toilet paper.


As I'm writing this it's taking the photos, and will continue to do so until the morning. I'm going to update this thread with the video tomorrow (if everything goes to plan).

I have a few concerns though... one is that the lens might frost up. Another is that the camera will stop working from being so cold (I'm hoping that the heat it's creating from taking so many long-exposure photos will be enough to keep it nice and warm). Finally, I hope we won't get a metre of snow in the night...


By theguymjp, shot with DMC-TZ5 at 2009-12-21

[Anna]

Again, I really like the pics . I don't know much about the camera, so I'll just hope it'll stay warm.

Good luck, and I hope you'll show us some of the pics :3.

[tatu]

Those are amazing pics! I like star-pictures

[Christopher]

Sweet pics! I’m used to seeing Orion upside down! And good luck with the whole project!


I’m into night sky time lapse photograph as well. I just recently uploaded a video to my YouTube account here. But it looks like the conditions you have to work in will make it much harder! I only have to worry about getting a bit of dew on my lens, I don’t have to worry about the whole thing frosting up!

[TheGuy]

Sweet pics! I’m used to seeing Orion upside down! And good luck with the whole project!

Thanks. Below is how it turned out.

Also, WOW, your time lapses were great! Did you use some ND filters at all, on the lighter scenes? Looks like you're in a good spot, with little light pollution. The point of my project seems to have been greatly lessened from seeing that, but never mind, it was an experiment after all.


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It was a success! I came downstairs this morning to see it still taking photos (I guess if I had something less fragile this wouldn’t be a big deal, lol). The lens hadn't frosted up (I believe this is down to having the lens hood on), and the camera was still functioning. It hadn't snowed either.

I'm really pleased with the result. Click here to watch it.... (please select 720p, or 1080p if your computer is fast enough to play them smoothly).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGbhatNwPPw

Shame about the clouds, though. Also, the foreground foliage caught light from the kitchen window, so it isn't very consistent at first.

One really good thing about the camera I used is that there's a wait of exactly the same amount of time the camera was exposed for. So if you left the shutter open for 30 seconds, you'd have to wait another 30 seconds before it started the next picture (the reason for the wait is that it's processing the picture, adding noise reduction etc). This complies with the 180 degree rule of film. 'Double the shutter speed over the frame rate'. So the video has got perfect motion blur.

I'm planning on getting some super cheap ND filters from HK, so that I can take some long-exposure videos of daytime areas.

[hppav]

That is really neat! Thanks for sharing!

[Draconisaurus]

Awesome stuff in this here thread...

Chris, that's breathtaking I've never beheld the galactic center with my own eyes.. I certainly intend to see it one day, far from here, though.

Matt, jolly good show! The clouds were fine.

Found this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANAmiuAkyGQ just amazing..

Can't see hardly any stars where I live, even if you drive a ways away from the city. Despite my name sake, I've yet to see Draco in the sky. That will be quite the day, when I finally get to..

[Christopher]

Did you use some ND filters at all, on the lighter scenes?

Nope, no filters. I just use a Canon 400D with the standard lens that came with it.

Looks like you're in a good spot, with little light pollution.

Yeah, I’ve been lucky with my interestin astronomy, in that regard. We don’t live terribly far from populated areas (though the closest big city is about an hours drive away), but we live far enough out such that light pollution isn’t a huge issue.

The point of my project seems to have been greatly lessened from seeing that…

No way! After seeing your first result, you’re definitely producing some great stuff!

Shame about the clouds, though.

I don’t know, I’ve found that I prefer it when there is a little bit of cloud around. They seem to make the movies a bit more dynamic? I guess it just comes down to artistic preference though.

By the way, do you know approximately how many hours the camera was out there exposing for?

Also, have you thought about making the image into a startrails image (where all of the images are stacked together to get the stars forming those lovely arcs in the sky)? There’s a small free program that is very nice for doing it:

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

I'm planning on getting some super cheap ND filters from HK, so that I can take some long-exposure videos of daytime areas.

I’ve been meaning to get into daytime timelapse stuff as well. I’ve asked for one of those computerised remote shutters for my camera for Christmas. We’ll see how it goes, I guess.

Chris, that's breathtaking I've never beheld the galactic center with my own eyes.. I certainly intend to see it one day, far from here, though.

Thanks! And yeah, it’s a very neat sight!

Found this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANAmiuAkyGQ just amazing..

!! Look at all those aeroplanes! I get annoyed by the few flying around here

[TheGuy]

Thanks.

By the way, do you know approximately how many hours the camera was out there exposing for?

There were 389 photos, each took 2 mins to make, so that's about 13 hours + 1 hour of setting up. Damn, it felt like a block of ice when I got to it in the morning.

Also, have you thought about making the image into a startrails image (where all of the images are stacked together to get the stars forming those lovely arcs in the sky)? There’s a small free program that is very nice for doing it:

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

Well, seeing Drac's post made me wonder how I could go about it in After Effects, but ultimately couldn't really think of any way to do it. So thanks very much for that link, I'll have to download it sometime!