Celestial Reception

[fokker]

I took a drive out of town last night to a mountain peak where all the town's satellite, cellular and radio communications equipment is located. The weather was pretty cloudly but we got a few breaks where the stars were amazing, and of course I was frothing to shoot them. I really wished I had my tripod with me but I left it somewhere last week :x so I was just resting the camera on the ground. Even managed a nice couple of scratches on my screen for my troubles.

Anyway, here are four of my favourites.

 

[fokker]

These were all shot with 5d2 and sigma 16mm fisheye lens, 3200 ISO 30sec f/3.2

 

[Newtricks]

Great shots and thanks for the setting info.

Be well,

Anthony

 

[Luke345678]

Well I'm jealous of where ever you live. With all the light pollution where I am, seeing a few stars is a blessing.

 

[fokker]

Yeah it's nice being in the middle of the Canadian rockies

 

[GDHLEWIS]

The 3rd snap is my fav, I honestly wished I had the these sort of places to visit. Keep it up

 

[Eclectix]

The third was my favorite too, until I opened the fourth. It reminds me of a sci-fi movie- Close Encounters or The Last Starfighter or something like that. I'd say you got some wonderful shots for not having your tripod with you. I've been thinking of making a bean bag to throw in my camera bag to help stabilize my camera when I don't have my tripod with me. I've had mixed results at best when it comes to using rocks and sticks to try to create a stable surface for my camera.

 

[fokker]

Yeah, it's definitely hit or miss using random pieces of nature to try and resemble a tripod. Luckily having a fisheye lens makes the exact orientation of the camera less critical here. I simply set the focus to roughly infinity, stuck the camera on the ground and hoped for the best - when its that dark it's impossible to frame a shot with the viewfinder or live view anyway.

 

[Gavjenks]

As mentioned recently in another thread:

fits in your pocket! Two or three strings would add more stability just like a tripod is more stable than a monopod. Three strings obviously being fairly inconvenient since you only have 2 legs, though.

 

[Warhorse]

I love these pics!

Fantastic work, even though you had to improvise.

 

[fokker]

As mentioned recently in another thread:
<img src="http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=55075"/>
fits in your pocket! Two or three strings would add more stability just like a tripod is more stable than a monopod. Three strings obviously being fairly inconvenient since you only have 2 legs, though.

Probably wouldn't help for 30 second exposures though...

 

[Gavjenks]

Oh those are 30 seconds? No visible star trails?

 

[fokker]

No, star trails only become more visible at longer exposure times or with longer focal lengths. At 16mm on full frame there is almost no streaking if stars visible even at 1:1 magnification. With my 28mm lens I can only get away with 20- 25 seconds, and so on it goes.

 

[GaryT]

Congratulations in making a comms tower look good! Is that light painting in the second and third shots or just your towns reflected lights picked up on the long exp?

 

[fokker]

Thanks, and yep good eye I hit the tower with just a couple of seconds of light from my head torch while the exposure was going. I wish I had it a bit more even in the third one, but oh well.