Maryland Nights - A Time Lapse Night Sky Video

Inspired by Randy Halverson (http://dakotalapse.com/), Tom Lowe (timescapes.org), and Terje Sørgjerd (Facebook.com/TSOPhotograp​ hy), I began dabbling in time lapse astrophotography earlier this year. This is my first attempt at a time lapse movie, using sequences shot exclusively from near where I live outside of Baltimore. If you compare it to Randy's work, though, I don't hold a candle to him (or the other guys). :-D Granted, they live in darker, less light polluted skies than I do. If you are fortunate enough to live away from a light polluted environment, your skies will be much better than these in the video here. Take that into account when you're trying to see the stars. ;-)

Most of the streaks you see through some of the sequences are planes (not meteors). The blippy short greenish streaks you see especially in the last sequence are fireflies. At 0:36, during the second moonset sequence, there are two brightish stars next to each other that enter the field of view from the top. The left of the two is actually the planet Saturn (the star to the right is Porrima, in the constellation Virgo). The sequence with the circular farm plow thing was taken a day after the full moon in July. The sequences at 0:13 and 0:53 are staring straight south into the Washington, DC, light dome. You can barely make out the top of the constellation Scorpio cresting above the trees. The Milky Way, no chance to see.

The sequences ranged from 1-4+ hours in length, averaging 20 second exposures per image, and set to 24 frames per second in the video sequences. The sequences at 0:26 and 0:31 were shot with my little Canon SD1100 point-n-shoot digicam, ISO 800, 13 second exposures per shot. All the rest were done with my "tax return camera", a Nikon D7000, 20 second exposures, ISO 1600-2500. The music score is "I Am Iron Man" from the Iron Man 2 soundtrack.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• time
• lapse
• night
• sky
• astronomy
• astrophotography

[climbmd]

@SkyEurope1988 I look forward to your videos.

And it's a tracking mount for a telescope that I'll be using for the camera, not the telescope itself (field of view WAY too small for that!) :-)

[SkyEurope1988]

@climbmd Soonly i will check in with my video, and i will share it with you;) Your other staffs are amazing work as well. Telescope? Hmmm, show me the results when you are ready:)

[climbmd]

@SkyEurope1988 PS: I would like to see what you can do with your camera set up there. I've seen some good time-lapse videos without a dolly, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. :-)

[climbmd]

@SkyEurope1988 I have a number of other videos loaded up here. The dolly is used in some of them. The West Virginia Nights and the Maryland Climbing videos both feature dolly motion in many or most of the scenes.

I am currently working on two new videos: Maryland Nights 2 and West VA Nights 2. Both feature sequences with the dolly, and I am also going to be adding in a small telescope tracking mount for added dimensions of motion. I hope to have them done by spring or summer.

[SkyEurope1988]

@climbmd I try to show you my result in some weeks. Hopefully will look great without the dolly as well:) Are you willing to load up some other staffs made by your dolly? I would be really quirous about that:) 3 cameras from the same:) fanatic?:)

[climbmd]

@SkyEurope1988 Yeah, the DP dolly is expensive, but was cheapest around that I found for what you got. Saved up for a while to get that. Don't have any other experiences to relay.

[climbmd]

@SkyEurope1988 Ahhh, Different beastie than the SD1100. :-)

[SkyEurope1988]

@climbmd Canon 1100D



[climbmd]

@SkyEurope1988 Really?? You have an SD1100 that goes to ISO 3200?!? 30 second exposures?? I've three, they only go to ISO 1600, 15 second exposures. Then they sit for 13 seconds, either applying some noise reduction algorithms, white balance, and/or writing to the SD card.

[SkyEurope1988]

@climbmd This time-lapse dolly cost a fortune, way too expensive, maybe i will make one for myself later, when i will have time. If you have some experiences, dont hesitate to tell me:)