At the end of June I was part of an Experiential Learning class that takes youth out into the wilderness on several day backpacking trips where they learn among other things some astronomy. I was along to teach Astronomy. This trip was into the Kenndy Meadows area, where we camped along the Relief Reservoir.
On the first night, I set up my 4x5 with my 75mm wide-angle lens and focused as best as I could in the dark on the eastern horizon. I started the exposure at 12 midnight and let it run for 3 hours. The bright red star trail almost dead center is the frame is in the constellation Pegasus, and if I am not mistaken, it would be Scheat, and the bright blue trail just to the left is Alpheratz, the head of the constellation Andromeda.
One of the things that I found interesting is the shape of the trails. Those trails that are straight are near due east and as you move to the north (left) and to some extent to the south (right) the trails become more curved indicative of the stars moving on what appears to us to be a celestial sphere.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Is the light drop off too much in the corners? It was very difficult to get an even tonality across the whole image. The Nikon f/4.5 75mm lens has a very bright center as opposed to the edges.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
I envisioned a panoramic when I set up this photo. Does it work? Is it too blue?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Shen-Hao 4x5, Nikon 75mm f/4.5, wide open, 3 hour exposure, Fuji Provia 100f, A lot of postprocessing to even out the tonality in the sky while not losing the star trails.
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Youssef, Iām thoroughly enjoying this night sky view as it shows such fine colors in the different star trails. Iād be tempted to darken the central ābackgroundā to better match the edges and provide more contrast, but this looks fine as presented. I also like that there enough detail in the land to recognize the snowfields. The light fall off isnāt even from the center outward, so I suspect that some of the fall off is from distant human lights. Yes, youāre seeing the sky spinning about the celestial sphere. In a star shot with that include the Polaris, it barely moves.
Youssef, An amazing image to enjoy. Especially , because where I live I almost never see any stars.The panoramic view shows me the greatness of the universe. Thankās for sharing.
This is a very striking image Youssef, with a lot of impact. Many star trail images that one sees just go for the cliche look of circles, half circles and so on. I think it is very clever and creative to extract just a āsmallā section of the trails through the panoramic treatment. I actually think the light drop-off adds to the image, rather than being a distraction. To me the drop-off breaks the sky up into three pronounced areas of tonality, which also emphasizes the fascinating differences between straight vs. curved trails. I wouldnāt change a thing about this images, it is very well done as presented.
This is fantastic Youssef! The colors are wonderful and I really like how youāve cropped this and also managed to keep the mountain ridge line as a prominent element.
One of the things I do miss about film are these long exposures, and specifically star trails. yeah, this can be done with some effort in the digital ageā¦ but was always fun leaving the shutter on bulb or hours at a time. In fact, the last star trails I attempted was in 2007 - where I sadly kicked over my tripod in the dark, smashing my wood field camera in to piecesā¦
Kudos for a great execution of capturing the night sky and star trails. Love the result!
@Lon_Overacker funny that you should mention kicking over your camera. I started to set up my camera that night about 11 pm. The area we camped in was on the northwest side of the reservoir just past the dam. The area was primarily granite with some softer patches. I set up around some boulders. I got the camera on the tripod and lens on the camera. I proceeded to focus the lens. I thought I had a pretty good focus and was ready to place the film holder in.
Then I thought I should probably move my backpack so that I do not accidentally trip as I move around the camera. I lifted the bag off the ground when all I hear a smashing sound and the sound of shattering glass :confounded. It was painful.
I turned on my head light to find that when I set up the tripod, one of the legs was set inside one of the backpack shoulder strap loops. When I picked up the bag, the shoulder strap caught the tripod leg and sent the whole thing careening into the boulders in front of the camera.
I rushed over to my now what appeared to be a smashed camera. The lens was face flat inside a gap between some boulders. I picked it up and stood the tripod upright. I looked at the glass on my lens and remarkably the lens did not have a single scratch on it, the glass, front and back, was fine! Then I looked at the camera and it looked mashed. Somehow the impact torqued the camera movements but once I loosened up all the knobs I was able to square the camera up. Then I went to the ground glass, it was not there! The whole ground glass back with spring loader was just gone. I started to search for it. I could not find it. I expected that it would have popped off and flew backwards. But I could not find it. After about 15 minutes of searching, I found it about 20 feet in front of where the camera had crashed. How it got there I have no idea, the physics makes no sense how it flew forward. When I picked it up and looked at the ground glass, it too was completely unharmed.
The sense of relief that washed over me was indescribable. The next day upon closer inspection, the camera did suffer some heavy scratches and some cracks that are pretty much irreparable, but still allow the functioning of the camera. So I refocused the camera by 12 midnight and let the shutter open for 3 hours. At 3 am my alarm went off and I got up closed the shutter, removed the film holder, lowered the tripod to its lowest position, threw the dark cloth over the camera and went back to sleep. Amazing what that little Shen-Hao has gone through with me in the last 13 years.
Great story Youssef, thanks for sharing. Although not really funnyā¦ right? Iām so glad to hear that the camera/lens didnāt suffer any more serious or permanent damage. Sounds like that camera has 9 livesā¦ The flying ground glass, indeed quite perplexing.
