Rodney Campbell's Blog

My daughter was very keen to shoot some star trails. This was primarily because she wanted to convert into a timelapse movie rather than a static star trail image

With a little planning we’d decided to get out of the city and spend a few days around the new moon to optimise our chances. We headed down to the Shoalhaven on the South Coast of NSW

We looked at the cloud forecast on Cloud Free Night. Cloud Free Night is an excellent online weather forecast information service (in particular cloud predictions and astro visibility at night). It’s designed for the Australian and New Zealand astronomy community

Magellanic Clouds

NIKON D750 + 12.0 mm f/2.8 @ 12 mm, 27 sec at f/2.8, ISO 4000

It appeared that the current night was going to be our best bet for cloud free conditions. So we decided to head out immediately :). As we were leaving Sydney late (around 9PM) we decided to stop in at Bombo Quarry (near Kiama) on the way down. The location is pretty good for astro work and we arrived around 11PM:

– it’s in a dark area away from street lights and strong light pollution
– it’s right on the coast (the ocean is directly on the other side of the rock)
– it has these really interesting hexagonal basalt columns and still water for reflections
– the downside was that the township of Kiama was directly south of here but the headland blocks much of the direct light

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

We took a few static image tests with some simple light painting to refine our composition

Once we’d decided on our composition for the trails images we first captured a number of light painted exposures for potential later blending into a final image. This included a couple steel wool spins, and various light painting of the rocks (from different directions and in different colours). This was to optimise things like the reflections in the water, the play of light and shadow on the rocks for a more 3D effect and so on

Just before 12:30AM we were ready to start our trails sequence. We changed to optimal settings for that and let the intervalometer run. 239 x 36sec frames later (just before 3AM) we’d had enough waiting 🙂 and packed up for the night

Here we have the result of stacking the 239 star trail frames blended with some of the more natural light (warm daylight) light painting frames

The Quarry and the Swirls

NIKON D750 + 12.0 mm f/2.8 @ 12 mm, 36 sec at f/2.8, ISO 800 x 239 Frames

It was just after 4AM when we finally got to the grandparents house and hit the beds 🙂

Another night in remote outback Australia, another chance to shoot under these amazingly dark skies at Bea Bea rest area

Sunset was at 5:37PM and moonrise was going to be at 8:37PM so my window of opportunity was going to be short. No startrails again – just some static milky way action

After dinner I headed up the hill next to our Bea Bea camp site where I’d been earlier in the afternoon. I’d arrived and was setup for shooting by 6:50PM

Bea Bea Archway

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 4000 x 8 Frames

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

There was a little light pollution over the horizon so I couldn’t push the ISO too far (ISO 4000 was about the best I could hope for). The main problems I had was with the brightness of the Bea Bea campground nestled in the hollow below me and from the road trains coming through at regular intervals

At least with the later I could time the individual shots to coincide with when they’d driven out of the scene. This just meant there was a lot of waiting around for the right moment 🙂

I took two sets of vertical frames to later stitch into panoramas (the first with 9 frames and the second with 8)

Thankful to be out under the stars again… Finished for the evening I packed up at 7:45PM and headed back down to camp

Resting 82km’s north-east of Port Hedland, 71km south-west of Pardoo Roadhouse on western side of Great Northern Highway and northern side of river sits De Grey River Rest Area

There were plenty of people resting here for the night and it was another opportunity for me to get out, walk the ten metres required and setup to take some milky way shots of the clear night skies :). The only things I had which I could include in the foreground were these few tress and our vans and cars. Not awesomely inspiring or amazing but the best I could do on short notice 🙂

Resting Under the Stars

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 4000 x 7 Frames

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

I took seven (7) vertical frames using the Samyang 14mm at around a quarter past 7 (a little after astro twilight and less than half an hour before moonrise). The real trick here was trying to deal with the brightness of all the lights from all the vans and the few people walking about with their lights

The milky way was high in the sky (the arch was almost vertical above rather than nice and low towards the horizon). This meant I had to angle the very wide 14mm up quite high to make sure I included the top of the arch. Given that I’m doing this all manually by hand and by eye in the dark I’m pretty happy it even stitched 🙂

Another chance to shoot the milky way out here in the remote areas of the Mueller Ranges

Unfortunately the moon was bright this evening which made it difficult to shoot the stars or the milky way. It was already two (2) days after the first quarter and just five (5) days until the full moon. So the moon was already quite large and high in the sky and probably too bright for shooting the stars. It did however make for a lovely moonlit landscape on yet another beautiful evening out here in the wilderness

Solitude

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/3.2, ISO 2000 x 5 Frames

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

Still I’m out here in this fantastic location which I’ll probably never see again and which I surely couldn’t waste… so given I only have to walk a whole 50m from the caravan to setup for the shot it’s just got to be attempted…

Ngumban Cliff Lookout – Mueller Ranges – yeah – middle of freakin’ nowhere 🙂

Ngumban Cliff Lookout - Mueller Ranges

I was only able to push to ISO 2000 this evening when shooting the open skies. That was before it started really washing out the sky with the brightness of the moon. The Milky Way was still clearly visible to the naked eye. But you just couldn’t push the camera to capture more of the stars without also brightening everything (including the sky and the moonlit foreground).

I had great plans for this lone tree out here on the edge of the lookout – a nice arch of stars over the tree…

To get the arch I had to shoot from behind the tree looking back towards the Ngumban Cliff Rest Area with all the caravans and campers. We were just having dinner over there under the covered tables behind the tree only an hour beforehand

This location is actually pretty epic so I’ve requested a two night stay when we’re there again next year 🙂

I also tried a horizontal panorama with a milky way arch over this spectacular boab specimen. I took this using vertical frames with the Samyang 14mm. I really wasn’t hopeful at the time with bright frames on the left from the campsites. Plus the big moon and the massive flare it creates on the right

Crossing the Arch

NIKON D750 + 14.0 mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm, 30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 2500 x 7 Frames

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

It’s got issues and I had to work the hell out of it but here it is nonetheless – almost usable 🙂