An experienced photographer friend asked me to provide some tips on photographing the night sky… This set me thinking about the various aspects that I take for granted but possibly might not be that well known. Here’s a few thoughts and hints, in no particular order – hope they help! Continue reading “Tips for photographing the night sky”
Starlink satellites
Following a very bright pass of the Starlink satellites on Sunday 19th April that got everyone talking, I thought I’d set up the DSLR to take a hi-res timelapse of the satellite train… Unfortunately due to cloud cover or just being later in the evening, the satellites weren’t seen in the numbers that had been expected.
Here’s the video from the first part of the night – starts at about 21:00 hours and runs for a couple of hours. The photos are 30 second exposures, taken every thirty seconds, replayed at 2 frames per second.
After the cloud rolled in around midnight, I left the camera running through the night and retired to bed. The timelapse caught several of the Lyrid meteors, as well as the Starlink train at about 03:30.
Allsky timelapse and the meteors
The intention of the Allsky timelapse camera was to try and capture some meteors… I was very pleased on the first night that the camera was live to capture half a dozen meteors! There wasn’t even a scheduled shower! The first major shower is towards the end of April, so I’m looking forward to seeing what can be captured then, clear skies permitting!
As before, north is to the right, and it’s a 30 second exposure every 30 seconds. Replayed at 6 frames per second. This timelapse also captures the ISS, which goes into eclipse just after passing overhead.
AllSky Timelapse and the Starlink satellites
I’ve recently added an Allsky timelapse camera to the end of my observatory. It’s a ‘The Imaging Source’ camera with a 1.9mm lens, pointing straight up, 640x480px resolution. Taking a thirty second exposure every thirty seconds, it captures the whole sky, all night. The aim is to capture meteors as well as the passing satellites. While the Covid-19 pandemic is in effect, we don’t have too many aircraft at the moment! It’s not perfect, and I’m still working on it!
This timelapse sequence starts at about 20:30 BST and ends about 23:45. At the start you can see the start of the Starlink train, closely followed by the ISS passing over. Shortly after this there appears to be another train of Starlink satellites, and finally at the end of the clip is a helicopter (We live close to the Chinook helicopter RAF base!). The clip has been heavily processed to try and enhance the satellites against the sky. North is to the right (over the house) and the satellites are passing west to east.