Astronomy + Fireflies

[mtbdudex]

We had 4 families over Friday June 15, 2012 night for kids & parents euchre night till 10:15pm, when they left I set-up the gear.

Shortly after some clouds rolled in, I wish less planes, here's result:

394 images, 25 sec each, f3.5, 15mm @ ISO800. Stacked and some PP.

[mtbdudex]

With the heat wave the fireflies are going bonkers here!

Wed June 20, 2012 night, about 3 hrs worth during shortest night of the year.

I had to start imaging at 11pm, too light before that.

Many 25 sec exposures, 15-85 zoom lens at 15mm on crop T1i @ ISO800.

Stacked using StarStaX.

Raw output with all planes

28 frames with plane streaks removed, hence you see small gaps in all the star trails corresponding to those stars not being there during the stacking process.

A much more time intense method would be to PP each of the 28 frames and remove the plane streaks...that's lots of work .....but would give more pleasing/continuous star trail arcs

[mtbdudex]

As bonus, there is a iridium satellite flare 1/2 way up and 1/3 way in from LH side, this individual 2 frame composite & crop shows it clearly.

There is a 1 second pause between frames, as can be seen in the image, those flares last very briefly, usually just 3-5 seconds total to the naked eye, camera sensor will show longer.

I've seen just 1 -7mag flare and it was so bright and stunning!

Heavens-above has info to plan and capture them for those interested.

[Photosbykev]

Post processing individual images prior to stacking is well worth doing IMHO. I've individually edited over 2000 raw images in one star trail composite which I considered acceptable given the result

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Blame Apple for the typos

[mtbdudex]

Post processing individual images prior to stacking is well worth doing IMHO. I've individually edited over 2000 raw images in one star trail composite which I considered acceptable given the result

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Blame Apple for the typos

Understood and agree what you say, for me with 3 young kids and work/life/hobby balance the "hack way" of just leaving out the 28 frames made the stacked image more pleasing than with the plane streaks.......

[Photosbykev]

Have you considered a high iso long exposure of the fireflies against a dark background? I think that potentially they could produce an unusual image

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Blame Apple for the typos

[mtbdudex]

Have you considered a high iso long exposure of the fireflies against a dark background? I think that potentially they could produce an unusual image

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Blame Apple for the typos

Too much light pollution in my area, unless my kids captured some fireflies and put them in a jar inside a closet, but then that would take the astonomy portion out of it.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Lovely images. Takes me back to my first encounter with swarms of fireflies. That was in 1993 in summer in Indiana. Marvellous sight.

[JB80]

Now that's very pretty.

I really like those pictures, I'd love to see fire flies like that.

[Viv]

Moved thread over to imaging section.

Nice ones !

[SkyJamie]

Awesome images!

Jamie

[Saleratus]

Wonderful image, reminded me of my childhood in Ohio.

[mtbdudex]

Thx everyone - the heat picked up here in SE Michigan and the fireflies are super active right now 10:10 pm Wed 6/27, I might shoot them again from a different angle.....

[laser_jock99]

Those fireflies look like a real nuisance!

[mtbdudex]

For the record, I've had lots of "bad attempts" at fireflies.

I've found it really needs to be dark to take them, doing in even dusk with 15-20 sec exposure the image looks near daytime, and you hardly see the fireflies.

Summer of 2010 I attempted the single exposure for firefly capture, just a few green dots in single 20 sec exposure:

June-16-2010 attempts these 2 :

Can you see the fireflies?? well neither can I...but all part of the learning trial/error process

Then July-11-2010 my 1st stacked attempt gave so-so results, but showed some possibility for neat shot:

This 2nd stacked attempt of 8 second images from July 14-2010 had more promise:

What I learned is the time of evening/dusk to begin shooting at, taking trial shots to balance exposure/capture of fireflies vs over bright sky, etc.

Then I backed up more for this multi-exposure shot taken July-16-2010, which included star trails.

In my mind, this was where it was at, fireflies + star trails, so that was my mindset for next future attempt .

So, like many things in life, you actually learn over multiple attempts.

Moving to the bottom of the driveway for more wide field view and rules of 1/3 was learned by this July-16-2010 capture in portrait orientation - with fireflies

and winter star trails image taken Feb-4-2011 here in landscape orientation:

Therefore, I took all the above lessons learned:

-multiple captures over time

-composition rules of 1/3 for the scene

-choose landscape over portrait

-special software to process the image

So, come on people, go out and shoot some fireflies!

[laser_jock99]

Nice set - now I realise it was a deliberate attempt to capture both stars & fireflies.

[mtbdudex]

My photo has been shortlisted in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012 competition held by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, therefore I decided to spend a little more PP time on it.

http://www.rmg.co.uk/visit/exhibitions/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year/

I've re-processed the image by individually removing the plane streaks from the 23 frames and re-stacking with those frames back in.

Got rid of almost all the gaps in the star trails.

The 1 remaining gap.....I went to the camera to check the camera setting's thinking I left the ISO at 200 not 800, hence that gap, darn mosquitoes caused me to doubt the settings upon starting the process.

Re-processed:

Prior:

[mtbdudex]

I did not win in my category called "Earth and Space" in the Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012.

But I did get a "Highly commended" and my image is posted on their webpage below, so I'm geeked about that!

http://www.rmg.co.uk...arth-and-space/

Also check out the video, my image "Summer Nights in Michigan" is at the 4:48 mark, even the song is kinda cool!

http://www.bbc.co.uk...19637073?ref=nf

I'm also here slide 8:

http://www.telegraph...l?frame=2343662

[Breakintheclouds]

Congratulations! I was watching that BBC slide show yesterday. Loved your picture

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I thought I recognised the photo. Congratulations!

[Photosbykev]

well deserved reward for such an unusual image. Told you it was worth processing the individual frames

[RogerTheDodger]

Well done, I thought I recognised it yesterday on the BBC site

[JamesF]

I'm another who recognised it but couldn't place it. Well done.

James

[mtbdudex]

well deserved reward for such an unusual image. Told you it was worth processing the individual frames

You were spot on, actually the individual frame PP not that hard to do once got started.

Sent from my iPhone4 using Tapatalk

[ixalon]

Congrats! Such a fantastic image, quite unique! It was my favourite in that category (and my favourite category!) There were quite a few "WOW!"s from the audience when it was shown at the award ceremony :-)