Not the Milky Way

[happy-kat]

Summer Solstice a lovely trip to Jack and Jills on the edge of the South Downs and had hoped to have imaged the Milky Way for the first time, but alas a fabulous dark site that did not get dark enough, lol.

So I had a go at taking a series of images and try a first time lapse.

What did I learn:

Not to loose the manual for my intervalometer gadget!

Hard to get correct focus in the dark when your tablet update lost you connection to a nice big screen.

Hard to get focus when you forget the ISO and dim star trick.

But The evening was stunning and ever after 11pm still very light.

Was fascinating seeing so many satelites and the planes in their holding area.

Several fireworks down across the land visible below the height we were.

Had several things walk over my hands on the grass.

Took the telescope as well but it just was not very dark so just enjoyed the view and evening rather than looking down at my feet so to speak.

Deffinately a site to visit again a huge clear sky in South, West to North and East was behind the Jack in the attached.

IMG_2169 (Small).mov

[Leveye]

Why not try using your T3's live view magnifier for focusing? Use a nice bright star. Loved the movie thank you for sharing!

[happy-kat]

I tried that but I only took my short 1 foot high tripod so viewing livemode was like awkard.

So I had a go anyway as it is all learning.

Used Quicktime Pro to create the timelapse after first resizing the images using an XP Power Tool image resizer as it is fast.

[happy-kat]

If a mod wants to remove the uploaded file please feel free to do that as I have since added it to youtube.

This is shot of the last moment of the sun going down.

Full manual mode and then had to adjust levels for lighting as it was underexposed.

I could not get auto going right in time and the sun was sinking fast so it is what it is.

[Leveye]

The T3 has no swivel screen i take it like the T3i take it. Use a small pocket mirror.

[Pete Presland]

what a fantastic view!

[leemanley]

Thats a nice calming view isn't it.

[happy-kat]

No swivel screen I got it new for a steal and felt was not worth paying almost double for the t3i at the time.

The location was really calm hence we just stayed ages.

Normally I would use my tablet for night use but I can't since the OS upgrade. Hanging out for the next patch before committing to rooting it in case the support comes back.

[happy-kat]

Had another stunning sunset and Quicktime Pro makes making a timelapse quiet easy just make sure to resize the images first.

Slight cheat this was landscape mode and once the camera had focused I switched the lens on to manual so the focus would stick.

This is 40 images, you~tube has mullered the quality which is a shame as it is only 1.3Mb and so much nicer the original resized movie.