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Galloway 2017 Spring Gathering

Demon Barber

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Physopto

Physopto

Posted
Posted

Being serious for a short time, ( don't expect it to often). 

In all honesty, it was a bit of a bad month for us all. But there is always next year to look forwards to. Got to be optimistic, no point in being sad or depressed. It is counterproductive. Astronomy breeds optimism or at least some form of hope for clear skies and no wind.  Otherwise why bother.  

 James has produced some nice time lapses and Jim some pictures. Gav also produced a short vid. Not too bad for a very time limited window of opportunity. 

Personally I was expecting a really poor Sky and high winds most if not all the time. So I did not bring any gear. But I was expecting a great camp. I was not disappointed. Good company and many laughs, so next camp now to look forwards to. The exchange of ideas when we all get together makes up for a lot of lost sky opportunities, that to me is what it is about. Mike is ever the expectant opportunist. He never gets depressed by things falling apart, be it gear or weather. His outlook is always on the expectation of hope. We have a lot to be thankful  for as he struggles with simple things whilst we winge about;  well really nothing! A lesson to us all. 

Well that's it, back to being daft.

Derek

 

 

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James

James

Posted
Posted

Nicely said Derek :)

I was only able to get the one, all too brief timelapse done of Damian, David and myself observing :)  I set the camera up low to the ground so didn't have a great view of the screen... perhaps I might have noticed the washing line otherwise :) No sound I'm afraid.. timelapse pictures were taken with a Canon 6D through a 14mm Samyang lens. 

I had a great time - even if my memory isn't quite so clear on what happened Friday night... Sunday nights' chat in the warm room with another Derek who is deaf and speech impaired was a real eye-opener, there's a notepad out there with everything we all said (we did a lot of writing!). A little sign language was learned .. perhaps just as well as at least two of us (me included) really struggled with handwriting!!

Patricks going to have a go at me for my apostrophe's soon too I think :) 

I don't need to describe the stars visible in the short time lapse below but hidden in the dark there were Damians 22" f/3.4 homemade Dob and Davids 4" Tele Vue..

James

 

 

 

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Physopto

Physopto

Posted
Posted

James, washing line or not it is a nice vid. Shows the sky that was viewable at the time. Beggars cannot be choosers. I reckon we were all pleased with what we got be it visual or photographic. It was possibly the worst week of skies I have ever seen either in Kielder or Galloway, but that is just how the dice fall. We had the opportunity to meet others including Derek. As you say opened eyes to a different way of life. Great bloke and so positive in his outlook. Just hope he will return in the future. And, yes my writing is atrocious ! As Damian incurred typical ! You were not the only one to be a bit forgetful of the Friday night festivities. I am sure many were in the same boat. 

 Next camp will be a belter!

Derek, or is it Derren ?

 

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mapstar

mapstar

Posted
Posted

Excellent time lapse James I really enjoyed it. 

We were all very productive in the short hours we got and the optimism finally paid off for everyone.

Bringing together people from all over the country for new experiences is what its all about. I enjoyed every minute even if it was very tiring. I'm looking forward to the next one and Mike is always on the ball with that.

I'm glad I went as always :grin:

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Uplooker

Uplooker

Posted
Posted

Well done James, Gav & Jimmy on the time lapses.

Great skies (at times), great images and vids, great optimism, great camaraderie, great laughs all equal a Grrreat star party?

Roll on the autumn SP, hope to see everyone, new and old, again.

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jamie56

jamie56

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, Physopto said:

Being serious for a short time, ( don't expect it to often). 

In all honesty, it was a bit of a bad month for us all. But there is always next year to look forwards to. Got to be optimistic, no point in being sad or depressed. It is counterproductive. Astronomy breeds optimism or at least some form of hope for clear skies and no wind.  Otherwise why bother.  

 James has produced some nice time lapses and Jim some pictures. Gav also produced a short vid. Not too bad for a very time limited window of opportunity. 

Personally I was expecting a really poor Sky and high winds most if not all the time. So I did not bring any gear. But I was expecting a great camp. I was not disappointed. Good company and many laughs, so next camp now to look forwards to. The exchange of ideas when we all get together makes up for a lot of lost sky opportunities, that to me is what it is about. Mike is ever the expectant opportunist. He never gets depressed by things falling apart, be it gear or weather. His outlook is always on the expectation of hope. We have a lot to be thankful  for as he struggles with simple things whilst we winge about;  well really nothing! A lesson to us all. 

Well that's it, back to being daft.

Derek

 

 

How's about that then, a serious Dr. Brown?, nae spot on Derek, it's not all about clear skies, good company, the banter, and boundless amounts of knowledge freely given , go a long way to making the Galloway Star camp an experience never to be forgotten. Roll on the autumn one, all the best to all the guys and gals and have a brill summer.

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AndyKeogh

AndyKeogh

Posted
Posted
On 01/03/2017 at 20:52, James said:

Nicely said Derek :)

I was only able to get the one, all too brief timelapse done of Damian, David and myself observing :)  I set the camera up low to the ground so didn't have a great view of the screen... perhaps I might have noticed the washing line otherwise :) No sound I'm afraid.. timelapse pictures were taken with a Canon 6D through a 14mm Samyang lens. 

I had a great time - even if my memory isn't quite so clear on what happened Friday night... Sunday nights' chat in the warm room with another Derek who is deaf and speech impaired was a real eye-opener, there's a notepad out there with everything we all said (we did a lot of writing!). A little sign language was learned .. perhaps just as well as at least two of us (me included) really struggled with handwriting!!

Patricks going to have a go at me for my apostrophe's soon too I think :) 

I don't need to describe the stars visible in the short time lapse below but hidden in the dark there were Damians 22" f/3.4 homemade Dob and Davids 4" Tele Vue..

James

 

 

 

Hi James and Gav

Your timelapses are great and remind me that some good astrophotography can be achieved by capturing the wider picture.

How do you covert your stills to a video?

  • James I too have been to the hacienda but never thought to record a time lapse.  Guess I will have to go back and try again :happy3:

Andy

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PhotoGav

PhotoGav

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, AndyKeogh said:

How do you covert your stills to a video?

Thanks Andy. My workflow is to process the raw files in Lightroom and export them as jpegs. I then take the jpeg sequence into After Effects and output it as a video file. I edited the whole video in Premiere Pro. I love Adobe CC!!

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James

James

Posted
Posted

Like Gav I put the raw files in Lightroom, I use LRTimelapse to define keyframes, edit the keyframes in Lightroom and then LRTimelapse smooths out the changes between keyframes. It also renders the time lapse into the format of choice...

I sometimes use a little piece of software on the Mac called Sequence which takes exported jpg's and creates a movie file from that :)

James

 

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mapstar

mapstar

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, James said:

I really need to learn After Effects or similar as putting together several timelapses as a continuous film with Apple's iMovie is a little limiting :)

Just had a look at your other timelapses and some really stunning stuff on there James. 

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Twisted Lip

Twisted Lip

Posted
Posted

Hi all

Firstly, sorry for the late response - I came back into a very full inbox that I wasn't expecting!
It was great to meet everyone on our first Galloway trip - I'm definitely keen (and Becky won't need too much persuading hopefully!) to come back in November with some much better weather (fingers crossed).

Thanks also to Mike for organising, real pleasure to meet you too.

In terms of imaging, not a huge amount done tbh! My main aim was to test out a new lens (Samyang 14mm f2.8) and focuser unit (http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p3286_Microfocuser-and-focus-lock-fuer-camera-lenses-up-to-D-135mm.html) rather than capture anything meaningful! Sadly my best are below (both a little out of focus for my liking), but demonstrate we did at least get a bit of clear sky!

Heres to November, better weather, less mud and perhaps a little bit of Whiskey ;)

Cheers
Will (and by proxy, Becks!)

IMG_0026.png

IMG_0029.png

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PhotoGav

PhotoGav

Posted
Posted

Will, your two pics make me realise the shot I should have been trying to take up there... a multi image panorama of the whole Milky Way over the campsite. I'm going to have to go back there again now!!

They are a nice couple of pics that aren't far off focus. Shame we didn't have more clear time to nail it! Another reason to return. I particularly like how clear M31 is in the second shot, that really demonstrates the quality of the sky up there. I find it ever more depressing looking at my home sky now!!!

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Uplooker

Uplooker

Posted
Posted

Hi Derren, feel free to pop down and cut it ?

Had to nip out but not time to bring the tent in. It will be fine, it's not going to rain. Got back just in time for the Tesco home shopping delivery. While putting the shopping away it started to rain?. So my bone dry tent is bone dry no longer. How's about that, then.

Only a few spots of rain, so will dry off ok in the garage, phew!

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Twisted Lip

Twisted Lip

Posted
Posted
On 3/4/2017 at 09:35, PhotoGav said:

Will, your two pics make me realise the shot I should have been trying to take up there... a multi image panorama of the whole Milky Way over the campsite. I'm going to have to go back there again now!!

They are a nice couple of pics that aren't far off focus. Shame we didn't have more clear time to nail it! Another reason to return. I particularly like how clear M31 is in the second shot, that really demonstrates the quality of the sky up there. I find it ever more depressing looking at my home sky now!!!

Yes I think we were annoying close. Sadly rain has stopped play here over the last few days so no chance of trying again :/

Panorama would be great idea - am I slowly convincing you to the November trip? ;) 

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Uplooker

Uplooker

Posted
Posted

Good on ya Gav, get booked in for Nov. Hope will and Becky (???) will do the same. Be good to have new regular attendees. I appreciate that it is a long trip, but worth it if the skies play ball, although Sunday may well not be so good as I am planning on staying Fri-Mon ?

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Ally8446

Ally8446

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Twisted Lip said:

Yes I think we were annoying close. Sadly rain has stopped play here over the last few days so no chance of trying again :/

Panorama would be great idea - am I slowly convincing you to the November trip? ;) 

Rain, hail, snow etc.....I don't care,  next one I'm definitely attending, already booked it. 

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PhotoGav

PhotoGav

Posted
Posted

Well, I have absolutely nothing in the diary for that w/e, so it could very well happen...

Perhaps we should place a ban on the purchase of new equipment (sorry James et al at FLO), that way we might get some clear skies back again!

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Twisted Lip

Twisted Lip

Posted
Posted

I have just been informed by Becky that there is a possibility I will be getting married the weekend before. Apparently bad form to forget that haha so the November trip might be some form of honeymoon....which has just cursed the weather for everyone lol
Will

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Uplooker

Uplooker

Posted
Posted
43 minutes ago, Twisted Lip said:

I have just been informed by Becky that there is a possibility I will be getting married the weekend before. Apparently bad form to forget that haha so the November trip might be some form of honeymoon....which has just cursed the weather for everyone lol
Will

Congratulations :happy11: I take it this was something that you had known about previously, but for whatever reason it had slipped your mind, rather than Becky informing you just now that she planned for you  and her to get married in Nov. If the latter, seems a bit of a one-sided relationship :-0

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