Tales of Wonder and Woe: UWOL #6

[Trond Saetre]

Originally Posted by Markus Nord

OH!... thats cool.. didn't know that before... that you lived in Malmö :)

Yep, had my education there and in Stockholm. And then I moved back to Norway.

[Meryem Ersoz]

Originally Posted by Per Johan Naesje

To all: I think you will need some lightsource to get any decent footage.

per, you nailed it! ding ding ding

before you even consider your subject matter, you will need to consider a light source, either natural or man-made.

perhaps taking a moment to help each other out, brainstorming light options would help those of you who are struggling. i tried to throw out a few hints with "campfires, flashlights, candles, matches" etc.

this is also a great opportunity for focus on audio!!

and i'm struggling right along side you--i eat my own cooking, as they say. i have an idea that i'll be executing once i get my next work project out the door, so i'll be $%^&*%&*%$ with you all in a very short time.

bodies of water are good natural reflectors
car headlights

what else?

[Brian McKay]

Hello All:

In one of the other thread there was some discussion on the Northern Lights but I thought maybe this was better here in this thread.

I make no joke when I say that the lights are so common here that we don't even bother to look up anymore. When I first came to the north I would sit out on my deck freezing my butt for hours just watching them dance across the sky. They appear to be so bright however I have tried everything I can think of to capture them on the XL2 and have never had any luck. Any and all ideas on settings would be greatly appriciated....I can't promise to bring any video of them to this challenge even with settings that would work but I could post it later. Right now it just isn't cold enough to create that super clear sky that makes them so wonderful. That's not to suggest it's warm, right now it's -8 C with blowing snow wind chill -17 C.

Any ideas???

Brian

[Steven Gotz]

Ideas? Sure!

I saw them in Alaska at the height of the 11 year cycle a few years back. My wife cried when she saw a shooting star go through them. She really loved that trip.

Use a still camera and leave the shutter open for something under 15 seconds. Any longer and you start to get the effects of the earth's rotation. Then just time lapse it into something for the challenge. I saw lots of people doing that. Me? I just left my stuff at home. It was -30F out there at night.

There is no way to do it with a video camera.

[Burak Erginer]

Originally Posted by Grant Sherman

Try again with different zoom settings. I've got some stars last month with XL2 and 20x lens. I'll try to dig out the setting for you.

Well I tried my best to capture the stars with 20x lens. And I tried really hard. I climbed up a local volcano (erciyes) above 3000 meters (9000 feet I guess) on a clear night. You could see the milky way and the myriads of stars. the view was wonderful actually but all the shutter settings gain and even post effects did not produce something useful. No way the camera gets enough light from the stars to produce a decent image. Then I did some research on the internet and found that any exposure less than a few seconds are unlikely to do so even with SLR cameras..Sorry for bad news. I am curious with what you did though!

[Grant Sherman]

In reply to Trond and Burak:

I've posted a test video in the UWOL forum:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=107110

The main point seems to be that (for some reason) zoom works better than wide.

Grant

[Brian McKay]

Hello Steven:

Yes I've tried that and indeed it does work, however it takes away from the sharpness of the edges of the lights. My feeling is that while the shutter is open the lights move thereby creating a look of a video out of focus. If you remember back to your experience ib Alaska the edges of what I call the curtains of light are crisp and sharp.

Not for this challenge for sure but I do appriciate the input.

Thanks Brian

[David Gemmell]

My son had the local atronomers club round at the school a few months ago and I was fascinated to learn about the planets that were visible in the night sky. I went home that night and filmed Jupiter (I think). This planet has 3 moons (or is it 4), which line up in a straight line to the side of Jupiter. What amazed me was the shot I got of Jupiter PLUS the three moons, which were not visible to the eye, yet they appeared as clear as day on the TV screen.
I think I still have the footage, and will post an image in the next day or so.
I was using a Canon XL H1 and I think I used the standard 20x lens. If not, I may have had the Canon 100 - 400mm on the end?
Apologies for being a bit vague on a few of these issues however, my main point is that filming stars comes up quiet nice on the TV Screen - without having to go to too much trouble.

[Burak Erginer]

Originally Posted by Grant Sherman

In reply to Trond and Burak:

I've posted a test video in the UWOL forum:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=107110

The main point seems to be that (for some reason) zoom works better than wide.

Grant

Thanks Grant.
That's indeed very similar to what I had in the end. I was very disappointed with that. May be I was expecting too much. out of focus and zooming helps bu then you get very little number of stars compared to the naked eye view. Next time I will try Using an SLR still shoot posed for 30 seconds or so and edit it with video if I can. The thing is it's windy and rainy out here in Turkey. So no sky at all. Conditions couldn't be worse. (NO, no I take it back... we have a saying here: "There is always worse than worse :)

[Grant Sherman]

It would be nice to see the the constellations moving across the sky, but you've got to be happy with what you can achieve. These cameras are designed for normal light conditions. If you want your naked eye view of the milky way then you need another camer system. You'd probably need an SLR lens and a webcam adaptor.

[Geir Inge]

Originally Posted by David Gemmell

... This planet has 3 moons (or is it 4), which line up in a straight line to the side of Jupiter.

Hi David.
Great to hear about your sons work at school. My father's hobby is to look at the night time skyline and he also have a lot of books about astrology.
Jupiter do have 63 moons, 4 big ones and many small even with no names yet. It's only the Sun, the Moon and Venus thats lightning up more/brighter than Jupiter.
I think Io, Europa, Ganymedes and Callisto are the big ones. 3 first ones are locked in the same route (line you are mentioning) and in a couple of 100years Callista will be locked together in the same route/straight line. ("route" is not a propper name, but it was the only english word I could think of in this matter).

About filming stars it's not easy. rules are; no wind, stady tripod, a bright and clear sky and not least find a place where it's totaly dark - no street lights etc. As for now we dont have a clear sky at our place, just plenty of rain. I think it's something fishy about uwol. The last challenge, also spoiled by rain. As I'm working night time I will carry my camera with me in the car, just in case something will pop up along the road. Almost every night I see deer running cross the road, so maybe my car lights will be useful?

Geir Inge

[David Gemmell]

Hi Geir,
Thanks for the insight into Jupiter & it's moons - it really is a fascinating subject the whole astronomy thing.

Sounds like your time management skills are going to get a work out over the next few weeks - with your long work hours with the new job, and also UWOL.

I hope the deer give you some opportunities as you commute, as it certainly would come up nice on the screen, if you can capture such a moment (it will be extremely tough though).

I have no concrete ideas about what I'm going to do. I am really struggling with a light source that I can combine with something that I would love to film - but I guess that's the challenge.

Good luck to you Geir, and also to the rest of us night stalkers...

[Geir Inge]

Thank you David.
hehe, I wrote astrology. I guess my father is more into astronomy :)
I'm not sure if I can catch the deer, they are fast runners.
Still I've got an idea of what I want to film, but if I'll manage to full fill - thats the question.

All the best to you too.
Geir Inge

[Geir Inge]

Found this in our local newspaper.
Link(norwegian): http://www.smp.no/default.asp?page=1...75419,1&lang=1
Last Tuesday this meteor was seen on the sky a bit south of where I live.
What a scoop it would have been for uwol#6.
sigh....

Geir Inge

[Paul Mailath]

I suddenly thought - full moon! that should give enough light for something

full moon in Nov=26th
contest ends.... 19th


bugger