Eat my space dust, Leonid!!!

kdog

Still reeling from Monday night's failure to capture even a single meteor from the Leonid Meteor Shower, I stood on my back patio before going to bed last night and stared wistfully into the sky. Suddenly a meteor streaked by. Surely this was a sign from the heavens, so I scurried off to get my camera gear, and to face the prospects of yet another sleepness night.

The southeastern sky had less light pollution than the theoretically more ideal northeastern view, so I shot three hours worth of exposures, and got nothing. :rolleyes

At around 3:00 AM, I aimed the camera northeasterly which has a lot of light pollution coming from residential areas and the airport, and shot three more hours anyway. This time paid off and I was rewarded with three meteors. :barb

I hope you can see the meteor. You can also see all the light pollution from the airport. :rolleyes

A closeup


Another meteor closeup


#3


And... the obligatory star trails. :huh


So all in all it turned out to be a productive night. Shooting in the backyard is less ideal from a light-pollution point of view than standing on a mountain top, but it's one heck of a lot more convenient and warmer.

Question: Does the huge airplane track across the middle of the star trails shot add or detract from the image? It can be removed fairly easily.

Thanks for looking, and regards,
-joel

Awais Yaqub

Wow !

Stunning star trails

Nikolai

Wow, you did it, you old dog you:-)
I was too lazy to go out....
Love the star trails shot. And yes, I think it would be better w/o plains tracks...

Thwack

Congrats on catching multiple meteors this time!

The airplane's trail does not hurt the picture in my opinion. It adds a little bit of unusual character.

kdog

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Wow !

Stunning star trails

Thanks, Awais! You never know how these things will turn out until you try them.

Cheers,
-joel

CWSkopec

Sweet shots, Joel!!

Like Nik, I was just too lazy to get out there for the meteor showers, but your shots are further proof that I need to stop being so lazy and get off my butt more!

Awesome star trails. I've tried a number of times and haven't gotten such clear fluid trails! But I do think the plane tracks should go. You've got such great circular motion from the starts and the straight line of the plane cutting through disrupts the swirl.

kdog

Nikolai wrote:

Wow, you did it, you old dog you:-)
I was too lazy to go out....
Love the star trails shot. And yes, I think it would be better w/o plains tracks...

Thanks, man! Turns out the backyard ain't such a bad place to shoot, eh?

Appreciate your vote on the plane track!

Cheers,
-joel

Eia

Wonderful! Your persistence paid off! I like the train track in the star trail pic. It's true; it was there, so it is what it is... but if you want art then you can take it out! A win-win situation!

kdog

Thwack wrote:

Congrats on catching multiple meteors this time!

The airplane's trail does not hurt the picture in my opinion. It adds a little bit of unusual character.

Thanks, Thwack! Persistence pays off, eh?

Thanks for your vote on the plane tracks. I didn't think it hurt things either when I saw them. Kind of an interesting look, like a big crack in the sky or something.

Cheers,
-joel

kdog

CWSkopec wrote:

Sweet shots, Joel!!

Like Nik, I was just too lazy to get out there for the meteor showers, but your shots are further proof that I need to stop being so lazy and get off my butt more!

Awesome star trails. I've tried a number of times and haven't gotten such clear fluid trails! But I do think the plane tracks should go. You've got such great circular motion from the starts and the straight line of the plane cutting through disrupts the swirl.

Thanks, Chris! I'm working up a version of the shot without the tracks and I'll post it when I'm done. It does seem to be a cleaner look.

Cheers,
-joel

shniks

Wonderful shots Joel- love the comps and mood.



Cheers,

kdog

Eia wrote:

Wonderful! Your persistence paid off! I like the train track in the star trail pic. It's true; it was there, so it is what it is... but if you want art then you can take it out! A win-win situation!

Thanks, Eia! The plane was definitely there in that interval of time. However, the plane came just as it was starting to get light out. There are two strategies to delete the plane. The first one is to omit the frame that contained the plane. That's three minutes worth of swirl. Turns out that left an ugly gap in the trails, so that's out. The other strategy is to stop the trails just before the plane arrived. Here are the two versions.

With plane track.


Without.


See what happens? I lost that lovely little bit of pre-dawn glow.

Think I'm going to have to go with the plane track version.

Cheers,
-joel

Nikolai

kdog wrote:

Thanks, Eia! The plane was definitely there in that interval of time. However, the plane came just as it was starting to get light out. There are two strategies to delete the plane. The first one is to omit the frame that contained the plane. That's three minutes worth of swirl. Turns out that left an ugly gap in the trails, so that's out. The other strategy is to stop the trails just before the plane arrived. Here are the two versions.

With plane track.


Without.


See what happens? I lost that lovely little bit of pre-dawn glow.


Think I'm going to have to go with the plane track version.

Cheers,
-joel

Leaving out 3 minutes worth of frames creates a distinct pattern break.
After you spend 6 hours shooting this, I think you can afford to spend 5 minutes with your favorite healing tool and remove it in post).
You can also get tricky and remove it *from the frames* before merging. Will prolly take longer but can lead to a better result.

Also, there are two less invasive but still visible plane track in the lower right corner - they prolly should go, too.

kdog

Nikolai wrote:

You can also get tricky and remove it *from the frames* before merging. Will prolly take longer but can lead to a better result.

Oh shoot -- that's brilliant! Thanks!

See, that's why we pay you the big bucks, Nik.

kdog

shniks wrote:

Wonderful shots Joel- love the comps and mood.
Cheers,

Thanks, Nikhil! Where ya been, man?

Cheers,
-joel

Nikolai

kdog wrote:

Oh shoot -- that's brilliant! Thanks!

You're welcome! :-)

See, that's why we pay you the big bucks, Nik.

Shhhhh! Don't tell anybody, ortherwise I'll stop getting my lovely UE checks:-)

shniks

kdog wrote:

Thanks, Nikhil! Where ya been, man?

Cheers,
-joel

It's a very sad and tragic story. :tough I got these crazy things called 'Jumping Stilts' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYLdlTeO0NU). One can jump upto 6 feet high in them and take 9 feet long strides. Anyway I started to practice on them and then a week into practicing (on that fateful evening of July 26th), I decided to run on them. Yeah, I know! I ran, couldn't stop myself, and fell down from around 9 feet height- in slow motion, I might add. Ended up fracturing my right shoulder, broke two teeth ($4200 for the root canals and caps) and got stitches to my chin. My battle scars. It didn't help when the firefighters showed up and their head honcho was like 'Well, was it worth it?' lol


But am almost recovered now and am planning a few trips. I might be off to Death Valley this coming christmas. I really want do some night photography around badwater and the charcoal kilns. Life is great again.

Hope things are well with you!


Cheers,

ziggy53

Congratulations. Persistence pays.

#3 has a really interesting shape. Did you happen to see it when it happened? Just wondering what your eye saw.

kdog

Nikolai wrote:

You're welcome! :-)


Shhhhh! Don't tell anybody, ortherwise I'll stop getting my lovely UE checks:-)

Poifect! Thanks again, my friend!

kdog

shniks wrote:

It's a very sad and tragic story. :tough I got these crazy things called 'Jumping Stilts' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYLdlTeO0NU). One can jump upto 6 feet high in them and take 9 feet long strides. Anyway I started to practice on them and then a week into practicing (on that fateful evening of July 26th), I decided to run on them. Yeah, I know! I ran, couldn't stop myself, and fell down from around 9 feet height- in slow motion, I might add. Ended up fracturing my right shoulder, broke two teeth ($4200 for the root canals and caps) and got stitches to my chin. My battle scars. It didn't help when the firefighters showed up and their head honcho was like 'Well, was it worth it?' lol


But am almost recovered now and am planning a few trips. I might be off to Death Valley this coming christmas. I really want do some night photography around badwater and the charcoal kilns. Life is great again.

Hope things are well with you!

Cheers,

Oh man, that's awful! Sorry to hear it. Ouch, I can just imagine. Well, no maybe I can't. I'm definitely NOT showing that video to my kids. :nah

Things are good here. I'm taking the week of Christmas off myself this year to go photographing somwhere. I was thinking of Yellowstone. But Death Valley is possible as well. Hmmmm....

Heal well my friend!
-joel

Nikolai

kdog wrote:

Poifect! Thanks again, my friend!

Poifect indeed!

kdog

ziggy53 wrote:

Congratulations. Persistence pays.

#3 has a really interesting shape. Did you happen to see it when it happened? Just wondering what your eye saw.

Thank you, sir! Didn't see it happen, no. I agree it has a very odd shape. It wasn't in any of the other frames, so it was a fast moving object whatever it was. At any rate, I'm now inspired to shoot more.

Cheers,
-joel