The Long Antarctic Night Sky

dls

It has been a little while since I have active on the forum. I guess my excuse was that I on temporary exile to the deep deep south, where photography could be spectacular, but the radius of exploration rather, um ... limited. The following is a time lapse clip of scenes around McMurdo Station, Antarctica during this past winter season spanning sunset (April 24) to sunrise/suntease (August 19).

http://www.peaceportalphoto.com/Antarctica/McMurdo/15993063_BvmZTJ#1451029787_Kp8p3Ws

[URL="[url=http://www.peaceportalphoto.com/Antarctica/McMurdo/15993063_BvmZTJ#1451029787_Kp8p3Ws-A-LB][img]http://www.peaceportalphoto.com/Friends/usap/Fengidoc-Blog-Winter-over-2011/i-Kp8p3Ws/0/L/mcm-night-sky-2011-L.jpg[/img][/url]"][/url]

ps: not certain how this is going to post. i am a bit of a novice when it comes to videos, and this is really among my first attempts. so i hope the links work ok.

A-1 Boss

The time lapse is so cool. I would love to hear what type of gear and what settings you used as well as how many shots ex: 1 shot per second or whatever. The part where the person climbs to the top of the mountain by the cross is just incredible. My goal is to make at least 1 cool time lapse this year! Great job.

Doug Solis

very nice series and video time lapse, nice work

Sam

Very nice!! Well done!

I love the music. What is it?

Sam

spacefuzz

cool

CatOne

Really cool! I've been there in the Antarctic summer… a very different experience.

Sam… the music is by Enya. It's credited at the end of the video.. published in 1999 :-)

kdog

This is awesome, Dan. Really great work from a land seldom seen. I could watch it again and again.

dave6253

Wow!

Snowgirl

Absolutely gorgeous and I love the musical accompaniment.

squirl033

terrific! i especially like the aurora sequences, and the soundtrack is perfect...

dls

Thanks all for the comments! I hadn't intended to do time lapses when I initially went down south, but the night sky begged for an attempt. I am disappointed that I did not shoot more time lapses down there, but the wind and icy conditions generally make it a bit more difficult, or at least saps one of motivation to be outside for a longer period of time. And unfortunately, the batteries don't last too long in those temps. But maybe with better preparation next time and better ingenuity (car battery hook up? foam insulation? hmmmmm...)

The choice of music ("Ebudae" from Enya) was not by accident... I took the lead from a particularly memorable episode of "Northern Exposure" called "Northern Lights," and thought it very appropriate for the southern counterpart.

dls

A-1 Boss wrote: »

The time lapse is so cool. I would love to hear what type of gear and what settings you used as well as how many shots ex: 1 shot per second or whatever. The part where the person climbs to the top of the mountain by the cross is just incredible. My goal is to make at least 1 cool time lapse this year! Great job.

I used a canon 5d Mark II, with variable lens. Typically, I favored the 24/1.4L to capture the Aurora australis so as to decrease the exposure time and increase the crispness of the lights, although the 24-70/2.8 can also work, particularly if the sky is very lit up. ISO ranges somewhere between 1600-3200 for some of the aurora shots, with target exposure time about 6 seconds or so. They are taken about every 8-10 seconds in this case. The moon and cross one was shot manually ... probably averaging once every 3-4 seconds, using a 200mm with 1.5x teleconverter.

The great thing about night/light-deprived photography is that sometimes you get to be very surprised when you review the shots. I did not notice the climber until I put the footage together! Anyways, have fun with the time lapses. They have certainly hooked me.