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So, where to start this one. I'd been wanting to do star trail photography in the badlands for a while. I thought I'd end up there on the 26th when I chased out that way, but the storms took me back home instead. The next day was the Omaha severe wind storm. That night I thought more about the badlands, since the forecast was looking clear. Can pretty much count on clear skies right behind a big upper low as it moves east. The moon was a 16% crescent too, and rising late. So, off I went to sw SD again. When I left Saturday morning, I wasn't completely sold I wanted to make the drive and sit in a car shooting star trails all night. I told myself to stop thinking and just get in the car and go. What I wanted most weren't just clear skies, but dry clear skies. Often the visible satellite image will be completely clear, while the water vapor image shows the moisture content. There was a fair amount of moisture in the air behind the upper low for the first night, though really no clouds to speak of once the sun went down. All the low cu vanish with the loss of heating.
The sunset was rather remarkable from the Pinnacles Overlook. There were still a few families up there who decided to stop and watch it before leaving. It was actually a crowd grabber. A couple and their small child were getting in the vehicle till they noticed it, and probably the others that were watching. The husband pointed it out to the wife and they watched it go down, with the red beaming glow above it. Meanwhile the small child was most interested in the hand rail.
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The biggest problem about doing star tails/night sky photography this time of year would be the short nights. But hey, at least they'd be warm(or about warm!). Sunset there was around 8:30. Astronomical Twilight wouldn't start till almost 11! That means 2 and a half hours before complete darkness. The sunrise was around 5. Go back 2 and a half hours from 5 and you have the end of complete darkness at 2:30 am. So I really only had from 11 to 2:30 to do star trails. I've had very little experience with doing them in the past. So I didn't have a heck of a lot of trial and error ops. The first one showed the error I feared, after almost 2 hours of shooting it.
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Before the star trails stuff began I looked around for north facing scenes, since I wanted the north star to be in the frame, as it marks the center of the spin.
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Couldn't completely waste the 2.5 hours before darkness.
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Even with the fading light, the shutter could only be open so long before the scene was rendered too brightly. If I stopped the lens down too far then the car lights wouldn't show. The main issue I found was getting a car to move fast enough to clear those corners. Some would stop, so that shot would be wasted. And as it gets darker that place empties rapidly.
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Getting a little easier now that it's getting darker.
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Found a place to start my star trails! That was till a park ranger pulled up behind me. That red is from his tail lights. He kept asking where I was sleeping since I couldn't "camp" on the shoulder/pull off area. I was like, I'm just going to shoot star trails. He was like, but where are you staying tonight? So I said it again and then he realized I was staying up all night. He was cool with that. I found that a little odd after thinking about it for a while. I was wondering what exactly was the difference if I was sleeping in here or waiting on a really long exposure. I guess the problem would be far less crazies like me wanting to shoot stars, compared to those wanting to sleep in their car on the road. So after he left I started over, since I wasn't sure what his head lights did to the shot.
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This was about 2 hours long I believe. Big big noise problems with this single shot route. 100 ISO doesn't even matter when the shutter is that long. It just looks like crap. I was not thrilled to see just how crappy the noise was, after sitting there that whole time. I read how to stack photos in photoshop before I came out here, but I did no trials with that route. I was about to start! I do not do things the smart route. A smart person would have tested these routes at home before making the drive out here to do them. I have no patience once I decide I want to go and do something. Patience would just lead to me changing my mind on the trip.
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I found this new location, with this peak lined up with the north star. The peak looks goofy because I'm using a flashlight to light it up. What I wound up doing was wasting more time with 30 second exposures, shot in continuous shooting mode. After about 40 minutes of those I became too fearful they wouldn't be bright enough or moving far enough to even change pixel locations, since I was shooting it at 10mm. I haven't really messed with those, but it didn't look like it was working too well. The idea was they'd stack well in photoshop later and be very noise free at such a short shot. I wasn't sold on it enough to keep doing it and wasting my night potentially. Another issue with these is battery life. That 40 minutes of 30 second shots was now gone from my battery. I killed the other battery on the first star trail, and it was still charging in my car. I can get about 2.5 hours on the one battery. A battery grip that holds two of them would be really nice.
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Probably the coolest thing now was just how bright the Milky Way was. It was extremely obvious to the naked eye. It took 1600 ISO and 30-60 shutters to get it to really show up though. That is at F3.5. Just like last time I was out there, it was horribly silent. At least it was till I'd get out of the car to do something. Then something nearby would make a noise and I'd about scream like a little girl and run back to the car. It just has a way of getting you to freeze and wish you were back in the car, since you can't see anything around you. I'm fine till I hear that first noise I can't place. Seeing all the rattlesnake warning signs doesn't help either!
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This stacking method works way better than one long shot. That brighter right side I think is due mostly to the Milky Way being brighter. Then again that sliver moon was about to rise. The above image is 9 images shot at 100 ISO, F 3.5, for 13 minutes each. You then drag them on top of each other in photoshop. Then go over to the blending option and select "lighten"....and wala...the top image star trails show. I'm sure there is some "best" combination of ISO and shutter duration for these. 13 minutes, 100 ISO is still a bit much. Noise levels are extremely better than the single shot though.
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It was so cool as I shot that star trail deal. While doing it I notice a light above the road. I thought maybe it was a car a ways off. Then I see the crescent moon RIGHT above the road, next to the left peak I was shooting up at. I wished I had another camera so I could shoot it. Instead I watched it rise from my car, as I monitored my phone/clock for the 13 minute mark to do another shot. Camera is on my car here, after I was finished shooting the stars. Oh yeah, and of course I've not slept yet. The drive out here sucked too. It was so windy. I've never been so annoyed by wind in my life, blowing my car around the whole way out there. I was getting really sleepy by now.
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The lightening sky ended my star trail imagery. Above is a cool moon-like location located on planet Earth, with the real moon rising above.
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It was now sometime after 4 a.m. Every bird and his brother were talking. I could count 4 different calls, plus several morning doves, and 2 owls. They are probably like me, thinking, yay for light! It's sort of as spooky as it is cool there at night. My phone acts strange every time I'm there. I'll have 5 bars, couple minutes later 0 or 1 bar, and that is sitting there not moving. When I have bars, the majority of the time it says call failed when I try to make a call. I can get on the internet when I can't make a phone call.
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I was now thinking/worrying about sleep. Where to get sleep starting at 6 am! Motels don't let you check in till 2 or later. I drove back to the Pinnacles Overlook where I knew I could get online with my phone and laptop. There I checked some ruc forecasts and the water vapor loop. I'd been pondering going to Devil's Tower the second night and the forecast appeared good there, likely even better than was in the badlands this night. So I book a room at the Best Western in Hulett WY, only 9 minutes from Devil's Tower. I then see the rising sun to the east. It's always cool when there is some thicker moisture for it to rise through. Makes it banded and really red.
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There were two other photographers up there already, one concentrating more on getting the Pinnacles in the morning light. That light on them never looked too great for whatever reason.
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The real prize was certainly this a direction. It wasn't horribly different than the sun I watched go down hours before. I was just a lot more sleepy now. After grabbing a hot dog at the gas station in Wall, I began the drive to Devil's Tower. That drive was a whole lot more difficult than I had imagined it would be. I finally had to get online while driving, just to stay awake. Funny how doing something like browsing the internet helps with the drive in that circumstance. My brain was getting into go to sleep mode staring at that the highway and doing nothing else. Things felt half dreamy after a while. I'd smack my face and it would do nothing. Crank the air, nothing. Everything was shutting down no matter what I did. Thank god for the internet though. The browsing bought me enough "time" to get me going again. I reach Hulett around 10 a.m. wondering what the hell I was going to do for sleep. I went to the motel and asked when I could check in. She said 3 pm(I already knew that from reading online), but then asked my name. Thankfully she said the room was already clean and she could check me in now if I wanted. That freaking ruled. I went in(VERY nice place there, as I guess it was built last year) and crashed from 11 till 3...a whopping 4 hour "crash". Hard to sleep long during the day. That wasn't the kind of rest I'd hoped for leading into another all nighter of star trails. But at least I didn't have to check out till noon the next day, so I could come back at 5 am and sleep till 11(or that was the plan anyway).
YouTube Video showing a time lapse of the still frames taken for the star trails. Man, after seeing how cool the video time lapse can be from all the stills it takes to make the stacked star trail final image, it makes me want to get a different battery setup and do a dusk till dawn star time lapse like that. Making the video time lapse was not part of the plan when I shot those.
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