Categories
Astro-photography Astronomy Photography

Interrupted Star Photography

And now the story of a failed star shoot. We were in the Mountain Zebra National Park. It is a really great park. They have just brought lions in and according to the park staff the lions are “far over there” pointing towards Graaff Rienette.

We were in a fenced camp but worryingly we have seen buck inside the fences so we are not convinced that the fences are as secure as the staff say.

Anyway, at 2 AM I go outside to take photos of the stars because the skies are really quite beautiful and bright in the dry Karoo air.

My first shot and the focus is a bit off.

The milky way slides diagonally across the middle of the image with the Southern Cross (Cruxis) almost on the horizon
There are faint clouds visible on the horizon
A mountain slope with lights on it occupiesthe left bottom of the image

Taking the advice of a wise photographer, I switch to manual focus and attempt to get sharp focus on a distant street lamp.

A street lamp illuminating a tree. A few stars are vaguely discernatble.

Then I start a third photograph setting the timer to 65 seconds.

It is at 30 seconds that a lion roars. It takes about 5 seconds for me to reallise that what I had just heard was a lion, that it might be far away but I wasn’t going to take a chance of it not being in the camp, so I raced inside the chalet and slammed the door which results in a third image which is a nice blend of the stars and the inside of the chalet.

For some odd reason, I didn’t go out again. 😀

A darkened room, with curtains overlaid with stars and a long trail caused by the street lamp