3 Fortress Road, Big Sky,Montana Astrophotography. 39 second video

[Dale D]

There is a road outside of the village of Big Sky,Montana leading to a mountain top. It is my favorite “go-to” dark skies site here. Last night was Aug. 26th, with 0.4% moon, and tonight (Aug.27th) is a new moon, e.g.: NO (0%) moon, which is the most desirable for dark skies astrophotography.

I spent 3 hours, from 10:00PM to 1:00 AM for this short video. It is so dark here that I was not even able to see my hand in front of me. Working with a red head light, I was able to set up the tripod and do the camera settings, then sit in the car as the camera clicked away, taking an exposure every 15 seconds, for 3 hours. The video is 39 seconds long. It shows the previous Milky Way (July 27) and last night's. There is no more of a quieter place than this!

After I finished and packed up the car and drove back down the mountain, large herds of feeding elk were seen feeding in the fields.

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Nikon D750 camera body
Nikkor 14-24mm, f/2.8 lens
Really Right Stuff tripod
Settings;
Manual
F/2.8
ISO 2000
Shutter Interval 15 seconds (4 frames per minute)
Processing:
LRTimelapse 6.0 andLightroom LrC
Video editing: Adobe Premiere Pro

 

[Wangodetango]

That sure turned out great Dale. Thank you for sharing settings and techniques too!

 

[Lets Fly]

There is a road outside of the village of Big Sky,Montana leading to a mountain top. It is my favorite “go-to” dark skies site here. Last night was Aug. 26th, with 0.4% moon, and tonight (Aug.27th) is a new moon, e.g.: NO (0%) moon, which is the most desirable for dark skies astrophotography.

I spent 3 hours, from 10:00PM to 1:00 AM for this short video. It is so dark here that I was not even able to see my hand in front of me. Working with a red head light, I was able to set up the tripod and do the camera settings, then sit in the car as the camera clicked away, taking an exposure every 15 seconds, for 3 hours. The video is 39 seconds long. It shows the previous Milky Way (July 27) and last night's. There is no more of a quieter place than this!

After I finished and packed up the car and drove back down the mountain, large herds of feeding elk were seen feeding in the fields.

Please click on the link and go to FULL SCREEN for best viewing

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Nikon D750 camera body
Nikkor 14-24mm, f/2.8 lens
Really Right Stuff tripod
Settings;
Manual
F/2.8
ISO 2000
Shutter Interval 15 seconds (4 frames per minute)
Processing:
LRTimelapse 6.0 andLightroom LrC
Video editing: Adobe Premiere Pro

That's beautiful Dale, love the night shots. If you watch the time lapse of the stars, notice the Geostationary satellites different places in the scene. The stars along with some moving satellites and planes move, the GPS satellites that we all use stay still.