Among the stars - week 11


This past weekend me, my hubbie, my son, my daughter and my mother-in-law (our lovely grandchild sitter)  went on a trip to gaze at the stars, on a farm about 20km from Montagu. The event: The Autumn 2013 Southern Star Party.

It was a lovely weekend, shared with other gaze-ers of stars, as well as draw-ers of stars and photographers(-ers?) of well, stars.

Soooooo, how could I let this opportunity slip past without a bit of self-portraiture?

The short answer, I couldn't.

On Friday night I popped my camera on my tripod, stood around for 25 seconds waiting for an amazing capture for this week. Turns out, in daylight, I did not stand as still as I thought, and 25 seconds is not quite enough time to give me the illumination I deserve. (You can read whatever you like into that. Smiley face.)

Here’s what I got:

Canon EOS 60D;  28.0 mm, 25.0 sec;   f/4.0;   ISO 6400; WB - Fluorescent
Processed in Camera Raw

That's right, that blurry, slightly red (we use red torches to preserve eyesight in the dark) smudge in the bottom-left corner is me...

Therefore, last night I tried again. Having had some practice, being able to refine the concept a bit as well as do things like set the camera up before dark including focus, mmmm, rather than trying to do so in the dark...

And now I present to you (drum roll please):

AMONG THE STARS – week 11 of 52 weeks of me.

Canon EOS 60D;  18.0 mm, 30.0 sec;   f/5.6;   ISO 6400;  WB - Tungsten
Processed in Camera Raw (the laser was on for about 7 seconds)
The star I'm pointing at with my (licensed, low power, safe for public use) green laser is Acrux (or Alpha Crucis). Crux is the "fancy" name for the Southern Cross.

You better be star struck.

(Okay, I’m stopping this astronomical reach at an attempt of humour. Time for bed me thinks.)

 Took some other star photos too - will be adding that to my blog, hopefully in the near-ish future.

What is the 52 week project about?


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