A friend of mine shared this time lapse video link with me over the weekend. The video was posted on Vimeo, a video sharing web site.
The video shows a band of stars which make up one of the “arms” of the Milky Way galaxy — our galaxy. If you live in an urban or suburban area then it’s not likely you’ve seen it at night. Light pollution from street lamps, buildings, and homes wash much of the star light overhead, but if you are able to get far enough away from the cities (or find yourself in a massive night-time blackout) then you could see an arm of the Milky Way. I once saw it myself while camping at camp Epworth upstate in High Falls, New York in the Catskills, two hours outside of New York City about 30 years ago. Now there are two many lights even in that area for this sight to be seen. These photos were taken at Fort Davis, Texas which is about 8 hours from Dallas and 6 hours from San Antonio.
The video is comprised of a series of 810 photos taken with a modified Canon EOS 5D 12.8 MP Digital SLR Camera
One photo was taken every 40 seconds over a 9 hour period. The shutter remained open for 20 seconds during each shot. The photographer, William Castleman, used a special “anti-alias (AA) filter” which allowed more red light to enter the camera. Specifically the type of red light emitted by stars and nebulas. He used a Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens
Other equipment used by the photographer included:
- a Canon TC80N3 Timer Remote Control for EOS D30, D60, D10, 1D, 1V & 20D SLR Cameras
- a Hutech EOS203 12v power adapter
- a 12v deep cycle battery
He then processed the photos using Adobe Photoshop and created the video using Apple’s Quicktime Pro, and then editted the video using Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9.
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Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 (Windows) |
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