Night Sky

We were very lucky when it came to the weather on our Lake Superior trip. The only time it rained was overnight on our second-last night, and the day that followed gave us our only cloudy day.

Every night, we had fantastic sunsets, ranging from cloudless skies—making the sun dramatically drop on the horizon—to scattered stormclouds that made the best sunsets, ever. And as the sky grew dark, we were treated to the Milky Way and to meteor showers.

Each night, from 10 until midnight, the park organized a star-gazing event on the beach. One of the rangers, who knew the night sky, used a laser pointer to reveal constellations, planets, and star systems. We'd also see countless satellites and, of course, the Perseid meteor shower.

We attended this gathering on our first night in the park, and DW and our Paddlefolk friend went the next night. I, on the other hand, chose to stay at camp, building a fire by which to warm myself and keep the bugs at bay (not good for my already-poor lungs, but it's something I like to do when camping).

That night, I set up my Insta360 X5 camera on a monopod and programmed it to capture the night sky. Over the course of about six hours or so, it captured an image every two seconds.

I set an alarm to wake me around 5, the next morning, to turn off the camera and bring it into the tent.

I didn't look at any of the files on any of my cameras until we returned home but I was quite curious to see how this starlapse was going to work. I had only attempted one starlapse, a few years earlier, using my Insta360 One R, and it turned out not too bad, considering I set it up in my backyard, and the steps to set up the camera was different.

On the X5, I didn't know what to expect.

The phone app is pretty good at combining all of the images into a video, and even allowed me to create a star trail. But I did have to do some exposure tweaking, afterward, to get the result I wanted.

If you saw Wednesday's post, you saw that video.

When all was said and done with the time-lapse video, I was left with about 650 files that contained still images from that night. I considered deleting them, as I didn't think I'd need them, but something told me to go through them to see if there was anything usable.

I'm glad I checked.

Of the 650-or-so files, only three or four were interesting; and of those, only two were good enough to keep. Of those two, only one was remarkable.

Now, the image was a complete 360-degree photo, and the quality was like looking at a raw, untouched file. Most of the photo along the edges was unusable so I had to do some serious cropping and then sharpening.

I also had to try to clean up the noise and punch the blacks whilst cutting down the highlights. I boosted the vibrancy, isolated some colours, and altered the ambience.

Here's the final result.

The night after this timelapse was performed, I was back outside, capturing the night sky. This time, I used my Sony α6700 on a tripod.

I've taken some night shots in the past but for the most part, they weren't shot in total darkness. For this shoot, I waited until it was pitch black (so dark that I couldn't see what I was pointing at).

Now, I made one error in using the camera, and that was failing to turn off the in-body image-stabilization. This feature helps keep the camera steady in hand-held conditions but with a tripod, on a long exposure, the IBIS can actually work against you.

The photos are okay but I think I can do better.

Sony α6700 | 16mm | f/3.5 | 30 sec | ISO 1000

When I think of this vacation, going forward, of course I'm going to remember the fabulous paddles and challenging hikes, but I'll always picture the stunning sunsets and the night skies.

And I'll have some images to keep the memories alive.

Happy Friday!