I'm interested in shooting the night sky for a photography project, and I'm trying to think of places which are far away from light, open to the sky, and not too hard to get to. Didn't know if anyone has done this in the area, and knew of a good place to shoot at. Please feel free to comment.

6/11/2006 11:39:26 PM

you are asking where the "country" is in NC - there is no way you can be serious - you can go ~30miles from raleigh in almost any direction and accomplish this

6/11/2006 11:41:30 PM

30, hell try 15

6/11/2006 11:42:20 PM

the ncsu place where they have their telescopes is a great place to start, or on a lake?

6/11/2006 11:44:57 PM

*sigh*

no, I know where the country is.. but not all of it is a spectacular place to shoot the night sky. I'm trying to get away from a lot of trees and a lot of lights. Just somewhere with a really good dark view of the sky.

6/11/2006 11:47:08 PM

the point is - you can go just about anywhere

6/11/2006 11:47:51 PM

do you have personal experience taking photos of the night sky just out anywhere in a bunch of places out in the country or are you just making that assumption based on opinion?

6/11/2006 11:50:00 PM

Jordan Lake, that area is the best place around here. It isn't that far away.

[Edited on June 12, 2006 at 12:00 AM. Reason : yep]

6/11/2006 11:50:56 PM

outer banks...nothing better for watching meteor showers

6/11/2006 11:54:59 PM

Quote :

"outer banks...nothing better for watching meteor showers"

except for all of the damn shopping centers and crap that leave lights on all night.

get down on Hatteras island or a private spot on the sound to get a REALLY good view of the sky. We have very little air pollution.

6/11/2006 11:58:51 PM

go east to halifax county, get on 258 outside of scotland neck down around the river, its the flood plain, its flat as shit and its farmland so there are wide open spaces

6/12/2006 12:22:10 AM

go to where the astronomy lab meets, it's like 10 minutes from campus. It's probably not as dark as driving 30 miles away, but i mean there aren't any lights and there's plenty of open space. At least it's much darker than say western blvd. It's a horse farm, I think (not positive) people live there and that it is their land, but if you ask them they may not care. There is a house there. Maybe you can contact one of the astronomy TA's and ask about it.

or maybe ask these guys where to go http://rtpnet.org/~rac/observe.php

here's a map to the lab site http://www.physics.ncsu.edu/courses/astrolab/astromap.html

6/12/2006 1:06:48 AM

Quote :

"30, hell try 15 "

try fucking 0.

6/12/2006 3:19:49 AM

Quote :

"you can go ~30miles from raleigh in almost any direction and accomplish this"

The city lights coming from Raleigh and Durham are more than enough to ruin a real view of the stars even as far out as Jordan Lake.

[Edited on June 12, 2006 at 8:33 AM. Reason : -]

6/12/2006 8:32:50 AM

Quote :

" The city lights coming from Raleigh and Durham are more than enough to ruin a real view of the stars even as far out as Jordan Lake."

See the two people who I've talked to that have done this in NC have both told me that I'll need to get far away from any of the bigger citites because the light given off will really ruin good views of the stars. And, even if there isn't much ambient city light visible to your eye, a exposure of 40-80 seconds will pick it up.

They both go shoot at the Outer Banks, and if I get more into this I may schedule trips out there for it, but I'm looking for someplace a little closer with similiar characterisitics.

6/12/2006 9:15:25 AM

I've always gone to Jordan Lake and had an awesome view of anything in the night sky i wanted to look at. Planets, stars, galaxies, etc... I'd definitely give it a try. The lights from Raleigh, cary, apex, etc... were almost negligible out there.

6/12/2006 9:20:39 AM

just a helpful tip

when shooting the moon

underexpose by a half stop or a full stop

or it will be blown out

6/12/2006 9:32:01 AM

I was wondering about the moon, and how its level of brightness would play a factor. In everything I've read about shooting just starts, the advice seems to be to go with your largest fstop. I would think it would change significantly with the moon, depending on what phase it was in.

6/12/2006 9:42:47 AM

I still say that Jordan Lake isn't all that great but I'm a little bias. I lived on an island that didn't have much electricity to speak of and it was in the middle of the ocean. Often there was no electricity for 100s of miles at night time. I was astounded at the number of stars you could see. In fact you could see the milky way as a band of light across the night sky.

6/12/2006 9:51:14 AM

When I want to look at stars, galaxies, planets, through my telescope I wait for a new moon or a slight crescent. You are right, light from the moon will greatly inhibit what else you can view.

6/12/2006 9:51:18 AM

and don't get crazy with the long exposures or you'll have star trails

6/12/2006 9:51:26 AM

Mt. Mitchell has less atmospheric interference, when it isn't cloudy.

Plenty of places in far-southern or far-northern Wake that have no city light.

6/12/2006 9:56:37 AM

yeah.. 20-30 seconds is what I was gonna play around with. Also I plan to shoot with 800 speed film.

6/12/2006 9:58:35 AM

Post the pictures here after you take them.

6/12/2006 10:35:48 AM

yeah.. i'm planning on it.. i'm gonna go out on a weekend sometime in the next month and take some shots around dusk or close to daybreak. I'll probably take a roll of just stars then a roll of the sunrise/sunset.

6/12/2006 10:50:13 AM

you're using film for this?

well at least it won't have any grain

hope you get the shots right tho

6/12/2006 10:52:52 AM

If you're not looking to go to the outer banks, I would go south on US 1 about as far down as you choose to travel and find a random field somewhere. Shouldn't be hard down there...just stay on the shoulder of the road and don't go trapsing through a farmer's fields...they don't take kindly to city folk

6/12/2006 11:07:32 AM

yeah.. i don't have a digital slr i'd use for this.. upside is that if i get the pics right, they'll look better... no noise... if i get the pics right...

6/12/2006 11:19:39 AM

Dye cloud pwns

6/12/2006 12:44:27 PM

800 iso film, no grain?

6/12/2006 1:14:51 PM

well... it should come out better than if I took the pics with a digital. I'm sure if I wanted to spend some serious $$ I could get a digital with the right equipment to make the shots look really good. The comment about 800iso came from a suggestion to use anything from 400-1600, but the faster the film, the more washed out the stars would come out. So I figured I'd start at 800 and make adjustments accordingly the next time.

6/12/2006 3:24:04 PM

i figure the stars aren't moving that fast, 100 iso is more than enough. if all you are thinking is a 20-30 second exposure at what, f8? then open up to f5.6 and shoot for 1 minute.

6/12/2006 5:05:58 PM

Just google "astrophotography" and see what happens.
Be prepared to learn more than you'd ever expect.

If you want specifics I've got those too.

6/13/2006 11:26:09 AM

Quote :

"800 iso film, no grain?"

heh

i meant noise

i'd totally forgotten about "grain"

>.<

6/13/2006 11:27:19 AM

oh another tip

use a timer or remote release

but i'm sure you were going to anyways

6/13/2006 11:28:23 AM

After some research I've planned my first excursion into the field. I haven't picked a location to travel to, but I've got a ton of information and I've secured the equipment to do so.

Read a great beginner guide to Astrophotography here:
http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/asthwto/TriAst.htm

I'm planning on going out one night on the weekend of the 23rd-25th, assuming the weather doesn't suck. There will be a new moon, so there won't be a lot of bright light in the sky. I'm gonna take 3 or 4 rolls, and drive out a few hours into the country (maybe the beach) and shoot.

I've got a camera, tripod, cable release, a 50mm lens (I've got a few others, but I'm just gonna start with that), and I'll probably take a bunch of food to munch on while out there.

[Edited on June 13, 2006 at 1:38 PM. Reason : n]

6/13/2006 1:38:10 PM

sounds like a shitton of fun

you should def leave some long ass exposures for some cool star trail pics. maybe you will get luck and get random meteors in the pic.

6/13/2006 3:48:38 PM

Everything you'd ever want to know about astrophotography--
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/TOC_AP.HTM

Here's the site index--
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/K_MISC/TOC_SITE.HTM

There's also a little here about using digital SLRs for astrophotography--
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/M_DAP/TOC_DAP.HTM


Like I said--if you want more, I've got it.

6/13/2006 4:18:06 PM

gotta love 30 sec exposure limits on some dslrs. f1.4 makes up for some of that though,if the subjects are right.

6/13/2006 8:34:24 PM

Quote :

"try fucking 0."

I don't know where the FUCK you're from, but is obviously not from "God's Country."

You can't see shit from the city, 200 stars at most and that's not my guess.

Get back to us when you finish counting pieces of corn in your ass and decide to join the real world.

6/13/2006 9:11:43 PM

ha

what

6/13/2006 9:19:32 PM

Quote :

"Username : Sayer Major : History Biography : I don't dwell on the past.. it distracts from the now."

had to do it

[Edited on June 13, 2006 at 9:28 PM. Reason : .]

6/13/2006 9:27:21 PM

wow

6/13/2006 9:29:40 PM

well, from what I've seen it's true. Sayer doesn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about history, especially in the context of school

6/13/2006 9:30:59 PM

^your little dog's name is Toby, which is weird...cuz my min pin's name is toby

6/13/2006 9:33:45 PM

awww
you know, i actually had someone else tell me about their min pin named toby. I didn't name the little bastard though, I would've named him bug. We found him all skinny and shivering in the rain. He had a name tag but that was it. We put up posters, had him scanned for a chip, but no one claimed him.

6/13/2006 9:35:46 PM

poor thing!
when we "rescued" ours, his name was Peanut...my wife and i couldn't stand the name, so we picked Toby...although he took to it really quick, everyonce in awhile if we mention peanut butter or just the word "peanut" he'll come running and looks confused and worried (not that unusual for a min pin)

[/hijack]

6/13/2006 9:39:44 PM

LOL! I've had that quote forever, and you're the first person to say anything about it... gj.

I thought someone might think that funny

and she's right.. I'm not much of a history major

6/13/2006 9:48:35 PM

It's ok. we can hijack drew's thred because technically his ass should be over here already, and not reading this thread.

Toby is starting to get the idea that he is Bug. And yeah, the worried and confused thing is almost constant with him. He's like a furry ball of stress bolting around the house.

6/13/2006 9:53:41 PM

Quote :

"I still say that Jordan Lake isn't all that great but I'm a little bias. I lived on an island that didn't have much electricity to speak of and it was in the middle of the ocean. Often there was no electricity for 100s of miles at night time. I was astounded at the number of stars you could see. In fact you could see the milky way as a band of light across the night sky."

wow, plz elaborate

6/15/2006 11:06:54 AM