the official story of Sirius is that these different colors are optics caused by the atmosphere. I was watching it in the sky and it seemed to be flashing red, blue, green and white, like it was an airplane and almost simultaneously. By setting the camera at the fastest shutter speed of 1/3200 of a second and clicking away as fast as I could I captured these small tiny split second images that shows it changes color very rapidly, at least to my thinking. I have asked to borrow a better Nikon camera and am going to get a more powerful lens to see if I can get better images. I was surprised with the results of these images. I had the ISO set at the highest speed also, 25600, which I had no idea ISO could go that high. My question then is how did I get the images of it not being brilliant green or white but rather tame and not star like at all?
I do have other images of the star, but decided not to upload them.
good luck, I am thinking about going up into the mountains at the 8000 foot level and giving it a try, will have to dress warm, as I hear that it gets below freezing at night the last few nights. My Siberian Husky will definitely like the experience.
Let me know if you have any success. I tried again last night, it was not being as brilliant as a few nights ago, and nothing to write home about. Mostly just white with green halo and green spikes shooting out. Couple with a bit of blue.
Thanks so much, David. I had no idea Reunion had mountains like that! So cool you have a Siberian Husky and your wonderful cat, Mr Gray (sp?). I presume they get along well since Mr Gray was totally at ease with the 40-hour airplane trip to Reunion. Tomorrow we have the Lunar (Blood Moon) Eclipse, so I will be endeavoring to get some good photos of that. Thank goodness we’re in the California desert and not in the perpetually socked-in Pacific NW! P.S. We just weathered a constant 3-day sand-wind-storm last week with gusts to 50-60 mph…how does that compare to the typhoon winds that you endure on Reunion?
Reunion is nothing more than a volcano that rose up out of the ocean. our highest elevation is just over 10,000 foot, we are 30 miles by 33 miles in size, hence very steep to get from sea level to 10,000 feet and back to sea level in 30 miles. think I would pass on the sand/wind storm. that sounds like a new paint job and a lot of staying inside. since I have been here we have had winds to 155 mph sustained during one cyclone. Fortunately building codes call for structures to withstand 175 mph winds. most utilities are under ground. Infrastructure here is excellent. Generally speaking our cyclones are usually cat 3 with winds around 100 mph to 120 mph. We never make the news as we experience little structural damage and the only deaths are from stupid people that try to cross raging streams and get swept away never to be found. Only two or three deaths per storm so nothing to make the news.
Wow. How long do those cyclones last? And what do those winds sound like inside your home? Our sand/wind storms are usually 2-3 days, but the constant wind-howl requires noise-canceling headphones at times to mitigate the sound. Our home has withstood these winds for 23 years and our utilities are under ground as well. Thankfully.
one more point, I used a manual focus on my camera, not quite all the way to the infinity setting, and as the star is 51 trillion miles away, infinity is just beyond that.
thanks, was wondering how it looked on the small screens. I have only watched it on my 15 inch laptop, yes the biggest laptop I could find, and my desktop monitor.
Photographing celestial orbs is difficult. Here are some things I’ve learned about it:
- A tripod is a must. Relying on super-high iso settings and motion-reducing lens results in very grainy and still blurry photos.
- in addition to manual focus, use the manual exposure setting and play with exposures. If you rely on the camera’s meter, it will try to average the light throughout the entire frame, which always results in overexposure of the orb.
- Most lens are sharpest at about f/8. They do vary, though. Some internet research can help determine what any individual lens is sharpest. Look at kenrockwell.com and search for your lens. Here is an example (Ken has been a professional photographer for years so his articles are often over my head): https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d200/d200-dark.htm
Wow! All forms of life are fascinating and beautiful. There is so much to yet be discovered. Thank you for sharing the video and photos.
I could find nothing in any books about sea life that said coronet fish do these designs. So glad that I was able to finally capture it on video.
Maybe you made the first discovery of this.
I would like to think so, but as I am not an educated marine biologist, it would not count, no credentials. That is the way of ivory towers.
So Cool David! That fish is a right magician! (I want those powers!) And nice shot of Sirius - the green hue is interesting. Do you know why?THanks
the official story of Sirius is that these different colors are optics caused by the atmosphere. I was watching it in the sky and it seemed to be flashing red, blue, green and white, like it was an airplane and almost simultaneously. By setting the camera at the fastest shutter speed of 1/3200 of a second and clicking away as fast as I could I captured these small tiny split second images that shows it changes color very rapidly, at least to my thinking. I have asked to borrow a better Nikon camera and am going to get a more powerful lens to see if I can get better images. I was surprised with the results of these images. I had the ISO set at the highest speed also, 25600, which I had no idea ISO could go that high. My question then is how did I get the images of it not being brilliant green or white but rather tame and not star like at all?
I do have other images of the star, but decided not to upload them.
I may have to try this as well. I, too, had no idea that ISO could go to 25600 😳 Thanks for all of these interesting items!
good luck, I am thinking about going up into the mountains at the 8000 foot level and giving it a try, will have to dress warm, as I hear that it gets below freezing at night the last few nights. My Siberian Husky will definitely like the experience.
Let me know if you have any success. I tried again last night, it was not being as brilliant as a few nights ago, and nothing to write home about. Mostly just white with green halo and green spikes shooting out. Couple with a bit of blue.
Thanks so much, David. I had no idea Reunion had mountains like that! So cool you have a Siberian Husky and your wonderful cat, Mr Gray (sp?). I presume they get along well since Mr Gray was totally at ease with the 40-hour airplane trip to Reunion. Tomorrow we have the Lunar (Blood Moon) Eclipse, so I will be endeavoring to get some good photos of that. Thank goodness we’re in the California desert and not in the perpetually socked-in Pacific NW! P.S. We just weathered a constant 3-day sand-wind-storm last week with gusts to 50-60 mph…how does that compare to the typhoon winds that you endure on Reunion?
Reunion is nothing more than a volcano that rose up out of the ocean. our highest elevation is just over 10,000 foot, we are 30 miles by 33 miles in size, hence very steep to get from sea level to 10,000 feet and back to sea level in 30 miles. think I would pass on the sand/wind storm. that sounds like a new paint job and a lot of staying inside. since I have been here we have had winds to 155 mph sustained during one cyclone. Fortunately building codes call for structures to withstand 175 mph winds. most utilities are under ground. Infrastructure here is excellent. Generally speaking our cyclones are usually cat 3 with winds around 100 mph to 120 mph. We never make the news as we experience little structural damage and the only deaths are from stupid people that try to cross raging streams and get swept away never to be found. Only two or three deaths per storm so nothing to make the news.
Wow. How long do those cyclones last? And what do those winds sound like inside your home? Our sand/wind storms are usually 2-3 days, but the constant wind-howl requires noise-canceling headphones at times to mitigate the sound. Our home has withstood these winds for 23 years and our utilities are under ground as well. Thankfully.
one more point, I used a manual focus on my camera, not quite all the way to the infinity setting, and as the star is 51 trillion miles away, infinity is just beyond that.
as a point of my interest, did you watch the video on a mobile phone or desk/laptop?
I watched the video on an iPad
thanks, was wondering how it looked on the small screens. I have only watched it on my 15 inch laptop, yes the biggest laptop I could find, and my desktop monitor.
Photographing celestial orbs is difficult. Here are some things I’ve learned about it:
- A tripod is a must. Relying on super-high iso settings and motion-reducing lens results in very grainy and still blurry photos.
- in addition to manual focus, use the manual exposure setting and play with exposures. If you rely on the camera’s meter, it will try to average the light throughout the entire frame, which always results in overexposure of the orb.
- Most lens are sharpest at about f/8. They do vary, though. Some internet research can help determine what any individual lens is sharpest. Look at kenrockwell.com and search for your lens. Here is an example (Ken has been a professional photographer for years so his articles are often over my head): https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d200/d200-dark.htm
I was shooting at F4.5 hand held, but figured at that shutter speed did not matter