A Day in the Astro Camp
Copyright: György Soponyai
This picture is the result of a 33-hour-long photo experiment I had been planning for more than two years. Besides analemmas and solar eclipses, whole-day-long Little Planets were always on the top of my photo wish-list.
The annual astro camp of Hungarian Astronomical Association is held in Gerecse Mountain near Tarján (~50km southwest from Budapest) every year.
At first two years ago I tried to take a picture like this one however I left half of my equipment at home including the extra batteries. Using the remaining stuff I quickly improvized a other style of picture - this was the result:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vanamonde81/14616245588
The next March I went to the Spitsbergen in order to capture the total solar eclipse and my dream was an additional 24-hour-long photo with the Totality and some cool startrails painted green by aurora. What I did not except was the lack of darkness during the night, the maximum depth of the Sun was 9 degrees below the horizon at midnight. However I completed the daylight-part of the picture with this result:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vanamonde81/16528000654
My third attempt on The astro camp of last year was cut short after the night-part. I captured the startrails but the morning was so cloudly. Here is that result:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vanamonde81/21022861192
Now, my fourth attempt started on 28th July Thursday evening. The air was very humid and partially cloudly. From 10:00 pm to 04:30 I took the startrails but I was not satisfied seeing the result.
From sunrise to sunset I took photos of the Solar disk every 20 minutes. By the afternoon my shoulder and back became completely sunburnt (this year I forgot bringing sunscreen instead of the spare batteries
. After sunset I started recording the startrails again with red lights of observing lamps of fellow amateur astronomers in the foreground. Before midnight International Space Station flew through the Northern sky -- it's visible on the photo too.
In the morning of third day I retook some solar disk photos as the first ones of the previous days had been slightly underexposed and my photo experiment was completed after 33 hours.
Photo details:
2016.07.28-30. Tarján, Hungary
Canon EOS 5D Mark II + Sigma EF 8/4.0
