First Astrophotography Time-Lapse

This past weekend I went down to Westcliffe Colorado with the intention of taking my first astrophotography time-lapse. I completely blame @master_of_time_lapse for the idea. See I had posted one of my standard, boring, astrophotography snaps on Instagram.

It isn't the best or worst photo I have taken. I was trying out a new camera (Fujifilm GFX 50R) and I decided to try something new. I had on a headlamp and decided to light up our camper to give it a little something extra. Anyway, @master_of_time_lapse saw the post and asked if I had ever tried a time-lapse. So two weeks later I headed down and gave it a shot.

This is the result.

I am pretty satisfied with the outcome. We had arrived a little late to the site so I just stepped outside the camper to take the time-lapse with the intent of shooting a more appropriate location the next night. Instead of the GFX 50R, I used a Fujifilm X-T2 with the battery grip. This gave me three batteries and the best chances for success. I took some test photos and decided to go with a Fujinon 16mm F1.4 wide open, ISO 6400, and a shutter speed of 15 seconds. I was able to get about 4.5 hours of photos before the batteries gave out.

A couple of things I learned. No matter what, align the milky way to the left of the frame so that as the Earth rotates it crosses across the images. I also think the 6400 ISO setting introduced too much noise. I edited the images in Lightroom before using the sequence to create the time-lapse. You don't really notice the noise in the video, but I know it is there. I will have to do better next time.

This has been a learning experience and we will have to see what I am able to do next time.