Bruneau Sand Dunes

What a fantastic weekend with the club out at Bruneau Dunes.  Our first night was simply amazing as we had crystal clear skies, no wind and until night time, the temp was just right.  After arriving and setting up our low tech camp site (is it just me, or has everyone else given up on tent camping?), we waited until a good amount of folks had shown up, and then we set out to tackle the dunes.  For being the first night of camping there, the place was crawling with people, which of course makes getting great sand dune shots difficult at best.  The best time would after a big windstorm, in the middle of the week, with no one there.  Easier said than done for sure.

Bruneau Sand Dunes

Anyway, the three of us crawled around awhile, shooting our shots.  I was lining up a really cool sand ridge shot, when these two yahoos came trapsing over the dune and kinda mucked up the shot.  Of course they were with us, so we couldn’t get too upset.  Turns out, I was ruining their shot as well, so we were even.  As the sun was just getting ready to drop over the horizon, we all lined up our sunset shots and got what we could.  We headed back to the Observatory where they were just getting their star programs ready, but since it was just after sunset, we headed back to camp and cooked up dinner.

After a quick meal, we headed back to the observatory, where we were able to see Saturn, the Eagle Nebula and a galaxy called NGC 2901 (or something like that).  Just outside the main telescope is where I set up the first of these star trail shots.  The first one was a 20 minute exposure, I set up the tree in the foreground to add a little context to the shot, I never even knew the trees in the background were there until after I looked the shot.  I set the aperature to f8, and using a shutter release cable, opened the shutter for the 20 minutes, not sure what I would get.

Star Trails at Bruneau Sand Dunes

Couple things I learned from that first star trail shot.  1) As dark as it was, I stilled picked up a huge amount of vignetting (really light areas in the corners of the image)  I’m not sure where it came from, but the general consensus was that it may have come from the viewfinder, so next time, put a hat or something over the viewfinder, 2) Luckily, I anticipated it, but was warranted, long exposures suck the life out of your batteries.  I used the Battery grip with 2 en-el3 Nikon batteries, and that one shot drained both of them deader than a door nail) So bring extra batteries.  Cold weather doesn’t help the situation either.  3) 20 minutes is cool, but 45 is better!.  The second shot I tried, I did a 45 minute exposure.  the star trails were much more pronounced, but unfortunately, the wind came up and shook the hell out of the tree I was using, so I didn’t get really what I wanted.  But I learned many lessons for next time. Couple things I learned from that first star trail shot.  1) As dark as it was, I stilled picked up a huge amount of vignetting (really light areas in the corners of the image)  I’m not sure where it came from, but the general consensus was that it may have come from the viewfinder, so next time, put a hat or something over the viewfinder, 2) Luckily, I anticipated it, but was warranted, long exposures suck the life out of your batteries.  I used the Battery grip with 2 en-el3 Nikon batteries, and that one shot drained both of them deader than a door nail) So bring extra batteries.  Cold weather doesn’t help the situation either.  3) 20 minutes is cool, but 45 is better!.  The second shot I tried, I did a 45 minute exposure.  the star trails were much more pronounced, but unfortunately, the wind came up and shook the hell out of the tree I was using, so I didn’t get really what I wanted. For this shot, there is really only one star to worry about.  A quick scientific explanation may be needed.  As most of us know, the Earth rotates around on its axis each day.  We also know that the Earth is titled something like 23 degrees from vertical, this is shown in the photograph by selecting the “North Star” or Polaris, as the central star in my shot.