Not a big secret that light pollution affects astrophotography. There's a whole industry built on fighting it in the form of filters. But we all know dark sky is the holy grail for great results! But for those that dont know, this is great advertising for Starfront😉
Amazing skies you have there at Starfront! I really enjoyed how you showcased the difference between the light-polluted city and the pristine, dark skies at the observatory. It’s the perfect location for capturing faint details!
There's never a substitute for darker skies, for any object and any setup. This is a perfect illustration and THANK YOU for doing it with the same kit and same night.
Thanks Bray. This is the best demonstration of light pollution that I’ve seen. I’ve seen the same effect from downtown Halifax to my observing location in rural Nova Scotia but never documented it like this. Bravo for taking the time to show it to us and kudos for your efforts with Starfront.
Paranoia is our problem. All those lights in a park with no people (except for Bray) are the issue. The archaic notion of being afraid of the dark drives our need to shed light into the shadows. It's crazy. I know this is not the point of the video, but it is on my mind when I head to dark skies. Great video. I've been in the vicinity of starfront many times for my photography and can vouch for the quality of sky.
Nice timing - I was just explaining to my son about light pollution, and how Galileo’s equipment probably wasn’t any better than my field binoculars, but he didn’t have 21st century city lights.. Very interesting to see this in action side by side - thanks!
For me the decision to reserve a pier at Star Front was 100% about the bad weather and sky conditions. I was becoming down right cranky with the cloudy night skys in Miami. And when a clear night would appear, the transparency and seeing conditions would be lousy. Now I'm more fun to be around because I have my Seestar at Star Front. My friends and family thank you Bray!
Absolutely can get decent results in B9. Funny how once there's money to be made the assumption is we didn't know that B1 is better than anything worse than B1. It's like I came out with a new focuser that I wanted everyone to buy and felt I needed to make a video showing how being out of focus isn't as good🙄
I am sure Starfront is very dark but what is the seeing? I would be reluctant to put anything other than short focal length ( less than appx. one meter - which seem to be most of their scopes) at a site until I had a good multiple-months-long sampling of the seeing from an on-site seeing monitor. Unlike most sites, I do not see a seeing monitor on their status page (although maybe it is only visible to users).
For a pure science comparison yeah, but not from a practical comparison. Nobody in their right mind would try a 5 second exposure from bortle 1, and likewise the 30 second exposure from bortle 9 would be impractical. By using the different exposure times, it is a better example of what someone would actually do trying to take a photo
Just the number of visible meteors in the video segment from Starfront speaks volumes. I'm luck to capture any meteors at all during a meteor shower from my bortle 6/7.
I cannot image from home, so I have to travel to image. The advantage is I image from bortle 4 minimum, but often bortle 2 or 3 sites. the downside, is 1 hour to travel, then set up and stripdown and 1 hour to return home, so i only image if at least 4 hours of clear sky is forecast
Fact check, this isn't correct. As Bray says in the reply, imaging really faint stuff NEEDS darks skies. I've spent a year imaging a narrowband region and I'm under circa SQM 21 and need moonless nights, it's simply not possible to image said target under brighter skies.
Nice video - I’m at the back end of three weeks with total cloud cover in the UK so I’m struggling a little to feel sorry for those with light pollution 😀 - one quick point- doesn’t the R5 have an in built in intervalometer? Might be one less kit item to remember…
My problem isn’t damn light pollution its the friggin weather lol as soon as we retire I’m making sure the family packs up and moves right to New Mexico haha plus side is I live under bortle 3 skies….in Pa where I get max 100 clear nights a year with the majority coming in autumn
Please turn off the AI overdubs (and AI translation of the title)! That sounds terrible! I'm seriously thinking about canceling the subscription, that's how awful this AI crap is! It's far too inconvenient for me to switch back to the original language every time.
This makes me feel better about my astrophotography. I would rather drive than sit at a computer trying to polish bad data. Cheers Man 👍
There’s something so peaceful about hundreds of telescopes quietly beeping away in the dark under the most incredible skies you’ve ever seen
I need to make a remote observatory ASMR to fall asleep to
yes please, I would totally put that on for studying etc
Not a big secret that light pollution affects astrophotography. There's a whole industry built on fighting it in the form of filters. But we all know dark sky is the holy grail for great results!
But for those that dont know, this is great advertising for Starfront😉
Amazing skies you have there at Starfront! I really enjoyed how you showcased the difference between the light-polluted city and the pristine, dark skies at the observatory. It’s the perfect location for capturing faint details!
I really is the perfect dark sky location.
There's never a substitute for darker skies, for any object and any setup. This is a perfect illustration and THANK YOU for doing it with the same kit and same night.
Thanks Bray. This is the best demonstration of light pollution that I’ve seen. I’ve seen the same effect from downtown Halifax to my observing location in rural Nova Scotia but never documented it like this. Bravo for taking the time to show it to us and kudos for your efforts with Starfront.
Most people travel to get away from light pollution - bray travels to make it worse 😂
Bizzarro*photography
Paranoia is our problem. All those lights in a park with no people (except for Bray) are the issue. The archaic notion of being afraid of the dark drives our need to shed light into the shadows. It's crazy. I know this is not the point of the video, but it is on my mind when I head to dark skies. Great video. I've been in the vicinity of starfront many times for my photography and can vouch for the quality of sky.
Fun times for you being on the leading edge of this great site. Please keep sharing.
Nice timing - I was just explaining to my son about light pollution, and how Galileo’s equipment probably wasn’t any better than my field binoculars, but he didn’t have 21st century city lights.. Very interesting to see this in action side by side - thanks!
Wow, probably the best advert for your remote observatory you could have done..👍🏻
For me the decision to reserve a pier at Star Front was 100% about the bad weather and sky conditions. I was becoming down right cranky with the cloudy night skys in Miami. And when a clear night would appear, the transparency and seeing conditions would be lousy. Now I'm more fun to be around because I have my Seestar at Star Front. My friends and family thank you Bray!
Great video for perspective. I know Abilene well since I was stationed there, now in Arizona. Thank you
Did You Expect Such S***. TAC to SAC sucked! I'll retire back in AZ south of DM and bortle 2 sky in my yard ;)
I could'n agree more but I do manage to get some interesting shots under my Bortle 9 Montreal sky. 🙂
Where there is a will there is a way!
I drive 3 hrs to Joshua Tree national park at least once a month. Eastern part of the park is in bottle 3.
Ok can we get a meteorite count, there were quite a few visible
Right? There are a couple of them per each minute of the video
Thank the geminids!
You know it's dark when you just casually see a meteor at 15:14.
and another at 15:35, must have been during the meteor shower haha
@@CornerCamper and around 15:44
Geminids photobombing my video
@@astrofalls yess geminids
"... driving to a place with terrible light pollution ..." I wish I could say that.
"I found my shooting spot" while filming in a public park is crazy
(this is referring to shooting photos)
Thanks. Useful. I gotta get out of town.
Awesome video! Just starting my journey. Bought a Seestar S50 and a Celestron 8SE. Any chance you can go over the polar alignment for your mount?
Nice illustration! I'm planning on getting gear setup at Starfront in early 2025 😊
Will be calling soon to coordinate!
I’m here crying in my bortle 9 backyard. I can still get some nice shots.
Absolutely can get decent results in B9.
Funny how once there's money to be made the assumption is we didn't know that B1 is better than anything worse than B1.
It's like I came out with a new focuser that I wanted everyone to buy and felt I needed to make a video showing how being out of focus isn't as good🙄
Looking forward to getting my rig out to Starfront!
I am sure Starfront is very dark but what is the seeing? I would be reluctant to put anything other than short focal length ( less than appx. one meter - which seem to be most of their scopes) at a site until I had a good multiple-months-long sampling of the seeing from an on-site seeing monitor. Unlike most sites, I do not see a seeing monitor on their status page (although maybe it is only visible to users).
So cool and in the background lots of geminids evaporating in the atmosphere \o/
Really good video🔥
Wouldn't it have been more comparable if the exposure time and ISO value had been identical for both locations?
For a pure science comparison yeah, but not from a practical comparison. Nobody in their right mind would try a 5 second exposure from bortle 1, and likewise the 30 second exposure from bortle 9 would be impractical. By using the different exposure times, it is a better example of what someone would actually do trying to take a photo
I have an observatory in a bortle 9. I would never trade hands on photography for remote data collection. It is about the process, not the outcome.
Just the number of visible meteors in the video segment from Starfront speaks volumes. I'm luck to capture any meteors at all during a meteor shower from my bortle 6/7.
Amazing video! Can anyone tell what he uses for vlogging? I can imagine it's an high iso capable camera
Hi from Montana
It's so sad. My bortle is 6 and tends to 7, in Luna it's not even worth mentioning...
I cannot image from home, so I have to travel to image. The advantage is I image from bortle 4 minimum, but often bortle 2 or 3 sites. the downside, is 1 hour to travel, then set up and stripdown and 1 hour to return home, so i only image if at least 4 hours of clear sky is forecast
Dark sky is always a winner, yet narrowband filters can do the trick. It's a waste of Bortle 1 sky to do a 3 nm SHO ))
Very wrong! There are many ultra faint narrowband objects that need bortle 1 3nm to be photographed well.
Fact check, this isn't correct. As Bray says in the reply, imaging really faint stuff NEEDS darks skies. I've spent a year imaging a narrowband region and I'm under circa SQM 21 and need moonless nights, it's simply not possible to image said target under brighter skies.
Nice video - I’m at the back end of three weeks with total cloud cover in the UK so I’m struggling a little to feel sorry for those with light pollution 😀 - one quick point- doesn’t the R5 have an in built in intervalometer? Might be one less kit item to remember…
ISO 3200 and f1.8 under B9 😏
gotta keep that thang wide open
My problem isn’t damn light pollution its the friggin weather lol as soon as we retire I’m making sure the family packs up and moves right to New Mexico haha plus side is I live under bortle 3 skies….in Pa where I get max 100 clear nights a year with the majority coming in autumn
Nice but yieks the AI Translation of YT into german is rather a bit strange.
Please turn off the AI overdubs (and AI translation of the title)! That sounds terrible! I'm seriously thinking about canceling the subscription, that's how awful this AI crap is! It's far too inconvenient for me to switch back to the original language every time.