A long weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity to travel to a dark site location. So I rounded up three of my boys and chucked them in the car for a road trip. After a 120km drive, we settled down on the Eastern edge of Zakopane, Poland. The goals were simple: A little hiking, a little exploring, and a little photography under the Bortle 2 skies. How did it go? Well, let’s just say that 2 out 3 made for a very nice trip. However, my dark site misadventures continued as the clouds just wouldn’t quit. By my count, that makes it Clouds 2 and Me 0 if you’re keeping score.
Non-Astrophotography Update
I had relatively low expectations that I’d have a chance to shoot. But I did pack up all my gear including my 3D-printed star tracker and I was certainly ready if the opportunity presented itself. That said, it was probably for the best as our little hiking excursions totally kicked my butt. Wow, I was sore! So I was actually happy that the clouds didn’t force me to make a difficult, if not painful decision.
We had a bit of everything with the hike. On the foothills of the Tatra Mountains, we had quite pleasant weather as we made our way into the park. After about an hour or so though, the weather turned a bit. As we started going up and up, we found ourselves trucking through quite a bit of mud, ice, and snow. A light rain was misting down the mountain which changed over to snow for a bit and then back to rain. Just enough precipitation to make everything messy. I watched all three of my boys wipe out on trails. Nothing but bruised bums and egos though. We made it to an elevation of just above 1300m after starting from about 900m. We really weren’t prepared or dressed to go much higher at this time of the year. Something to look forward to later this summer.
OK, The Astrophotography Update
Well, hard to write when you’re not out shooting. But, Zakopane has some wonderful and quiet locations for shooting on the outskirts of town. Some real open areas with a great sky view in all directions. I would definitely like to get back here at some point to shoot.
Road trip aside, I’m still working on version 2 of the 3D-printed star tracker. I haven’t solved all my issues yet, but I’m close enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Right now, I’m printing the main body of the tracker that will house the gears and the electronics. No spoilers today though. But I think I’m less than 2 weeks from finishing it and getting it outside for a test. And I plan on writing a number of posts about the final construction once it’s complete.
I’ve got a birthday coming up and I’m hoping to be gifted a clip-in light pollution filter. Fingers crossed. My thinking goes – I’ve been doing most of my shooting from my backyard in a bright Bortle 6-7 location. This is because of all the tinkering I’ve been doing with the trackers and such. Turns out, it’s just convenient to test these things off my back porch without having to worry about packing and traveling right now. So if the majority of my time is going to be spent in my backyard, I might as well own a good filter.
And aside from that, I’m just starting to take a look at something called N.I.N.A, which stands for Nighttime Imaging ‘N Astronomy. I’ve heard some good things about this, and I want to take some time to see how I can use an open-source program like this as part of my routine. So I’m sure I’ll be writing about this at some point in time in the future.
That’s that for now. Hopefully, there are some clearer skies ahead as I’ve got a pile of projects I’m itching to take on! And down the road, let’s hope I can turn my dark site misadventures around and experience what it’ll be like to really shoot under a dark sky.