GXR A16 - Night Sky from Namibia and Botswana

[setvak]

Back from our South Africa, Namibia and Botswana trip, and here is something to start with - night sky with the A16 unit. All photos processed from DNG files, taken at ISO2500 and 15-second exposure. Pleasantly surprised with the low-light performance of the A16 unit. The night sky on this trip is something I'll never forget ... Enjoy!

Martin

 

[streetshooter]

OUTSTANDING Martin!

 

[Bill3]

Breathtaknig beauty!

 

[Orol]

Living in a city for ages, it is hard to believe there is so many stars out there. Although in the past... some misty memories popping up... well, it is long time ago. Thank you for recalling, Martin.

Peter

 

[olyz]

As Peter says, I can't remember so many stars... Beautiful and spectacular, thanks Martin!

Christian

 

[Rog Tallbloke]

Wow! Fantastic captures. I'm guessing you didn't correct the local time on the camera, so we'd need to add an hour for the Botswana shots?
The pre-dawn in the last shot is a masterpiece.

 

[thelps]

Martin, these are stunning. Awesome work, I am so glad you took the opportunity.
You must be pleased with the results?!

 

[bbodine9]

I am speechless! Fantastic work! Will you be printing any of these?

 

[Ksnow]

Beautiful work, Martin! BTW, the A12 M (with cam on tripod) seems to record an exceptional amount of detail in long night exposures as well.

 

[AlbertTRAL]

:shock:

 

[spb_ch]

I wanted to say wow too! But unfortunately that seems a bit lame! These are really beautiful, I like Zodiac Light and this one Rising Jupiter, Venus and Orion. Seems like this is a great lens at high ISO.

 

[Genster]

Wow... ...F A N T A S T I C Martin. Thanks for sharing

 

[Wiener]

Very impressed with the high ISO performance! And of course the photographs themselves are quite stunning...very well done Martin!
Andy

 

[setvak]

First of all, thanks to everybody for your nice comments, it pleased Now just several replies form me.

Camera time - all my cameras are set to UTC. This avoids possible confusion or problems when changing timezones or summer/winter time. It also eases comparing the images from my cameras with satellite or radar data when needed - in meteorology all data are labeled in UTC (GMT, Z, ...). I usually set (manually) the camera clock using GPS time, either from my laptop or my mobile phone.

Darkness of the sky, amount of stars - yes, it was just incredible for someone coming from a large town. I recall similar sky in Sahara (in Morocco) back in 1994, when traveling to observe solar eclipse, or in some places in the U.S. on several occasions. However, one thing was exceptional in Namibia and Botswana - I did not see a single plane flying there in the night, as we were probably outside of all flight corridors. The only human products visible on the sky there were satellites - quite a lot of them ... I also recall similar dark sky from my childhood, when visiting in 1960's and 1970's my grandparents for holidays at western Slovakia (Bzince pod Javorinou) - by then, it was typical that the street illumination at villages was switched off at 22 or 23, and I just stared there at the dark sky, making my first steps into astronomy there. It is impossible to find such a dark location nowadays in the Central Europe, there are always some lights around, at least at the horizon somewhere The dark sky of the southern Africa countries is a good reason for such a trip already just by itself ...

Cheers, Martin

 

[krt1]

Amazing photographs, Martin! I've visited Ghana and Tanazania several times, but during very hot, muggy conditions. Still, one night the mist parted briefly and the Southern Cross shone through. It seemed for a moment that we stood on a sister planet with a different heaven above.

These photos raise a compelling topic -- light pollution. For a good overview, and some smart ideas on how to begin to reverse things, visit the Dark Skies Society website at:

http://www.darkskysociety.org/

Ken

 

[Gab]

Martin, unbelievable! They are wonderful!

 

[playmo]

Amazing photos! I think Ricoh should put these photos for the advertisement for A16...

 

[setvak]

These photos raise a compelling topic -- light pollution. For a good overview, and some smart ideas on how to begin to reverse things, visit the Dark Skies Society website at: http://www.darkskysociety.org/ Ken

I fully agree (I know the site very well). In principle, similar shots (well, not the South Cross, but e.g. some other nice parts of Milky Way) could be taken in Europe, but due to the light pollution this is impossible. Attached is an old slide photo, taken about 15 years ago, showing the glow of Prague as seen from about 100 km south ... Nowadays the situation is much worse here

Martin

 

[setvak]

Amazing photos! I think Ricoh should put these photos for the advertisement for A16...

I agree ... Similar photos might convince those, who still hesitate, deciding between GXR/A16 and other similar cameras. Myself, I was hesitating for couple of months between GXR/A16, Panasonic GX1, Sony NEX-5N, and several other cameras of this type and price range, and now I'm glad I went for Ricoh. Also, the transition from Ricoh GX100 to GXR menu was extremely easy ...

Martin

 

[spb_ch]

I also agree that Ricoh should have the opportunity to use some of these images for advertising of the A16.