Here's Why You'll Never Get a Good Nighttime Starfield Shot in Singapore.


jfxberns

New Member
Oct 18, 2012
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River Valley
Light pollution. Pure and simple....

Source: I F**king Love Science @ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...04376056.98921.367116489976035&type=1&theater

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Thanks TS for your effort. Well... it may be common knowledge to most, but it may be something new to newbies who wanted to start startrail photography.
 

Thx for posting. Pretty interesting
 

Good job TS!

Ignore some of the comments from the gurus of common knowlege..

Very helpful to many others, like me.... I am into astronomy for more than 10 years, abeit not regular, and it is still find it interesting and useful to have new ways at looking at things, and learn.

Good visualisation aids.

Some of those who already have this "common knowledge", I wonder they can really visualise the vast difference...
 

Pulau Tekong.

I swear I woke up at 2am in the middle of the forest during one of the outfield nights and witnessed the beautiful moonlight. Cannot remember whether there were stars or not though.
 

To ThreadStarter,

Thanks for sharing this information.
It is a very good visualisation aid for all.

I will add in the photo at the Night Photography section for sharing at a later stage.

It is true that it is very hard to capture stars or star trails in Singapore due to Light Pollution.
So far, some of my friends had tried shooting from Pulau Ubin but it is still quite bright.

I think so far my best stars shooting experience is in Port Campbell in Melbourne, Australia.
Just to share some of my recent work with you.

P1051705_zps60608e66.jpg


Star_Trails_Final_zps12b32ae8.jpg


To other more senior members,

Great knowledge comes from knowing when to answer and when not to answer.
Please try to refrain if you do not have any thing to value add in this discussion.

I have delete those OT and inappropriate comment.
 

I've stayed till very late in NTU but not seen such skies. Probably still some pollution.
 

I remember visiting the island of La Palma ( Spain) , it is , as I was told, the only place on earth with a law against light pollution.
That meant , using high beam light during driving was illegal, basically zero street lights , no lighted up events in the evening and so on.
Reason for this is, this isolated island has one of the worlds largest observatories on the Cumbre Vieja , and yes, it was pitch black at night and the sky was amazing :)
 

Singapore is 9, even if you go somewhere dark.

Tekong will be like a 5.

In the middle of a real desert during dry season=1. Can see everything and anything.

Unfortunately, comfort and accessibility for shooting stars is inversely proportionate to the number of stars you will see.
 

You don't need to go far from cities, you can go high as well. In mountain areas above cloud level, the clouds below will help to diffuse lights from lower heights somewhat.
Apparently, presence of the moon also affects the relative brightness.

Here's my first noob shot from Tadapani, Nepal last November. It was 9pm so Milky Way is still in the horizon.
Significant pp but I still haven't figure where the reddish cast at the edge comes from. It's near total darkness to my eyes when taking the shot.
Not very good compared to those on the web but it took me like 4(?) years of waiting before I had this chance so it held some personal meaning for myself.
:)
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f/4, 120sec, ISO3200 at 8mm


Well, Mauna Kea at Hawaii is probably one of the best spots on the planet. You can access by driving right up to 4200m altitude in the middle of the Pacific.
It's one of the places on my list I hope to visit one day and do Milky Way photography. :lovegrin:
 

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Maybe a light pollution filter may help? I can't give any personal experience and I wonder how many of us here have.
 

Yeah, too much light from our tiny island, that's why I've given up shooting the night sky in Singapore. The night sky is breathtaking when I was working in Tawian, especially the rural areas where buildings are low and very little light from the village.
 

Maybe a light pollution filter may help? I can't give any personal experience and I wonder how many of us here have.

Doubt one can come up with a filter that separate a photon from one source from a photon from another. Would love to know if such a filter does exist though.
 

Doubt one can come up with a filter that separate a photon from one source from a photon from another. Would love to know if such a filter does exist though.
But you can separate photons of particular frequencies and wavelengths in the visible spectrum.

Since atmospheric glow from artificial sources is mainly from High-Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps such as High-Pressure Mercury-Vapor (HPM), High-Pressure Sodium-Vapour (HPS) lightning lamps etc. etc. broadband and narrowband astronomical filters can be designed to enhance images of nebulas for example by reducing unwanted spectral emissions from being captured.

Cheers.
 

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But you can separate photons of particular frequencies and wavelengths in the visible spectrum.

Since atmospheric glow from artificial sources is mainly from High-Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps such as High-Pressure Mercury-Vapor (HPM), High-Pressure Sodium-Vapour (HPS) lightning lamps etc. etc. broadband and narrowband astronomical filters can be designed to enhance images of nebulas for example by reducing unwanted spectral emissions from being captured.

Cheers.

Hahahahaha, I didn't thought of that! However, what about reflected light? If I am not mistaken, lighting design within architecture has certain limits to the direction of lights (e.g. the cover of a light must be of certain angle to the ground thus light shone side way and upward would be minimized) in an effort to combat light pollution. Will there be spectrum shifts in reflected light that reduce the effectiveness of such filters?
 

To give an idea, this was shot at Jurong West. 4x4 minute exposures throught broadband light pollution filter.
70mm at f/4, camera was a Canon 400D.

OrionBelt.jpg
 

That is an awesome pic ArchRival! In addition to sharing them in clubsnap, could you consider sharing them in the Singapore Astronomy Forums (SingAstro • Index page) too? :)
 

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