My star tracker battery died 45 minutes into a 2 hour shoot up at Mount Pinos last night

I sat there in the dark for 10 minutes just staring at my camera before I realized I could stack shorter exposures from my phone and still get a halfway decent Andromeda shot, and the final image actually came out clearer than my usual long ones - has anyone else salvaged a ruined night by improvising with gear they already had on hand?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylorcarr1mo ago

Dude yes, I forgot my intervalometer once and ended up taping my phone to a tripod leg for a whole timelapse, worked better than expected!

matthewperry1mo ago

Oh man, that's rough but also kind of awesome how it worked out. My buddy @taylorcarr had a similar thing happen when his dSLR battery died during a meteor shower, he just propped his phone up on a rock with a long exposure app and got some surprisingly clean shots of the Perseids. Improvising with what you have can sometimes beat the "proper" gear if you're creative enough.