This Startrails image was create by stacking 170 images that were captured over Big Cypress in South Florida
I started my night time adventure around 11:15 pm on Friday. I drove down to a location in the Big Cypress to capture/create a star trail. I studied the weather maps and radar and found that the skies would clear around 1am. That was about the time I arrived in Big Cypress.
The sky was clearing in the South so I capture some MilkyWay shots. I donned my hat and netting, put on my latex gloves and cranked up the ThermaCell with a fresh bottle of butane and a new pad. The moon had just set at 12:50am making it really dark out there. I walked out on the boardwalk where I needed a flashlight to see.
I took a series of MilkyWay shots, by 1:30am the sky looked like it was ready for me to start taking photos for the Startrails.
The air was so very still and the sounds of mosquitoes disappeared thanks to the Thermacell. There was a low roar from the pond out there from the frogs that droned on all the time I was out there. Far west of me, near coast of Naples, there was a huge thunderstorm with small flashes that seemed to last all night, but was not in my view of the northern sky.
I set my Sony A6500 with a special Anker battery with a Sony battery cable so I did not run out of power. It worked great. I took 240 images to make up this image, however, there was a moment around the 170 image mark, that the temperature fell to the dew point, collecting a load of moisture on my camera & lens. I wished I added a 5 second delay between images so I could have whipped off the moisture every now and then, but I kept shooting and had to toss 75 images due to that moisture.
I was really happy when that last image was taken. I headed back to my car around 3:45am. This is the image I created from all those photos.
Enjoy your day! I am going to sleep early…;-)
