Why Time Vortex? Read on for how the location is linked to Dr Who. It is also reputed to be haunted.
Hiorne Tower is a triangular shaped building or folly on the Downs in Arundel Park and was built by the architect Francis Hiorne for the Duke of Norfolk in the late 18th century. It featured as a location in Silver Nemesis, the story that celebrated Doctor Who's 25th anniversary in 1988. The episode starred Sylvester McCoy and included the Cybermen. In the episode the tomb containing the Nemesis statue central to the story was kept inside the tower.
Many local landmarks like Churches and follies have been photographed with Star Trails but surprisingly this one has not. There is nothing in Google or Flickr unless there are images without tags. It is accessible with a footpath going past it. The location is on the South Downs above Arundel with not too much in the way of light pollution looking north. The image was taken last Thursday on another clear night.
Note that the Exif is taken from one of the images. The image is a blend of 115 shots at 39 seconds so 1 hour 15 minutes starting at 8.10pm. It was never fully dark due to the remnants of twilight until 8.30 by which time moon twilight if there is such a term started with the moon rising at 8.50. The images were taken with an interval timer while I read an ebook nearby. One difference from my normal procedure was that due to a strong wind I wedged the tripod into the wheels and frame of my bicycle which I had flat on the grass. Different sort of photographic accessory!
Before blending the images I used a Photoshop Action to increase the exposure by one stop and increase clarity on all the Raw files and save as jpeg’s. This was done using the Photoshop batch processing to automate this for all the images. More of a pain was using the Heal Tool to remove aircraft trails on about 20 of the images. Blending of all the images was done automatically with the free StarTrails software. The Tower had a little detail from ambient light but I increased this by adding a selection from an image I had light painted with my bike light. This came out far too bright to look natural so I brought down the exposure in RAW before pasting the selection into the main image. Other processing was Topaz DeNoise and Topaz Clarity.
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Tags: Long exposure light sky night stars star exposure wide angle starry star trails Arundel Hiorne Hiorne Tower Arundel Park Downs folly South Downs Sussex west Sussex old Polaris north star north pole celestial night sky sony A700 photoshop topaz layers galaxy science space milky way astronomy castle architecture outside Duke of Norfolk countryside timer Dr Who
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Another Star Trails picture taken last night on the last of the clear nights before the more usual cloud and rain return. It was exceptionally clear with no haze. The image is taken of St Michael’s Church in the small village of Amberley in the South Downs. It is believed there was a wooden Church on the site in Saxon times though parts of the present building were constructed about 1100. Light on the Church and foreground was provided by the floodlighting of Amberley Castle, now a hotel, behind the wall on the left. This also dates from the 12th century. There was only a little light pollution in the sky from the very small town of Pulborough about 4 miles north of the village.
This was 1 hour 15 minutes worth of 40 second shots so 113images. The camera settings and method used were the same as the previous image. See www.flickr.com/photos/edwinjones/21057654468/in/dateposte...
For post processing more of the trails were brought out with Topaz Clarity and then Topaz DeNoise was used. Some small adjustments were made using levels and curves. Finally a clarity effect using Unsharp mask and settings of amount 40 and radius 40.
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Tags: Long exposure light sky night stars star exposure wide angle starry star trails Amberley Church Downs South Downs sussex west sussex graves religion church of England old saxon Norman Polaris north star north pole celestial night sky sony A700 photoshop topaz layers galaxy science space milky way astronomy
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Never let anybody convince you that it is only possible to take decent star trail images many miles away from any light pollution. This was taken in my back garden in a medium sized town though it is on the edge of town. As long as there is no street light directly in the field of view the Camera can see and record stars.
I took a few similar pictures a few years ago but since then neighbours have removed a very tall hedge which has increased the star view a lot so I wanted to try it again. Sunday night there was a beautiful clear sky.
This was 2 hours worth of 40 second shots so 180 images. These were later combined in Startrails.exe. I first composed and found the North Star with the Google Sky Map App. The camera was set to manual, aperture f4, ISO 800. White Balance sunny and shutter speed set to Bulb. Length of shutter speed was set in the timer shutter release. Then I set the camera to continuous mode. It is very important to turn off all long exposure and high ISO noise reduction to avoid increasing the gap between exposures. The remote timer shutter release I use for star trails sets the delay until the sequence starts, the number of shots and the interval between shots (set at a second) and the exposure time in ths case 40 seconds. The versions to fit Canon and Nikon are only £12 and I have a full review on my website at edwinjonesphotography.com/blog/2012/5/timer-interval-remo...
I used a Sony A700 with a Sigma 10-20 lens at 10m. I also used a product called LensMuff by Kevin Adams in North Carolina which has pockets for chemical handwarmers and fits round the lens with built in Velcro. This avoids the ever present risk of condensation forming on the lens as it cools and spoiling the shot.
This was a really easy way to do a Star Trails shot with no boring and cold waiting. Just set up, set the sequence going with the remote and then I went inside to the warmth and watched telly.
For post processing the most time was taken in removing airplane trails. The simplest way to do this is on the original individual images using the heal tool in Photoshop to draw them out but it was time consuming. StarTrails.exe is free from www.startrails.de/html/software.html and automatically does the blending using jpegs. The latest version has a new feature which cuts out the small gaps between each image as the camera triggers the shutter. More of the trails were brought out with Topaz Clarity and then Topaz DeNoise was used. Some small colour adjustments were made using a saturation adjustment layer and a layer mask to exclude the foreground. Finally a clarity effect using Unsharp mask and settings of amount 17 and radius 17.
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Tags: Long exposure light sky urban night stars star exposure wide angle starry star trails Bognor Regis Polaris north star north pole celestial night sky sony A700 photoshop topaz layers cloning galaxy science space milky way timer camera timer astronomy
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Last Saturday night was very clear very cold and very still. It was also the peak of the Geminid Meteor Shower. I saw at least 10 during the time I was out but only one was bright enough to show up with the exposure length used. The image was taken near Halnaker north of Chichester looking towards the South Downs. The sky glow visible is from London 60 miles to the north.
The image was taken with a Sony A700 and a Samyang Fisheye Lens using a Tripod.
I used my Interval Timer and set the camera at ISO 200 and bulb and the timer at 2 minutes at f3.5. I set the timer for 1 hour 38 minutes but did not use the first 18 minutes as it was still a bit too light so the star trails shown are for 1 hour 20 minutes. I had some extra kit for Star Trails this time. First a Head Torch which was very useful for taking things down in the dark. The second bit of kit was even more useful. This was LensMuff which is a holder for chemical hand warmers which secures round the lens with Velcro. The night was perfect for a heavy dew and frost and by the time the sequence finished at 18.45 my tripod was thick with frost but the lens stayed clear of any dew or frost.
By the time I finished the last image my 5 layers of warm clothing were starting to struggle. It was minus 2C by then and minus 4C overnight which is unusually cold for southern England.
I took an image for the foreground while there was still a little light and keeping the camera in the same position and added that to the image in processing by pasting in a selection.
Full details of the processing together with before and after images and more information about taking Star Trails images are on my Blog see Edwin Jones Photography Blog Star Trails
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The Shot
The previous image was a single exposure and this follows on with the full 2 hours worth of Star Trails.
I was not planning to take any Star Trail shots until the autumn when the sun will be setting earlier. However there was a happy coincidence on Monday evening of the peak of the Perseid Meteor shower and clear skies, rare in the UK.
The shot was taken from Pagham Harbour Wall looking due north. Pagham Harbour is a Nature Reserve and the water in the shot is a lagoon north of the Harbour. Overhead the Milky Way is visible but there is a lot of light pollution on the horizon with Bognor Regis to the East, Chichester 5 miles to the North and the city of Portsmouth being 20 miles to the West. It does have the considerable benefit though of being only 1 mile from home.
I used my Interval Timer and set the camera at ISO 200 and bulb and the timer at 2 minutes at f3.5. I took 2 hours of pictures starting about 11.00 so finished at 1.00 am. The picture was taken with my Samyang 8mm Fisheye lens.
There are 3 meteors visible on the left of the picture. The trails look shorter than they were due to the fisheye. I saw about 30 in all while I was out. One especially, not in the frame, was very bright and left a smoke trail.
Full details of the processing together with before and after images and more information about taking Star Trails images are on my Blog see Edwin Jones Photography Blog
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Tags: sky nature night landscape lagoon reserve Pagham Bognor Regis West Sussex UK star trails meteor shooting star perseid meteors meteor showers the plough path celestial star trails polaris north long exposure wide angle fisheye sony700 photography astronomy geology red galaxy milky way Dark darkness night sky universe space picture samyang fisheye lens pic dslr astrophotography
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