plains milky way

Randy Halverson proves at DakotaLapse.com with dedication a person can take first rate pix and create wonderful time-lapse montages such as "Plains Milky Way"! A recent Wired Science article shows behind the scenes effort taken by Halverson to produce his art!

"A star-tracking mount for a telescope allows Halverson’s still camera to pan and tilt with the stars. It not only prevents blur, but also gives a walk-about motion to his videos. A motorized rail creates the zooming effect; a computer controller that moves the mount and snaps the camera’s shutter. Each scene in the montage represents about 300 still photographs taken over a period of several hours."

Halverson also points out in the same article, "it takes a lot of trial and error to get right, but it's worth it. It shows motion into the stars you don’t normally notice. When you look up at them, you often don’t realize how much they’re moving." Halverson looks to the stars to create just plains wonderful astrophotography!