Time-lapse photography of clouds and other phenomena in the sky

Martin Setvak

Gallery 2017

My timelapsing gear presently consists of two APS-C cameras: Samsung NX500 (with Samyang 12mm F2.0 NCS CS and Samyang 8mm F2.8 UMC Fisheye II lenses) and Ricoh GXR camera with its A16 (24-85mm) zoom unit. Comments on why I use these cameras can be found in the Introduction to time-lapse photography page, and my typical settings and additional comments on timelapsing with Ricoh cameras are here. Notes on timelapsing with the Samsung NX500 can be found here. All the times below are given in UTC (GMT).

2017-03-27 19:00 - 21:00 UTC (2h 00m)
Samsung NX 500 & Samyang 8mm F2.8 UMC Fisheye II, interval 20 seconds, speed 600x
ISO 2500, exposure 15 seconds, F/2.8

20170327_1900-2100utc_Veliz_zodiacal-light_1620x1080.mp4 (32 MB)
and the same sequence (slightly longer, 19:00-21:20 UTC), with star trails at the end of the movie:
20170327_1900-2120utc_Veliz_zodiacal-light_startrails_1620x1080.mp4 (35 MB)

Zodiacal light from central Europe. While spectacular images of zodiacal light captured under dark sky of tropics and subtropics became more frequent in last years (see e.g. stunning photos taken by Yuri Beletski or Petr Horálek), it is rather difficult to find a good location for this type of photography in heavily light-polluted areas, such as Central Europe. This sequence was captured from slopes of Velíz Hill, about 40km southwest of Prague, Czech Republic (westward view, see this DNB image taken on the same night several hours later). The brighter sky at left part of the scenery is illuminated by 40km distant Plzeň (Pilsen), while the strong yellow light at right comes from 20km remote Rakovník. See also static images from this sequence: zodiacal light at 19:02 UTC and at 19:15 UTC, and star trails (and aircraft tracks) image, based on all images from 19:00-21:20 UTC, created by StarStaX software.

2017-08-23 19:30 - 24:00 UTC (4h 30m)
Samsung NX 500 & Samyang 8mm F2.8 UMC Fisheye II, interval 30 seconds, speed 900x
ISO 2500, exposure 25 seconds, F/2.8

20170823_1930-2400utc_Jankovska-Lhota_MW_1680x1080.mp4 (42 MB)

Milky Way and cirrus clouds, Jankovská Lhota. In some cases, the sources of light polution can illuminate clouds in the sky, which would otherwise remain barely distinguishable. In this sequence, the lights of 30 km distant Tábor highlight faint cirrus clouds, passing above. Captured from a location near Jankovská Lhota, district Benešov, Central Bohemia, Czech Republic.

2017-10-15 06:40 - 08:20 UTC (1h 40m)
Samsung NX 500 & Samyang 8mm F2.8 UMC Fisheye II, interval 5 seconds, speed 150x

20171015_0640-0820utc_Mysak_1680x1080.mp4 (86 MB)

Fog above Vltava River from viewpoint Myšák. Early morning valley fog above Vltava River, between river dams Slapy and Štěchovice (south of Prague). Captured from viewpoint Myšák, near villages Teletín and Krňany (district Benešov), Central Bohemia, Czech Republic. Besides the slowly dissolving fog, you may also notice two interesting phenomena here: 1) a Brocken spectre (German Brockengespenst, also called Brocken bow or mountain spectre) cast around shadow of the camera location; 2) White rainbow (or "fog bow") - a rainbow produced by tiny water droplets of fog. See also this nice single image from the sequence, or satellite images from NOAA-18 (07:13 UTC) and rapid scan loop from Meteosat-9 (06:00 - 10:00 UTC). Similar case from a nearby viewpoint Máj can be found here: 2015-11-01.

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