Lens Lovers Club - Stargazing and Camping Night - Abu Dhabi - 4 Mar 2022

[Frederic]

Always been dreaming of capturing the starry sky from the darkest spot in the UAE ?

Join us for a stargazing session in Al Quoa, Abu Dhabi, and camp overnight under a beautiful night sky !

In the week of March 4 2022, we will have a new moon, which means there will be no moon visible in the sky, which is ideal for stargazing. 

Bring your Digital Camera, and we will help you practice to get the best results out of it. 

The plan is to have a meetup with max. 15 members to practice and enjoy the art of Night photography and learn from each other. Bring whatever Digital camera you have and have a look at the advisable settings in your camera's manual or ask in the forum. After the event you can publish your photos in our gallery !

Meetup Location: Al Quoa, Abu Dhabi

https://goo.gl/maps/MZVv2zZP73hecPAP7

What to bring:

Your camping gear and some firewood, red headlamp and/or flashlight, camping chair, Camera or Smartphone, tripod, film/memory cards, extra battery, Recommended Lens(es). A tripod is recommended for night photography.

This is NOT an Off-Road Drive.

For the members who are joining us, please let us know which camera/lenses you are using and in which category you would put yourself:

1- Absolute Newbie. (Interested in Photography, but mostly use the Automatic settings, and things like aperture, iso, and f-stops are a mystery to me).

2- Enthusiast. (Is not afraid of experimenting with the manual settings, and knows his way around his camera a bit).

3- Jedi Master. (Is mastering not only his own equipment, but can help out or other members during the session).

 

You can RSVP on below Calendar:

 

 

[Frederic]

@Morshedi @Ahmad Shaker @Srikumar @Quresh Pajero @samamara @Trekado @imranaasghar81@Richard Franks@Ahmed Wagdy

Good morning All !

Thanks for signing up to this Stargazing and Camping Night ! As we have many members in our club who are Photography enthusiasts, it is great that we can learn from each other's experiences on these evenings !

Furthermore, it has been a difficult last two years with many restrictions, so this evening is also intended for people who are not camera fanatics, but just want to enjoy the night sky with us and have a great chat at our bonfire.

I have moved the original meeting point a bit further inside, as to avoid street light interference from Al Quoa Road. This is anyways a dirt track and i do not expect we will have to deflate our tyres. 

Whoever has some extra space in the car, and is willing to bring a bag of firewood, please do so. The plan is not to have a very large fire ( because we want to enjoy the night sky), but just something big enough to make it cosy. Ideally we can put the cars along the dirt road, and have the tents and bonfire on one side, and across the road the photography enthusiasts can setup their tripods and gear to capture the night sky.

We expect the Milkyway to reveal itself between 02 and 4AM, and hopefully we can get a shot like this:

Thanks @samamarafor sharing this photo, taken in 2020 at approx. the same location. It is absolutely stunning.

I have put the starting time at 9PM but whoever wants to come early, please go ahead. Just try to stick to the same meeting point so we can all sit together.

Below you can find a few beginner articles which will serve as a good reminder on how to setup your camera for astrophotography. Please don't be afraid to post your questions on this topic so we can help you out.

 

 

[Frederic]

Proposed Setup:

This way the bonfire will not cause any light pollution to the camera enthusiasts.

[samamara]

1 hour ago, Frederic said:

taken in 2020 at approx. the same location

We likely won't see it at the same angle as this as I took this photo in the fall and the angle changes throughout the year, but we should definitely get something nice 😊 . As @Frederic says, the core should be visible from 2-4-ish but will only rise about 32º above the horizon so will be low. Can make for a lovely shot still with the dunes 😍🤩.

I'm attaching below a sketch of the sort of the angle we'll see for the next few months (image from PhotoPills). No worries...the core will be visible now until late October so there'll be plenty of time to get lots of shots with lots of angles...it's a great time to look up to the skies ❤️ .

Sam

[GauravSoni]

@Frederic there is prison campus nearby ( Al razeen) which creates a lot of light pollutions since they have huge lights illuminating the area. Last time I visited (couple of months ago) the light pollution was prominent. I suggest going further inside (maybe another 8 to 10 ) km.

 

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by GauravSoni

[Frederic]

13 minutes ago, GauravSoni said:

@Frederic there is prison campus nearby ( Al razeen) which creates a lot of light pollutions since they have huge lights illuminating the area. Last time I visited (couple of months ago) the light pollution was prominent. I suggest going further inside (maybe another 8 to 10 ) km.

 

 

Thanks @GauravSoni we will be about 9km south of that prison campus. In any case i will arrive earlier and scout the area. Will also create a small Whatsapp group for the members who sign up so we can stay in touch.

[Ahmed Wagdy]

Hi @Frederic,

currently i have a gopro only, i hope it can capture good pictures, i consider myself as an absolute newbie in that sense though i do have some knowledge about the manual settings.

 

 

[Frederic]

4 minutes ago, Ahmed Wagdy said:

Hi @Frederic,

currently i have a gopro only, i hope it can capture good pictures, i consider myself as an absolute newbie in that sense though i do have some knowledge about the manual settings.

 

 

Hey @Ahmed Wagdy you can definitely experiment with the GoPro, i think the timelapse option might be worth a try:
 

13 Tips for GoPro Night Shooting: Guide to Settings, Composition, Gear - Click Like This

You will definitely need to mount it on a tripod and try to get the shutter speed to 20-30 seconds.

[Ahmad Shaker]

are we gonna take a nap before we leave, or we will stay awake all the night? 😀

[Amr Paple]

Hi @Frederic

very interesting to see you again, i have a canon 6d Full frame camera and a sigma 35 1.4 and tripod.

this time i will bring the Family 😊.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Amr Paple