A very well put together video on storm chasing safety by Skip Talbot. Skip is one of the greats on storm chasing and has many tornados under his belt. Read and apply, my save your life someday.

This is what I do for fun and to pass the time. Storm spotting sometimes can be a bust, I monitored these storms till they hit the Georgia Alabama line. So I headed out to shoot the storm, when I arrived to the area I was going to monitor and observe the storm all but fell apart. That's the way it goes sometimes.

National Weather Service Watch Warning Advisory Summary

National Weather Service Watch Warning Advisory Summary

My girl working hard on a all night shoot. Sony A7r

Milky way workflow

north_georgia_ramblerRise of the Milky way.
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#sonya7r iso 3200 exposure 15 seconds #minolta 28mm f2.8

Getting a good Milky way shot in Georgia can sometimes be a chore. Sometimes it all comes together, this shot was taken at the Carters regulation lake in Murray County Georgia June 17 2017.
Sony A7r iso 5000 exposure 15 seconds Minolta 28mm f2.8.

Shot this time lapse of a storm over the Northern Atlanta metro area on June 13 2017

Transitions

One of the perks of living in a small town are the sunsets.

One of my personal achievements was capturing the Zodiac light from Northern Georgia.

Zodiacal light is a faint, diffuse, and roughly triangular white glow visible in the night sky that appears to extend from the vicinity of the Sun along the ecliptic or zodiac.[1] It is caused by sunlight scattered by space dust in the zodiacal cloud. It is best seen during twilight after sunset in spring and before sunrise in autumn, when the zodiac is at a steep angle to the horizon. However, the glow is so faint that moonlight and/or light pollution outshine it, rendering it invisible.

Zodiacal light

Setting up for a time lapse takes some planning and skill. I use Google maps to aid in setting up along with The Photoephemeris to help in finding where and when the Sun and Moon sets and rises. I will tend to pick a time and do some math to determine how long my time lapse will be.

They are a lot of apps and websites to aid in the calculations. My goto site is photopills.com the sie has a handy time lapse calculator and lots of other useful tools.

Light speed
Mounted my Sony A7r in the back of my whip and set the timer to capture my trip.
Iso 800 exposure  1 second interval of 2 seconds Rokinon 14mm f8

This is the first time I have done a full North to South panoramic of the Milky way.
Shot was taken with a Sony A7r iso 3200 exposure 20 seconds Rokinon 14mm f2.8.
8 frames stitched together in PTGui.

Moon rise

This is a composite of the rise of the full moon on June 09 2017 from Fort Mountain state park in Northern Georgia.
It is composed of 6 frames layered in Photoshop CC shot with Sony A7r iso 800 exposure 1/160 Pentax 50mm f8

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This photo is featured​ on Explore Georgia Instagram

Astrophotography

Finding and photographing the Milky way in the North Georgia area.

Introduction

Hello I am Scott Padgett, I am an avid amiture astronomer, astrophotogropher and certified NOAA / Skywarn storm spotter and chaser. Most nights you can catch me lying under the stars counting shooting stars and satellites as they pass by.

Ingredients of a Nightscape

Its an old cliche, but “LOCATION LOCATION!!!”.  To photograph a nightscape first escape the cities and urban areas as best as possible. 80% of North American residence can not see the milky way due to light pollution from major cities, Georgia is no exception.

This is a map of the North Georgia area from Dark Site Finder. The areas in the shades of green is the area you are wanting, the darker green the better. I mainly shoot the milky way from is the Fort Mountain state park and Northern Murray county due to logistics for me. Even though these areas are in a light green the Milky Way can be seen on clear moonless nights. Another part of the location equation is weather. Here in the Southeastern U.S. Steamy, humid, summer nights play a big roll in photographing the milky way. Low level moisture and high humidity can and will diffract light pollution and make viewing almost impossible. August thru early  November are the best due to clear nights and low humidity.  

The second part is the easiest, a good unobstructed view of the southern sky. Look for the constellation of Scorpio it will precede the Galactic center or what's called “Down Town” by roughly 4 degrees. Another way to find the Galactic center is to find the constellation of Cygnus. Cygnus is what some refer to as the northern cross and is a better marker for finding the galactic center due to its higher position in the sky. The length of the cross runs through and along the Milky Way, draw a line through the cross and continue straight to the southern horizon that will be the position of the Galactic center.     Add it all together and you will have the optimal viewing area for you location of choice. They are a few apps out to help in locating and identifying the area or object you are looking for. Stellarium is my goto app for nightscapes on PC and mobile.  

Tips for night viewing and photography

Allow enough time for your eyes to adjust. The average person needs 45 minutes or longer to reach optimal night sight.

Use only red LED lighting otherwise you have to wait till night blindness goes away.

GEAR!!!!!!!

This is as simple or as difficult as you want to make it. A good sturdy tripod, a camera that can shoot in manual mode and a lens. There is no one camera better than the other, it's practice that makes the shot, just don't shoot in scene mode. A good fast wide lens is what you want.  The shot above was taken with a Sony A7r with a 20 year old Minolta manual 24mm f2.8 lens.  Even some new auto lenses have quit a bit of coma aberration.

Some of the newer point and shoots work wonderful for nightscapes. Research your camera, youtube it, google it, take it out and play with the settings.

“HANDS OFF!!!!” You will need to be able to take a photo without touching the camera. One way is to set the drive / timer, 2 seconds is the most common time on your camera of choice. A shutter release or a intervalometer can be attached wired or wirelessly to some cameras. Gear can be simple as a camera lens and a tripod.

This was taken with a Canon T3/1100d and a 18-55mm f3.5 kit lens. This show almost any DSLR / mirrorless camera can get the job done.

Settings are just settings, Wrong!

Number one rule is manual mode, always!  Never let the camera decide what the exposure, white balance, ISO or F stop is.  The first thing I do is set my exposure for maximum light reception without star trails this can be done with the 500 rule. The 500 rule is formula to determine the length of time the shutter can stay open before trailing. For example, if I am shooting with my Rokinon 14mm f2.8 lens on my A7r I will take 500 and divide that by 14 (500/14=35.7). 35.7 is too long of an exposure time for a camera without a shutter release so I will set it at 30 seconds and adjust accordingly. For a cropped sensor camera  the formula is 500 divided by 14, divided by crop factor (500/14/sony crop factor of 1.5=23.8). The 500 rule help determine how high to set the ISO as well. Next ISO, I try to shoot as low an ISO as possible.  I tend to stay in a 2000 to 3200 range to keep noise level low. A side note to ISO is the warmer the weather the more noise in the photo.  White balance with my photos is a standard 3500k, I try to keep my photos on the blue side of the spectrum. It also helps with the way light pollution appears in photos. Aperture is simple, as wide open as the lens will allow.  

I will be doing some tutorials on my work flow and post processing steps on youtube in the near future.

Summary

Getting out and seeing the night sky is awe inspiring experience. Experimenting with different lenses, setting and foreground subjects is a way to learn more about your camera. It can bring you closer to the ones you love or give you peace and solitude to clear your head from a hectic day.

A big thanks to the Wander North Georgia crew for letting me put this how to together and in hope it will get folks out to shoot the night sky.

My little one running a moon rise time lapse.
A shot of my #Sony a5300 with my #Sony A7r ISO 800 exposure 15 seconds #Minolta 24mm f2.8

360 panoramic of the strawberry Moon 2017.
9 frame stitched, #Sony A7r ISO 800 exposure 20 seconds. #Rokinon 14mm f8. Stitched in PTGui.

June strawberry moon 2017

I will be out shooting the strawberry moon rise Friday night. Hope to run a sunset moon rise time lapse​.

I walked out and this was waiting for me, after all the cloudy skies it was a perfect ending to an already great day. Murray county Georgia
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#sonya7 iso 200 1/30th Minolta 28mm f8

Most people think astrophotography involves a lot of high end gear, WRONG!!
This shot was taken with a Sony NEX3 bought at a local pawn shop for $90 with lens.
ISO 1600 exposure 15 seconds 18-55mm kit lens.

Fishing for lightning is one of my passions. To capture lightning I will use variable ND filter and adjust till I get an exposure of 1 second or longer. With the aid of a shutter release or intervalometer I capture as many frames as I can.

I will use a shutter release with my camera's drive mode on continuous or with and intervalometer
 set to an interval that will capture back to back frames. This shot was with my Canon 50D iso 400 exposure 3 seconds with and interval of 4 seconds. White balance is 4200k lens is a 18-55mm kit lens at f8.

Great nights don't have to be expensive, good friends and a good view is all you need.

Combining photography and storm spotting is one of the greatest things I have ever done. 

Time lapses of storms never get old

A composition of time lapses from 2016

Sun set from the west overlook on Fort Mountain  Murray county Georgia

I love shooting flowing water and using a long exposure, This was shot with a Sony A7r iso 50 exposure 20 seconds with a Minolta 28mm f16 Hoya ND400 Emery 

Time lapse of a sun rise from the Cohutta scenic
overlook on Fort Mountain Georgia

Fort Mountain all nighter