******This outing has been rescheduled to Saturday, August 31st. ****** 

It’s almost impossible to find really dark skies on the east coast of the Island. The core of the Milky Way is dim, and city lights, even if they’re tens of miles away, can wash them out completely. If we want dark skies, we face a long drive out to somewhere remote and a long drive home when we’re tired.

Toward the end of August or early into September, Mt. Washington, however, is an option. It’s easily accessible by car, and with the sky getting dark by around 9:30, it means an earlier start to the session than the mid-summer nights offer, and an earlier (read safer) trip home.

Note: This outing is dependant on weather, and is subject to date changes. Complete the RSVP form to ensure that you are advised of any changes. 

Schedule

Leave Nanaimo at 5:30PM, arrive at Mt Washington shortly after 7:00PM for the golden hour. Leave Mt Washington at approximately 11:30PM and arrive in Nanaimo 1:00AM. 

Carpooling is encouraged, deals to follow. 

Equipment Required

• Camera capable of shooting RAW, with a built in intervalometer (or a remote).
• Tripod 
• Warm jacket & gloves 
• A folding chair 
• Headlamp or small flashlight 
• Snacks or picnic supper 
• Warm drink 

Processing

To process your photos, you will want a program such as Sequator or Deep Sky Stacker (both free and easy to use). We will be shooting a series of images and blending them together. This helps reduce noise and allows us to accumulate enough starlight to create a working image, which will be edited in Lightroom and/or Photoshop to bring out the colors of the core.

You will also notice that your camera captures a lot of stars—stars that your eye didn’t see. These can be quite distracting when you want the viewer to focus on the Milky Way itself. To reduce these distractions, a program such as Starnet++ (also a free download) can be helpful. It’s easy to use and to my mind, much more effective than trying to reduce them within Photoshop. Yes, there’s a way, but I’ve never been able to use it without leaving my image pockmarked with halos or shadows where the stars used to be.

Here are a couple of photographs by Karen McLaughlin as a sample of what she will be helping you to take on the outing. Click on each photograph for a full size version.