1. Time Lapse Video
Kass • Sept 2018

2. What do i need for a time lapse video of the night sky
A must:
A location far away from areas with high light pollution
What do i need for a timelapse:

3. What do i need for a time lapse video of the night sky
A must:
A digital camera (the better the sensitivity, the better for shooting timelapse videos)
For example:
Sony #a7s (the first version!) Full frame with only 12mp=very sensitive. The successor (#a7sII) has the nasty Star Eater problem!
Informative:
What do i need for a timelapse:

4. What do i need for a time lapse video of the night sky
A must:
A wide-angle lense (+/- 14mm is great). (Beware of the crop-factor when using a APC-S sensor sized camera)
For example:
Walimex 14mm f/2.8
Great quality, affordable!
What do i need for a timelapse:

5. What do i need for a time lapse video of the night sky
The sturdier, the better. But some can weight more than 3kg. So be aware about that.
Interesting alternative:
A must:
A tripoid
The Star Adventurer travel mount makes astro imaging easy! Fully equipped with camera holders, counterweight and polar wedge, fitting to every photo tripod. You can mount it on a “normal” tripoid. You can use it for timelapse and! astrophotography with celestial tracking.
What do i need for a timelapse:

6. What do i need for a time lapse video of the night sky
A must:
A remote shutter
What do i need for a timelapse:

7. What do i need for a time lapse video of the night sky
A must:
Enough batteries!! (Or an external power supply)
What do i need for a timelapse:

8. What do i need for a time lapse video of the night sky
A must:
Enough space on memory-cards (600 pics made by a Sony a7s with 12mp sensor => 8GB memory space!)
What do i need for a timelapse:

9. What do i need for a time lapse video of the night sky
A must:
Time!!! (or a remote shutter; then you can even go to bed while the camera is working for you;-)
What do i need for a timelapse:

10. What do i need for a time lapse video of the night sky
Post processing:
- Lightroom (or something similar for processing the sequences)
- Any software which turns sequence of images into a time lapse video (Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Avid, After Effects, Quicktime, iMovie etc)
Optional:
- LRTimelapse (Advanced Time Lapse Photography made easy!)
Links:
(Deep)
(Short)
Postprocessing:

11. How do i do a Time Lapse video
If i wanna do a time lapse from the Milky Way, i avoid the 2 weeks before/after full moon
Mostly doing time laps in the mountains/Swiss Alps
Some clouds are ok (as long as there are no high clouds as Cirrus)
The weather forecast is a must, some special forecasts too ( !
Mostly i use a Walimex 14mm f2.8 wide-angle on a Sony a7s. ISO depends, mostly 6400 and 20s exposure time. Noise reduction etc off. Pictures saved as Raw (and sometimes additionally as JPEG too)
Shutter intervall 25 sec -> That means in 6 hours you will produce 864 pics
It’s better if you (can) use a power adaptor than batteries. There are always vibrations while changing the battery
Be aware of dew; wide-angle lenses are very vulnerable for dew! You can’t use a dew shield because of the wide-angle nature of those lenses (you just would see the dew-shield on the pics). Only a dew heater can solve this problem adequately.