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Hello from Zambia


DiscoverZambiaSkies

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DiscoverZambiaSkies

Hi all, 

greetings from the dark skies of Zambia.  

I am lucky enough to live in the true wilderness of a Zambian National Park (yep, sorry.  Bortle 1) and while having been quite keen on astroscape type photography for a good few years (as well as wildlife obviously and landscapes) I recently got an ioptron skyguider to get more into astrophotography.  All my gear is photo dedicated - Canon R6, 100=400ii, adapted Nikon 180 f2.8 (on its way), 24-105 F4, 16-35F5, 85 f1.8, Samyang 14mm f2.8 and Sigma 20mm f1.4.  Plus a very sturdy jobu design tripod.  

 

I have been pretty happy with some of my first images, getting to grips with DSS, Sequator, and using APT to generally make life easier.  

 

The wilderness does have it's challenges - two evenings ago on my small hill nearby I was trying (and struggling) to get polar alignment when the faint roars of nearby lions started getting a bit closer so the session ended! 

 

Also while I am under dark skies, at this time of year wildfires cause a lot of challenges in terms of light pollution and haze with lower targets.  Anyway I am falling pretty deep down the rabbit hole and hoping to learn here.  As well as maybe share some stories.  

 

Real name is Gilmour!  

 

 

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DiscoverZambiaSkies
On 9/14/2021 at 8:40 PM, Galileo said:

Hi Gilmour and welcome, those skies must be amaaaaaazing!

Thanks everyone for the welcome.  

 

They are pretty amazing.  Here is a MW shot with no tracking and just a few frames stacked. 

1273828100_20mmcopy-Edit.thumb.jpg.b70540c1696a09e7cb895f94e4ca29d1.jpg

 

The nearest light pollution to me is a small town with a tiny amount of LED streetlights.  I am basically in the centre of this light pollution map image, North of the town on the lake (Itezhi Tezhi).  

spacer.png

Edited by DiscoverZambiaSkies
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DiscoverZambiaSkies
3 hours ago, MarkAR said:

Hi Gilmore, welcome to the forum. 

First time I've heard a session being ended early by lions. 😱

 

 

Thanks Mark.  Next time I am out on my rock I MUST remember to take an audio recorder.  I have heard lions, leopards, hyenas and lions and hyenas having a bit of an argument.  

 

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  • 5 months later...

Hi Gilmore,

I came across your interesting post by accident.

 

I am a keen amateur astrophotographer living on the outskirts (modestly light polluted) of Lusaka.

 

I have a Facebook page on which I chronicle my Astrophotography journey.

You may care to drop in and check it out - it’s called ZedAstro.

 

Would like to meet up with you when you’re next in Lusaka.

 

Cheers and clear skies!

Mupanga

F33ECD84-1B56-40F5-9B8F-3CC4A8F8FCC1.jpeg

Edited by Muppy
Added an astrophoto
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Hi Mupanga welcome to the forum. It doesn't look like Gilmour has been back since September 17 2021 and he isn't following the topic so won't get an alert in his email.

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Wow Bortle 1, almost unheard of.

 

 I have been to Africa twice but neither time did l get to see much of the skies as they were hazy.  The 2nd time we were on Safari in the Masai Mara and came very close to lions.  Several times we saw them from inside our safari jeep and once they ran past and bumped against our safari cabin at 4am chasing a Zebra!!!  We didn’t actually see them that time but were woken by the bump and heard the shouts of the safari security chasing them off snd the next morning saw all the foot prints next to our cabin.  
 

Very brave doing astrophotography with lions around.   
 

Anyway, welcome to BYA. 
 

Carole

Edited by Carastro
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On 3/4/2022 at 9:52 AM, Carastro said:

Wow Bortle 1, almost unheard of.

 

 I have been to Africa twice but neither time did l get to see much of the skies as they were hazy.  The 2nd time we were on Safari in the Masai Mara and came very close to lions.  Several times we saw them from inside our safari jeep and once they ran past and bumped against our safari cabin at 4am chasing a Zebra!!!  We didn’t actually see them that time but were woken by the bump and heard the shouts of the safari security chasing them off snd the next morning saw all the foot prints next to our cabin.  
 

Very brave doing astrophotography with lions around.   
 

Anyway, welcome to BYA. 
 

Carole

Lions Carole? Have you imaged near sheep? Now that is scary, they approach like ninjas only with their menacing munching of grass telling you how close they are and then their demonic eyes light up when you put your light on. I feared for my life.

 

And welcome Gilmour 🙂

Edited by Galileo
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