Took a trip to Mauna Kea last month and noticed something wild about the observatory photos

I was up at the visitor center at 9,000 feet and realized if you don't turn off your car headlights, the long exposure shots of the domes get ruined by light bloom - has anyone else dealt with that on dark sky sites?

2 comments

2 Comments

evand653d ago

You mentioned the car headlights blooming the long exposures, but it made me wonder how much of a problem the car's other electronics cause. Do things like the dash lights or a running engine introduce enough electrical noise to mess with sensitive astro gear up there? Because that could be just as frustrating as the headlights if you aren't careful.

the_sage3d ago

Ha, oh man, @evand65 is asking the real questions here and I love it. I actually left my car running once to keep the heat on while trying to snap some shots of Mauna Kea and I swear to god the dome tracking software started twitching like it had a caffeine problem. It's probably just my old beater, but yeah, dash lights and that little engine hum definitely mess with sensitive gear. I remember one guy up there told me his camera's star tracker went haywire just from him flicking on his dome light for a second. So honestly, the headlights are just the tip of the iceberg for us amateur goofballs.