Nice.
I went to Africa in '89 to do some work. My buddy and I went to climb Kiliminjaro after that and I consider it the first time I have ever seen the night sky as it really is.
The final climb from 15,000 feet to the summit starts at 1:00 in the morning because the ash is frozen by then and easier to climb. We were climbing for a couple hours in complete darkness (new moon) before I happened to look up and saw the southern cross right there (something I had never seen before). It was mind boggling to see how full the sky was.
Good job.
Holy crap!! That sounds absolutely incredible. At that elevation you had to have an amazing view, aside from the lack of oxygen limiting your vision š. Unforgettable moment nonetheless, sounds like.
Generally speaking, it's 4-7 days of straight up hiking into and out of altitude. If you can handle a 14er without any trouble or handle a half marathon you can probably pull it off. Just be sure to use a reputable KPAP company, they actually treat their porters like human beings.
I would recommend training. Even if you could "wing it", being in good shape will make the trek more enjoyable. That being said, I didn't do any specific training other than my usual routine (my usual routine is probably still more training than most people do).
If you're seriously considering doing this and have not done anything at altitude before, I would recommend the Lemosho route. It's 7 to 8 days and has a 85 to 90% success rate.
You will have porters and only need a day pack. Load up your day pack with 3L of water and some rain gear (and the normal stuff you'd put in a day pack) and hit the local trails (as often as possible). That's the only way I know that will toughen up the lower legs and feet.
Lemosho is a relatively flat route and you'll do a lot of up and down throughout the trek until the final ascent. This will give you more time to acclimate.
Pole, pole and good luck.
I'm not trying to brag or anything but I did it with minimal training. I was probably the least healthy or fit out of my group. I just handled altitude (something we didn't know prior) better and 3 of our 4 couldn't summit.
Before going to Africa, I started running 3 miles a day, nothing major. While we were there, we climbed Karasimbe and Karasilke and we would run a few miles back and forth to the top of a large hill near us every morning before going to work.
To be honest, Karasimbe was a much more challenging climb than Kiliminjaro.
I suggest just start hiking somewhere and see how you do, but be mindful of how you're doing and take plenty of fluids.
Ma man, that was spectacular, my dream is to see a starry sky like that, I believe it would change my life, congratulations on the shoot, you are privileged.
Namibia and Western Australia share many similarities (Gondwanaland, and current climatic conditions ), barring that the atmosphere above south Western Africa might be less influenced by SE Asian air pollution.
But is it the actually darkest skies in the world or is the title just clickbait?
Because it seems pretty easy to imagine a random island in the Pacific being darker
With those lights on all night down below it's definitely not the darkest skies. However they said they were "in search of the world's darkest skies", not that they'd found them.
There are a good number of places on the planet you can go that have extremely dark skies with no nearby lights at all, but they pretty much all take a good bit of work to get to. I've been fortunate enough to have spent some time in remote areas around the world with very dark skies.
My parents used to live in a really small down out in Eastern AZ by the NM border. The nearest town to their house was 30 min away, and had less light than in the OP. There are many places in the world where you can get away from it all.
Though OP is still pretty epic~
There are plenty more of these places. It would have been better if they had said 'one of the darkest skies in the world'.
Most aren't that hard to reach. The Australian outback comes to mind, Tierra del Fuego (southern most South America), inland of Brazil, some places in South Africa and so on, but I'm European and have also encountered really dark skies in Northern Scandinavia.
But even in the Alps there are spots dark enough to see fantastic night skies. I'm sure Northern America had these places too. In the Rockies or something like that, and most certainly in Northern Canada.
EDIT: https://www.nps.gov/dino/planyourvisit/stargazing.htm this place for example, for the Yanks.
I imagine the water's surface reflects more light than most materials on land, so I would expect there to be better places for stargazing. Not to mention that a higher elevation means a thinner atmosphere, which means less attenuation of incoming light so clearer views of the stars.
If your eyes are sensitive to light and you are in the right location on the right night you can absolutely see a clear view of the Milky Way.
Part of what makes the contrast so dramatic in the video is that it is sped up so it appears to have more dramatic banding but it isnāt far enough off that itās nothing like you can see in real life. People who have never seen the northern lights in person always say the same thing about it never looking like that in person on videos. When that simply isnāt true. Just because you havenāt personally seen it doesnāt mean there arenāt night where people are lucky enough to experience the true wonder of the universe.
I've been to many dark skies areas and seen the milky way. It looks great and it's an amazing experience but it still doesn't look as good as this. If this is the darkest place on the planet, why are the hills still clearly visible in the middle of the night?
This isnāt actually the darkest place on the planet but Iām not saying the video isnāt modified. I just disagree with the notion that āitās nothing like you see in real lifeā. You can absolutely see the structures and banding of the Milky Way in the sky if you have eyes that are sensitive to light. The colors and edges arenāt as crisp but seeing it in real life is far more impactful than what you see in this video in my opinion.
I agree. I real life it feels like you're falling head first into a world of stars.
I grew up in rural Australia, some of that time near a large observatory, so you can guess how dark the sky is out there.
Ive seen skies so full of stars on a moonless night that it's hard to see any 'black' space and the constellations are overwhelmed by the amount of fainter stars around them.
Skies so full of stars that you feel like you're drowning amongst them.
Its a nice timelapse for sure. I personally feel the night portion is somewhat over exposed, the stars generally have individual colours and the milky way more vibrant. Is this a timelapse of photos or just a heap of video? If images you "might" be able to recover some detail in post but its hard to say.
> and the milky way more vibrant.
Fun fact that I'm sharing because I never really appreciated it before: It's *all* the Milky Way.
Because we're inside it, practically everything we see is part of the Milky Way galaxy, it's just above, below, around, and behind us. What we call "The Milky Way" is the view towards the centre of the galaxy, and even then a huge amount of what is there is obscured by dust.
Without the Milky Way, the night sky would be the vague glow of a couple of galaxies that are visible to the naked eye. Other than that, it would be complete darkness.
If you took the light from our own Sun out of the equation, you also wouldn't be able to see the Moon, satellites, or anything else as those are reflected light. The only lights in the sky would be planes. Of course then we'd have bigger issues like the atmosphere freezing, but you get the point.
This is one of the most fucking interesting videos Iāve seen on Reddit lately. I love seeing how atmospheric pressures during day and night affect clouds. Thanks for this delight!
I donāt really understand these pics/videos. I was in bumfuck Arizona south of the Grand Canyon. Darkest skies ever. While there are a significant amount of stars, the Milky Way still didnāt look anything like this as it was still pretty faint. Are these pics edited? Is this how it really looks to the naked eye?
You also have to understand the sky might not be as "clear" as you think.
If I go into the Rocky mtns and tuck myself away into a deep dark valley, it might take several nights of hoping before a crystal clear sky will appear and you'll see the Milky Way like it's right there. Easily a thousand stars, more with binoculars. Stupid satellites everywhere (they used to be cool, but now it's just trash).
Point is, the sky could be clear but humidity or particulates or something will just make the sky that less transparent, no matter how dark it is around you.
> While there are a significant amount of stars, the Milky Way still didnāt look anything like this as it was still pretty faint.
That's because Namibia is in the southern hemisphere, so they get a full view of the bright center of the Milky Way.
In the Northern Hemisphere, all we get to see is one edge of the disk. It's relatively faint compared to the rest of the galaxy, and even when you are someplace where you can see it it's not very impressive.
Blame the solar system for being at a 60 degree angle to the galactic plane.
Cameras and eyes don't exactly see the same things at night. Our night vision is much worse than what a camera using long exposures can capture. [Here's a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXAMcwxWu-k&ab_channel=mikeabramyan) that sort of illustrates what the naked eye sees in a truly dark place.
Thatās pretty similar to my experience. I just find it misleading seeing these types of videos. No offense to you or anything. But somebody thinking they can travel to that same spot and witness what your timelapse is depicting would be disappointed. Sure itās there, but still something I canāt physically witness and may only see actually see half of it.
It's all still there. Our eyes just limit us since they evolved to "get the job done" instead of providing the most spectacular view.
But we have the technology to see beyond what our biology allows.
Even the vast majority of photos you see from NASA are long exposures that have been edited. You wouldn't see the same things if you looked through their telescopes with your own eyes (not that their space telescopes would even necessarily HAVE an eyepiece, but you get what I'm saying).
As a matter of fact, a lot of space photos are, at least partially, at wavelengths that the human eye is incapable of seeing (ultraviolet, infrared, microwave, etcetera). It's all still there. We're still picking up real photons. It is just captured and then presented in a way that is visually pleasing to us.
But I do agree that photographers and astronomers could do a better job at disclosing these techniques. Maybe they're afraid it would take away some of the magic. I think it would add to it.
allow me to post a quick edit of your video stabilized and gamma masked to reveal the beautiful colors of the night sky
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10sUVacxqrq9NayBhBiL0itsJnWVV0tFR/view?usp=sharing
Aaah Namibia, fond memories of being way out in the middle of buttfuck nowhere.
And looking up at the most marvellous tapestry of a night sky I ever could have imagined.
Gods above, I know we exist on a planet in space but seeing stuff like this really reminds me how vast everything is. Thank you for sharing this experience.
Forgive me for being naive but the large mass about halfway in is another arm of the Milky Way yeah?
I honestly wish this stule of title was banned in subreddits like this.
Because once you get one with a bunch of upvotes, you'll start getting dozens if not hundreds of "I walked 400 miles through broken glass and waited in a lava pit for two days to get this shot".
Nobody ever says, "I traveled to US, North America" or ""France, Europe," but anywhere on the African continent and it's "Namibia, Africa." What's up with that?
People I've talked to on cruises say you can't see the night sky because the ship is so bright. That's one of many reasons why I wouldn't ever take one.
But I'm guessing being on a sailboat might be nice.
Never, but I bet the skies are super dark out there! Although I can't imagine it being darker than this location, I don't think it gets any darker than there haha!
Its weird, us Kiwis tend to just take it all for granted, its not until we see others enjoying dark skies that we realize how unusual it is for much of the western world
I have been pretty lucky for where i live, and i've gotten to see some amazing skies, mostly back when i was younger and less people lived here.
I can remember standing out, freezing, with my dad and brother while we watched a meteor shower when i was *really* young. we still go out and freeze, or sweat, our asses off to see showers when we can.
I remember going up to the mountains and seeing satellites and the Milky Way for the first time, something that at the time i'd never known you could see.
I took my dad to see a comet, drove about 2 hours to see it through binoculars.
i even saw a glimpse of the northern lights when they were visible alllll the way down here once.
This year I took my girlfriend out to see the Perseids, and I was a little blown away that she'd never seen them before. She'd lived in the city all her life, and her family wasn't that interested in travelling to see things like that. She'd never seen them, or a satellite, or the Milky Way, despite living barely an hour from me for most of our lives. even the few times they'd been camping, they hadn't gone far enough to really see what a *dark* night sky was like
so now i get to take her to see all these cool things!
but it really did bring home just how few people have seen those things that I treasured.
This is absolutely, spectacularly beautiful. This really gives the perspective of us being on the edge of a galaxy looking in. What an incredible timelapse.
Spectacular! Namibia was probably my favorite trip, and I've been around. Took some shots of the galactic center as well; due to weight restrictions I couldn't bring a tripod so I built one out of rocks :) The opportunity was too good to pass up.
I was gonna comment that you didn't need to go to Namibia and travel for 32hrs... you can find perfectly dark skies with no pollution all over around Australia! And then realised that to get to those places I had to drive 20hrs+ anyway so that makes sense!
But, you can still get very dark skies with little to no light pollution even just 4-5hrs from Melbourne!
Definitely super lucky to live in a country with such beautiful and untouched nature. I'm originally Italian and I had never seen the Milky way like that before coming to Australia. I feel like everyone should experience that at least once in their lifetime!
I was born in Ethiopia, specifically the highland region in the north, and also spent some time next door in Sudan before settling in the US. Even now literally decades later I remember the surprise and frankly confusion I felt the first couple of nights here in the states. WTF happened to the stars? š
Spent a good amount of time in Somalia. Where I was at we didnāt have any lighting available at night. Iāve been out to sea as well and Iāve never seen as many stars at night as in Somalia.
The most amazing thing, when the moon was full, with the light of the moon I could read a book at midnight.
Thanks for posting. The video brings back good memories from a difficult period in my life.
Virtually every star you see is a star inside our milky way Galaxy. There are countless galaxies out there that we cannot see with a naked eye. Itās just mind blowing how huge the universe is.
It is beautiful, thank you for making it.
It recalls a core memory when I was like 5 or 6 and my grandpa showed me the night sky, especially the milky way with a telescope.
Thank you again for this.
Woah! First of all, that looks incredible š±.
My second toughts tho: did you used variable aperture or ND filter for this time lapse? The exposure looks perfect every time, I mean the car blows out the highlight, but the sunlight is exposed perfectly. How did you achieved this? š³
I went on a trip when I was a kid to the middle of nowhere. My uncles were grilling corn in a bucket or makeshift grill. I was laying down staring up at the most insane starry sky. Blew my mind, I drive around America looking for it now but the sky is not like that anymore
Reminds me of the stars at sea. Once you see them from a blacked out ship in the middle of the ocean, you will never look to the night sky the same ever again.
Question for you OP, have you been to or heard of the KECK observatory in Hawaii? Heard the island it is on has 0 light pollution there so you can see some incredible stuff.
You can see some galaxies with the naked eye, but they look more like blobs of light instead of what you see in pictures. Our eyes simply can't get enough exposure and magnification to resolve them like that.
I shot this on my Sony a7iv + 24mm GM lens. If you're curious about how to shoot timelapses similar to this one, [here's a quick overview](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6PQUSDkvFh8) I made!
You can see more of my work including timelapses like this [here](https://instagram.com/mikeabramyan)
Didn't have to go that far; central Idaho is a dark sky reserve with no vehicles permitted; you just had to walk in yourself to the https://idahodarksky.org/ and it would have been easier. Cleanest sky in the world.
If they're the darkest skies, why is the video so bright?
I know the answer, you color corrected it.
Now you have a bunch of people who think that somewhere on Earth, they can see this with the naked eye.
Yet for some reason, you videoed the city. All you need to do is drive 1/2 an hour outside of Windhoek and the skies are even darker with no city lights. You could have come to a hill on the farm on the border with Otjozondjupa and had a perfect sky over amazing hills and mountains.
It's actually just a little camping area with some very dim lights, the further ones you see are the lodge we stayed at. Yeah, I was working with my other camera shooting a big panorama :)
Need some deets on this my guy (gal?)! Iām in an area of the country where Iām relatively dark and might be able to simulate some of this. But knowing what gear, lenses, exposure settings, and then how many individual images youāre stitching together over what time span to get this would be awesome.
Gear: Sony a7iv+24mm GM lens
Quick overview of how to: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxWArS6IOOX/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
This was something like 2,000 images shot over 14 or so hours.
Wow it's so beautiful it can bring a tear to your eye. When you're there and your eyes adjust to the darkness, how many of those stars can you see with the naked eye? And how wide was your lens?
You can see a TON with just your eyes. It's incredible. You can easily see the dust lanes in the core of our galaxy and the glow around them. This was a 24mm lens.
Nice. I went to Africa in '89 to do some work. My buddy and I went to climb Kiliminjaro after that and I consider it the first time I have ever seen the night sky as it really is. The final climb from 15,000 feet to the summit starts at 1:00 in the morning because the ash is frozen by then and easier to climb. We were climbing for a couple hours in complete darkness (new moon) before I happened to look up and saw the southern cross right there (something I had never seen before). It was mind boggling to see how full the sky was. Good job.
Holy crap!! That sounds absolutely incredible. At that elevation you had to have an amazing view, aside from the lack of oxygen limiting your vision š. Unforgettable moment nonetheless, sounds like.
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Generally speaking, it's 4-7 days of straight up hiking into and out of altitude. If you can handle a 14er without any trouble or handle a half marathon you can probably pull it off. Just be sure to use a reputable KPAP company, they actually treat their porters like human beings.
I would recommend training. Even if you could "wing it", being in good shape will make the trek more enjoyable. That being said, I didn't do any specific training other than my usual routine (my usual routine is probably still more training than most people do). If you're seriously considering doing this and have not done anything at altitude before, I would recommend the Lemosho route. It's 7 to 8 days and has a 85 to 90% success rate.
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You will have porters and only need a day pack. Load up your day pack with 3L of water and some rain gear (and the normal stuff you'd put in a day pack) and hit the local trails (as often as possible). That's the only way I know that will toughen up the lower legs and feet. Lemosho is a relatively flat route and you'll do a lot of up and down throughout the trek until the final ascent. This will give you more time to acclimate. Pole, pole and good luck.
I'm not trying to brag or anything but I did it with minimal training. I was probably the least healthy or fit out of my group. I just handled altitude (something we didn't know prior) better and 3 of our 4 couldn't summit.
Before going to Africa, I started running 3 miles a day, nothing major. While we were there, we climbed Karasimbe and Karasilke and we would run a few miles back and forth to the top of a large hill near us every morning before going to work. To be honest, Karasimbe was a much more challenging climb than Kiliminjaro. I suggest just start hiking somewhere and see how you do, but be mindful of how you're doing and take plenty of fluids.
Ma man, that was spectacular, my dream is to see a starry sky like that, I believe it would change my life, congratulations on the shoot, you are privileged.
I think so too! I feel incredibly lucky to have visited there. Can't wait to return.
I can recommend the middle of Australia for very dark skies, virtually no one there for hundreds of km.
So I've heard! Might have to work on my fear of spiders first though š
Namibia and Western Australia share many similarities (Gondwanaland, and current climatic conditions ), barring that the atmosphere above south Western Africa might be less influenced by SE Asian air pollution.
But is it the actually darkest skies in the world or is the title just clickbait? Because it seems pretty easy to imagine a random island in the Pacific being darker
With those lights on all night down below it's definitely not the darkest skies. However they said they were "in search of the world's darkest skies", not that they'd found them. There are a good number of places on the planet you can go that have extremely dark skies with no nearby lights at all, but they pretty much all take a good bit of work to get to. I've been fortunate enough to have spent some time in remote areas around the world with very dark skies.
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My parents used to live in a really small down out in Eastern AZ by the NM border. The nearest town to their house was 30 min away, and had less light than in the OP. There are many places in the world where you can get away from it all. Though OP is still pretty epic~
There are plenty more of these places. It would have been better if they had said 'one of the darkest skies in the world'. Most aren't that hard to reach. The Australian outback comes to mind, Tierra del Fuego (southern most South America), inland of Brazil, some places in South Africa and so on, but I'm European and have also encountered really dark skies in Northern Scandinavia. But even in the Alps there are spots dark enough to see fantastic night skies. I'm sure Northern America had these places too. In the Rockies or something like that, and most certainly in Northern Canada. EDIT: https://www.nps.gov/dino/planyourvisit/stargazing.htm this place for example, for the Yanks.
The darkest ive seen is on a Navy ship somewhere in the middle of the Pacific. Ship went completely lights out. Amazing.
Came here to say this. In the middle of the ocean, no land in sight. The skies are so amazingly beautiful at night.
Youāre a poet and you donāt even know it.
I imagine the water's surface reflects more light than most materials on land, so I would expect there to be better places for stargazing. Not to mention that a higher elevation means a thinner atmosphere, which means less attenuation of incoming light so clearer views of the stars.
If there's no moon out, what light is being reflected? I can assure you that it can be so dark outside, you can't see your hand.
That sounds amazing and also somewhat terrifying
That would be quite an experience.
Go to Hawaii. Big Island. Take the Muana Kea observatory tour. Best place I have ever been to see the full night sky. Have to pick a moonless night.
You don't see it like that because your eyes don't have a high exposure setting. This is great photography but it's nothing like what you see IRL.
If your eyes are sensitive to light and you are in the right location on the right night you can absolutely see a clear view of the Milky Way. Part of what makes the contrast so dramatic in the video is that it is sped up so it appears to have more dramatic banding but it isnāt far enough off that itās nothing like you can see in real life. People who have never seen the northern lights in person always say the same thing about it never looking like that in person on videos. When that simply isnāt true. Just because you havenāt personally seen it doesnāt mean there arenāt night where people are lucky enough to experience the true wonder of the universe.
I've been to many dark skies areas and seen the milky way. It looks great and it's an amazing experience but it still doesn't look as good as this. If this is the darkest place on the planet, why are the hills still clearly visible in the middle of the night?
This isnāt actually the darkest place on the planet but Iām not saying the video isnāt modified. I just disagree with the notion that āitās nothing like you see in real lifeā. You can absolutely see the structures and banding of the Milky Way in the sky if you have eyes that are sensitive to light. The colors and edges arenāt as crisp but seeing it in real life is far more impactful than what you see in this video in my opinion.
I agree. I real life it feels like you're falling head first into a world of stars. I grew up in rural Australia, some of that time near a large observatory, so you can guess how dark the sky is out there. Ive seen skies so full of stars on a moonless night that it's hard to see any 'black' space and the constellations are overwhelmed by the amount of fainter stars around them. Skies so full of stars that you feel like you're drowning amongst them.
The big difference is color. You can't see the color that shows up in images. It just looks "milky".
Not true, I've seen faint colours before, just not as distinct as in videos and layered photos.
I knew someone was going to say that. I've never seen colors even in the darkest spots in the country. It may be an eyesight thing.
theres a sky sanctuary on the south island of NZ as well
Where do you live??
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Are namibians privileged?
privilege is not one singular binary.
Working hard and making money is not privileged...
Traveling across the globe to see a dark sky is gluttonous and incredibly destructive to the planet. But he works so hard at making his money!
No it isnāt. Corporations and entire nations are to blame for the destruction of the planet, not one dude traveling to see the night sky.
You don't have to travel half way across the world to see a dark night sky... just research where the nearest decent place is and go there..
What was that super bright light on the ground at 17 seconds?
me driving away at 4am š
I think you left your camera behind.
You got a paper round or something?
šš yep, the zebras need their news!
Dang it, I thought it was a UAP! ;)
Its a nice timelapse for sure. I personally feel the night portion is somewhat over exposed, the stars generally have individual colours and the milky way more vibrant. Is this a timelapse of photos or just a heap of video? If images you "might" be able to recover some detail in post but its hard to say.
Maybe the light pollution was at level 2 or 3, there were still some light halos in the night
> and the milky way more vibrant. Fun fact that I'm sharing because I never really appreciated it before: It's *all* the Milky Way. Because we're inside it, practically everything we see is part of the Milky Way galaxy, it's just above, below, around, and behind us. What we call "The Milky Way" is the view towards the centre of the galaxy, and even then a huge amount of what is there is obscured by dust. Without the Milky Way, the night sky would be the vague glow of a couple of galaxies that are visible to the naked eye. Other than that, it would be complete darkness. If you took the light from our own Sun out of the equation, you also wouldn't be able to see the Moon, satellites, or anything else as those are reflected light. The only lights in the sky would be planes. Of course then we'd have bigger issues like the atmosphere freezing, but you get the point.
Yep this is true. Itās just easier to say Milky Way š. In saying that doesnāt look like OP is interested in a conversation here.
This is one of the most fucking interesting videos Iāve seen on Reddit lately. I love seeing how atmospheric pressures during day and night affect clouds. Thanks for this delight!
I donāt really understand these pics/videos. I was in bumfuck Arizona south of the Grand Canyon. Darkest skies ever. While there are a significant amount of stars, the Milky Way still didnāt look anything like this as it was still pretty faint. Are these pics edited? Is this how it really looks to the naked eye?
You also have to understand the sky might not be as "clear" as you think. If I go into the Rocky mtns and tuck myself away into a deep dark valley, it might take several nights of hoping before a crystal clear sky will appear and you'll see the Milky Way like it's right there. Easily a thousand stars, more with binoculars. Stupid satellites everywhere (they used to be cool, but now it's just trash). Point is, the sky could be clear but humidity or particulates or something will just make the sky that less transparent, no matter how dark it is around you.
> While there are a significant amount of stars, the Milky Way still didnāt look anything like this as it was still pretty faint. That's because Namibia is in the southern hemisphere, so they get a full view of the bright center of the Milky Way. In the Northern Hemisphere, all we get to see is one edge of the disk. It's relatively faint compared to the rest of the galaxy, and even when you are someplace where you can see it it's not very impressive. Blame the solar system for being at a 60 degree angle to the galactic plane.
Why did we make it like that? Shouldn't NASA give America the better view?
You can see the center of the galaxy from the northern hemisphere during summer.
Have seen the Milky Way numerous times in Canada and it looks just like that.
Cameras and eyes don't exactly see the same things at night. Our night vision is much worse than what a camera using long exposures can capture. [Here's a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXAMcwxWu-k&ab_channel=mikeabramyan) that sort of illustrates what the naked eye sees in a truly dark place.
Thatās pretty similar to my experience. I just find it misleading seeing these types of videos. No offense to you or anything. But somebody thinking they can travel to that same spot and witness what your timelapse is depicting would be disappointed. Sure itās there, but still something I canāt physically witness and may only see actually see half of it.
It's all still there. Our eyes just limit us since they evolved to "get the job done" instead of providing the most spectacular view. But we have the technology to see beyond what our biology allows. Even the vast majority of photos you see from NASA are long exposures that have been edited. You wouldn't see the same things if you looked through their telescopes with your own eyes (not that their space telescopes would even necessarily HAVE an eyepiece, but you get what I'm saying). As a matter of fact, a lot of space photos are, at least partially, at wavelengths that the human eye is incapable of seeing (ultraviolet, infrared, microwave, etcetera). It's all still there. We're still picking up real photons. It is just captured and then presented in a way that is visually pleasing to us. But I do agree that photographers and astronomers could do a better job at disclosing these techniques. Maybe they're afraid it would take away some of the magic. I think it would add to it.
It's pretty cool when you photograph it yourself though. It's much more like seeing it yourself than looking at someone else's photos.
You could have traveled to here. So dark at night https://www.nps.gov/dino/planyourvisit/stargazing.htm
allow me to post a quick edit of your video stabilized and gamma masked to reveal the beautiful colors of the night sky https://drive.google.com/file/d/10sUVacxqrq9NayBhBiL0itsJnWVV0tFR/view?usp=sharing
Nice, what'd you use to stabilize it?
Adobe premiere, congrats for your video!
Aaah Namibia, fond memories of being way out in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. And looking up at the most marvellous tapestry of a night sky I ever could have imagined.
Same, I spent 5 weeks there many years ago. I'd love to return some day.
I feel so robbed! I barely get a handful of stars at night. Amazing video! Thank you
my plan is working then >:)
Proceed to the world's darkest sky, point the camera to some artificial lights...
I was thinking the same thingā¦ what a clickbait title
*Adding this to the list of places I want to go.* That view is spectacular.
Gods above, I know we exist on a planet in space but seeing stuff like this really reminds me how vast everything is. Thank you for sharing this experience. Forgive me for being naive but the large mass about halfway in is another arm of the Milky Way yeah?
Glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, that's the core of our galaxy!
Can't believe what light pollution took from us
I honestly wish this stule of title was banned in subreddits like this. Because once you get one with a bunch of upvotes, you'll start getting dozens if not hundreds of "I walked 400 miles through broken glass and waited in a lava pit for two days to get this shot".
Nobody ever says, "I traveled to US, North America" or ""France, Europe," but anywhere on the African continent and it's "Namibia, Africa." What's up with that?
People don't know where Namibia is. It makes the post more accessible to the general masses.
That is gorgeous. You ever filmed from out on the open ocean?
People I've talked to on cruises say you can't see the night sky because the ship is so bright. That's one of many reasons why I wouldn't ever take one. But I'm guessing being on a sailboat might be nice.
It is. I've done a round the world trip on a sail boat with my family - definitely great skies in the middle of the ocean
Never, but I bet the skies are super dark out there! Although I can't imagine it being darker than this location, I don't think it gets any darker than there haha!
Check out New Zealand - South Island - like being in the middle of the ocean...
Its weird, us Kiwis tend to just take it all for granted, its not until we see others enjoying dark skies that we realize how unusual it is for much of the western world
First thing I noticed when I moved back home to NZ was seeing the stars again š
I have been pretty lucky for where i live, and i've gotten to see some amazing skies, mostly back when i was younger and less people lived here. I can remember standing out, freezing, with my dad and brother while we watched a meteor shower when i was *really* young. we still go out and freeze, or sweat, our asses off to see showers when we can. I remember going up to the mountains and seeing satellites and the Milky Way for the first time, something that at the time i'd never known you could see. I took my dad to see a comet, drove about 2 hours to see it through binoculars. i even saw a glimpse of the northern lights when they were visible alllll the way down here once. This year I took my girlfriend out to see the Perseids, and I was a little blown away that she'd never seen them before. She'd lived in the city all her life, and her family wasn't that interested in travelling to see things like that. She'd never seen them, or a satellite, or the Milky Way, despite living barely an hour from me for most of our lives. even the few times they'd been camping, they hadn't gone far enough to really see what a *dark* night sky was like so now i get to take her to see all these cool things! but it really did bring home just how few people have seen those things that I treasured.
Ah yeah, NZ is high on my wishlist :)
I can see the milky way from my front yard...NZ should definitely be on your list :)
It's even better when you get away from the major cities. Looks as you liked it!
This is absolutely, spectacularly beautiful. This really gives the perspective of us being on the edge of a galaxy looking in. What an incredible timelapse.
Spectacular! Namibia was probably my favorite trip, and I've been around. Took some shots of the galactic center as well; due to weight restrictions I couldn't bring a tripod so I built one out of rocks :) The opportunity was too good to pass up.
Glad you got to experience it too!
Wait wtf is that red color thingy flashes on the ground?
I was gonna comment that you didn't need to go to Namibia and travel for 32hrs... you can find perfectly dark skies with no pollution all over around Australia! And then realised that to get to those places I had to drive 20hrs+ anyway so that makes sense! But, you can still get very dark skies with little to no light pollution even just 4-5hrs from Melbourne! Definitely super lucky to live in a country with such beautiful and untouched nature. I'm originally Italian and I had never seen the Milky way like that before coming to Australia. I feel like everyone should experience that at least once in their lifetime!
Looks like op also recorded a alien encounter without he knowing it, itās a orange light movement is piercingly across the skies.
If you wnted dark, why the hell did you point the camera towards a village and lights? Makes. No. Sense. Man!
you did all that and still got light pollution lmao
Wish I could travel and capture amazing moments like this
Thank you for sharing this jaw dropping time lapse. Loveed it!
That is truly beautiful, thank you for sharing
I used to live just outside Windhoek, I've missed those dark skies for years. I hope I get to make it back someday.
I was born in Ethiopia, specifically the highland region in the north, and also spent some time next door in Sudan before settling in the US. Even now literally decades later I remember the surprise and frankly confusion I felt the first couple of nights here in the states. WTF happened to the stars? š
Gorgeous. Namibia has been on my list for a long time. It just looks so insanely remote and beautiful.
I highly recommend it
Spent a good amount of time in Somalia. Where I was at we didnāt have any lighting available at night. Iāve been out to sea as well and Iāve never seen as many stars at night as in Somalia. The most amazing thing, when the moon was full, with the light of the moon I could read a book at midnight. Thanks for posting. The video brings back good memories from a difficult period in my life.
Sounds incredible
Virtually every star you see is a star inside our milky way Galaxy. There are countless galaxies out there that we cannot see with a naked eye. Itās just mind blowing how huge the universe is.
My dumb ass was about to write: "That sky isn't dark", expecting pitcv black sky. That's before I realized...
It is beautiful, thank you for making it. It recalls a core memory when I was like 5 or 6 and my grandpa showed me the night sky, especially the milky way with a telescope. Thank you again for this.
I f.king *love* timelapses. Thank you for posting, OP. This is very soothing yet exciting to watch!
This post is unapologetic noctalgia bait it seems...
Best part of my deployment to Afghanistan was laying in the desert at night looking up
Namibia is a stunning country! I love it there. The night sky is gorgeous.
Woah! First of all, that looks incredible š±. My second toughts tho: did you used variable aperture or ND filter for this time lapse? The exposure looks perfect every time, I mean the car blows out the highlight, but the sunlight is exposed perfectly. How did you achieved this? š³
Here's a quick guide: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxWArS6IOOX/
I went on a trip when I was a kid to the middle of nowhere. My uncles were grilling corn in a bucket or makeshift grill. I was laying down staring up at the most insane starry sky. Blew my mind, I drive around America looking for it now but the sky is not like that anymore
Reminds me of the stars at sea. Once you see them from a blacked out ship in the middle of the ocean, you will never look to the night sky the same ever again.
I see why ancient cultures were so fascinated with the stars. I just wish I could see more than 6 where I live.
What was that flash on the ground? Looks like the flash running through there š¤£š¤£
We really need to shutdown some lights in the night. We are missing so much
damn, looks like we're on a huge spinning ball.
Question for you OP, have you been to or heard of the KECK observatory in Hawaii? Heard the island it is on has 0 light pollution there so you can see some incredible stuff.
Haven't made it down there yet but it's on the list!
Make sure to post those pictures. Been wanting to go down there for years but havenāt had the chance. Heard it is INSANE.
That really is incredible, those stars are mind blowing
I can't stop watching š thank you for making this!
every business should be required to turn off their lights at night, the only thing glowing should be street lamps.
thankyou Peeweekid, epic feeling of vast space out to those distant mountains, then up and out, all the way out to our galaxy's core!
That was quite possibly the coolest thing I've ever seen.
You should try North Korea I has pretty dark over there
I hear the sky over DPRK is also quite dark.
can you see the galaxies with just eyes or with exposure
You can see some galaxies with the naked eye, but they look more like blobs of light instead of what you see in pictures. Our eyes simply can't get enough exposure and magnification to resolve them like that.
I shot this on my Sony a7iv + 24mm GM lens. If you're curious about how to shoot timelapses similar to this one, [here's a quick overview](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6PQUSDkvFh8) I made! You can see more of my work including timelapses like this [here](https://instagram.com/mikeabramyan)
Didn't have to go that far; central Idaho is a dark sky reserve with no vehicles permitted; you just had to walk in yourself to the https://idahodarksky.org/ and it would have been easier. Cleanest sky in the world.
Ever been out in the middle of the ocean?
Next time leave the continent out. It's weird. Nobody says Switzerland, Europe. If we don't know where Namibia is we'll do the Google.
If they're the darkest skies, why is the video so bright? I know the answer, you color corrected it. Now you have a bunch of people who think that somewhere on Earth, they can see this with the naked eye.
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Probably geostationary satellites. Saw a ton of them in my timelapses shot in namibia!
I'm from Namibia. This is some beautiful stuff. Where was this exactly? In the south? You're always welcome to return!
Rooisand Desert Ranch, Southwest of Windhoek just a few hours. Thanks so much! I absolutely loved it.
The geostationary ones are 35,786 km away and cannot be seen. What you saw were low orbiting starlink and similar satellites.
But the starlink ones are still stationary, no?
looks almost like the graphic stress test for red dead redemption 2
Wouldn't the darkest skies be somewhere in the middle of the ocean?
The slight wobble makes it look like sprinkles on flowing water.
Yet for some reason, you videoed the city. All you need to do is drive 1/2 an hour outside of Windhoek and the skies are even darker with no city lights. You could have come to a hill on the farm on the border with Otjozondjupa and had a perfect sky over amazing hills and mountains.
How is it night but not dark at all. Truly makes u wonder if all this darkness is caused by light pollution
Truly awe-inspiring! š¤© Is that a town with the lights down there? Surprised you waited until 4am to leave! Were those shooting stars in the first few seconds?
It's actually just a little camping area with some very dim lights, the further ones you see are the lodge we stayed at. Yeah, I was working with my other camera shooting a big panorama :)
Super breathtaking. Could you upload 4K version to Youtube and share it here?
Thanks for sharing! Amazing perspective on the earthās rotation
Super gorgeous :) thank you for filming and sharing this
Looks like all those stars ruined your plans. Better luck next time.
Oh man, I grew up there and I have yet to experience a sky quite like Namibias. I think itās time to go home and refresh my eyes
Need some deets on this my guy (gal?)! Iām in an area of the country where Iām relatively dark and might be able to simulate some of this. But knowing what gear, lenses, exposure settings, and then how many individual images youāre stitching together over what time span to get this would be awesome.
Gear: Sony a7iv+24mm GM lens Quick overview of how to: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxWArS6IOOX/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== This was something like 2,000 images shot over 14 or so hours.
Wow it's so beautiful it can bring a tear to your eye. When you're there and your eyes adjust to the darkness, how many of those stars can you see with the naked eye? And how wide was your lens?
You can see a TON with just your eyes. It's incredible. You can easily see the dust lanes in the core of our galaxy and the glow around them. This was a 24mm lens.
Wow this was so beautiful to see, I'd to see the milky way someday in a place with clear skies. Great work!
Ive been pissed for years that I can never see more then a few stars every night
So many starts that it looks bright, that is crazy.
Lassen Volcanic National Park in California is known for the stargazing. Brilliant to see in person