[HN Gopher] Total lunar eclipse over Teide crater, Tenerife - a ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Total lunar eclipse over Teide crater, Tenerife - a project with
       many obstacles
        
       Author : elijahparker
       Score  : 158 points
       Date   : 2025-03-21 15:04 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (lrtimelapse.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (lrtimelapse.com)
        
       | estingala wrote:
       | Greeting from Tenerife! Thanks for sharing such a great picture
       | and timelapse showing Teide from an unconventional angle. I go to
       | Izana from time to time just to appreciate the sky and take some
       | amateur pics with my Sony A7III. It is truly wonderful up there.
        
       | madaxe_again wrote:
       | I felt my blood pressure spike at the mention of the people with
       | the headlamps - I do astrophotography, and having an hour long
       | exposure ruined because someone sauntered over with their high
       | beams on is a touch infuriating.
        
         | jmkd wrote:
         | It should be said that in no way is anyone at fault for walking
         | on a mountain at night using a headlamp. The onus is on the
         | photographer to plan ways to avoid this issue affecting their
         | work, or hope for a bit of luck. A saunterer may be searching
         | for rare wildlife or any of countless other important projects
         | that must be shared with others on the mountain.
        
           | seabass-labrax wrote:
           | I don't really understand this argument. What rare wildlife
           | would it be necessary to find at night, that wouldn't also be
           | disturbed by bright lamps? If you were looking for nocturnal
           | animals you'd surely want your lamps off, and for anything
           | else you could just search after sunrise.
        
             | aa-jv wrote:
             | Can't imagine any other scenario? Perhaps they were looking
             | for a missing colleague? One would never know, for as long
             | as hostility and antagonism is the reaction to assumptions
             | made, instead of .. you know .. having empathy for someone
             | out there on the mountain in the middle of the night,
             | looking for something/someone ..
        
               | seabass-labrax wrote:
               | Sorry, but none of this makes any sense to me. First rare
               | wildlife, now lost colleagues? Tenerife has a mountain
               | rescue service with helicopters and off-roaders.
               | 
               | Having empathy is great, but it still _most_ likely that
               | the availability of ultra-bright lamps is causing people
               | to use them unnecessarily. There is an abundance of
               | evidence that artificial light hurts natural ecosystems,
               | not to mention inconveniencing astrophotographers, and I
               | don 't think it's unreasonable to take a dim view of
               | those who use bright lights in uninhabited environments
               | like this.
        
               | aa-jv wrote:
               | What does the word "perhaps" mean to you?
               | 
               | The example given was just an example - and in fact, an
               | assumption cannot be made that the light-bearers were
               | intentionally trying to interfere in a photo session.
               | 
               | It is entirely unreasonable to think that strangers on a
               | mountain will account for a random photography project in
               | their thinking. So the blame game doesn't make any sense
               | whatsoever.
               | 
               | The onus of responsibility for having a clear shot,
               | obviously lays with the photographer. Just because a
               | photo is being taken, doesn't mean that others can't
               | access the public space, too ..
        
               | wat10000 wrote:
               | They're probably one of those people who tries to take a
               | photo across a busy sidewalk and gets annoyed when people
               | keep walking through the shot.
        
             | BurningFrog wrote:
             | The simple, and rather obvious, answer is that you use
             | lights at night to see where you're going!
             | 
             | There is nothing wrong with that in general. If people are
             | doing light sensitive things near me I'll of course adapt,
             | if practical.
        
           | globular-toast wrote:
           | Yes and no. It's light pollution. It's this attitude that
           | leads people to think it's OK to have way too loud
           | cars/motorbikes and way too bright headlights etc.
           | Photography doesn't affect others, but light and other types
           | of pollution do. People should think more carefully about how
           | their super-important projects and errands will affect
           | others.
        
         | aa-jv wrote:
         | I think its more troubling to think that someones Very
         | Important Thing(tm) might be being disturbed by someone elses
         | More Important Thing(tm).
         | 
         | Whining about flashlights ruining your shot is one thing - not
         | having compassion for someone who might be searching the
         | mountain for a lost colleague, or any one of a number of other
         | possible scenarios, is another thing entirely.
         | 
         | Its quite psychopathic to not at least consider that there
         | might have been a more noble purpose behind those flashlights
         | than just "some random creep ruining my special shot".
         | 
         | In this scenario, the onus of responsibility is on the
         | photographer, not the other visitors, to ensure the sterility
         | of their scene. Why didn't the author climb up there and talk
         | to them, or coordinate at the visitors center, or some such
         | effort - instead of just immediately jumping to hostile blame.
        
           | solace_silence wrote:
           | Aren't you assuming that the author didn't reach out?
        
             | aa-jv wrote:
             | There's nothing in the article that indicates they reached
             | out - there is plenty in the article to indicate that the
             | assumption of entitlement to the mountain was being made,
             | in spades.
        
           | fumeux_fume wrote:
           | Very troubling to think the author did not even consider that
           | those people were searching for their long lost colleague
           | after reciveing mysterious signals coming from the Teide
           | crater. All of which indicating an exact point in space and
           | time where a portal would appear and contact could finally be
           | made. Actually quite psychopathic they didn't consider this
           | at all.
        
             | sva_ wrote:
             | Now that I think of it, since they were shouting to turn
             | off the lights ... If I heard some people shouting
             | something I can't understand in the dark near a 3700m peak,
             | I would presume there might be people who need help and try
             | to locate them. It would make sense that they came into
             | their direction.
        
         | ioulian wrote:
         | I hear a lot of astrophotographers take many short-exposure
         | (5-10s) photos and then stich them together in POST. Missing 1
         | of possible 100 photos in OK I think?
         | 
         | Keeping in mind that you photographing a specific thing in the
         | sky, not the startrails, as missing a frame will be very
         | visible there.
        
           | _aavaa_ wrote:
           | Sub exposures are taken explicitly to avoid this issue. It
           | also lets you easily to be planes and satellites.
        
         | theoreticalmal wrote:
         | I haven't done long exposure photography in a while, but I also
         | really really don't like very bright headlamps at night. Very
         | dim, or red light lamps are usually all that's needed
        
         | tecleandor wrote:
         | Can't really pinpoint the place where they were located, but
         | guessing some place between Portillo and Montana Blanca at an
         | altitude of 2200 meters, I'd say they could have seen either
         | people coming down from the Altavista shelter to Montana
         | Blanca, or from the workers hut in Montana Blanca (I think it's
         | for the volcanologists).
         | 
         | I think the shelter's closed right now, so I guess in both
         | cases it would probably be workers coming down.
         | 
         | Seems like they decided last minute to hike up for doing the
         | shooting, so I hope they got the night permit.
        
         | globular-toast wrote:
         | It reminds me of one evening around the time of the recent
         | Aurora Borealis sightings in the UK. We finally had a cloudless
         | evening but couldn't really travel right out into a dark sky so
         | tried in a large meadow just outside of town.
         | 
         | Unfortunately, we weren't the only people with this idea. Half
         | the town had descended on to this one meadow. It was quite
         | comical seeing people awkwardly milling around who had clearly
         | never been in a meadow in the dark before. Phone lights were on
         | as well as fully lit screens etc. I think I've had better night
         | vision during the day.
         | 
         | One of them suddenly exclaimed, "is that it?!". It was, in
         | fact, not "it", but rather the glow from the town in which we
         | all lived.
        
       | kristianp wrote:
       | The experience was really well told, enjoyed finally seeing the
       | shots of the moon over the mountain. Really amazing shots. I have
       | no idea how he got the exposure so well done for those.
       | 
       | Also recently: Blue Ghost lander captures sunset shots on moon
       | before falling silent
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43410302
        
       | datadrivenangel wrote:
       | This is an awesome example of the wild shenanigans that people
       | get up to do great astrophotography! A lot of technology and
       | planning goes into good photos sometimes.
        
       | Etheryte wrote:
       | If you're ever in a similar pinch, any loyalty card, credit card
       | or similar plastic will work wonders as a makeshift ice scraper.
       | No need to put your hands through that pain, turn the car on to
       | get some heat going and hold the card with both of your hands to
       | support it as you scrape.
        
       | anthk wrote:
       | NASA itself wrote a PDF guide on doing astronomical photos with
       | smartphones. For free.
        
         | pavel_lishin wrote:
         | https://www.nasa.gov/stem-content/guide-to-smartphone-astron...
        
       | electrosphere wrote:
       | Fantastic shot!
       | 
       | I was in Tenerife in November 2024. I did some basic
       | astrophotography one night with my Pixel 6 phone and a steady
       | hand.
       | 
       | I managed to photograph M31, the Andromeda Galaxy for the very
       | first time. It just appears as a faint oval smudge... but I was
       | in awe.
       | 
       | Locating it was a challenge (I was flipping between a 2D star
       | chart and my photos) so I was very happy to finally capture it. A
       | few days later I discovered the Stellarium app which makes
       | locating things much easier.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-03-24 23:01 UTC)