Made the drive to Cherry Springs State Park for astrophotography, but the real lesson came from my own mistakes

I drove 3 hours to Cherry Springs State Park last Saturday hoping to catch the Milky Way. Got there and realized I forgot my intervalometer at home. Tried to use a manual shutter release cable but that kept slipping. Ended up just stacking shorter exposures in DSS when I got home, and honestly they came out way better than I expected. Has anyone else learned a lesson the hard way about forgetting gear on a long dark-sky trip?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowanharris1mo ago

Wait, @jake_wilson12, are you telling me you actually chose to do the 2-second delay thing for a whole night? (I was too lazy to even try that, just sat there cursing my own genius packing skills.) It's funny how forgetting stuff can sometimes lead to happy accidents though, right?

jake_wilson121mo ago

Made a similar mistake once when I drove out to the Adirondacks and left my remote trigger on the kitchen table. Ended up using the 2-second delay on the camera for each shot, which was a real pain for a whole night of shooting. The upside was that it forced me to be more careful with my composition since I knew I only had so many shots in me before my hand got tired. Sometimes those accidental limitations actually push you to get more creative with what you have. Glad the shorter exposures worked out for you, DSS can do some surprising things if you give it enough frames.