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.
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.
Greeting from Tenerife! Thanks for sharing such a great picture and timelapse showing Teide from an unconventional angle. I go to Izaña from time to time just to appreciate the sky and take some amateur pics with my Sony A7III. It is truly wonderful up there.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Can't really pinpoint the place where they were located, but guessing some place between Portillo and Montaña Blanca at an altitude of 2200 meters, I'd say they could have seen either people coming down from the Altavista shelter to Montaña Blanca, or from the workers hut in Montaña 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.
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
I think its more troubling to think that someones Very Important Thing™ might be being disturbed by someone elses More Important Thing™.
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.
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.
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Also recently: Blue Ghost lander captures sunset shots on moon before falling silent https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43410302
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.
Keeping in mind that you photographing a specific thing in the sky, not the startrails, as missing a frame will be very visible there.
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.
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.
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.