Our trip to Peru and Bolivia had been long planned in advance. You can read about our adventure in other posts by searching this website.
Prior to my trip, whilst researching destinations and where we’d like to explore, I was fascinated to read about the Salt Flats of Uyuni in Bolivia. If you’ve read my previous post, available here, you will know that I researched the Bortle scale and found that our adventure would take us to a place claiming to offer a night sky unlike anywhere else on Earth.
When I heard this and given my love of photography and astronomy, I was determined that I would be well prepared to capture that ultimate night sky image.
I contacted Dwarf Labs and told them that I would be visiting one of the darkest places on earth and had read about the Dwarf Mini, an under-1KG device that could capture nebulae, galaxies, and the Milky Way.
I am no NASA expert.
When I received my Dwarf Mini and tripod, you’ll have read that I was blown away by getting images from my back garden, on a clear night where the sky is blocked by houses and trees in an urban area, Bortle 6 or 7.
On recommendation on a Facebook group I saw someone suggest the Ugreen case to protect my scope. I can confirm its lightweight and gives me a sense of protection and security.
I have a small under-seat roll-on cabin bag that I loaded with my Sony A7iii camera, battery packs and Dwarf Mini. There was no way that these electronic devices were going to leave my side, and the weight meant the wheels made the travelling so much easier.
Every night before bed, I would if possible, place the Dwarf Mini without the tripod, outside the room so it would not be stolen. On one occasion I had a Juliet balcony and left the device perched on a ledge just behind the window when closed.
It’s the simplicity of the software that makes using the Dwarf Mini a pleasure. You simply open the Dwarf Lab app .. it’s the green one with a large letter D in white. You have to turn on the scope and then you connect.. in fact I had climbed into bed at this point as it was so cold … 3500 metres is pretty chilly!
But then I was able to make the scope point up the sky where it was clear and even use the feature that tells me what is there… It’s a remarkable piece of electronic magic.
Having found something I wanted to photograph, I ensured it was tracking, focused and then began taking pictures before turning off the light and getting much-needed sleep.
The biggest challenge I had that night was deciding which images to capture. But I was governed by the direction of the sky that I had clear access to. It really is easy to get your head around, as the software offers so many ways to choose what to take.
Experienced astronomers with a telescope rig valuable enough to purchase a car want to capture the ultimate image, but the Dwarf Mini lets everyone do it!
The images you see here have been captured at various points along my trip until we eventually reached Uyuni.
We eventually, and I really do mean eventually, because serious civilian unrest broke out in La Paz, Bolivia and our agent wanted us to evacuate immediately, but against the advice, we flew from La Paz to Uyuni. (You can read more about our adventure in other posts.)
I took a head torch with me for Uyuni, and I was right to. It was so dark that whilst I was setting up both the camera and the telescope, our guide wandered away from the car and almost got lost in the pitch-black.
We had already eaten dinner at the hotel and made our way a few miles away, where the area was already isolated and had barely any light pollution.
Earlier in the day, whilst the light was good, I took these images of the dwarf on the salt flats.
Uyuni is a dried up salt lake. It can be seen from space and looks like you’re at the North Pole. The difference is that you’re standing on salt at over 12,000 feet!
The area looks like this during the day.
As I got out of the car and looked up, there in all it’s glory were millions of stars and the Milky Way visible to the naked eye… I was already blown away.
That night, I set up the small tripod, making sure all the legs were fully extended and that I had attached the mounting plate to the bottom of the scope in advance.
I then went about setting up in EQ mode. I was done in about 10 minutes.
Then I chose my target and set it running. For the record, I let Stellar do the work, then opened the saved image in Lightroom on my phone and adjusted the colours to my preference.
It was very, very cold. Well below freezing, I sadly had only two hours to take these images.
These are the results!
I really do suggest you read the other article I wrote, because frankly, I doubt I will ever achieve such results again without finding really dark locations.
What I have discovered is that dark… we’re talking Bortle 1, saves you time getting those images. I could see them on my phone almost immediately and, given the time constraints, chose to take different targets.
But when I am home on a clear night it takes longer, many more shots to get that special image … but there is almost always something when I get up in the morning.
#DWARFLAB #DWARFmini
