Botswana
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The night sky in Botswana is awe inspiring. One regret was that
the 12 kg luggage restriction imposed by bush planes precluded bringing
a telescope to explore the wonders of the southern sky under such
ideal conditions. The Olympus 3040 digital camera I used for
all of these photos has a f/1.8 lens, CCD sensitivity equivalent
to ISO 400 film, and a maximum exposure time of 16 seconds, so I
decided to see what I could do with the equipment at hand. I set
up the camera on the folding tripod I used for the
eclipse photos and took this
16 second time exposure of the Southern Cross, with Alpha
and Beta Centauri visible to the left. The sensitivity of the camera
was not, regrettably, sufficient to capture the Milky Way, which
extended from horizon to horizon in the moonless sky.
by John Walker
July, 2001
This document is in the public domain.
