AURORA hyperlapse with a DRONE! | A Nightscape Journal | DJI Mini 4 Pro night flying challenge

[@AstrokotaFilms]

Another great Journal Paul! What an amazing idea and glad that it sorta worked out for you! Nice job as always. Looking forward to the next one!

[@nightscapejournals]

Cheers Dakota - thanks so much for watching. Looking forward to honing this technique over the next few years!

[@SilviaHartmann]

Love your work and your enthusiasm, your photos on X and videos are like a much needed mini-holiday each time. Keep up the good work!

[@nightscapejournals]

Thank you so much, Silvia - that’s very kind and fantastic to hear. Really appreciate your encouragement. 😊

[@gr-astro]

That was pretty exciting at the end!! Great video Paul, you never know what to expect till you try! Well done for giving the drone a go and not 'ending it' too early!!! Certainly potential here.

[@nightscapejournals]

Cheers Geraint - well it was certainly fun! Looking forward to dabbling a bit more with this over time.

[@billwright9518]

Great video Paul, looking forward to seeing other videos using the drone.

[@nightscapejournals]

Thanks Bill - I might try some NLC this Summed, which hopefully will have a similar potential, and means I’m not trying to do it in freezing temperatures!!

[@astronebulee578]

Thank you Paul. What an exciting journal this one was. Your drone looks amazing and so easy to control, not a lot of flying controls needed all the time. So you can just watch it flying and capturing. You really did just manage to get it off the course it was on by centimetres, So Close! Lots of potential with your drone and looking forward to more adventures with it. Clear. Skies

[@nightscapejournals]

Thanks Lee - really appreciated. I’m amazed at how simple they’ve made basic flying - just mind boggling technology really. Definitely need to be a little more competent though to do all this well! Thanks as ever for your support and clear (+ warm!) skies to you too!

[@massimobollini4622]

Interesting experience Paul, I will follow your next videos to find out how you will proceed.

[@nightscapejournals]

Thanks for watching, Massimo - appreciated.

[@GrowPhotography]

Very entertaining 😂, the comment at the end pretty much summarised my thoughts as the drone drifted towards the ridge line 🙈. Love how you take a form of photography that is already inherently complicated, and say "hold my beer", I'm going to raise the bar several metres 😀

[@nightscapejournals]

Thanks Greg - glad you enjoyed it. Started as a bit of fun but I think it could have legs, although I think I need to drive up my competence a bit!! Just sat down to watch your latest!

[@SimonsAstro]

Wow, what an adventure Paul 😀 Excellent video mate, a drone really does spice things up a bit, very exciting!! I know that feeling when your drone flies off over water, will it ever come back? Looks like you’re getting to grips with all those settings! And what a good job you stopped it when you did🤦‍♂️ Supper footage mate, great images from your previous trip too👍 Thanks for sharing Paul and clear skies!

[@nightscapejournals]

Thanks Simon - it was a lot of fun! Yep that “over water” feeling really isn’t very nice. I’m sure one day I’ll get used to it! Thanks for watching and the ongoing support. 🙏

[@Astrobloke]

Fantastic Paul. You were a brave man, you know I want to try the same and I have the 4 pro too so thank you for being the guinea pig. Great video mate. Must get out together again soon.

[@nightscapejournals]

Thanks Glenn - definitely worth giving it a go! I think I’ll be trying it again with noctilucent clouds in the next couple of months too, as I think the same principles will apply. Appreciate the support. And yes, would love a trip over to the coast again soon!

[@ChrisGreenfieldNorfolk]

Captured the Pleiades too, that’s impressive from a Mini Pro sensor! Congratulations

[@nightscapejournals]

Cheers Chris - yes I was definitely quite surprised what it could pick up. Just at the beginning of the possibilities I think!

[@JamesBillingsPhotography]

Crikey, heart-stopper when you played back the raw footage and I thought you'd flown at full tilt into a tree! Good idea this, definitely has potential. I've never tried hyperlapse on my drone (even during the day) but probably should give it a go some time... the flat landscapes we have at home don't make for an inspiring scene though. Funnily enough today I was checking the price of the Mavic 3 as it's got a bigger 4/3rs sensor (I did some night shots of Ely Cathedral with my current Air 2 which I think is a similar sensor to your drone and the images need a fair bit of work to get rid of the noise) - not sure I can really justify the cost given how infrequently my current drone gets use though... Still - a very short trip to Iceland is in the calendar for mid September, I might have a go at this if the conditions play along...

[@nightscapejournals]

Ha, I’m just very glad we stopped it when we did. Not entirely sure we could have recovered it given how deep the snow was getting! Yep, the noise definitely needs some work. I’d think I’d like a few more proof points before upgrading the drone, but I can definitely see a path to that. Amazing if you were to do it over the Icelandic landscape! I’m hoping this noctilucent cloud season will give me some more opportunity to hone the technique, Which as it stands is fairly raw!!

[@BommeltjeNL]

Just in the nick of time? Man, one of the branches was already tickling one of the rotors haha 😂😂😂

[@nightscapejournals]

I still shudder thinking about it!!

[@jakreu]

Interesting. You should do a comparison with DJI Air 3S if you have it. Wide angle and night-time collision warnings may be great for aurora.

[@nightscapejournals]

@@jakreu thanks. I’d love to compare with other drones but sadly (at the moment, anyway) only have the mini 4 pro. Nighttime collision warning would be awesome!

[@StarScaperPhoto]

Wow, that was a brave adventure Paul 😅. Really nice to see someone trying to push the limits of astrophotography! Although this was just a proof of concept, I think you inspired multiple people already to give this a shot. Thanks for sharing!

[@nightscapejournals]

Thanks, Jeroen - appreciated. It was really good fun, and a little scary, but definitely something I want to do again and hopefully something other people start to try. These drones are amazingly capable, really!

[@scottmcnally]

I enjoyed and appreciated the adventure, as a guy who's needed to hire a cherry picker to retrieve a drone! I've played around with my drone and the aurora and you are definitely on the right path and further along than me.

[@nightscapejournals]

Glad you enjoyed it, Scott. Crikey, a cherry picker?! I’m sure there’s a great story there! 🤣

[@focusphotonsfrugally6644]

Great video, you’ve found a new way to add another layer of anxiety to Astrophotography.

[@nightscapejournals]

🤣🤣 I hadn’t thought of it like that! That’s not what we need really, is it?!

[@jayrichardson2907]

I feel like your number of subscribers should have a “K” next to it. Another great video! 🔥

[@nightscapejournals]

Ha ha, thanks Jay - very kind of you. Thanks for the support.

[@diskonnectthedj]

Very helpful thanks! What antennas did you use on the controller?

[@nightscapejournals]

You’re welcome. I just use the stock antennas that came with the controller.

[@matej.mlakar]

hah, now that was too close for comfort :D but really great idea and nice try. The footage looked much better than I expected from such a small drone. You should rent out the big one next time and put your camera on it :D

[@nightscapejournals]

Thanks, Matej! Whilst it made for entertaining video-viewing, I could definitely live without that kind of stress in my life!! I really do think with a "proper" aurora display it could be a super interesting concept. Will definitely check my insurance before attempting it with a DJI Phantom!!

[@paulclark9123]

Madness ;) nope, definitely not, am going to dabble with printing my images. Maybe Noctilucent Clouds this season?

[@nightscapejournals]

Will be interested what you learn in printing, Paul. I’ve dabbled but not yet cracked it - very varied results!! Thanks for watching. 👍

[@bobbyg6662]

Have you taken just a single pic with the 4 pro of the northern lights....I was looking into them just to get a different perspective pic

[@nightscapejournals]

@@bobbyg6662 yes I have and it’s definitely possible. I’d say for a bright aurora, it’s slightly poorer quality than an iPhone picture, but if you’ve got something like the moon lighting up the foreground, and do some noise reduction in post, you can get reasonable images. Probably not ones that survive being blown up to A3 for printing, but decent enough for digital.

[@monicaparsad5536]

What was your setting for everything? Trying to keep on the video but it’s not entirely clear

[@nightscapejournals]

Hi Monica, from memory I was at 2s exposure, 4s interval and the highest possible ISO (which I think is 6400). Best, Paul

[@MartinFransson]

Darn, you beat me to it! 🤣 I´ve had the same idea and I even tried it once but the aurora was too weak that time. Didn´t turn out well. *Edit: Oh, a tip for you - do the hyperlapse in reverse so that you start from the point furthest away. That way you know that you won´t run into something and you won´t be far away when the battery runs out.

[@nightscapejournals]

I’d be super interested in how you get on!! I think the whole idea has got a lot of potential, and I wish I’d had more time that week to experiment (and better aurora!). That’s a great tip - I’ve taken a similar approach in some of my videos but it never occurred to me to do it for hyperlapse too. Thanks!

[@MartinFransson]

@@nightscapejournals now that you´ve inspired me I might actually take a second look at my hyperlapse and see if I can make something useful of it. I have another dronerelated idea but it needs a bit more work first 🙂

[@nightscapejournals]

@@MartinFransson excited to hear about that!! 🤔