#EliteMiniCamping - How I Camp Minimally

For this #EliteMiniCamping challenge, I would choose the Elite 100 V2 to power my adventures.
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My ideal setup is what I have now just with the bigger battery. I currently road trip in my Subaru Outback with 2 EB3A’s powering a mini fridge, a laptop, 2 sony cameras and a star tracker. Fairly minimalist when it comes to camping because I am usually up at sunrise and out at sunset taking pictures so I tend to not spend much time at camp.
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I did get to chill more at camp on my most recent trip though. I backcountry camped at Big Bend National Park and enjoyed it thoroughly. I had to finally test out solar charging with the batteries because I was pushing them to their limits between the mini fridge and powering my star tracker all night. Luckily I was rewarded with an amazing sunset plus I got to see so many stars at night when it cleared up.
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Attached are pics from that day + an astro pic I took that night with the tracker. Did have to hide the eb3a’s behind the solar panel during the day because it was HOT haha. Figured it would probably be best if they were in the shade.
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Love the Astro setup. I did try dabbling in astrophotography a long time ago but soon realized I just don’t have the space for the tracker/mount/etc. I assume that’s M42 (Orion Nebula) am I right? I can appreciate the amount of work you had to put into making that (from someone who tried and failed miserably to do it). Did you use a filter to achieve the contrast look or is that all in post? How many stacked images is that one?

For those unaware, generally how astrophotographers get those color popped images is by applying “false coloring”. Cold objects emit mostly infrared or microwave (red light). Warmer objects emit visible or UV (white light). Hot objects emit blue light. In the universe the hotter the temperature, the more BLUE it is, and the colder an object is, the REDDER it is. Nothing on earth exceeds the Kelvin scale for red, so when we say something is “red hot” thats actually relatively cold compared to objects in space :sweat_smile: . Astrophotographers use “color filters” to capture the “light” from these objects. For example a hydrogen alpha filter will capture deep reds, or an OIII filter (doubly ionized oxygen filter) will showcase blue. So the next time you see a blue object in space, it’s EXTREMELY HOT!

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Yep, it is M42. One of the easier things to see especially out in Big Bend where there is no light pollution. You can somewhat see it with the naked eye.

I got my camera astromodified so it sees more infrared & hydrogen alpha so that helps the colors pop a bit. I think that image was only about an hour or so, maybe hour and a half of shooting so not a whole lot of time but still enough to make a solid image.

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@austinb711 Thank you Austin for the #EliteMiniCamping entry! :stars: :stars:
The forum has gained another astrophotography enthusiast! I remember that one of the members won the Elite 200 V2 last time, and he also loves photographing nebulae. :blush:

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