Watch what you step on
Sometimes you can be your own worst enemy when taking time-lapse photos of the Milky Way. Things like car lights, airplanes, helicopters or even accidentally stepping on the brake pedal while you are waiting in the car for the time-lapse to finish can impact your time-lapse. In this unfortunate event while waiting for my time-lapse to finish I hit the brake pedal a time or two and ruined a couple shots in the time-lapse. In the end the morning was on its way and the sky was turning more blue so I had to call it before the sun really started to make things impossible to see.
Not to total loss
In the end I was able to get a few cool still shots from different angles and an interesting time-lapse video with an occasional red flash from brake lights. Its important to be very mindful of all the light sources when capturing the Milky Way, even the light from a watch can give a photo a different appearance on a long exposure. A short time-lapse can take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours depending on your settings and starting time. The results from those long hours will result in a video that if often under 20 seconds. You may notice that often on television or movies they will only show a Milky Way time-lapse for a few seconds.
I have shared some photos from this time-lapse before and I wanted to share a little more so people can understand whats involved.
Me and my lead foot!
This one turned out decent
Getting closer to morning, the sky is heading towards the blue hour
Here is the scaled down version of the time-lapse with all the Bloopers.