Stargazing on the Westerdam

[shoppern]

Thanks for asking this question--I was going to ask it.

[rkacruiser]

I had an aft stateroom on Deck 6 of the Westerdam and had the best view of the night sky I have had in many, many years.

 

As has been suggested, wandering around the ship after dark, one may find a better spot than some others. If there is access to the decks under the Bridge, that would be wonderful, but, one would have to battle the wind.

[Mr_Astro]

I am (or was) a guest lecturer on the topic of astronomy and the space sciences. I've worked with HAL, Princess, NCL and Celebrity. On almost every contract I've had, there were issues with getting the lights turned off for me and my star sessions. There were exceptions and the best was HAL. One trip (Mexico Riviera) the CD arranged for access to a highly restricted area of the bow of the Ryndam, below and in front of the Bridge. We had an hour of very dark skies and wonderful promotion to support the CD's efforts. The Prinsendam has an accessible forward balcony below and in front of the Bridge that offers very good and dark views of the sky. On the Star Princess, there was an area near the sanctuary that was kept dark all during my cruise (BA - LA). The Sea Princess has an accessible forward deck that's ok and was used regularly.

The ship is loath to turn off lights for a variety of reasons, mostly to do with accident reduction (say litigation) but some captains (and only the captains' decision to make) will work with the CD to have some lights turned off for a period of time.

No contracts coming up in the foreseeable future but I'm on the Zaandam in October for a coastal to SD. If the CD is interested, I'll volunteer to host a star party and if he/she can urge the captain, perhaps we can do it in the dark. Bring binoculars.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Mr_Astro
clarification

[josephsschmoe]

Setting Moon in Icy Strait..very early AM as we sailed towards the entrance to Glacier Bay 5/2013 on the Westerdam

 

It was great

Edited February 27, 2014 by josephsschmoe

[Mr_Astro]

Setting Moon in Icy Strait..very early AM as we sailed towards the entrance to Glacier Bay 5/2013 on the Westerdam

 

It was great

 

I enjoy watching the sun and moon set or rise from the deck of a ship, very romantic.

[Aegis1984]

Now that you mention it, I'm a bit curious about the same thing. I'll be on the Zuiderdam, another Vista class ship in April. There will be a full lunar eclipse on the 15th. I'll have a monopod or tripod, my 7D, 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens. I'm kind of curious too, as to where I'd be able to get a decent shot of that celestial event.

[TiogaCruiser]

Now that you mention it, I'm a bit curious about the same thing. I'll be on the Zuiderdam, another Vista class ship in April. There will be a full lunar eclipse on the 15th. I'll have a monopod or tripod, my 7D, 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens. I'm kind of curious too, as to where I'd be able to get a decent shot of that celestial event.

 

A decent time lapse shot on a moving ship???? How???

[Aegis1984]

I don't need a long exposure. I follow an 11 rule: F11, ISO 100, at most 11 second exposures. Image stabilization on my tele lens will help a fair amount for minor vibrations. Remember the moon is bright in the sky, even in an eclipse, which creates an item on the exposure. Though you are correct in regards to the difficulty of getting a halfway decent image.

[Mr_Astro]

Now that you mention it, I'm a bit curious about the same thing. I'll be on the Zuiderdam, another Vista class ship in April. There will be a full lunar eclipse on the 15th. I'll have a monopod or tripod, my 7D, 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens. I'm kind of curious too, as to where I'd be able to get a decent shot of that celestial event.

 

The beautiful thing about digital photography is that there is no film to waste so you cannot make any mistakes. So what if a few images are blurry there are likely a dozen more that are good to great.

 

You will have to zoom in a fair amount to get a good sized lunar image (rule of thumb: the moon will be 1mm in diameter in the frame for every 100mm of focal length of lens), I'd choose an interesting foreground to accentuate the moon. If you are handy with photoshop, you could take a series of photos in rapid succession then 'stack' them in photoshop and create a more dynamic image of the eclipse. Locate yourself amidships to reduce the pitch, roll and yaw of the ship.

 

I'm assuming the ship will be in the Caribbean so the moon will be quite high up in the sky and late in the evening/early in the morning.

 

Good luck and clear skies.

[Aegis1984]

The beautiful thing about digital photography is that there is no film to waste so you cannot make any mistakes. So what if a few images are blurry there are likely a dozen more that are good to great.

 

You will have to zoom in a fair amount to get a good sized lunar image (rule of thumb: the moon will be 1mm in diameter in the frame for every 100mm of focal length of lens), I'd choose an interesting foreground to accentuate the moon. If you are handy with photoshop, you could take a series of photos in rapid succession then 'stack' them in photoshop and create a more dynamic image of the eclipse. Locate yourself amidships to reduce the pitch, roll and yaw of the ship.

 

I'm assuming the ship will be in the Caribbean so the moon will be quite high up in the sky and late in the evening/early in the morning.

 

Good luck and clear skies.

 

Thanks, I don't want to turn this into a photography thread when we have a photography forum, but I've got a 70-200 f2.8 lens, and I'm thinking I'll end up pulling the trigger on a 2x teleconverter to effectively give me 140-400 f5.6. Multiply for the 1.6x crop factor on an APS-C body and it effectively is 224-640mm. If I recall correctly, the darker areas I found were at the extreme rear of the Zuiderdam on the Lido deck and mid-ship where the shuffleboard play area is, by the smokestacks. Either way, I'll have a couple days to find out the best locations, and if I am EXTREMELY lucky, see if any officers would be able to assist me in finding a lights-out area.

[Boytjie]

Or up on top of the Crow's Nest? Do they keep that string of lights from bow to stern on while at sea, or just in port? I don't remember.

 

The string lights are only on in port, not at sea. The area above the Crow's Nest has some ground level lights. A couple of towels can cover them ;)

[TiogaCruiser]

You're making me think of this incredible video:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lTobLnLIkF4

[WisRiver]

We were on the Veendam on a South America cruise last year. I wanted to see the Southern Hemisphere stars. One night there was a star lecture on the observation deck above the Crows nest. There was some light pollution from the deck lights, and it was hard to get your night vision. On the Veendam there is an observation area on the Lido deck in front of the fitness center. They have to keep the curtains closed at night so as not to interfere with the navigation deck below. This turned out to be the best place star watch because it was fairly dark. I looked at the deck plan for the Westerdam and you may be able to use this area.