Milky Way Shoot in Anbandegi, Gangneung feat. Stealth Car Camping

A year in 2020 when many things had been shut down...

Finally, Friday arrived.

With many things closed due to COVID-19 in 2020,

leaving behind the memory of an especially long monsoon season,

a thrilling autumn sky begins to reveal itself.

I always hoped that I might be able to see in my daily life the Milky Way I encountered in the night sky over the grasslands of Central Asia in 2018...

For a long time, a weekend was approaching when the moon phase I habitually checked was close to the new moon.

'Ah~ maybe this weekend might be the last chance to capture the Milky Way in 2020...ㅠㅠㅠ'

That is because, to capture the Milky Way, several conditions must be met.

In our country, March to August is the best period for observing the Milky Way,

there must be little moonlight so that the cluster of stars can be seen softly, which means it should be near the new moon,

there must be no light pollution,

and it must be a day with no clouds.

This weekend,

although it was somewhat late in terms of timing,

it was almost the perfect period in every respect.

The moon had just passed the new moon phase, and the forecast called for an evening with not a single cloud in the sky~~~:))

Feeling the tension that it might be very difficult to find a cloudless weekend near the new moon, I gathered my courage and suggested it to my roommate.

"After work tomorrow, want to go car camping to shoot the Milky Way?"

My roommate replied in a businesslike tone.

"Where exactly are we supposed to go to shoot the Milky Way?"

"Hmm~~~ usually recommended Milky Way shooting spots are Gangneung Anbandegi, Pyeongchang Yukbaekmagi, Joseongcheol Observatory..."

"How far is it???"

"I just checked the navigation, and it's 3 hours......."

"What~~~~???!!! Three hours???!!! That far???!!!"

I could not continue speaking and just glossed over it...

Because I knew all too well that my roommate, whose routine is like that of a child of a good country—always going to bed early and waking up early—could never understand my owl-like lifestyle.

Before meeting the Milky Way, I will briefly organize the advance preparations and then continue with the actual shooting.

1. Since it is important to have an environment without moonlight and without light pollution (interfering artificial light) in order to see the Milky Way, I use the app 'Moon's Phases' to check the moon phase in advance.

2. Since there must be no clouds to see the star cluster, I check cloud movement in advance with an app called 'Storm Radar.'

3. It is helpful to identify the positions of constellations in the night sky with the app 'Star Walk,' which shows the constellations and the Milky Way as seen from the actual location.

Advance preparation

Moon phase

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.universetoday.moon.free

Star walk2

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitotechnology.StarWalk2Free

Strom Radar

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.twc.radar

Saturday arrived.

I ask someone in the photo-related hobby community, via comment, who said they photographed the Milky Way at Anbandegi after work the previous day (Friday).

'By any chance, wasn’t Anbandegi crowded with people?'

'There were only about ten teams.'

That makes me even more motivated in my heart!!!

While waiting for quitting time, I keep checking the smartphone apps (Moon's Phases, Sky Walk2, Storm Radar) that I’ve looked at dozens of times, and I also keep checking the estimated travel time shown in the navigation.

After work, as soon as I get home, my roommate is busy.

Roommate: "What do we need to prepare?" "Seriously, where are we going???"

Me: "Yeah, since we’re planning stealth car camping, there isn’t much to prepare." "Anbandegi or Yukbaekmagi..."

Roommate: "Still, you should decide for sure and get ready quickly, right???"

With my roommate’s resignation and cooperation, I start getting excited little by little!!!

These days, at well-known shooting spots, camping, cooking, and everything else are completely prohibited, so you have to prepare in full stealth car camping mode.

I prepare only an auto-inflating mat and sleeping bags for the bed inside the vehicle, a simple light lantern, and a burner and mess kit that can only boil instant noodles and coffee.

Of course, if you’re going to linger at the shooting spot, a chair is a must^^

Clothes are prepared as if for the middle of winter.

While we are getting ready, the dog sits on top of the packed luggage and just watches, not moving at all.

As I stop my roommate, who keeps urging me to hurry up and leave because it will take a long time, I laze around.

'Anyway, even if we arrive early, the Milky Way shooting time won’t be until around 1 a.m....'

We decide to eat dinner at a suitable place along the way, and we set off around sunset.

When I check the navigation, the travel time to the destination has dropped to 2 hours and 20 minutes.

It has been a while since I took the wheel myself.

Once we leave Seoul, the highway is wide open, and we head toward Daegwallyeong at a speed as fast as our excited hearts.

Although it was my first time on this route, we enter the area near Anbandegi along a relatively well-maintained road.

In the pitch-black darkness, with about 4 to 5 km left to the destination, we enter a narrow road that is barely wide enough for a one-lane road in one direction.

I drive carefully, and with about 1 km left to the destination, a large cargo truck ahead of us stops on the uphill path and turns on its hazard lights.

'What is going on here?'

Vehicles coming down from the opposite direction and vehicles going up were tangled together and unable to move at all.

A police car had come and was controlling traffic...

There were too many vehicles crowding in, and cars trying to leave and cars trying to enter were all mixed together.

'Ah~~~ should I park on the shoulder? Or should I turn around and go somewhere else? ㅠㅠㅠ'

Some cars had to turn around with difficulty on the narrow uphill road and gave up and left...

After waiting helplessly for about 20 minutes like that, quite a few vehicles come down.

The police officer controlling traffic kindly explains that once the cars leave, there will be more parking space available up above.

When I enter near the parking area, it is not completely full, but there is still an enormous crowdㅠㅠㅠ

I barely manage to park in a place that does not interfere with traffic on the shoulder, and I look around.

It is crowded as if a night market has been set up. Families, couples, and so on...

It is already almost 10 p.m.,

so first I lower the backrests of the second-row seats, do some leveling, lay down the self-inflating mat, unfold the sleeping bag, and set up a place to sleep.

Around us, there is the bustle of passing cars’ lights and people’s laughter.

Once the stealth car camping mode is set to some degree, my roommate immediately enters sleep mode with the dog.

After bundling up tightly, I mount two camera bodies on two tripods and look around here and there to find a shooting spot.

There are too many peopleㅠㅠㅠ

And there are too many flashlight beams from people passing by...

Although the environment is chaotic, I have driven 3 hours, so I try setting up the cameras.

I set up two camera bodies on two tripods (each with a wide-angle lens).

Sony A7R3 - SEL 24mm F1.4GM

Sony A9 - Samyang 14mm F2.8 (MF)

Camera settings for Milky Way shooting

1. Mode: M mode (manual mode)

2. Aperture: maximum aperture of the lens

3. Shutter speed: long exposure of about 15 to 30 seconds

4. Focus mode: MF (slightly closer than infinity)

5. ISO: 1600~3200

6. White Balance: if you want the sky to appear somewhat blue, set the color temperature between 3200K and 4000K (depending on preference)

7. Long-exposure noise reduction Off

8. Image stabilization Off

9. Tripod

10. Use a wired or wireless shutter release, or shoot with a 2-second timer

Since my roommate has already entered sleep mode with the dog in their arms, I wander around alone with two tripods in hand, searching for a shooting spot here and there.

Whenever I think I’ve found a place with few people and set up, someone inevitably appears with a flashlight, looking for a quiet spot.

I give up on finding the perfect conditions and set up the tripods.

The evening wind on the Daegwallyeong hill is so strong~~~ although it is a long exposure, there is no way to stop the camera from shaking in the wind.

If the location is good, it would be better to set the tripod as low as possible... but that is not possible.

In the night sky, the stars really seem as if they are pouring down,

their cluster flowing like a river,

and I think about the past few months of 2020 that have passed so far.

Although I prepared winter clothes and a duck-down sleeping bag, the sleeping arrangements for my first stealth car camping experience meant I had to endure the inconvenience of waking up several times from the cold.

At dawn, as the first light of day begins to erase the traces of the star cluster one by one, sunlight starts rising like the sea across the sky, the fields, and the distant mountain ridges.

Now it is time to return again.

Since it was stealth car camping, I think it would be appropriate to handle breakfast simply somewhere along a rural road.

I think about the trajectory of just 12 hours from the previous evening.

The cluster of stars flowing like a river in the night sky, and the sunlight filling the world in the morning...

None of it was ever standing still, and just like time and light, our daily lives and environment are always moving toward some direction, too.

The past few months...

I hope that many of the worries and bewilderment that overwhelmed us will soon settle into the back of memory.