That time my camera battery died right as the Milky Way came into view

I was out at Joshua Tree last fall, about an hour from the main park entrance, all set up with my tripod and my Canon 6D. The sky was perfectly clear, and I was just waiting for the galactic core to rise. I hit the shutter for a test shot and my camera screen just went black. I forgot to charge my spare battery, and the one in the camera had maybe two percent left. My heart just sank. I ended up sitting there in the dark for a good twenty minutes, just watching the stars with my own eyes, feeling pretty stupid. I did get my phone out and took some really grainy, awful pictures, but it wasn't the same. Has anyone else had a gear failure at the worst possible moment, and what did you do to salvage the night?

2 comments

2 Comments

faithb761mo ago

My old Nikon's shutter locked up during a total lunar eclipse in 2018. I just put the camera down and watched the whole thing happen with a pair of binoculars instead. Sometimes the gear failing forces you to actually see the event, you know?

andrew6461mo ago

Been there with a dead battery. I started keeping a power bank and a USB cable for my camera in my bag. It won't run the camera for long, but it can give you enough juice for a few shots in a pinch.