Use a P3 to video aurora on a ship?

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I have made two trips to the north of Alaska and Norway, where the auroras were spectacular. These trips were on a ship, where it is impossible to mount a camera on a tripod to obtain high quality time lapse images. With another trip coming up, I am considering another approach: utilize a P3 with its 4K camera and gimbal. The idea would be to hold the drone upside down. With my legs and arms, I could cancel out some of the movement of the ship. Perhaps the gimbal could cancel out the rest. The camera might show the aurora with appropriate settings. Is this idea worth a try? Some information about the previous trips and my applications of drones is posted at my website.

Mike Collins
Alexandria, Virginia
fishcrow.com
 
I have made two trips to the north of Alaska and Norway, where the auroras were spectacular. These trips were on a ship, where it is impossible to mount a camera on a tripod to obtain high quality time lapse images. With another trip coming up, I am considering another approach: utilize a P3 with its 4K camera and gimbal. The idea would be to hold the drone upside down. With my legs and arms, I could cancel out some of the movement of the ship. Perhaps the gimbal could cancel out the rest. The camera might show the aurora with appropriate settings. Is this idea worth a try? Some information about the previous trips and my applications of drones is posted at my website.
That sounds very awkward.
I suspect the Phantom gimbal won't even work when the drone is upside down but that should be easy to check in advance.
A much simpler and more compact solution would be to use a handheld gimbal like the DJI Osmo.
 
I am on a ship in the Arctic Ocean to the north of Alaska. I did some flights with a P3 in the same area last year. For this trip, I followed a suggestion in this thread to get the DJI Osmo+ and used it to obtain some photos of the aurora. The photos, which are posted at fishcrow.com/alaska17.html, came out fairly nice but not as nice as I had hoped. The tracks of stars suggest that the camera rotated about the vertical axis, but features in the clouds and auroras don't seem to be affected. How can that be? During testing on land before the trip, I was able to get photos in which the stars appear as points. It seems possible that the rotation could be related to the magnetic fields on the ship. I have also used it to obtain video footage from the deck of the ship. The horizon and distant features don't move at all when I walk around or when the ship is rolling. Thanks again for the suggestion to get the Osmo. Like the P3, it's an impressive little bundle of technology!
 
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