Stellar Xperiences in Anatolia
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We are three astrophotographers from Turkey.
Mustafa Aydın (instagram.com/aydinmustafa)
Can Inelli (instagram.com/caninelli)
Okan Bozat (instagram.com/okanbozat)
with a combined experience of 30 years in photography and 20 years in astronomy, and are well-known in national and international platforms for astrophotography. As most people visiting this website probably knows, Astrophotography is one of the rare multi-disciplinary hobbies where art and science merge. Even if you have a knowledge of photography, you will have to deal with a very sharp learning curve in many disciplines such as photography, equipment, basic astronomy, geography, composition.
That's why we got together and set up a company named Stellar Xperiences to share our knowledge in astrophotography, our experience and excitement that we have accumulated over the years.
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We aim to offer “Stellar Xperiences” in Anatolia. Thanks to our Xperience tours and courses, people get to travel to various dark spots in Anatolia region, learn the night sky, see the Milky Way with the naked eye and learn Astrophotography while experiencing a rich culture dating back centuries. Stellar Xperiences is the first ever company in Turkey offering such professional services related to Astrophotography and Astrotourism.
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So let’s talk about our short history. We are a relatively young company, formed at the end of 2019, just a few months before the Pandemic started. Our first Xperience was supposed to take place in May 2020 at Phrygia, an ancient kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, dating back to 1200 BC. It was a 3 day Xperience offering Landscape Astrophotography Courses on site at Phrygia. Unfortunately we had to postpone the plan due to the Pandemic.
Nevertheless, we had to adapt to the situation and get used to Zoom for our Online
Courses. Thanks to the demand of our trainees and followers we started to offer Online Theory Courses such as:
-Landscape Astrophotography Theory
-Lightroom Post Processing
-Stacking and Advanced Noise Reduction Techniques -PixInsight 101
Then luckily the Pandemic situation in Turkey got better in August 2020 and finally we were legally allowed to conduct our first ever face to face Xperience in Kizildag National Park, which is located near Lake Beysehir. We had 15 participants from all around Turkey. The Xperience and the course was a great success. We had an intense weekend full of adventures. Initially our participants took the theoretical course on Landscape Astrophotography, later that night we drove to Lake Beysehir and our participants had the chance to take photos and practice the knowledge that they learned in class. The next day we post-processed the photos that were taken the previous night.
Check out the related gallery at: https://en.stellarxperiences.com/kizildag2020
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21 August 2020, Lake Beysehir
Sony A7III
Laowa 15mm f2.0 Zero-D
10x25 sec. Light Frames
ISO 4000
Stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker
Post processed in Camera RAW and PixInsight
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During the winter lockdowns we continued with the online courses and had 12 of them. We also had weekly live sessions on Youtube, named StellarTalks. We now have a community of aspiring astrophotographers and supporters in Turkey and also around the world.
StellarTalks Episodes: https://en.stellarxperiences.com/stellarx-tv
Stellar Xperiences also collaborates with well known astrophotography equipment manufacturers, companies and organizations. Our brand ambassadorships and references can be found on our website. We also have brand new projects coming up related to Astrotourism in Anatolia. We will be sharing the details as they unfold.
Thanks to our collaboration with Telescope Live, we will be offering tutorials to Telescope Live users, we will also be creating content for the Blog and much more. So make sure to stay tuned! Check out our website and follow our social media channels for more info about us:
www.stellarxperiences.com
www.instagram.com/stellarxperiences
www.youtube.com/stellarxperiences
We would love to have you in Turkey, a place full of wonders, ancient cities, rich culture and of course dark skies.
All the best,
Stellar Xperiences Team