NiteLite Astrophotography
A poorman's guide to astrophotography
I hope this site has been a valuable asset and inspiration to many people over the years and will continue to be in the future. -- D.O.
In the best of all possible worlds, everyone interested in astrophotography would have a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with a CCD camera or some other ideal setup for photographing the heavens. Unfortunately, such equipment is a bit pricey for many people. That's not to say, though, that nothing less will do. In fact, it is possible to take some impressive night sky photos using a standard 35mm SLR camera equipped with a 50mm "normal" lens or others of modest focal length. Subjects within the reach of such equipment include constellations, satellites, comets, meteors, eclipses, star trails, the Milky Way and interesting planetary, lunar and stellar alignments. With the addition of a longer focal length (telephoto) lens, the list would also include discernible images of some deep space objects including the Andromeda Galaxy, the globular star cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules and the open cluster Pleiades in Taurus. A couple of things to note before going further: the popular point-and-shoot 35mm camera does not offer shutter speed controls and other features which are critical to astrophotography (and for that matter, to many other types of photography), so results with a point-and-shoot are sure to be disappointing. Also, the information here is offered as a guideline. A great deal of trial and error is involved, depending in part on how "light polluted" your skies are. People shooting from an urban area with milky brown night skies and a limited number of stars visible to the naked eye are well-advised to take their astrophotography out into the countryside, a good 10 miles or more removed from bright city lights. STATIONARY and GUIDED exposures
For stationary exposures, the camera is conventionally mounted on a tripod. Targets for stationary exposures include unmanned and manned satellites and During guided exposures, the camera slowly moves at a rate which compensates for the Earth's rotation. Since the camera is following the same apparent motion of the stars, guided exposures render celestial objects as individual points of light rather than as elongated streaks or "star trails." An inexpensive, easily-constructed Scotch mount can facilitate accurate, manually-guided time exposures of up to a half hour or more. Plans for a variety of designs are available. © Dennis Oblander. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for personal or educational use of text and images provided such use bears copyright notice and a link or citation to this page. Unauthorized use for profit or commercial advantage is prohibited by law.
Last updated 02/19/08 |
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