Astrophotography

We've finally been getting some clear nights here in New England and this past Saturday I decided to take advantage of the skies and take some pictures of the stars.  There's a park not too far from where I live that has no lights and open views in most directions.  Unfortunately the humidity was high, causing the lens to fog over, and the moon was more than half full.  I was able to get some decent shots but figured I'd try again another time when the humidty wasn't causing havoc with the lens.

I just started taking photos of star trails in 2007, and not coincidentally, after putting the film cameras away in the closet.  DSLR's are great for astrophotography because you can try many different techniques and if you don't like the results, you can just delete the photo(s).  I'm no expert, in fact far from one, as far as astrophotography goes.  I do know enough to get some decent star trails.  One of my favorite shots is of the Big Dipper that was about 6 minutes in length.  You can still tell it's the Big Dipper but each star is elongated due to the exposure length.

This past Christmas I received a programable cable remote with the idea of using it for star trails.  It's great!  You can set up the release to take quite a few photos for a set amount of time each with a preset lapse between each shot.  A professional photographer that I sometimes talk to has the same cable release.  I saw a star trail picture of his that was actually 4 photos, 4 minutes in length each, that were stacked on top of each other.  I asked him why he didn't just take one photos that was 16 minutes long.  His answer was the reason I asked for this cable release.  He said that one 16 minute shot would have a lot of noise in the photo when using a DSLR.  By using the cable release and setting it to take 4 pictures, 4 minutes in length, with a 1 second lapse between each shot, he could then take the photos and combine them in a stacking program to make it look like one continuous star trail photo.  Since the time frame of each shot wasn't too long, the amount of noise in each photo was minimal.

I've also taken to try and photograph other objects in the sky besides stars.  Most notably, the International Space Station.  When it flies by at night, it's the brightest object you'll see, unless the moon is out.  There are many websites that will tell you what you'll be able to see overhead on different nights and where to look.  The site that I refer to is www.spaceweather.com     I then click on satellite flybys and enter my zip code.

August 12-13, 2009 will bring about the peak of the Perseid meteor shower.  I may have to wait a couple of days and try to see them over the weekend, but it will be worth it.  At peak, there will be about 60 meteors per hour visible in the night sky.  I'm just hoping that I'll be able to capture some of them with my camera at the park near home.

Even if I'm not good at astrophotography, I still enjoy the opportunity to get out with my camera and enjoy the great outdoors.

Until next time.

Glen Taylor

Mountain View Photography

8/4/09