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My first love, as it has been for over 50 years, is visual astronomy, but I added the dimension of astrophotography about 10 years ago, thanks to the advent of better astronomical digital cameras and the innovative optics adapted. Of course, visual astronomy has its limitations, but a camera can accumulate and store more light, which can bring out more details and color of everything you shoot in the sky.
Astrophotography is much simpler now. It was not so long ago, astrophotography was based on movie cameras. This made it much more laborious, expensive and laborious. Among the many limitations, there was the inability to know if your shot was good or bad until you were developing the photo, which you probably had to pay to someone who was d & # 39; Other to do! Once digital photography arrived, it changed everything. You can see your results immediately, save time and give you more control.
One of the simplest forms of astrophotography with a telescope is to take any digital camera, even a camera on a mobile phone, and hold it near your telescope and to press the shutter release button. You can really get great pictures, especially with brighter celestial objects such as the moon, planets or deep sky bright objects such as the Orion Nebula or the large group of Hercules.
In fact, cameras with a flat smartphone are your best choice because it is much easier to place the lens of the phone against the eyepiece of the telescope. If your phone contains a protective case, you may need to remove it so that the lens of your camera can get close enough to the lens of the eyepiece. Some cell phones do a better job than others. I like a lot the quality of the cameras on the Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
Forget about trying to get a selfie with your favorite celestial object. It's hard enough to keep your camera steady so you can see your image in the viewfinder or on the screen before shooting. Hanging a tripod to your camera may help, but it will always be a challenge. A tripod will not work with a mobile phone, but a practical tool that has appeared in recent years is a platform that attaches to the telescope's eyepiece and holds your smartphone's camera in place. I think the best on the market for smartphones or most conventional cameras is the Orion Telescopes SteadyPix Pro Universal Camera / Smartphone Holder. You will be surprised by the quality of the photos you can get, even at this beginning level.
To further improve your astrophotos, you will need to spend more money and be willing to invest time to hone your skills. You will need a more sophisticated camera, such as a digital SLR or an astronomical CCD camera. They can collect light more efficiently. You will also need to take pictures with longer exposure times, ranging from at least 30 seconds to several minutes. It's tricky to do it right, though, because of the rotation of the Earth.
No astronomical target remains motionless in the sky. Therefore, unless your telescope can accurately track the rotation of the Earth and your target, you will see stained trails instead of stars. This means that you will need a more expensive sophisticated telescope that will track the stars in the sky.
Taking pictures with a longer exposure is, in my opinion, the most difficult aspect of astronomical photography, and this is an aspect that can make you forget to tear your hair and give up! This is where extreme patience comes in. Astrophotography is best achieved with a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. With their sophisticated electronic components, they can better track the stars with greater precision. This is the telescope that I use.
Computer software makes shooting and processing astronomical photography much easier than before. In the next few years, technology will improve even further, and I can see the day when most telescopes will have easy-to-use photographic capabilities. In the meantime, if you want to embark on a more serious astrophotography, be prepared to invest enough time and money.
Many astronomy points in the county can help you get started. One of the best places is Starizona in Tucson, Arizona. Dean Koenig, owner of Starizona, has come up with a special adaptive lens called Hyperstar. He revolutionized digital astrophotography, in my opinion. With the Hyperstar lens interfaced with your astronomical camera and telescope, you can take light from everything you shoot much faster. An exhibition that takes 60 minutes without Hyperstar can be done in less than two minutes with Hyperstar. To learn more about the goal, visit starizona.com. The website also offers excellent tutorials on more advanced astrophotography.
Try at least basic astrophotography to see how you like it and maybe even go a little deeper into the space. But be warned: you can really get hooked. Just remember that when things do not go well … capture the light, but be patient!
Celestial shells
Sunday and Monday night, the new crescent will be held next to Saturn in the early evening, sky very southwest. Wednesday and Thursday evening, the first moon area will be parked next to Mars in the evening to the south sky.
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