Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Astrophotography


This is one of my first attempts at astrophotography. Terry sent
me a link to a webpage about this type of photography because
he thought it might be something I would be interested in, and
he was right. I was surprised at how easy this is to do. The
following are the camera settings I used to capture these stars
in the night sky on December 2nd.

Camera settings

  • Program Mode - Set to Manual.

  • Autofocus - Turn off, or set to Manual.

  • White Balance - Set to Daylight or use a
  • custom white balance (especially if your
  • camera is modified).

  • Drive - Set to One Shot.

  • ISO - This is discussed in detail in a following section,
  • but generally should be set to 1600 or 800 for long
  • exposure deep-sky astrophotos.

  • Metering - Generally doesn't matter, but you can try
  • setting it to Spot if you are shooting the Moon or Sun
  • (with proper filtration)

  • Exposure Compensation - Set to Zero, no exposure
  • compensation. Doesn't really matter because you are
  • not using autoexposure.

  • Shutter Speed - Set to the exposure you want, up to
  • 30 seconds can usually be dialed in directly. For longer
  • than 30 seconds, set to Bulb. On some cameras, Bulb
  • may be a separate exposure mode setting, or it may be
  • accessed on the shutter speed dial past the 30 second
  • setting.

  • Self Timer - If you don't have a remote release, you
  • can use the camera's self-timer to trip the shutter so
  • you don't have to touch the camera, which will help
  • reduce vibrations and possible star trailing.

6 comments:

Kay R. said...

How cool is that?! Awesome shot, Ann. I'm going to copy these instructions and try it sometime. You are so lucky to live in an area where the stars get to shine through. We're lucky to get to see the Big Dipper on a clear night :)

Ann S. said...

You would be surprised at how many stars you can see in your backyard even though you live in town when you take these kinds of pictures! I was amazed at how many stars there are out there. I would love to have a telescope to attach to my camera and get pics of planets galaxies :0)

Kay R. said...

I've got to learn how to take picss through the telescope we have. We haven't had it long and haven't had the time to play with it yet. I'd like to take it out to Holly's house some clear night. Her sky is amazing!

Jane said...

That is an awesome picture! Hope there will be more!

Ann S. said...

Jane, there will be more.

Kelly said...

Wow! That's an amazing shot! And it was taken on Knox's birth day!