Do you ever look up into the night sky and find yourself amazed at the beauty you see there? I do, all the time. I live out in the middle of nowhere so I have a pretty nice view. Not a lot of lights from town (some, I’m not totally isolated) and no other houses nearby. Heck, when we built our new house I made sure we didn’t have one of those obnoxious yard lights that keeps it bright as day just so I could look up and enjoy the night sky.
I love how peaceful it is and how amazingly magical everything feels on a cloudless night. Preferably a cool night, but that’s probably because I live in Florida and who wants to sit in the heat with the bugs? Sidetracked…sorry. My point is, that astrophotography allows you to take that moment of ‘looking up’ and keep it all day every day, even high noon. Pretty cool. I’m just getting into the active participation of night sky viewing but I think it is going to be a lifelong love affair.
I’ve already got my computer ready for the amazing pictures I’m sure I will be gathering. Routine defragmentation, extra disk space, and some smokin’ photo editing software.
What else do I need to capture that ‘looking up’ feeling?
Photo Credit Computer Hotline
June 19th, 2009 by birdievogel | Posted in Astrophotography | Comments (0)
Some of the guides out there will tell you that the first thing you need to do if you want to get started in astrophotography is to buy some really expensive cameras and books. Not true. The very first thing you need to do is defrag your computer. Don’t laugh, I’m being serious. You are going to be editing a bunch of pictures, and of course downloading and deleting a bunch of pictures and you need to get your computer ready. A fragmented hard drive is not ready.
Now you need to go buy some books (before the camera). While you are reading the books (well not at the same time of course but over the course of the few days it takes) go outside with the camera you already have and get a few images. See if you like being outside at night and how your images compare with what you want. This may help you decide just how much you want to spend on your new camera.
Then join some of the boards and groups dedicated to astrophotography. Get some personal advice and see what everyone recommends. Find a buddy that is willing to apprentice you. Sure you could go it alone, but with help you’ll have more fun and be able to troubleshoot faster.
Do you like astrophotography? How did you get started?
Photo Credit Ryan Wick
June 18th, 2009 by birdievogel | Posted in Astrophotography | Comments (0)
As far as eclipses go, lunar is the minor leagues in difficulty. But what it lacks in difficulty it makes up for in beauty. The beauty of a lunar eclipse, to me, isn’t when the full eclipse occurs. It is all of the phases preceding the big event. Of course, I might be the itsy bitsiest bit biased, because I’m a night person and I have a natural affinity for the moon.
Where was I? Oh yes, there are several ways you can get your image(s) of a lunar eclipse. You can use a film camera (although, I’m not so good at it) or you can use a ‘regular’ digital camera or an SLR digital camera. As for methods, you can use a wide angle, multiple exposure, or telephoto. Obviously a post isn’t enough room to get into the pros and cons of all the options, but if you are interested in learning more you can check them out.
No matter what you use you are probably going to want to do some digital editing. The one time I tried this I had lots of images and I ended up putting them all together for one larger composite image. It turned out pretty cool but it did take lots of saving and deleting to get it. So, while getting the raw data to create your perfect image may not consume tons of disk space, for me, editing it all together certainly did. I suppose, I’m just going to have to accept the fact that my love with photography has the natural consequence of fragmenting my hard drive. I’ve said it before, and I’ll probably say it again, but defragmentation is a small price to pay for the addiction.
Photo Credit foxypar4
June 17th, 2009 by birdievogel | Posted in Astrophotography | Comments (0)
Being in the right place at the right time to capture a total solar eclipse on film is pretty rare. There are fewer than five solar eclipses each year with a maximum of two (and likely none) being a total eclipse. Added to that, you can only see the eclipse if you are in the narrow corridor where it is visible. Wow. Talk about perfect timing, right? As a matter of fact, I can only remember one total solar eclipse in the last thirty years and I was in elementary school. (Stupid parents made me stay inside so I wouldn’t look up and hurt myself….argh!)
Back on track… if you are really interested in astrophotography, you will at some point find yourself on a mission to capture a solar eclipse on film. It’s like the Holy Grail of astro-geeks (which I mean in the most loving way). I know if I ever have the opportunity again, I won’t be inside. As a matter of fact I’ll be outside with all of my cameras (heck, I’d say that kind of event would call for some new cameras too!) and tripods. Timers, remotes, every gizmo I can get my hands on. Prior to show time? I’ll obviously defrag my hard drive so that I’m able to play (quickly, because I’m an instant gratification kind of girl) with all of the bazillion images I’ll have.
Have you ever captured a solar eclipse? How did you do it, and how did it turn out?
Photo Credit luc.viatour
June 16th, 2009 by birdievogel | Posted in Astrophotography | Comments (0)
For people unfamiliar with astrophotography a star trail may sound like something from Star Trek. (Oh yeah, I got a Trek reference in!) First, let’s start with a visual representation by checking out the image to the left. Pretty, huh? That’s a star trail. Basically what you do is set your camera (digital or film) to a slow exposure. Over minutes or hours you will capture the movement of the stars. Technically it isn’t the stars that are moving, I guess, it’s the Earth. But you get the idea.
I think this is a great way to get into astrophotography. It doesn’t require any fancy lenses or computerized help. You can do it with pretty much any kind of camera and you get something that is all sorts of pretty when you are done. The thing about all forms of astrophotography is that your images really need to be pretty high resolution so you can really see what you are getting a picture of. This means lots of disk space. If you are like me you won’t want to keep every single image you take so you’ll end up deleting the ones that are substandard. Do this enough times and your hard drive will look like a fragmented minefield. When getting into astrophotography it is important to start defragging regularly.
Do you have an interest in astronomy? Have you ever tried to capture a star trail? How did it go and what camera did you use?
Photo Credit xtacocorex
June 15th, 2009 by birdievogel | Posted in Astrophotography | Comments (0)
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