As well as you can see celestial goodies through any size of telescope, a camera in place of your eyes with its lens opened up for just a few seconds will “see” a lot more color and detail.
One of the biggest disappointments people have when they buy a telescope is that they don’t see the same detail and color that is seen in astronomical photographs. It’s not your telescope, it’s your eye’s inability to accumulate light the same way a camera does.
A camera or imaging device hooked up to a telescope with an exposure of even a few seconds can show you a lot more detail and color.
If you can acquire an exposure of more than a minute it can really blow your mind. That’s extremely tricky to do properly, though, because of Earth’s rotation.
No astronomical target stays still in the sky, so unless your telescope can keep up with your target in a precise manner you’re going to see smudgy streaks instead of stars.
That’s the most difficult aspect in astronomical photography, and I can tell you that first-hand. I’m getting better at it, but I have a long way to go. The photographic telescope-camera system I have is pretty complicated, but with a lot of hard work and practice you can get some really cool pictures like the ones I have here of the Orion nebula and the Pleiades star cluster.
Astronomical photography has become a little easier because of digital photography, computers and computer software. I can see the day when most telescopes will have easy-to-use photographic capabilities. In the meantime, if you want to get into serious astrophotography, be prepared to make fairly sizable investments of time and money.
Dean Koenig, the owner of Starizona in Tucson, Ariz., developed a special adaptive lens they call Hyperstar, a tremendous advancement. The faster your telescope and astronomical camera can “suck in” light the better, and the Hyperstar is supersonic in its ability to gather photons.
If you’re really serious about astrophotography you can find out more about the Hyperstar lens at Starizona’s starizona.com.
If you’re not yet ready to shell out a bunch of money, a digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera works the best, but just about any digital camera that you can set on manual mode and that can keep the shutter open for even 15 to 30 seconds should do the job as well.
You’ll be surprised at how much more you can see of the night sky, especially if you take your shots away from heavy city lights. You will also need a camera that has a self-timer delay or a cable release to open the shutter, otherwise vibration will spoil your efforts.
Setting up your camera with a tripod is your best bet, but you can also use your imagination and ingenuity to prop it up to aim in the direction of the night sky that you want to shoot.
Try exposure times from 5 to 30 seconds with a the lens open as wide as you can get it. See how long of an exposure time you can get away with to see more detail, but if the shutter is open too long your stars will be streaked because of Earth’s rotation.
Try to use a high ISO, such as ISO 800, 1600 or 3200. Experiment with different settings and see which turns out the best. If you have the ability to manually focus, aim your camera at the brightest star available. Looking though either the viewfinder or the LCD screen, try to resolve the star to the sharpest dot you can.
There are many books and resources to help you learn more about astronomical photography. A CD-Rom by astrophotographer Jerry Lodriguss, titled “A Guide to Astrophotography With Digital SLR Cameras,” is a good guide. You can find it on Amazon.com.
Mike Lynch is an astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis, Minn., and is author of the book, “Washington Starwatch,” available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.
The Everett Astronomical Society welcomes new members. Go to www.everettastro.org/.
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