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Health & Fitness

Night shoots

The night sky, including the moon, stars, planets and landscapes, is a huge topic.  I mean the photographic techniques--not the universe.

 

Astrophotography is fundamentally a bit more science than art. The art usually follows after the image is captured and a bit earlier when you are pre-visualizing and considering the image's composition.  All of those Hubble images have had the colors added later by the creators of the images.  This article will detail the images that you and I, and our cameras, can capture at night.

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Find out what's happening in Cummingwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 

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The Moon

Let's start with the moon.  Many images of it are blown out, because your peripheral vision mis-perceives against the dark sky, causing you to overexpose.  It is much brighter than you realize, so keep the ISO low (below 400). Most cameras also have difficulty auto-focusing on the details of the moon’s surface.  I suggest manual focus because the subtle differences in contrast escape the camera’s ability to distinguish them.  The water vapor in our atmosphere is also an obstacle that must be surmounted in order to take tack-sharp lunar images.  A sturdy tripod, with the camera set on mirror lock-up and a remote shutter release will be big pluses. If you want more detail, the next step is telephoto.  Long lenses (telephotos)  and telescopes (longer lenses) will find plenty of lunar detail.  Long exposures (shutter speed) will cause a blurred image, because the moon appears to be moving laterally about one moon diameter every 2 minutes on its way to the horizon.  Some telescopes have built-in clock drives that move with the rotation of the earth, in order to compensate for the motion.


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The Stars

The movement of the earth on its axis is the most significant challenge to star photography.  So some just go with the flow and capture this motion with an open shutter by shooting in bulb mode. These long exposures require the use of a tripod. Increasing the ISO and manually focusing at infinity with the shutter open for minutes or hours will demonstrate the paths of the stars across the sky.   .

 

Pointing at Polaris, the Northstar, will generate the smallest radii for the star trails.  That arc increases as you head for the equator. A crash course in astronomy will help greatly.  It is always important to know your subjects, whether shooting stars, wildlife or people.  You will learn some astronomy doing astrophotography. Familiar constellations are readily visible if you know when and where to look for them.  To minimize star trails, use a wide angle lens shot at 15 seconds or less.  Longer focal length lenses must have shorter exposure times to avoid recording these motion trails.

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