May 11, 2023
The Vela supernova remnant // SMAstro
seen from T1
seen from Brazil
seen from Poland
seen from T1
seen from India
seen from Türkiye
seen from Poland
seen from T1
seen from T1
seen from T1
seen from Türkiye
seen from Poland
seen from Philippines
seen from Canada
seen from Malaysia
seen from T1
seen from Greece
seen from Kenya
seen from Indonesia
seen from Poland
The Vela supernova remnant // SMAstro
Grainy Moonset
Lake Erie, New York, 2018
Adventures in Astrophotography
I live my life with my eyes on the sky. Between stars and airplanes, it’s just habit now. I grew up in a rural area, and I can’t even begin to count the number of hours I must have spent laying out in the driveway looking at the stars. I never realized how much I would miss that when I moved to the city!
A couple weeks ago, when I saw that the Perseid meteor shower was coming up, I decided that was a perfect excuse to stay up late and practice some night sky photography! I remember going out to watch it every year when I was a kid, but with living in the city, I guess I just missed the last several entirely.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get any usable meteor shots, but it sure was cool to watch! It’s definitely worth staying up for next time if you’re in an area where they’ll be visible.
In the meantime, the Milky Way happened to be (at least partly) visible that night. I’ve been dying to try my hand at photographing it! There was still a lot more light pollution than I would have liked, but I’m in love with how these came out!
These were all taken with a Nikkor 10-24mm 3.5-4.5g on a Nikon d3200. I set the ISO at 800; I probably could have gone higher, but my images were already looking noisy, and I didn’t want to risk it. The aperture is at f/3.5, and I kept the shutter speed between 20 and 30 seconds.
A good rule of thumb for any astrophotography is the “500 Rule”. If you don’t want to see star trails, divide 500 by the focal length of your lens, and you’ll get the longest exposure you should use.
Obviously, I forgot that rule in the left image above. Both images were taken with a focal length of 10mm, but the one of the left had a shutter speed of 130 seconds, while the one on the right was only 30 seconds.
To be fair, star trails are pretty cool when they’re done intentionally (you can see the effect of Earth’s rotation!), but it usually works best with stacked exposures instead of one really long exposure. I haven't had a chance to test out stacked exposures yet, but it's on my list of new things I want to try!
When we were out enjoying the stars a few months ago, I finally got tired of trying to hold my camera just right or get the tripod adjusted so that I could take pictures through a telescope. When I got home (in a fit of frustration), I ordered an extender tube so that I can mount my camera directly to telescope eyepieces. It looks something like this:
If you order one, don’t do what I did! I didn’t realize that you need an extender tube (what goes into the telescope) AND a t-ring (what attaches the extender tube to the camera body). I got all of the pieces eventually! I’m not crazy about how it leaves the internals of the camera exposed (there’s nothing on the other end of the tube in order to avoid distortion from another lens element), but it worked really well! Check out this super close-up of the moon!
It’s going to take some practice to figure out the best ways to use it. I had to use the short version of the tube to be able to focus the telescope image onto the sensor (there’s no focus ability on the camera end because there’s no lens attached). We ended up having to use a Barlow lens to change the focal length to a more usable range, so the magnification was higher than it really needed to be for this moon shot. I also really struggled with getting clear shots because at that magnification, things in the sky move really quickly. Now that I’ve learned from the first attempt, I can’t wait to try it again!
Have any of you tried astrophotography? How’d it go? Let me know in the comments or share the results on Instagram and tag #littlephotogannie!
Large format meteor
Absolutely thrilled to capture a meteor on my large format Milky Way slide! Large format astrophotography has been very challenging and my goal was to create a well exposed slide - so pleased I managed to get there and then to have the luck of a meteor, so well placed in the image..! Prints available on my site. 2 hour exposure on a 3D printed camera. Using a Nikkor-SW 90mm f/4.5. @fujifilm_profilm Provia 100f pushed two stops @skywatcherusa NEQ6 equatorial mount
Photo taken by Jason De Freitas.
Sharing great work taken on a film.
Here’s to hoping the clouds stay away and we get a glimpse of comet Neowise tonight. . . . . #neowise #cometneowise #lakelanier #astophotography https://www.instagram.com/p/CDAN-MxDwEh/?igshid=npdnn3mpo8ht
Even when things are dim and dark remember to see the light in things. Pandemic portrait Model:@happy_cycling 📸 @enthusiast_exposures #AstoPhotography #Silhouette #LongExposure #Stars #MtLemon #Photography #WindyPoint #Passion (at Windy Vista Point, Mnt. Lemon, AZ) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCY__gyBfX4/?igshid=1psxecu3mna6t
McWay Falls - Big Sur, California There are a handful of technical challenges shooting this location at night; 1) Lack of ambient light 2) Distance of subject from shooting platform for lighting purposes 3) Sea mist in the cove causing unwanted light reflections When I recently got the invite from @jamesdphotog to shoot the falls, I was excited because this is a spot I haven't photographed with the Milky Way. I had photographed the falls at night once before and I remember the challenges listed above, so I tried to plan ahead as much as possible. I went to Big 5 and found the brightest flashlight available - 1500 Lumens. This is a single image, lit using that flashlight, along with a CTO gel in front of the light to aid in color correction. I had to do a fair amount of dehazing in post-production to increase the contrast of the foreground. When light painting into the sea mist, the result is very hazy with some of the light reflecting back toward the camera. Had a blast hanging out with @luke_phillips_photography and met @downtofowler out there! 13 seconds, f/1.4, ISO 6400, Sony A7r II, Sigma 35mm Art lens #sonya7rii #sigma35mmart #milkyway #milkywaychasers #astophotography #longexposure #seascape #oneshot #lightpainting #mcwayfalls #bigsur #nightscape (at McWay Falls)
Moments before #totality of the #eclipse in #tennessee #canon #totaleclipse #astophotography #sun #moon #naturephotography (at Gallatin, Tennessee)