A Recipe For Dark Sky Photography

Transcription

1 Fountain Hills Photography Club Information Series A Recipe For Dark Sky Photography March 14, 2018 Examples of Dark Sky pictures you can take without expensive gear (like telescope with a clock drive) Recipes for planning and taking one or more Dark Sky pictures BBoyce

2 Fountain Hills Has Achieved Certification as an International Dark Sky Community April 21 Fountain Hills Dark Sky Festival to celebrate declaration of Fountain Hills as an International Dark Sky Community Dark Sky photography events Exhibition of Fountain Hills Dark Sky photographs April 6 through April 27 at FH Comm y Ctr Photo contest for 2 categories (entry form by April 1) Landscape category celestial object(s) plus some feature of Fountain Hills also in frame Tele category celestial object(s) without any ground or foreground features, taken within Fountain Hills (No composites; HDR, mult. spectral filters & focus stacks OK) 2

3 Dark Sky/Astro Imaging Keys to Success* Plan ahead, do dry run ahead of time What are the celestial objects doing (where and when)? Proper equipment Tripod, ballhead & camera plates (spend the bucks!) Cameras and Lenses Higher end cameras have important capabilities that lower end cameras don t have Intervalometer (internal) Mirror Up, Electronic 1 st curtain shutter For Nikons, easy focusing using Live View in the dark Aftermarket Accessories Vello Shutterboss (t exp > 30 sec) Red headlamp, folding seat Camera settings Post-processing * Follow-up to Beth Ruggiero s presentation 3

4 Planning Ahead The Photographers Ephemeris (TPE) Both Mac and Windows ( Windows Scroll down to TPE For Desktop Scroll down to, click Start using TPE for Desktop web app 4

5 Planning Ahead The Photographers Ephemeris (TPE) 5

6 Find Azimuth of Brown s Peak From Fountain Park 76⁰

7 Go To 7

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9 Phases of the Moon

10 Moonrise Over the Four Peaks In 2018 Selected occurrences of moonrise over the Four Peaks Date time az [deg] phase Date time az [deg] phase 21-Feb 10:41 AM % 6-Aug 12:55 AM % 28-Feb 5:13 AM % 10-Aug 4:49 AM % 1-Mar 6:20 AM % 11-Aug 5:59 AM % 20-Mar 8:41 AM % 12-Aug 7:10 AM % 21-Mar 9:21 AM % 13-Aug 8:18 AM % 22-Mar 10:05 AM % 31-Aug 10:13 PM % 27-Mar 2:57 PM % 1-Sep 10:52 PM % 28-Mar 4:03 PM % 2-Sep 11:37 PM % 29-Mar 5:08 PM % 7-Sep 3:36 AM % 17-Apr 7:18 AM % 8-Sep 5:55 AM % 18-Apr 8:01 AM % 27-Sep 8:14 PM % 24-Apr 2:43 AM % 28-Sep 8:52 PM % 12-May 3:58 AM % 5-Oct 2:28 AM % 13-May 4:33 AM % 6-Oct 3:36 AM % 14-May 5:11 AM % 7-Oct 4:43 AM % 21-May 11:46 AM % 25-Oct 6:50 PM % 10-Jun 3:05 AM % 26-Oct 7:32 PM % 11-Jun 3:44 AM % 1-Nov 12:18 AM % 12-Jun 4:28 AM % 2-Nov 1:24 AM % 17-Jun 9:34 AM % 3-Nov 2:30 AM % 18-Jun 10:41 AM % 21-Nov 4:45 PM % 8-Jul 1:38 AM % 22-Nov 5:25 PM % 9-Jul 2:18 AM % 23-Nov 6:11 PM % 10-Jul 3:04 AM % 30-Nov 12:23 AM % 15-Jul 8:24 AM % 18-Dec 2:39 PM % 16-Jul 9:32 AM % 19-Dec 3:17 PM % 5-Aug 12:13 AM % My Goal 17%

11 Moonrise Over Four Peaks First Version Equipment Prediction was an azimuth of about 79⁰ Enduro tripod, Markin camera plates & ballhead 3/1/2018 Nikon D mm f/4 Nikkor Settings Manual focus & exposure* 48 frames 1/1500 sec 1 minute interval ISO 140 f/8 52mm full frame Processing Photoshop Mistake meant to do 3 min intervals File/Scripts/Statistics/Stack Note inclusion of twilight frame caused Mode = Maximum moons close to Four Peaks to be wiped out, since twilight frame was brighter than moon * See next chart 11

12 Moonrise Over Four Peaks Second Version 3/1/2018 * Note : Set exposure for normal daylight exposure (avoid blowing out the moon), don t include a bright twilight frame Equipment Enduro tripod, Markin camera plates & ballhead Nikon D mm f/4 Nikkor Settings Manual focus & exposure* 16 frames 1/1500 sec 3 minute interval ISO 140 Exposure bias +3 f/8 52mm full frame Processing Photoshop File/Scripts/Statistics/Stack Mode = Maximum 12

13 Total Lunar Eclipse Over Fountain Hills Objective of this picture = pack in as many Fountain Hills features as possible Equipment Enduro tripod, Markin camera plates & ballhead Nikon D mm f/4 Nikkor Settings Manual focus & exposure 1 frame 3 sec exposure Exposure bias +2 ISO 100 f/4 120mm full frame Processing Photoshop Normal 13

14 Star Streaks Equipment Enduro tripod, Markin camera plates & ballhead Nikon D810 Vello Shutterboss mm f/4 Nikkor Haida light pollution filter Settings Manual focus & exposure 25 frames 4 minute exposure/frame 4 minute interval ISO 100 f/4 86mm full frame Processing Photoshop File/Scripts/Statistics/Stack Mode = Maximum 14

15 Milky Way Over Monument Valley Equipment Enduro tripod, Markin camera plates & ballhead Nikon D810 14mm f/2.8 Nikkor Settings Manual focus & exposure 1 frame 30 sec exposure ISO 2200 f/2.8 Processing Photoshop Normal 15

16 Orionid Fireball Over Four peaks Equipment Enduro tripod, Markin camera plates & ballhead Nikon D810 14mm f/2.8 Nikkor Settings Manual focus & exposure 1 frame of sec exposure ISO 200 f/4 Processing Photoshop Normal Note : Fireball track = 27 moon diameters 16

17 Current Questar Setup 17

18 Bright Object Photography with Questar ISS 2008 Saturn 2015 Hand Held! Polar Axis Motor Drive 143x108 pixels 39x59 pixels 18

19 A Good Moon Picture with Questar (2015) 19

20 A Good Moon Picture with Questar 20

21 Transit of Venus (Internal Ingress) (2012) Do not try this without a full aperture solar filter on the front of the telescope! 21