At 09:25 PM 28/03/2002 -0700, Bill Biesele (in response to Kierstin's request
for astrophoto info) wrote:
>Kierstin wrote
>> I still haven't received, much to my dismay, any advice about
>taking
>> astrophotography (moon & stars) pictures. Is this too soon in my
>love
>> affair to consider this?
>
>Never to soon to start. Find a copy of Michael Covington's
>_Astrophotography for the Amateur_ and Robert Reeves' _Wide-Field
>Astrophotography_. And go out and shoot some film. Put some 400 film in
>your camera, a 50mm lens on the front and a tripod underneath. Stop the
>lens down one or two stops, expose for 15-30 seconds and see what
>happens. Or same camera, lens and f-stop but expose for 10 to 20
>minutes.
>
>Enjoy.
>
>Bill Biesele
>
>p.s. Michael Covington was an early member of this list.
He's also a contributor to The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, and if you do
a web search, I think you'll find several of his sites out there.
One thing you'll need to find once you get more into the astrophotography is a
good dark-sky location -- away from light pollution from urban areas. Edmonton
(where I live) has a deep-sky observation site about 40 klicks east of the city
which is the darkest I've seen so close to a major population centre. If
you're lucky enough to truly live in the boonies, you've got it made.
Mind you, for a start, you don't need a true deep-sky observation site, since
you're gonna blow LOTS of film trying out various exposures. Once you get
reasonably consistent results that you like, then's the time to think about
trekking away from light pollution.
Oh yes, one other thing -- when you get the pictures developed at your one-hour
lab, tell them you were taking photos of the night sky -- otherwise, the
developer operator will set the developing machine to integrate to 18 0rey, and
your prints will be horribly overexposed (and you'll have no way of knowing how
you did). Better yet, take 'em to a regular lab and tell 'em.
Garth
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