A Speck in Space
A Speck in Space
Speck in Space
Wide Field Opportunity Knocks
When you have a passion for Astronomy and Astrophotography you need to try and make the most of any situation.
I recently had a family Easter break in North Devon with my wife and kids. We stayed at a lovely place called Wooda Lakes. The Site consists of five fishing lakes and log cabins equipt with hot tubs. Now the most significant part of this break is the location North Devon, but not just anywhere in North Devon, a Bortle 3 dark sky location.
The site was fantastic and the owners are friendly and very accommodating to all who stay or visit there. My wife and Daughter enjoyed the comfort of the hot tub whilst my boys and I did a spot of fishing.
Unfortunately this was not a trip that I had planned to do any Astrophotography. With all our luggage and fishing equipment 3 children, there was no room for a telescope. Also there was a crescent moon that was giving off some light pollution. If I had tried to plan it, i would have tried to do it when there was a New Moon or Moon setting before dark.
So our first night was a semi clear night with a little bit of drifting cloud. So once every one else was busy doing there own thing in the log cabin, I grabbed my Camera bag and took a quiet walk down to the lakes in the dark. I did not put a torch on as I wanted my eyes to adjust, consequently I must have tripped over four or five times before I reached the end lake.
I Sat on a bench at the end of the lake and looked up at the stars. Even with the crescent moon lighting up the sky there were still more stars present in the sky than I would usually see from my home in Cambridgeshire.
Once my eyes had adjusted I could see faint objects cleared with the naked eye. The Pleiades were so clear you could almost make out every star in the cluster.
I sat a looked to see what I could take a picture of. Right in front of me was Orion looking across the lake.
I put my camera on the tripod in the dark and connected my Camera to my Phone (WIFI, I have a Canon EOS1300D, this has a great facility to connect and control from your Smart Phone).
I then Placed the Camera and tripod on the ground close to the bank of the lake, and Pointed in the general Direction of Orion, I then made sure the lens was on MF (Manual Focus) and adjusted it to 18mm. As I have mentioned before I spent ages adjusting my lens and taking pictures to get the perfect focus. I then marked my lens so that I can set it to focus quickly and pain free.
I then Set the Shutter speed to 20 Seconds based on the 500 Rule.
What is the 500 Rule? As we are on a tripod that is static and the Earth is rotating the longer the exposure time the more likely you will suffer from star trail. So we can roughly calculate the required shutter speed using this rule.
Shutter Speed = 500/ Focal Length
So in my case the focal length was 18. So 500/18 = 27.78. BUT 30 Seconds is to much and my stars look oval, so I dropped it back a bit to 20 Seconds and this works fine.
I then set my ISO up to 800 and take my first exposure, then check it. I then adjust the camera and tripod till I am happy with the location of my constellation and my level of field. Sometimes you may have a great picture but find it looks like it taken on a hill.
I then increase my exposure to ISO 1600 and take another exposure. I was well Pleased with the out Come.
I then decided to relocate the camera to try and get a reflection of the moon off of the lake. You will find that you move the camera several times until you find a position and location that you are happy with. This is harder because we are working in the dark
So you don't need a telescope to image the night sky you just need a DSLR camera and the willingness to make the best of a situation. I did use a torch to walk back to the log cabin as I did not want to fall over again.
