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A Quick and Dirty Guide to Photographing Comet Hale-Bopp
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by Russ Arcuri
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This is a guide for people who want to take photos of the comet, but don't have a lot of specialized equipment for
astrophotography. All photo.net regular readers will likely have an SLR, a tripod, and one or two fast prime lenses, right? That's
all that's necessary for reasonably good pics of the comet.
Equipment
The camera: Any SLR camera with shutter speeds up to 30 seconds and/or "bulb" mode will suffice. If you have a modern SLR
that uses battery power to keep the shutter open, pack an extra battery or two. You'll also want a remote shutter release or cable
release. You can do without the remote release if your camera has a self-timer.
The lens: My favorite lens for photographing comets is an 85/1.8. This focal length is long enough that the comet won't be a tiny
blur on your pics, but short enough that the stars won't trail too noticeably in the exposures we'll be using. (I'll explain star-trailing
below.) If you don't have an 85/1.8, don't worry - you can get reasonably good pics with a fast 50, like a 50/1.4 or /1.8. Oh, if you
have an autofocus camera, you have to be able to turn it (autofocus) off.
The tripod: Any tripod will suffice, but the heavier, the better. If you don't have a tripod, forget it. Beg, borrow, or steal one if
need be.
Other equipment: I'd also recommend bringing along a small flashlight, a stopwatch, and a pair of binoculars.
[Editor's note: Where to buy all of this stuff? Check out the photo.net recommended retailers. Adorama has particularly good
selection and prices for binoculars.]
Film
You can pretty much forget about slide film. Anything faster than ISO 100 suffers from terrible grain, and you'll need very fast
film for good comet photos. High-speed negative film is the film-du-jour for astrophotography.
I like Fuji Super G 800 and Kodak Ektapress Multispeed 640 (PJM) for photographing the comet. Others have had good luck with
Kodak Pro 400 (PPF) and Kodak Royal Gold 1000. For simplicity's sake, take my advice and get the Super G 800. It's probably
the easiest to find other than Royal Gold 1000, which I think is too grainy and has a color cast I don't like. Faster (ISO 1600-3200)
films are much too grainy, IMO.
http://www.photo.net/astro/intro (1 of 6)7/3/2005 2:14:43 AM