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Photographing Comet Hale-Bopp
all 4 layers, and unsharp mask.
Hope this helps
Ben
-- Ben Woodruff, November 16, 1999
This article talks about only simple astrophotos, if you are taking pictures of Orion through a 12 inch telescope, you'll have more
problems to worry about. A typical photo of deep space objects are going to last about 30 minutes or sometimes even longer. To
eliminate the star circles you'll need a clock drive on the telescope set at the same speed the Earth is spinning at. Because you are
not using a lens, you don't have to worry about expensive fast telephoto lenses, but you do need a fast telescope, f4 - f5(f5 on a
camera lens is slow, but it's very fast for a telescope), a f10 telescope will take forever. Also, you should use a camera that has a
mirror locking feature, a mirror slap can cause an object in space to move thousands of miles. You'll probably want to use a
manual camera, since some auto SLRs can't hold the shutter open for 40 minutes, or if it can, the battery will get drained quickly
on a cold night.
-- Roy J, December 10, 2000
Capturing images of beautiful yet elusive celestial objects is a thrilling experience for me. Like no other form of art,
astrophotography empowers its participants to look back in history by taking pictures from photons that take millions of years to
travel through the vast universe. Like other form of photography though, it requires both technical skills and aesthetic visions. My
passion with astrophotography focuses mainly on capturing dazzling images of galaxies, nebulae or comets etc. on film. There are
other areas of astrophotography (CCD-based or scientific-oriented) which I'm not going to discuss here.
Most astrophotos we see on magazines or posters (except those featuring images taken by profesisonal observatories or the famed
Hubble Space Telescope) require a camera coupled with a telescope or a long focal-length telephoto lens mounted on a equatorial
mount. In general, the focal-length of the telescope/lens depends on the size of the object. The exposure time depends on the
brightness of the object and focal-ratio of the optics. A good way to start taking astrophoto is to buy a used Schmidt Cassegrain
type telescope (about $400- $800) with 8" aperture (such as the CelesXXon or the MeaXX brand). These telescopes are well
suited for basic astrophotography of galaxies, star clusters, comets, moon, some planets and nebulae. They usually come complete
with tripod, electronics (guiding system) and accessories (eyepieces). Exposure is usually long (from minutes to hours) and the
guiding procedure can be tedious but the results are rewarding. Use fast films (ASA 400 - 800) or better yet, use hypersensitized
films. Movements (wind, vibration etc) must be avoided and the atmosphere should be steady and the sky as dark as possible. A
good source of reference is the "Sky and TelesXXpe" magazine or the "AstrXXomy" magazine. Have fun star-hopping and
picture-taking!!!
The author uses a PXXtax LX body, PXXtax SDHF 100 ED refractor with f/3.6 adaptor and PXXtax MS-4 mount.
-- Tak-Ming Leung, March 9, 2001
Have you ever thought about fujipress 1600??? The grain is razor sharp. Or what about b&w??????????????????????
does anybody ever try this with either a 200 or a 300??? you could get some good stuff.
If you are just going for the stars, not a comet or anything, try this. Get some slow film (100-200 should do it). point a short zoom
lens (35-70 or 28-80) at the north star, hold the shutter open for 2 min, and as you do, turn the zoom ring. Good times
-- Rockne Roll, April 20, 2003
http://www.photo.net/astro/intro (5 of 6)7/3/2005 2:14:43 AM
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