Digital Photography Technology

	Nikon F2 camera on Mead 8" telescope.

Astrophotography is probably one of the most difficult types of photography.
The closest object is the moon, which is 385,000 miles distance, and the rest of the objects, “ sun, planets, and stars” are all in the millions of miles away.
This is what makes astrophotography so difficult.

The basic equipment that is needed for astrophotography is a camera that is capable of taking time exposures, a sturdy tripod, and a cable release.
A good, dark place with easy access to the sky is also desirable.

The easiest to photograph are stars. Load your camera with 200 ASA color film, and if digital, set the ASA at 200.
Set your camera on a tripod, wide angle lens wide open, and aim the camera toward a group of start. Make time exposures, starting at 10, 20, 30, and 60 seconds, and then 2, 5, and 10 minutes.
Keep a record of what you have done. Most photographers will be using a digital camera, which will allow you to look at them as soon as you are finished shooting. You might be surprised at the results.
The short exposures will show the individual stars and the longer exposures will show star trails. This is because of the movement of the earth. You might even catch a comet.

Taking celestial can be very interesting, but don’t expect perfect pictures the first night.

The moon is the easiest celestial object in the sky to photograph. It is full of detail and its brightness is always predictable.
Use the longest lens that you have. The size of an image in the camera is slightly less than 1/100 of the focal length of the lens that you use. There for, using a 300 mm lens, the image would be about 2.7mm in diameter.
Small, but usable. Exposures will be relatively short. For example using a lens opening of f4.0, try using an exposure starting at 1/100 up to 1/1000 second. Us an ASA of 200 to 400. Keep records and view the results.
Some of you newer cameras will record all these parameters with each exposure, which makes it easy to know what exposure to use the next time.

If this type of photography interest you, keep taking more pictures, and work for better results. To increase your focal length, which is needed to get larger images, a longer length lens is needed.
A manual, non automatic lens is ideal if you camera accepts them.

The next is to purchase a refractor telescope.
It becomes easy to get focal lengths of 1000 mm and higher. At 1000mm, the moon now becomes 9.1mm in diameter, which presents a very respectable image. Now specific areas can be viewed with ease.

The sun can also be viewed very easy. There are some special filters that must be used in front of the lens. NEVER VIEW THE SUN WITH OUT A FILTER. YOU WILL DESTROY YOUR CAMERA AND YOUR EYESIGHT.
You will be able to see sunspots and other spectacular features of the sun. <> Other interesting object or phenomena to photograph are eclipsers, auroras, comets, and meteors.
Non of these are easy, but with a little planning, they are very possible.

Now that you mastered the above objects, you can start looking farther out into the universe for the more distant celestial objects, such as planets.
That is when the challenge in your photography will begin.