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Astrophotography
Astrophotography
Astrophotography
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Astrophotography

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Today's photographic equipment allows amateurs to take pictures of the stars that far surpass images taken just a few decades ago by even the largest observatories-and this book will teach you how.

Author and world-renowned astrophotographer Thierry Legault teaches the art and techniques of astrophotography: from simple camera-on-tripod night-scene imaging of constellations, star trails, eclipses, artificial satellites, and polar auroras to more intensive astrophotography using specialized equipment for lunar, planetary, solar, and deep-sky imaging. Legault shares advice on equipment and guides you through techniques to capture and process your images to achieve spectacular results.

Astrophotography provides the most thorough treatment of the topic available. This large-format, richly illustrated book is intended for all sky enthusiasts-newcomers and veterans alike.

Learn how to:

  • Select the most useful equipment: cameras, adapters, filters, focal reducers/extenders, field correctors, and guide telescopes
  • Set up your camera (digital, video, or CCD) and your lens or telescope for optimal results
  • Plan your observing sessions
  • Mount the camera on your telescope and focus it for razor-sharp images
  • Polar-align your equatorial mount and improve tracking for pin-point star images
  • Make celestial time-lapse videos
  • Calculate the shooting parameters: focal length and ratio, field of view, exposure time, etc.
  • Combine multiples exposures to reveal faint galaxies, nebulae details, elusive planetary structures, and tiny lunar craters
  • Adjust contrast, brightness, light curves, and colors
  • Postprocess your images to fix defects such as vignetting, dust shadows, hot pixels, uneven background, and noise
  • Identify problems with your images and improve your results
LanguageEnglish
PublisherRocky Nook
Release dateJun 26, 2014
ISBN9781492015611
Astrophotography
Author

Thierry Legault

Thierry Legault is a world-renowned astrophotographer. In 1999, Legault received the prestigious Marius Jacquemetton prize from the Societe Astronomique de France for his astronomical photographs. He is so highly regarded in this industry that the International Astronomical Union officially bestowed the name Legault on asteroid #19458. Legault co-authored the book New Atlas of the Moon (Firefly, 2006) and has written numerous articles about astrophotography for French and American magazines. He regularly presents courses and gives astrophotography lectures in Europe, America, and Asia. Legault's images, most notably those of the International Space Station, have been published and broadcast worldwide (including NASA publications, Nature, Scientific American, The Times, The Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, Aviation Week, Discovery Channel, BBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox, CBC, and MSNBC). Thierry earns his living as an engineer and is currently living in the suburbs of Paris, France. For more information see www.astrophoto.fr.

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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    This is a brilliant book and, is indispensable for any one who is serious about astro photography. This goes way beyond merely photographing the night sky. that too, is an art. However, what I like about the book, is that he has combined the science and the art in a manner that is extremely approachable. It is an excellent book, and is something that anyone who is serious about this realm of photography must read.

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Astrophotography - Thierry Legault

cover-image

Thierry Legault is a world-renowned astrophotographer. In 1999, Legault received the prestigious Marius Jacquemetton prize from the Societe Astronomique de France for his astronomical photographs. He is so highly regarded in this industry that the International Astronomical Union officially bestowed the name Legault on asteroid #19458.

Legault co-authored the book New Atlas of the Moon (Firefly, 2006) and has written numerous articles about astrophotography for French and American magazines. He regularly presents courses and gives astrophotography lectures in Europe, America, and Asia.

Legault’s images, most notably those of the International Space Station, have been published and broadcast worldwide, including in NASA publications, Nature, Scientific American, The Times, The Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, Aviation Week, as well as on numerous television stations including The Discovery Channel, BBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox, CBC, and MSNBC.

Thierry earns his living as an engineer and is currently living in the suburbs of Paris, France.

For more information visit www.astrophoto.fr

Astrophotography

Thierry Legault

Editor: Joan Dixon

Translation: Alan Holmes and Thierry Legault

Copy editor: Judy Flynn

Layout: Petra Strauch

Cover Design: Helmut Kraus, www.exclam.de

Printer: Friesens Corporation

Printed in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-937538-43-9

1st Edition 2014

© 2014 Thierry Legault

Rocky Nook, Inc.

802 E. Cota Street, 3rd Floor

Santa Barbara, CA 93103

www.rockynook.com

Original French title: Astrophotographie, 2nd Edition

© 2013 Groupe Eyrolles, Paris, France

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Legault, Thierry, author.

Astrophotography / by Thierry Legault. -- 1st ed.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-937538-43-9 (softcover : alk. paper)

1. Astronomical photography. 2. Photography--Digital techniques. I. Title.

QB121.L44 2014

522’.63--dc23

2013040681

Distributed by O’Reilly Media

1005 Gravenstein Highway North

Sebastopol, CA 95472

All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.

Many of the designations in this book used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks of their respective companies. Where those designations appear in this book, and Rocky Nook was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. All product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. They are not intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

While reasonable care has been exercised in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein or from the use of the discs or programs that may accompany it.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

All astronomical images in the book are by Thierry Legault and may not be reproduced without the author’s express written premission.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Alan Holmes at Santa Barbara Instrument Group (SBIG) for his generous and essential help with translating this manuscript from French to English. Thanks also to Michael Barber and Alan at SBIG for their pivotal contribution in initiating my contact with Rocky Nook publishing and facilitating further discussions.

I would like to thank Rocky Nook Publishing, and especially Joan Dixon, for their confidence in this book and their commitment to seeing it through to publication. I appreciate the excellent job they have done with the new layout and preparation of the manuscript.

I also would like to thank Arnaud Frich for proposing the idea of this book to me and to Eyrolles [the publisher of the original French edition], and for his valuable assistance in acquiring the photographs of astronomical equipment presented here. I further thank Eyrolles for offering me the opportunity to achieve this idea with total freedom in my choice of design and content. I especially thank my editor, Stéphanie Poisson, for her patience, kindness, guidance, and careful proofreading.

I must mention the pioneers of film and digital astrophotography, those for whom boundaries were made to be overcome, particularly Jean Dragesco, Christian Arsidi, Gérard Thérin, Christian Viladrich, Donald Parker, Robert Gendler, and Damian Peach. The authors who passed on to me the desire to observe and photograph the sky, including Pierre Bourge, Jean Dragesco, Serge Brunier, Patrick Martinez, and Guillaume Cannat, also were essential to my success in astrophotography.

I owe a debt of gratitude to all the software developers and webmasters who have given us the means to plan our imaging sessions and to make the most of our images, in particular Arnold Barmettler (CalSky), Chris Peat (Heavens-Above), Tony Philips (spaceweather.com), Christian Buil (IRIS), Cyril Cavadore (PRISM), and Jean-Philippe Cazard (Astrosurf). I owe special thanks to Christian Buil, who gave me the desire to get into digital photography and helped me succeed through his CCD cameras, software, and writings that have taught me so much.

I also thank the many distributors who have put their equipment at my disposal for the photographs in this book: Médas Instruments (Vichy, France), Optique Unterlinden (Colmar, France), and La Maison de l’Astronomie (Paris, France). I thank Rémi Petitdemange and Richard Galli (Optique Unterlinden), Thomas Maquaire (Nikon France), Vincent Hamel (Meade France), Scott Roberts (Explore Scientific), Corey Lee and Bryan Cogdell (Celestron), and Nick Hudson (True Technology Ltd).

I must acknowledge the contribution of my course trainees and all amateurs who, with their relevant questions over the years, helped me to compose this book so that the answers flow as clearly as possible. I also thank all the amateurs who have given me words of encouragement online and during conferences, meetings, and workshops.

Many people from all around the world have helped me photograph celestial wonders, especially François Colas, Jean-Luc Dauvergne, and the staff of the Kennedy Space Center. I have been helped by many people and organizations who aided my quest to photograph the southern sky and several total eclipses under the best conditions, particularly Serge Koutchmy, Jaime Vilinga, the Ministry of Research and Technology of Angola, and the University of Luanda, as well as all those who warmly welcomed us in Tchivinguiro, Angola.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

How to Read This Book

Chapter 1

Astrophotography without a Telescope

Cameras and Settings

Camera Mounts and Settings

Astronomical Subjects

Planetary Conjunctions

Constellations and the Milky Way

Comets

Star Trails

Meteors

Zodiacal Light

Polar Auroras

Lunar and Solar Eclipses

Artificial Satellites

Processing and Touch-Ups

Creating Panoramas and Mosaics

Making Time-Lapse Movies

Chapter 2

Cameras for Astrophotography

The Sensor

Sensor Structure

Image Acquisition

Exposure Phase

Reading and Digitization Phase

Quantum Efficiency and Spectral Sensitivity

Color Sensors

Types of Cameras

CCD Cameras

Consumer Digital Cameras

Astronomical Video Cameras

Computers

Chapter 3

Image Calibration and Compositing

The Components of an Image

The Thermal Signal

The Bias Signal

Uniformity Defects

The Causes and Properties of Uniformity Defects

Calibration of an Image

Correction of the Thermal Signal

Correction of the Uniformity Defects

Image Calibration

Noise and Its Reduction

The Sources of Noise

Photosite Size and Image Quality

Improving the Signal-to-Noise Ratio

Compositing Methods

Compositing by Sum and Median

Reduction of Noise on a Single Image

Advice for Image Calibration

Chapter 4

Using Your Equipment

Attaching the Camera to the Telescope

Piggyback Attachment

Prime Focus Attachment

Increasing the Focal Length

Use of Focal Reducers

Afocal Attachments

Attaching a Photographic Lens to a Camera

Calculating the Field and Pixel Resolution

Calculating the Field of an Image

Calculating the Sampling and Size of Objects

Telescope Collimation

Tips for a Good Collimation

What Adjustment for What Telescope?

Focusing

Focusing Tolerances

Focusing Systems

Tips and Tricks for Good Focusing

Chapter 5

The Planets and the Moon

Telescopes and Resolution

What Are the Limits of Resolution?

Telescopes for Planetary Imaging

Chromatic Aberration

The Effect of a Central Obstruction

Collimation

Mounts and Tracking

The Atmosphere

Cameras and Settings

Focal Length and Sampling

Image Capture at the Telescope

Processing the Images

Select and Stack the Best Images

Calibrating, Registering, and Combining Images

Enhancement of Details

Color Adjustment

Animations

Stereo Images

The Purpose of Image Processing

The Planets and Their Satellites

Mercury

Venus

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus and Neptune

The Satellites of the Planets

Photography of the Moon

Lunar Close-Ups

The Peculiar Movement of the Moon

Photographing the Whole Lunar Disk

The Earthshine

Lunar Eclipses

Lunar Occultations

The ISS

Chapter 6

The Sun

The Sun in Broadband Light

Using Broadband Filters

Cameras, Imaging, and Processing

The Sun in Hα

The Hα Interference Filter

The Calcium K Filter

Cameras, Imaging, and Processing

Solar Eclipses

Solar Transits

The Characteristics of a Solar Transit

Equipment and Settings

Chapter 7

Imaging Deep-Sky Objects

Telescopes for Deep-Sky Photography

Focal Length and Focal Ratio

Field Coverage

Collimation

Mounts for Deep-Sky Imaging

Fixed Mounts

Motorized Alt-Az Mounts

Motorized Equatorial Mounts

Polar Alignment

Using a Polar Finder

Computerized Polar Alignment

Alignment with the Telescope Finder

Refining the Polar Alignment

Tracking Errors

Periodic Drive Errors

The Other Tracking Errors

Guiding the Exposure

Parallel Guiding

Off-Axis Guiding

Deep-Sky Objects

Stars

Diffuse Nebulae

Planetary Nebulae

Galaxies

Comets

Asteroids

The Atmosphere

Color, Black and White, and Filters

Broadband Filters

Narrowband Filters

Light-Pollution Filters

DSLRs: Infrared-Blocking Filters and H-Alpha

Selecting and Setting the Camera

DSLR or CCD Camera?

What Exposure Time?

The Other Settings

Finding Objects

Centering with a Finder

Imaging

Preparing for the Imaging Session

The Dithering Technique

Processing the Images

Gradient Removal

Levels and Curves

Improving Sharpness

Noise Reduction

Cosmetic Touch-Up

Mosaics

Color Processing

Processing the Colors of Stars and Galaxies Photographed with a Color Sensor

Processing the Colors of Stars and Galaxies Photographed with a Monochrome Sensor and LRGB Filters

Processing the Colors of Emission Nebulae Photographed with a Color Sensor

Processing the Colors of Emission Nebulae Photographed with a Monochrome Sensor Using RGB or Narrowband Filters

Appendices

Appendix 1:

File Formats and Operations

Common File Formats

Displaying Images

Common Operations on Images

Appendix 2:

Astronomical Cameras and Software

Video and CCD Cameras

Filters and Photographic Accessories

Astronomical Software

Appendix 3:

From the Sensor to the Image

Readout of the Image

Obtaining a Color Image

Black-and-White Mode with a Color Camera

Appendix 4:

Uniformity Defects—Causes and Remedies

Vignetting

Dust

Appendix 5:

Checking and Adjusting an Equatorial Mount

Measuring the Periodic Error

Adjusting the Mount

Appendix 6:

Making Eclipse Sequences

Preparing for Imaging

Assembling the Frames

Appendix 7:

Optimizing the Camera Settings

Optimum Individual Exposure Duration for Deep-Sky Imaging

Optimal DSLR Deep-Sky ISO Setting

White Balance Coefficients Applicable to DSLR (RAW) and RGB Imaging

Appendix 8:

Meteor Showers

Foreword

Look upward on a hot summer night. The stars are right there, at your fingertips, just waiting to be photographed. Find a spot away from the city lights, set up your camera on a tripod, adjust the zoom to the wide-angle position, choose a constellation, or just aim randomly toward the Milky Way. Focus manually, and start a 20-second exposure. Congratulations, you just captured your first astronomical photograph! If you enjoyed the challenge and want to go further, this book is written for you. It is also for those who are disappointed in their results and want to learn how to improve.

The book you are holding in your hand contains most of what I experienced and learned over a period of more than 20 years using telescopes, digital cameras, CCD cameras, video cameras, and software of all kinds. After deciding that the advent of digital sensors marked the beginning of a new era in amateur astronomy, I bought my first CCD camera in 1993. It is with the same enthusiasm that I continue to photograph the night sky in all its facets today. One can say that the digital revolution has kept its promise: the results achieved by many amateurs today exceed the best results of the greatest observatories a generation ago.

Do not be intimidated by the number of pages in this book. It is due to the scope of the topic and the wide variety of celestial objects available to photograph. You cannot photograph a galaxy in the same manner that you would a planet or an eclipse. Focal lengths used to photograph the entire celestial sphere (page 9) and Saturn (page 80) differ by a factor of more than a thousand! In addition, a wide variety of imaging equipment is now available, and it is necessary to discuss all the types of gear commonly used in astrophotography. For example, the explanation in chapter 5 about the advantages and disadvantages of refractors doesn’t apply to you if you own a Newtonian telescope—unless you decide, after reading these pages, to change your setup!

Astrophotography can also be practiced in broad daylight, and even in the presence of clouds, as was the case for this close approach of the moon and Venus on June 18, 2007

I designed this book to make it as complete and self-sufficient as possible. However, this is not a course in digital photography, computers, or general astronomy, and reading some additional resources about those subjects may therefore be useful. Anyway, you do not need to be a computer whiz or an optical scientist to capture beautiful pictures; astrophotography is within the reach of all. Nevertheless, this book does not claim that by waving a magic wand you’ll get images anywhere similar to those found in astronomical magazines and books. Some subjects are easy to photograph and require little equipment, while others require complex and expensive gear. Above all, beyond the hardware and software aspects of imaging, do not forget a vital link in the chain of imaging: you. Take your time! In many respects, astrophotography can be compared to learning a musical instrument; both require a bit of practice and perseverance, plus a touch of curiosity and common sense. How many times have we seen amateurs fall victim to the horseman syndrome—when I fall it’s always because of my horse—and endlessly buy larger, heavier, more expensive, and in theory, more powerful equipment, mistakenly thinking that the new items would produce better results than what they had obtained using a telescope or a camera that they had not taken sufficient time to master?

This black-and-white image of the Ring Nebula in Lyra is of particular importance to me. After several nights with unconvincing results, it was my first presentable deep-sky image, made with a CCD camera and an 11″ Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope in the spring of 1994. It was this image that encouraged me to persevere in astrophotography.

The southern Milky Way, photographed with a DSLR, crosses the beautiful constellations of the Southern Cross, Centaurus, and Carina

The galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A), photographed with a CCD camera and a 4″ refractor using the techniques described in chapter 7

You will not find here an exhaustive overview or detailed user manual for all hardware and software available for this market. Since these products are becoming more numerous every day, and are constantly evolving, this book could not go into such details without becoming quickly obsolete. When I do mention particular brands or refer to a product, it is usually to highlight the special features they offer. But if I don’t mention a specific instrument, camera, or software package by brand, it doesn’t mean that I don’t recommend them or that they not useful. Instead, I attempted here to present the basic concepts and outline the general techniques you’ll need tonight, or in 10 years, as well as solutions to small problems you will inevitably encounter in the development of your skills, whether on the first or the hundredth evening spent capturing astroimages. If there is a hundredth! You have every right to practice astrophotography only two nights a year, during your vacation. In this case, your requirements and technical resources will certainly not be comparable to those of an avid enthusiast who spends several nights a month pursuing the best possible result.

Armed with the basics found in this book, you’ll be able to determine the gear most suited to your needs, your requirements, and your budget from the manufacturers’ offerings, and you will be able to distinguish between marketing hype and real quality. You’ll also be able to properly implement the image-processing techniques discussed in this book with whatever software package you have chosen.

Discover and experience astrophotography at your own pace and with the equipment you already have; don’t try to apply all the techniques described in this book on the first day, and don’t rush out to buy all the equipment mentioned here. Simply look for the answers to your questions as they arise.

I also hope this book helps to refine your vision so that you can identify excellence, on your photographs or those of others, and more important, so you identify areas that need improvement and how to achieve better results. However, we should keep in mind that a result can’t be properly assessed without considering the power of the equipment used, and the experience of the imager.

I attempt to explain, as much as I can, the reasons behind some techniques. Recipes applied blindly seldom produce good results, which is particularly true in astrophotography where each situation is unique. I tried to keep the book at a modest mathematical and technical level, avoiding complex formulas; we will not go further than the square root. Above all, I focused on core concepts and essential techniques, those that have proven themselves and demonstrated their effectiveness in the field; I deliberately ignored techniques with doubtful practical utility. So, I did not try to describe all of the imaginable processing methods. I focused only on those that improve the astronomical photographs in a tangible way.

Finally, this book is primarily about imaging and processing photographs taken for aesthetic purposes, commonly called pretty pictures, and that’s a wide-ranging subject! The use of images for measuring physical phenomena or for scientific research is so vast and exciting that another entire book should be dedicated to it (see the sidebar on the next page).

Thanks to the dazzling progress in the power of modern cameras and equipment, astrophotography has never been easier than it is today. May this book help you to participate in this exciting technological leap!

The Iris Gulf, photographed using an astronomical video camera on a 14″ telescope, using the techniques described in chapter 5

How to Read This Book

As an introduction to astrophotography and imaging of the night sky, begin by reading chapter 1. It will outline how to capture pictures of celestial objects and phenomena visible with your unaided eye using only a simple camera.

To understand the different types of cameras used in astronomy and their most important characteristics, similarities, and differences, please read chapter 2. In its wake, chapter 3 explains the fundamental techniques useful for correcting the unavoidable artifacts found in RAW images produced by your camera.

Chapter 4 describes general techniques, such as focusing, that will be useful for all types of astronomical targets when you’re using cameras and telescopes.

If you have a telescope, are considering acquiring one, or are already dabbling in astrophotography and want to improve your results, in chapter 5 you will find a description of the photography of planets and the moon. Chapter 6 is dedicated to solar photography and relies heavily on techniques learned in chapter 5. Lastly, imaging comets, asteroids, stars, nebulae, and galaxies is discussed in chapter 7.

A STEP TOWARD SCIENCE

You might ask, Why bother photographing the sky as an amateur, considering the extraordinary photographs of planets, nebulae, and galaxies taken by major professional telescopes and space probes that are available at a multitude of websites and astronomical publications? Part of the answer to this question lies in the desire to get our own pictures of the stars: after all, most of the tourists who visit the Egyptian pyramids, Niagara Falls, or the Great Wall of China also take photographs, even though these sites have already been photographed millions of times, with beautiful tomes devoted to them. The pleasure of photographing the sky is a natural progression from the visual observation of the night sky, especially since long-exposure photography offers infinitely more profound and colorful views of faint objects such as nebulae and galaxies.

Above all, many types of phenomena constantly occur in the sky. When we are amazed by an event such as a meteor shower, an eclipse, the emergence of a giant sunspot, a solar flare, or the display of a beautiful comet, photographing it is a way to retain that memory and share it with others who did not experience it.

In addition, it is entirely possible to go beyond the purely aesthetic aspect of astrophotography and use images of celestial bodies to study their behavior and deduce the physical mechanisms that govern them, or even reveal new insights. In some cases, advanced amateurs can do useful work assisting professionals who, while certainly having more sophisticated means and deeper skills, are so few that it is impossible for them to perform a complete survey of a celestial object or to continuously monitor it. The potential topics of study are numerous, most requiring no technical or scientific knowledge of imaging beyond what is described in this book. Astronomical software is available to help with the analysis. There is software for measuring stellar brightness (photometry), for calculating positions and trajectories (astrometry), and for unscrambling their spectral lines (spectroscopy). Here are some of the most common scientific topics:

• Searching for novae and supernovae and monitoring their brightness variations

• Monitoring brightness variations of variable stars, including the search for extra-solar planets

• Searching for new asteroids or comets, and determining their orbits

• Determining the shape and rotation period of asteroids from their brightness variations or stellar occultation measurements

• Determining the chemical composition of stars and comets and ascertaining certain physical characteristics, such as speed and temperature

• Monitoring the atmospheric activity of the major planets, including recording the evolution of Jupiter’s cloud bands and hurricanes, seasonal cyclones on Saturn, huge dust storms and changes in the polar ice caps on Mars

• Monitoring solar activity

Star trails centered on the celestial equator, taken from austral Africa (Angola) with a DSLR equipped with a 16mm wide-angle lens. The photograph was taken in the easterly direction; the stars are rising and they are rotating around the celestial north pole (right side of the image) and around the south pole (left side, below the horizon). The glow in the center of the image is neither dawn nor light pollution but rather the zodiacal light.

Chapter 1

Astrophotography without a Telescope

Owning an astronomical telescope—a refractor or a reflector—is not essential to photographing the sky. The most beautiful celestial sights that are visible to the unaided eye can be imaged with the same digital camera you use to photograph friends and family.

Compact, intermediate, and DSLR cameras (top to bottom). Intermediate cameras fall somewhere between the other two categories; they have a fixed lens but offer more manual control than compact cameras.

The celestial bodies and astronomical events that are within reach of a digital camera on a tripod are numerous: constellations, star trails, planetary conjunctions, lunar crescents and earthshine, meteors, and even artificial satellites. Also, for the fortunate or traveling amateur, the zodiacal light, auroras, and lunar or solar eclipses can be photographed. It is an ideal way for sky watchers and beginning astrophotographers to become familiar with using their camera in nighttime conditions or for skilled astrophotographers to obtain magnificent photographs of celestial sights that can be seen by the unaided eye.

Of course, not all celestial objects are within reach of digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. Detailed views of the planets, sun, moon, galaxies, and nebulae require an astronomical telescope with a motorized mount, as we will see in later chapters. Also, the long exposures required by subjects like star trails and meteors are limited to the most capable and versatile of all digital cameras: the DSLR.

Cameras and Settings

Digital cameras can be classified in two large categories: compact and single lens reflex (SLR) designs. Cameras in the first group usually have a nonremovable zoom lens. Cameras in the second group allow you to view the scene through a removable lens and offer more sophisticated functions (that are not always useful for astrophotography) and better image quality. Because smartphones have a fixed lens, a small sensor, and automatic modes, they fall in the compact category.

Among the numerous camera functions, one of the most important is the exposure mode. In astrophotography there is no need for complex modes and expert programs. Only one mode is essential: manual. Astrophotographers need to freely choose the exposure time and lens aperture because automatic settings are seldom reliable when it comes to photographing small or faint celestial bodies. Manual exposure mode is available on all DSLR cameras but unfortunately not on all compact cameras. However, on some compact cameras, preprogrammed modes with names like night scene or starry sky will help when you take pictures with an exposure time of several seconds at full aperture. The quality of such shots taken with a compact camera is understandably not as good as the quality of those from a DSLR.

Another advantage of a DSLR over a compact camera is its ability to have the autofocus function disabled so you can focus manually. You can try automatic focusing by carefully centering a bright star or a planet in the focus reticle, but don’t expect a good result since most cameras do not lock focus on such targets. It is wise to check the sharpness of the resulting shot on the LCD screen of your camera by enlarging it as much as possible. It is often necessary to switch to manual focusing and find the correct focal setting by trial and error. If your DSLR has a live-view mode, don’t hesitate to use it at maximum enlargement because it is much more precise than focusing through the viewfinder. On most interchangeable lenses, there is a mark for infinity on the distance scale, but the precision of this mark is seldom good enough for critical focusing. On most compact cameras, manual focusing is not available, but night scene modes automatically focus at infinity.

APERTURE, DIAPHRAGM, AND F-STOP

On a telescope or lens, the aperture is the diameter of the opening (entrance pupil), which determines the amount of light the system collects. Unlike astronomical telescopes, photographic lenses incorporate a set of blades, called an iris diaphragm, that adjusts the aperture, much like the iris in your eye. On a lens, an aperture setting (called an f-stop) is usually represented by the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the diaphragm. A smaller f-stop value corresponds to a larger aperture. A lens is commonly identified by its focal length and its full-aperture f-stop. For example, the Nikon 24mm f/2.8D lens offers the following f-stops: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, and f/22. On zoom lenses the maximum aperture may remain constant or change from one end of the focal range to the other. Note that the ratio between two successive f-stops is 1:1.4, but the quantity of light that passes through the diaphragm varies by a factor of two from one f-stop to the next (the square of 1.4). In astronomy, where light is never excessive, photographers often prefer the full-aperture setting. However, the optical quality of less-expensive lenses may not be good at this setting, so it helps to close down the diaphragm by one to two stops.

The exposure time (also called shutter speed) is the period of time when the light is allowed to hit the sensor. Fainter scenes require longer exposure times. For astrophotography the exposure time can range from 1/8000 second to several minutes.

When selecting a camera, it’s important to pay attention to the longest exposure time available. Unlike DSLRs, which allow for unlimited exposure times, most compact cameras do not allow exposures longer than 30 seconds. For some compact cameras the limit is even lower—only a few seconds. Therefore, it is not possible to photograph subjects that need exposures of several minutes, like star trails or meteors, with these cameras. On compact cameras, the reason for this limitation is technological; exposures longer than several seconds result in very poor, probably unusable, images.

On a DSLR, exposures longer than 30 seconds are possible with the B (bulb) setting

A full-aperture f-stop (for example, f/1.4 or f/2 for a fixed focal-length lens or f/2.8 for a zoom lens)—which is referred to as fast lens—is an advantage for most astronomical subjects because they are so faint. On compact cameras, only optical zoom settings are useful. Digital zoom simply crops the central area of the image, with no increased detail, so this function is useless because you can just as easily crop the image later on a computer. Don’t overlook fixed focal-length lenses for DSLRs, even if zoom lenses seem more useful. Fixed focal-length lenses often have a smaller full-aperture f-stop (equating to a larger aperture opening) and better image quality at the edges. For example, an ordinary 50mm lens can perform well and is reasonably priced. Similarly, Samyang manual lenses have an excellent price-to-performance ratio, and the lack of autofocus is not a problem in astronomy. The websites LensTip (www.lenstip.com) and photozone (www.photozone.de) have detailed reviews of many lenses.

Mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (MILCs), sometimes referred to as hybrids, were the most recent to appear on the market. They share many advantages of an SLR: interchangeable lenses (though with fewer options), manual mode, and long exposure times. Many MILCs don’t have a viewfinder, but that is not a prohibitive limitation for astrophotography. Entry-level MILCs have a sensor that is barely larger than sensors in compacts, so for long exposures, the MILCs with a large sensor (APS-C) are more appropriate. Before you buy an MILC, make sure you can use a remote control to start and stop exposures.

Photographing most of the astronomical subjects listed in the rest of this chapter requires a wide-angle lens (short focal length), with the exception of eclipses, which benefit from telephoto lenses with a long focal length. Good all-purpose wide-angle lenses for wide-field astrophotography have focal lengths from 10mm to 16mm and are designed for an APS-C sensor, such as the affordable 16mm f/2.8 Zenitar, 14mm f/2.8 Samyang, and 11–16mm f/2.8 Tokina. It is useful to estimate the angular field covered by the lens, to ensure that all objects will be included in the image, or to determine the best focal length depending on the circumstances. The table below lists the field of view, along the length and width of the sensor, for several common focal lengths and sensor sizes.

The LCD screen on this compact camera shows all the essential settings for astrophotography (here colored in yellow):

Flash: Disabled

Focus: Infinity (∞ icon)

Self-timer: Activated

Exposure mode: Manual (M icon)

Color balance: Daylight (sun icon)

The angle of view depends only on the focal length and the size of the sensor. The first few rows correspond to wide-angle lenses, the last ones to telephoto lenses. The second column pertains to DSLRs with a 24 × 36mm sensor (sometimes called full-frame DSLRs) and compact and intermediate cameras whose focal lengths are usually given in terms of a 24 × 36mm equivalent, even if their sensors are much smaller. (The equivalent indicates the focal length that should be used with a 24 × 36mm sensor to obtain the same field of view. For example, the zoom

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