 Jerald Seely |
Astrophotography with Nikon dSLR What is required for astrophotography with a digital SLR camera (besides a decent telescope)?
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Alan N. Marcus |
Astrophotography is fun and rewarding. It’s also challenging. As you know, you need a telescope. Surprisingly, the scope can be quite small as the key is light gathering power not magnification. Most astrophotography depends on the ability of the chip/film to accumulate light during an extended time exposure. Thus the norm is an exposure that can be quite lengthy. During the exposure, it is necessary to drive and guide the telescope as a stationary scope is generally restricted to photographing just the sun or moon. Guiding requires constant touch-ups due to atmospheric changes during the exposure. Serious work can be preformed by just mounting the camera with its lens, piggy back on the main scope. More often, the camera lens is removed and the camera is mounted, with special hardware so it replaces the telescopes eyepiece. Other hardware adapters will allow the camera to mount behind the telescopes eyepiece. This method yields higher magnification. Backyard astrophotography is possible however; a dark sky location is preferred. Light pollution from civilization has made dark skies hard to find. Light pollution from mercury and sodium street lights can be filtered out with special narrow cut filters. The astronomy magazines and web sites are abundant with accessories and books for the astrophotography buff. Your biggest problems will be: Lots of luck, Keep in mind, serious work can cause you to become a recluse. Alan Marcus
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Kay Beausoleil |
Jerald, this link might be useful to you: http://www.space.com/spacewatch/astrophotography_101_030627.html
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