Take close-ups of the moon and stars.
Astrophotography is the art of taking clear, close pictures of celestial bodies. This can range from photos of the moon to detailed panoramas of stars moving across the sky. It can be difficult to understand astrophotography without help, but fortunately, the basics are easily understood and beginners can quickly move to more advanced photos.
Types of Astrophotographs
There are three main kinds of astrophotographs. Scenic photography consists of wide shots of the night sky, such as images of the moon or the Aurora Borealis. Planetary photography uses refractors to focus the light of a specific planet to create specific images of it. Deep sky photography combines cameras with long exposures and telescopes to pick out certain elements of the night sky and bring them out in high resolution images. What kind of photography you want to do will determine what equipment you purchase.
Types of Cameras
There are several kinds of cameras suitable for astrophotography. Digital snapshot cameras (DSC) are small, fixed-lens cameras. Digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras are the more advanced cameras with interchangeable lenses. Webcams are small cameras popular with planetary photography. If you already have a camera, begin with that camera. As you shoot photographs, ask yourself what you'd like to do and look at what you will need to achieve the specific effect that you want.
Telescopes, Refractors, and Other Equipment
Refractors use the principles of light to gather light from a source and focus it into a smaller area. They are commonly used with planetary photography to gather the light from a planet in order to get more detailed images of that planet. Telescopes are generally used with DSLRs in concert with, or in place of, their normal lens. Generally, a specialized mount for the telescope, called a barn-door mount, is needed. This can be purchased or even built.
Focusing
It is very important that the camera you use has an "infinite" focus and a manual focus. This means that everything in the image, no matter how distant it is, will be in focus. Often, auto-focus is not useful as the camera will pop in and out of focus as you adjust the image, and it tries to understand what you want in focus. Disabling this feature and manually focusing it to infinite will make your first images clearer and easier to shoot.
Exposure
Exposure is a key element of catching good shots. Exposure refers to the length of the time the film or sensor is exposed to light. The longer an exposure your camera will allow, the more detailed and complex the shots you can record, and the more artistic you can be with your astrophotography. For example, a long exposure on a camera performed overnight will show the direction of the stars crossing the sky, called a star-trail photograph.
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