At around 5:00am ET on November 6, 2012 I was taking my new puppy out to piddle. When I looked up, I saw a brilliant clear sky with Orion, Taurus, and the Pleiades just over the roof of my apartment complex. It was about 30 degrees out, but I figured since I was up I'd jump on the opportunity. I went back inside to get my Canon with 300mm lens to take my first night sky photos since September.
My biggest problem the last time I tried using the Canon was the inability to focus on the stars. Through trial and error, I know it's possible to get the focus right after shooting a picture, viewing it and zooming to see the result. Luckily, I had a 25% moon that allowed me to auto-focus at a good distance, so these steps were not required.
I snapped a few pictures at a lower ISO and longer exposure time, and noticed since the zoom was so tight, the stars would form trails much sooner than in a wider frame. I cranked the ISO up to 1600 and reduced the shutter time to just 3.2 seconds. This gave me almost round stars (rather than lines) and a clearer view of the nebula clouds.
 |
| Orion Nebula, ISO 1600, 3.2 sec, 300mm |
 |
| Orion Nebula, Jupiter, and the Pleiades, ISO 400, 10 sec |
 |
| Pleiades, ISO 1600, 3.2 sec, 300mm |
 |
| Jupiter and 3 moons, ISO 1600, 3.2 sec, 300mm |
 |
| Crop of the Orion Nebula with HDR and filter on Instagram |
No comments:
Post a Comment