Beginning Astrophotography

3/13/00 9/4/00

Click here to start

Table of Contents

Beginning Astrophotography

Copyright Notice

A Good Source for Used Cameras and Lenses(all our cameras and lenses have come from here)

Why use a cable release?

Comet Hale-BoppMarch 4, 1997

Our first night photography…

Equipment List for Hale-Bopp Photos:

What we learned:

Photo processing machines try to achieve 18% reflectivity from all surfaces in a picture. Blacks become grays in the prints produced by these machines.

To avoid star trails

Sometimes star trails are nice!(This is a postcard from Lowell Observatory; not our photo.)

Our first circumpolar star trails attemptNovember 18, 1998 (Flagstaff)

What we learned:

Our second circumpolar star trails attemptNovember 18, 1999 (Tucson)

Solar Eclipse February 26, 1998

Equipment List for Curacao Eclipse:

First contact12:46PM, F2.8, 1/125 sec. Exp.

1:25 PM, F2.8, 1/60 sec. exp.

Totality2:07PM, F2.8, 1/500 sec. exp.

F2.8, 1/60 sec. exp.

Outer coronaF2.8, 1/8 sec. exp.

Mercury and JupiterF2.8, 1/4 sec. exp.

Diamond Ring (overexposed)F2.8, 1/4 sec.. exp.

What we learned:

We shot all 24 frames of the eclipse and the processor trimmed the transparencies in the wrong place, ruining quite a few slides:

What we learned (2):

Leonid Meteor Shower November 17 and 18, 1998

The biggest century plant we’ve ever seen:

The biggest ditch we’ve ever seen:

Kitt Peak National Observatory

Equipment List for 1998 Leonids:

Very short exposure (~10 sec.)28mm lens (2 meteors!)

19mm Lens Captures Canus Major, Orion, Taurus, the Pleiades, and a Leonid

28mm lens, faster lensLook at all those stars!

What we learned:

Testing our new telescopeMarch, 1999

March 22, 19991250mm, F10, 1/15 sec. exp., 400 ISO print film

March 31, 19991250mm, F10, 1/500 sec. exp., 400 ISO print film

What we learned:

Solar Eclipse August 11, 1999

Sky event in Cluj Napoca Transylvania region

Downtown Bucharest

Gypsy wagon, just outside Bucharest

Our daughter, the eclipse “babe”

Totality, prominences1250mm, F10, Fuji Velvia 50 ISA, 1/500 sec. 3xp.

Totality, inner corona with detached prominence1250mm, F10, Fuji Velvia 50 ISO, 1/125 sec. exp.

Totality, outer corona 1250mm, F10, Fuji Velvia 50 ISO, 1/2 sec. exp.

What we learned:

Red rocks of Sedona

Viewing the transit of Mercury

Pima Air Museum

Two flares, 53 seconds apart

1999 Leonid -- oops

What we learned:

Aurora BorealisGrand Rapids, MI August 12, 2000

A Very Good Resource

Author: Chris de Longpre

Email: cdl@pobox.com

Home Page: http://pobox.com/users/cdl

Other information:
Beginning Astrophotography presentation given by John and Chris de Longpre at the 3/13/2000 meeting of KAAL, and at the Chicago "Chicon 2000" in Chicago, IL on September 4, 2000.