Natalielc

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SONY DSC-HX60

settings

Aperture 63/10 ISO 400 Shutter 1/80 Focal Length 177/25

upload_date

Aug, 2017

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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this photo in my back garden, in the south of England on a beautifully clear Summer's evening.

Time

It was at about 9.30pm, when the Moon was high in the sky, Moonrise had been particularly early that afternoon, so she was the perfect place in the sky for this photo, untroubled by trees or houses or anything else to interrupt the view.

Lighting

This was a tricky picture to take, because it was taken down the eyepiece of my telescope, when I was first beginning to experiment with using a scope for astrophotography. So lighting proved a particularly interesting challenge. Of course, the luminance of the Moon itself provided most of the lighting, but I had to be very wary of overexposing the photo for this reason, and the mirrors in the telescope also did some quirky things with the lighting! It was essentially a lot trial and error to get the settings where I wanted them.

Equipment

The camera was my trusty Sony DSC-HX60, which is fabulous for low light photography. The rest of the set up was rather more experimental, as I had recently acquired a Celestron telescope, and of course wanted to try and get some photographs using it. The scope comes mounted on a very sturdy tripod, which is ideal for steadying a camera, so I pointed the scope at the Moon, and then placed the lens of the camera against the eyepiece of the telescope. It took quite a bit of experimenting to get everything steady enough and make sure the scope was tracking so that blur was minimised, but in the end, I got the result that I wanted.

Inspiration

I have always been fascinated by astronomy, and have been infinitely inspired by the beautiful images taken by the likes of the Hubble Space Telescope and other such missions. But I always thought it was something that I would never be able to achieve, and focussed my photography ambitions on less lofty targets. But it is something that I always wanted to have a go at. When I finally got a telescope, it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, to finally try and get some good images of our universe. Hence the reason that the Moon is 'upside down' for a Northern hemisphere viewer, the reflection of the telescope has turned it on it's head!

Editing

I altered the exposure, knocking it down quite a bit, as well as upping the contrast to really bring out the detail on the surface of the Moon.

In my camera bag

For non-astronomical tasks, I have a pretty basic set up. My trusty Sony, a tripod, shutter release, spare batteries and memory cards (most important!) and a whole lot of patience. For astrophotography, add in a laptop, telescope, specialist astrophotography camera (gained since this photo was taken), gloves and hat and headtorch.

Feedback

If this is something that you want to do, just try it. Don't be put off by those who say it's too difficult. Sure, there will be plenty of misfires, but the joy of the digital age of photography is that no one gets to see those that go wrong. If you don't have access to a telescope but want to try astrophotography with this sort of detail, or planetary, deep space or anything similar, then go along to local astro groups, where I'm sure there will be kind folks willing to lend you a scope for the evening. Research what you want to photograph, with the Moon, for example, the more you know about the patterns and phases of it, the more likely you'll be to get the shot that you want. Then, just approach the task as you would any other shot. Patience, patience, patience. As with any low light shooting, there will be lighting considerations and it can be a task in itself to keep the camera steady. But once you get your first good shot it's magic. A word of warning though, it does become addictive, and you may find yourself spending most evenings with a cricked neck staring upwards!

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Natalielc

Natalielc

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Behind The Lens

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